Ahkam al-Quran li-Ismail al-Qadi
- Author died
- 282 AH
- Editions
- Dār Ibn Ḥazm
Ahkam al-Quran (Rulings of the Quran) is an early legal commentary on the Quran by the Maliki jurist and judge Ismail ibn Ishaq al-Qadi (d. 282 AH / 895 CE), dedicated to deriving legal rulings from Quranic verses according to the Maliki school of jurisprudence .
Structure and Method
The work is organized sequentially by Quranic surahs . It is composed as a musnad work, in which Ismail al-Qadi documents interpretive narrations, prophetic traditions, and reports from early authorities with their complete chains of transmission (isnads) before addressing the legal deductions and questions of jurisprudence derived from the text .
Reception and Influence
Ahkam al-Quran was widely esteemed by classical scholars as a pioneering Maliki legal exegesis. Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi stated that no scholar among Ismail's companions had preceded him in producing a work of its caliber . Ibn al-Arabi al-Maliki praised Ismail's insight in extracting legal rulings from the Quran, noting that he drew forth its pearls and established its core principles . Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani counted it among the foundational texts on juristic divergence (khilaf), advising a student to rely on Ismail's book or its abridgment . The Hanafi jurist al-Jassas engaged with and frequently critiqued Ismail's arguments in his own Ahkam al-Quran . Later scholars—including al-Qurtubi, Ibn Qudamah, Ibn al-Qayyim, and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani in Fath al-Bari—frequently cited and transmitted passages from it .
The book also served as a structural model for subsequent works; the Andalusian scholar Qasim ibn Asbagh authored a treatise on Quranic rulings arranged specifically according to the chapter headings of Ismail's book . Furthermore, Bakr ibn al-Ala al-Qushayri (d. 344 AH) produced an abridgment of the work titled Mukhtasar Ahkam al-Quran, in which he omitted most chains of transmission and repetitive narrations while retaining the fundamental legal material and incorporating additional scholarly discussions .
Preservation and Publication
The complete text of the original work has not survived . A surviving manuscript containing fragmentary sections covering portions of Surahs al-Nisa, al-Ma'idah, al-Mu'minun, al-Nur, al-Jumu'ah, al-Munafiqun, al-Taghabun, and al-Talaq is preserved in the Raqqada National Museum of Islamic Art in Kairouan, Tunisia . These extant portions were edited by Amer Hasan Sabri and published in a single volume by Dar Ibn Hazm in Beirut in 1426 AH / 2005 CE .
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