This research has been on the Historical Development of Islamic Law from the period of the revelation to the 7th century after Hijra. In the introductory part of this research an attempt was made to examine the necessity of the need for laws to regulate the conduct of the society. The research further analyzed the status of law within the Arabian Peninsula before the advent of Islam. The law during the Jahiiiyyah period was generally full of atrocities and confusions. This is because the law at that time did not take into consideration the plight of the weak, women and the oppressed. However with the emergence of Islam, all the obnoxious customs and traditions were nullified and substituted with the laws of the SharTah. Islam therefore condemned and rejected in totality everything that contradicted it but accepted and approved such things that were in consonance with the tenants of the Sharia ah. Islam introduced some of such changes through a gradual and systematic approach in line with the Divine will. The Shari'ah covers a complete code of faith and practice covering the whole aspect of mankind. Therefore the basic components of the Shari'ah consists of the Laws related to beliefs (Aqaid), moral acts or cultivation of good manners (Xkhlaq) and acts of worship (Ibadat) as well as transactions or contracts (Mu'amalat). Fiqh (Islamic Law) in particular deals with the laws related to'Ibadat and Mifamalat only hence it is one of the sub-branches of the Shari'ah as a whole. vii The historical development of Islamic Law was studied in six different stages. The peculiarities and achievements of each stage were highlighted. The primary sources of the Sharif ah are: the Qur'an, Sunnah and Ijtihad either in the form oflima or Qiyas. In the course of the development of Islamic Law there emerged the opinionist and the traditionist trends of Ijtihad within the Muslim jurists, which eventually led to the formation of the different schools of law. And the four most recognized schools of law are the Ilanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools of Law. The sciences of Fiqh and Usui al-Fiqh were also documented at a later stage. The research further examined some significant legal terms used by the jurists in their analyses, which explained the rules of law (Xhkam al-Shar'iyyah), its fundamental objectives (Maqasid al-Sharia'ah) and therefore some sample cases were brought for the purpose of illustration to buttress the methodology adopted by the earlier jurists in learning the Shari'ah.