What is fiqh maliki? How was fiqh during the era of khulafa al-rashidin?
This era begins with the death of the Prophet (p.b.u.h) and ends in hijri 40 (660 gregorian). It is the era of intepretation and tafseer (of verses and ahadith) by the Companions of the Prophet.
The characteristics of this era in terms of fiqh are:
1- There was a need for new ijtihad: With the conquering of new lands, several non-Arab races were accepting Islam and posing new questions to the Companions.
2- They were occupied with fiqh with reference to incidents: The Companions were occupied with deriving rulings after the occurrence of particular incidents rather than before they took place. Thus, they did not preassume rulings for future issues and matters.
3- They practiced ijtihad with shura (consensus): The Companions discussed their matters in a consensus comittee and solved issues together. Ijtihad and Ijma’ arised at this time. During this era, fiqh was not shaped around the administration but the administration was shaped around fiqh. Arising issues were brought to the comittee to be resolved.
Source: Fiqh1 (According To The Maliki School Of Islamic Law), Erkam Publications
