Usul al-fiqh (principles of jurisprudence)
The discipline that studies the sources of Shariah and the methods for deriving rulings from them.
Usul al-fiqh is the discipline of legal theory: it studies the sources of Shariah and the methods by which rulings are derived from them, such as the texts, consensus, analogy, juristic preference and public interest. AAOIFI's standard on fatwa follows this order when it describes the bases on which a fatwa should be founded. The IFSB's corporate governance guidance says that members of an audit committee overseeing Shariah audit should preferably be well versed in fiqh al-muamalat and usul al-fiqh, which shows how the discipline reaches governance roles.
Sources
This entry explains a term; it is not a Shariah ruling. Approving a product is for each institution's own Shariah board and regulator.