al-Fiqh al-Islami wa Adillatuhu lil-Zuhayli
- Author died
- 1436 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Fikr
al-Fiqh al-Islami wa Adillatuhu (Islamic Jurisprudence and Its Evidences) is a multi-volume comparative compendium of Islamic jurisprudence by the Syrian jurist Wahba al-Zuhayli (d. 1436 AH / 2015 CE), surveying the legal rulings of the four Sunni schools alongside their textual and rational proofs.
Purpose and Scope
Al-Zuhayli authored the work to address the need for a modern, accessible presentation of Islamic jurisprudence that simplifies classical legal phrasing, organizes topics systematically, and connects juridical conclusions directly to their primary textual sources without restricting the discussion to a single legal school. The book is structured as a comparative study across the four major Sunni schools of law—the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali schools—with occasional references to other legal traditions. To ensure accuracy and avoid misrepresenting legal positions, the author relied directly on the authoritative, primary reference texts (ummahat al-kutub) recognized within each respective school rather than quoting one school's doctrines from the works of another.
Method and Structure
The book adopts a methodology that combines transmitted textual proofs from the Quran and the Sunnah with rational legal reasoning derived from the overarching spirit and objectives of Islamic legislation. Key methodological features established by the author include:
- Verification of textual proofs: Documenting the hadiths cited by jurists, evaluating their authenticity, and distinguishing substantiated evidence from weak narrations.
- Practical orientation: Focusing on practical, realistic legal rulings while discarding obsolete topics such as slavery, except where brief historical context is needed to comprehend specific issues.
- Weighing opinions (tarjih): Formulating legal preferences between differing views when warranted by the strength of evidence or contemporary public welfare (maslahah), while generally favoring the majority opinion (jumhur) when no explicit preference is stated. The author maintained that his preferred choices did not emerge from personal inclination or school bias, but strictly from assessing evidentiary strength or contemporary interest.
- Modern style and taxonomy: Employing contemporary language, comprehensive legal maxims (dawabit kulliyyah), and detailed subject indexing to make legal topics easily accessible for researchers, students, and legal codifiers.
In later editions, al-Zuhayli expanded the text by incorporating studies on modern legal and financial issues, including intention and motive in contracts, the theory of contract rescission (faskh), insurance and reinsurance, the concept of the Islamic state, and restructured chapters on sharecropping (muzara'ah) and manufacturing contracts (istisna'). He also appended resolutions from the sessions of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy and the document on human rights in Islam.
Editions and Translations
The book was published in Damascus by Dar al-Fikr, with its first edition appearing in 1404 AH / 1984 CE. It was subsequently issued in multiple expanded editions, including a third edition in nine volumes in 1409 AH / 1989 CE, and a revised fourth edition published in 1418 AH / 1997 CE (corresponding to its twelfth printing). The work has also been translated into Turkish, Malay, and Persian.
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