Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a new Islamic legal theory adopted by contemporary Islamic financial institutions. Design/methodology/approach This research uses a qualitative methodology through a single/holistic case study design. It selects Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) Shari’ah Standard No. (29): “Stipulations and Ethics of a Fatwa in the Institutional Framework” to showcase the official conceptualization of a new Islamic legal theory. Findings The findings reveal that the new Islamic legal theory includes three phases: core sources of Islamic law (with chronological significance), analytical diversification of classical tertiary sources of Islamic law (without chronological significance) and contemporary uṣūlī tools. Research limitations/implications This research is limited to the views expressed by AAOIFI’s Shari’ah Supervisory Board, as expressed within AAOIFI’s Shari’ah Standard No. (29): “Stipulations and Ethics of a Fatwa in the Institutional Framework.” Originality/value This research may be one of the first research papers dedicated to officially conceptualizing a new Islamic legal theory within the Islamic financial empirical arena.
Alkhan et al. (Sun,) studied this question.