The Impact of Fundamental Principles: the Obligation of Non-Muslims, the Use of Homonymous Terms, and the Practices of Previous Scholars in Deriving Subsidiary Rulings from Fundamental Principles: from Al-Isnawi's Al-Tamhid, "A Comparative Jurisprudential Study"

Abstract

The study aimed to establish the Islamic legal foundation for deriving jurisprudential branches from principles, to clarify Al-Isnawi’s methodology in “Al-Tamhid,” to present the opinions of jurists and legal theorists regarding the foundational principles under study, and to illustrate the impact of scholarly disagreements on jurisprudential rulings. This study followed inductive and analytical approaches.

The study yielded several results, including: non-Muslims are not addressed by the branches of Islamic law according to the majority of Hanafi scholars, contrary to the correct opinion of the Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali schools. Also, when a term has both a commonly used literal meaning and a conventional figurative meaning, priority is given to the literal meaning over the figurative one according to the Hanafi school, in contrast to the Maliki and Hanbali schools. In addition, according to the Hanafi and Maliki schools besides one of the Shafi’i school's perspectives and the most authentic narration from the Hanbali school, the laws of previous nations apply to us if they are established through authentic revelation or sound narration and have not been abrogated. Among the most important recommendations is: preparing similar papers on foundational principles that share a common topic, in order to apply what can be applied on jurisprudential branches.

The scholarly value of this research lies in its connection to the approach of deriving branches from principles in terms of establishing origins, analyzing Al-Isnawi’s approach in “Al-Tamhid,” examining the opinions of jurists and legal theorists regarding the foundational principles under study, and demonstrating the influence of these principles on jurisprudential branches in other schools of Islamic law.