Ahmad Fathi al-Bashir
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Ahmad Fathi al-Bashir is a contemporary Islamic scholar and researcher, best known for his work Nahw al-Fuqaha: Mujarrad Maqalat Abi Ishaq al-Shatibi fi Manzilat al-Arabiyya min al-Shari'a (The Jurists' Grammar: A Compilation of Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi's Treatises on the Status of Arabic in the Sharia).
Scholarly Focus and Methodology
In his scholarly research, al-Bashir gathered and arranged the linguistic and grammatical thought of Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi from across his writings. He defined "the jurists' grammar" (nahw al-fuqaha) as the study of Arabic grammar specifically as an instrument for comprehending the discourse of the Lawgiver and establishing legal rulings and substantive jurisprudence (furu'). To establish this concept, he drew on historical antecedents in the grammatical and legal tradition, including Ibn Tulun al-Hanafi's Ithaf al-Nubaha bi-Nahw al-Fuqaha, al-Maydani's Nahw al-Fuqaha, and Qadi Abu Bakr Ibn al-Arabi's Malji'at al-Mutafaqqihin ila Ma'rifat Ghawamid al-Nahwiyyin wa-l-Lughawiyyin. Al-Bashir also conducted research compiling and organizing the scattered grammatical issues of Ibn al-Arabi's lost Malji'at al-Mutafaqqihin through citations preserved across Ibn al-Arabi's extant writings.
Al-Bashir observed that certain technical debates within formal grammar do not directly serve the extraction of meaning from scriptural texts, whereas the jurists' approach isolates the linguistic principles essential for legal deduction and legal theory (usul al-fiqh). He contextualized this distinction through historical scholarly debates, such as Abu Hayyan al-Andalusi's characterization of Ibn al-Hajib's grammatical treatise as "the jurists' grammar."
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List of Works
Nahw al-Fuqaha = Mujarrad Maqalat Abi Ishaq al-Shatibi fi al-Arabiyya (The Jurists' Grammar: A Compilation of Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi's Treatises on Arabic) is a contemporary scholarly work dedicated to collecting and arranging the linguistic and grammatical thought of Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi. It focuses on "the jurists' grammar," approaching grammatical analysis as an instrument for deducing legal rulings and comprehending divine discourse.