An Original Theory of Islamic Legal Personality (Dhimma) and Its Application to Corporate Entities in Nigerian Sharia Law

The Islamic jurisprudential concept of Dhimma (legal personality) defines the capacity of legal subjects to hold rights and bear obligations, and its classical formulation addressed only natural persons and certain public institutions. The application of Dhimma theory to modern corporate entities, which have become the primary actors in Nigeria's Islamic finance market and commercial sector, requires original theoretical development that extends classical doctrine to the corporate form without abandoning Islamic jurisprudential foundations. This study develops an original theory of Islamic corporate legal personality by extending the Dhimma concept to modern corporate structures applicable under Nigerian Islamic and commercial law. A theoretical and comparative doctrinal methodology is applied, constructing the theory through systematic engagement with classical Islamic jurisprudence on Dhimma (from Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali sources), contemporary Islamic legal theory on moral personhood, and comparative corporate law theory on legal personality from Kelsen, Dewey, and Iwai. The theory generates four original doctrinal principles: Ahliyya al-Mujtama' (collective capacity), Mas'uliyya al-Jamaa'iyya (collective liability), Milkiyya al-Mushtaraka (shared ownership), and Istimrar al-Shakhsiyya (continuity of personality), together constituting an original Islamic corporate personality doctrine. The theory is operationalised through application to the Sharia compliance obligations of Nigerian Islamic banks and Wakf corporate trustees. Available Islamic legal personality theory identifies the absence of a systematic Islamic corporate personality doctrine as the primary gap limiting Islamic commercial law development. Keywords: Dhimma, legal personality, corporate entities, Islamic commercial law, Nigeria.