بِسْم الله الرحمن الرحيم
The Meaning of أصول الفقه
أصول is the plural of أصل. Linguistically it has many meanings such as:
a) Base - ما يبني عليه غيره (That upon which other things are built)
b) Root;- as opposed to a branch. In Arabic they say ما يتفرع عنه غيره (That upon which other things are derived)
It has a few definitions in the context of the Shari'ah as well.
a) Evidence (دليل)
When discussing a particular issue, Scholars will say "...the أصل of this issue is such and such Quranic verse..."
b) Principle - A ruling which reoccurs again and again.
c) The Original Text in Qiyas (Legal Analogy)
Qiyas is where you have a text which covers an original case [which you call the أصل] and the text provides a ruling for that. A new situation crops up which the text does not cover by its linguistic indicators, but the effective cause for the ruling in the أصل is present in the new case, so we transfer the ruling from the أصل to the new case)
d) The Starting Assumption or the Strongest Indication.
Rhetoricians say "The أصل in speech is that it is understood literally" (i.e. The starting assumption when someone says something is that you understand it according to the outer meanings of the words.)
Or the saying "Innocent until proven guilty". The أصل is that people are innocent.
Something closely related to that is an entire class of evidence in أصول الفقه called إستسحاب (The presumption of continuity). Something has been established already, and you assume that it continues to be in effect unless there is evidence to the contrary.
E.g. There is a person who you know is alive and married. He left his home and travelled and no one has heard from him since. We know for sure he was alive when he left, so his wife and property is still considered his until there is certainty that he actually died.
The term فقه linguistically means "Understanding".
In [4:78]:
"Wheresoever you may be, death will overtake you even if you are in fortresses built up strong and high!" And if some good reaches them, they say, "This is from Allah," but if some evil befalls them, they say, "This is from you (O Muhammad ﷺ)." Say: "All things are from Allah," so what is wrong with these people that they fail to understand any word?"
In [18:93]:
"Until, when he reached between two mountains, he found, before (near) them (those two mountains), a people who scarcely understood a word."
The Prophet ﷺ said:
"نَضَّرَ اللَّهُ امْرَأً سَمِعَ مِنَّا حَدِيثًا فَحَفِظَهُ حَتَّى يُبَلِّغَهُ فَرُبَّ حَامِلِ فِقْهٍ إِلَى مَنْ هُوَ أَفْقَهُ مِنْهُ وَرُبَّ حَامِلِ فِقْهٍ لَيْسَ بِفَقِيهٍ "
This is very relevant to the Shari'ah meaning of Fiqh. You have texts which are the core evidence of Fiqh and you have events to which these texts apply. Knowing how to apply the texts to the events requires deep understanding.
The technical meaning of Fiqh according to the Scholars is: معرفة الأحكام الشرعية العملية من أدلتها التفصيلية - (Knowledge of the rules of the Shari'ah associated with the acts acquired from their detailed evidences).
The Compoud Definition for أصول الفقه:
المعرفة دلائل الفقه إجمالا
1) Knowledge of the Evidences of Fiqh as a Class
In أصول الفقه we are not interested in the piecemeal evidence for particular rules, we are interested in which classes of evidence are admissible for legal reasoning, what are the rules that govern each type of evidence, what is the relative strength of each class of evidence, and in cases of apparent contradiction - how do we deal with these various classes?
و كيفية الإستفادة منها
2) and how to derive benefit from that Evidence
Simply having the evidence does not necessarily mean you know what to do with it. It is obvious from history that various people look at the same evidence but arrive at different conclusions, and some of these conclusions may be incorrect.
The heavy focus on this is linguistic rules. It is said that many of the discussion of topics in Arabic grammar was pioneered by the Scholars of أصول الفقه. They were extremely well versed in the Arabic Language. So the rules of the general and the specific, the absolute and the restricted, the indications of the command form or the prohibiton form, were intensely scrutinized by these Scholars and this led to the development of those linguistic sciences.
و حال المستفيد
3) and the Condition of the Person deriving Benefit from the Evidence
This would take us into questions of who is qualified to look at the evidence and what the rules of Ijtihad are. This also includes those who follow someone elses Ijtihad; they derive benefit through the intermediary of others more qualified than them - and the rules that govern the way they derive benefit.
The primary concern of أصول الفقه is Evidence, the secondary concern is the (حكم) Legal Ruling. The Scholars of أصول الفقه are interested in Rulings divided into classes of categorization.
This is the opposite of the concern of the Scholars of Fiqh. The whole point of Fiqh is arriving at the أحكام - deriving rules from evidence.
Closely related Disciplines to أصول الفقه
There exists other fields of knowledge which have a close relationship to Usool Al-Fiqh, but are considered seperate disciplines. A major such discipline is
1) القواعد الفقهية (Islamic Legal Maxims).
That field ran in parallel with the development of أصول الفقه. The first generation of Muslim Scholars did not look into either of these fields, they delivered rulings on a case by case basis. As those rulings began to accumulate a whole body of legal rulings developed. By the 3rd Century, there were so many rulings that no one could remember them all, so the Scholars of the later generations began to do a survey of the whole field - to look for principles that would organize the field. You would have a whole series of detailed rulings which would be governed by the same principle. Some of them were recognized by all the Madhahib, while others were particular to a legal school.
