According to Asifa Quraishi, the methods used in the judicial interpretation of the Constitution are similar to that of the Qur'an, including the methods of "plain meaning literalism, historical understanding "originalism," and reference to underlying purpose and spirit."[34] Sameer S. Vohra says the United States Constitution is similar to the Qur'an in that the Constitution is "the supreme law of the land and the basis from which the laws of the legislature originate."[35] Vohra further notes that the legislature is similar to the Sunnah in that the "legislature takes the framework of the Constitution and makes directives that involve the specific day-to-day situations of its citizens."[35] He also writes that the judicial decision-making process is similar to the qiyas and ijma methods, in that judicial decision-making is "a means by which the law is applied to individual disputes," that "words of the Constitution or of statutes do not specifically address all the possible situations to which they may apply," and that, "at times, it requires the judiciary to either use the consensus of previous decisions or reason by analogy to find the correct principle to resolve the dispute."[36]
Azizah Y. al-Hibri argues that American constitutional law may have possibly borrowed certain concepts from Islamic constitutional law.[37] al-Hibri compares the American constitution to the Qur'an, Sunnah and Constitution of Medina, such as the establishment of a federal government, the declaration of freedom of religion, the abolishment of guilt by association, the right to privacy, and matters such as common defense and peacemaking.[38] al-Hibri notes that while it is uncertain whether or not the American Founding Fathers had access to the Constitution of Medina, it is certain that they had access to the Qur'an (which protects some of the rights mentioned in the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution),[39] that Thomas Jefferson was familiar with Orientalist writings on Islam (including those of Volney) in addition to owning a copy of the Qur'an, that Jefferson spoke of avoiding the mistakes of previous civilizations, and that there were African American Muslim slaves from an Islamic legal background.[40] However, Thomas Jefferson was not involved at all in the Constitutional drafting, as he was the United States Minister to France from 1785 to 1789.
