The ‘Ulamaa have presented evidence in respect to the importance of Al-‘Urf and they considered it to be Shar’an (legitimate) based upon the views of the previous ‘Ulamaa including:

1 – Al-Imaam Maalik who built (or based) a lot of his Ahkaam upon the actions of the people of Al-Madinah i.e. upon the customs of Ahl-ul-Madinah and their ‘Urf.

2 – Abu Haneefah and his students (followers) differed in respect to some of the Ahkaam Ash-Shar’iyah based upon the difference in their A’araaf (customs).

3 – Al-Imaam Ash-Shaafi’iy changed some Ahkaam after going to Egypt which he had previously held whilst he was in Baghdad. That has been argued to be due to the differences in ‘Urf between the two places and it is for this reason that he has two Madh’habs, the old and the new.

4 – Ibn ‘Aabiden authored a paper about Al-‘Urf and said in it: “The Ma’roof ‘Urfan (the known by custom) is like the Mashroot Shartan (the stipulated by condition) and the Thaabit (established/proven/consistent) by the ‘Urf is like the established (Thaabit) by the Nass (text)”.

The ‘Urf in its true reality results from the thoughts that are prevailing within the society and from the systems and laws that treat the relationships of the society. As such these thoughts and those systems have become customs and measures (criteria) for the people whether they are aware of their original source or are unaware of it.

Therefore, the ‘Urf, for example, amongst the Muslims, results from the Islamic thoughts that the society has adopted and which the people have sought to go to judgment to for many centuries. This is like the prevailing customs in respect to celebrations, grief and the Eids. That is because most of these customs are based upon a text from the texts of the Islamic Shar’a.

The reason for the alteration and changing of some of these customs goes back to the absence of the Islamic ruling within the life of the people and the insertion of some thoughts to replace them like those attached to the capitalist and communist thoughts.