The thing about legal maxims is that it can be applied directly to a situation in order to derive a ruling.
E.g. المشقة تجلب التيسير - Hardship becomes a cause for relaxation
If a person finds that he gets a splitting headache when he makes Sajdah, he can make Sajdah on a higher platform.
A rule, however, from أصول الفقه cannot be applied directly to a situation in order to understand the legal ruling behind it. This is because the rulings of أصول الفقه apply to the evidence itself. You take the knowledge of the أصول الفقه ruling, apply it to the evidence, and from there it can be applied to a situation in order to arrive at a ruling.
2) مقاصد الشريعة (The Goals and Objectives of the Shari'ah)
This is a sub-discipline which grew out of أصول الفقه. The glimmerings of it are found in the works of Imam Al-Haramain and Al-Ghazzali (5 to 6H). In 8AH, you have Imam Ash-Shatibi, who brought مقاصد into a full fledged discipline. This has become a study of intense interest in the 20th Century.
Imam Ash-Shatibi summarized the qualifications of a Mujtahid in two qualifications:
1) Mastery of the Arabic Language
2) Knowledge of the Goals and Objectives of Shari'ah
The task of the Mujtahid is to first understand the text, which cannot be done without understanding of the Arabic Language. Then understanding the rules that are derived from that text in applying them to the real world. The main focus of أصول الفقه really is the linguistic focus - on how to understand the text. And the main focus of مقاصد is the overall goals of Shari'ah Legislation. Putting both together makes correct Ijtihad. Having one or the other will lead to severe impairment in the ability of the person to exercise Ijtihad.
The Purpose of أصول الفقه
The purpose of أصول الفقه is to provide a guide for making proper Ijtihad. This guideline preserves from two types of error:
1) Unwitting Error - Where the person has a good intention, but do not have all the tools, so make mistakes in their legal reasoning.
2) Error where the intent was never to arrive at the ruling in the first place. A person has a conclusion they want to prove, and look for evidence to support their conclusion.
Having knowledge of أصول الفقه will make a person more skillful in this type, but it will provide others with the means to identify this playing around with the Shari'ah, and thus becomes a way of preserving the Ummah of falling into the trap set by those with ulterior agendas and motives.
The Benefits of Studying أصول الفقه
No one nowadays meets the classical standards of a Mujtahid. But Ijtihad has to continue as long as Muslims are around. There are people in the Ummah who are capable of Ijtihad, however the number of people studying this science are greater in number than the number of those that reach the solid qualifications for undertaking the task. Why would the rest of us study it then?
1) If a person has a background of أصول الفقه, they can read the books of Fiqh and understand how the person is developing that argument. It is important for every educated Muslim to have some exposure to this field. If a Muslim is not exposed to it, and comes across a statement by a Scholar, the tendency can be very strong to say "...oh those people, those ignorant Mullahs, are always saying this and that..."
If you understand what the evidence is and how they build their argument, you will appreciate that many of the statements are not arbitrary. They are speaking on the basis of evidence and are not just running their mouths.
2) It also gives an educated lay person the ability to say wait a minute, this particular argument does not hold water, because it conflicts with such and such principle from أصول الفقه. You can identify flaws in legal reason and have some basis by which to say this opinion seems much stronger than that one.
3) أصول الفقه provides an intellectual framework from a Muslim point of view for critical thinking.
British Economist E.F. Shumacher compared the experience of Germany after World War Two with many third world countries. Germany was completely destroyed, there was hardly a standing building, yet within four or five years the whole society fully functioned again, everything was up and running. His explanation for that was that every member of the society carried a picture of the way things were and had mental skills and outlook that were widely distributed in society. When you put that together with a competent administration and some economic resources the whole thing came back together. This is in contrast to many third world societies where the mental model of a fully developed society is not present in the minds of the average citizen, so for all the elements of a modern society to be up and functioning is difficult.
So for Islamic society, if the model is present in the minds of the citizens, it provides a means by which the society can become Islamic. It takes a lot more than emotion, crowds pouring out of Masjids waving banners. That can only get you so far.
The History of أصول الفقه
The relationship between أصول الفقه and فقه is like what grammar is to language. If we look at how this whole discipline began to develop, we would see that at the time of the Prophet ﷺ or the companions after him there was no such thing as أصول الفقه. There are some references to it in the younger Tabi'een and the generations after that it became a conscious science. Looking at the study of أصول الفقه in the early generations is really looking at فقه; just as there are people who have never studied grammar but can speak their native language with fluency.
The Prophet ﷺ received revelation directly from the heavens. In his time situations occurred where the Quranic rule was already there and he would directly apply it. There were other situations where it was clear that the Prophet ﷺ made Ijtihad, based upon his knowledge of the principles of the Shari'ah. The Qur'an has examples of situation where the Prophet ﷺ made a decision and Allah informed him that it was not the most correct decision.
Because the Companions witnessed the Prophet ﷺ make Ijtihad, they knew it was permissible, and in some cases obligatory. They would make it during his lifetime, in situations where they were not in his presence. And the Prophet ﷺ would either confirm their Ijtihad or correct them if they were in error.
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