What Is Ijma (Scholarly Consensus)?

Ijma (Arabic: إجماع) is pronounced ij-MAA’.

Meaning

The word literally means agreement or firm resolve. In Islamic scholarship, ijma refers to the agreement of the qualified scholars of the Muslim community on a religious ruling. Most Muslim scholars list it as a source of Islamic law after the Qur’an and the Sunnah (the teaching and example of the Prophet ﷺ). Classical scholars such as al-Shafi’i drew support for it from verses like Qur’an 4:115, which warns against following a way other than the way of the believers.

Consensus is not new revelation. It is the community’s shared understanding of the Qur’an and Sunnah, passed down from the first generations of Muslims.

How Muslims use it

Ijma is one reason Muslims everywhere share the same essentials: that there are five daily prayers, that Ramadan is a month of fasting, that the Qur’an we have today is the one revealed to Muhammad ﷺ. These matters are agreed upon and are not open to debate.

On many other questions there is no consensus, and scholars hold different, respected opinions. Scholars have also discussed how widely consensus applies and how it can be known. Knowing the difference between the agreed core and the open questions helps Muslims to be firm where they must and generous where they can.

Example

“There is ijma that the five daily prayers are obligatory, but scholars differ on some details of how they are performed.”

Learn more in Where Muslims Differ, and Why It’s Okay.