Muslim Law or the Islamic Law is believed to have been originated from the divine. The Divine communicated it to Prophet Muhammad who prescribed them in Quran.

1. The First Period:

 Prophet Mohmmad was born in 570 AD and in his adulthood often used to meditate. At the age of 40 years got his first revelations (termed as AH 1). Initially only his wife and few others used to believe in his preaching. Abu Bakr, who after the death of Mohmmad became the First Caliph. These were followed by Ali, who later became the fourth Caliph; Omar, who later became the Second Caliph and Osman, who later became the third Caliph. With his band of followers were persecuted, and they fled to Medina in 622 AD, the date from which begins the Hegira era.

 The period between AH1 to AH11 – the last 10 years of the Prophet’s life is the most glorious and fruitful in the history of the development of Muslim Law. During this period, all the verses of the Koran were composed and most of the Ahadis came into existence. Koran contains direct words of God, whereas Ahadis contains sayings and deeds of the Prophet i.e. indirect revelations.

2. The Second Period :

 Since the Prophet had not appointed a Successor, by way of election his followers elected the first Caliph – Abu Bakr and the institution of Caliphate initiated resulting into the second period of development of Muslim law. It was during this period that the collection and edition of texts of the Koran was undertaken and completed. The final reception of the Koran took place in the reign of Osman and his edition of Koran is considered to contain the most authentic text of the Koran, being free from interpolations.

 3. The Third Period : 

With the death of Ali, the Fourth Caliph, begins the third period in the development of Muslim law upto 300AH. On Ali’s death, his first son Hasan, resigned in favour of Muavia, the founder of the Ommayad dynasty. Ali’s second son, Hussain revolted and died fighting at Karbala. With this, the division of the Muslim world between the Sunnis and the Shias became final and permanent.   During this period came into existence the Schools of Sunnis and Shias. During this period a systematic drive was made to collect the traditions.

4. The Fourth period: 

This period begins at about 962 AD when Abbasides were ruling the Muslim world. Abbasids first used the title “Imam ” i.e. the Supreme Leader. According to Sunnis , the Imam is their Leader , but he is a servant of the law, while Shia believe that he is the Supreme law giver. During this period, a sustained effort was made by the jurists of each School to develop law. Muslim law was elaborated in detail by the scholars of various Schools. The doctrine of ijtihad or independent reasoning and doctrine of Taqlid i.e. no one is permitted to deduce rules and principles independently from the Koran, the Sunna and the ijma but one must follow the rules and the principles as formulated by the various recognised schools of law, have developed during this phase. 

5. The Fifth Period :

 According to Fyzee, the fifth period commences with the abolition of the caliphate or the Sultanate. In this phase, the spontaneity in the development of Muslim law had been lost. The ijma and qiyas had spent their force as vehicles of legal development. The jurists were not allowed to formulate new rules and principles. Already there was the abolition of the Caliphate and Sultanate and a stage was reached when the law could develop only through the process of Legislation. This is what precisely happened in most of the countries including India. In India the fifth period begins with the establishment of British rule in India. Once the Muslim rule was over and the British rule was firmly established, process of abrogation of Muslim law in many areas began. Many of the subjects are covered in common law system and what left was Muslim Personal Law only. The Shariat Act,1937 was passed to make the grip of Muslim law strong on all those persons who professed to be Muslims. Only one major reform has been made, viz. the Muslim Dissolution Of Marriage Act, 1939, which enables a Muslim wife to sue for dissolution of marriage on certain grounds.