al-Imam fi Bayan Adillat al-Ahkam
- Author died
- 660 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyyah
al-Imam fi Bayan Adillat al-Ahkam (The Leader in Clarifying the Evidence of Legal Rulings) is a treatise on legal theory and jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh) by the Shafi'i jurist Izz al-Din ibn Abd al-Salam (d. 660 AH / 1262 CE) . The work focuses on classifying the textual, structural, and semantic ways in which revealed texts establish legal duties and status .
Title and Identification
The work is titled al-Imam fi Bayan Adillat al-Ahkam, though some biographical sources cite it under the descriptive phrase al-Dala'il al-muta'alliqah bi-l-mala'ikah wa-l-nabiyyin wa-l-khalq ajma'in ("The Evidence Pertaining to Angels, Prophets, and All Creation") . Both Taj al-Din al-Subki in Tabaqat al-Shafi'iyya al-Kubra and al-Dawudi in Tabaqat al-Mufassirin listed these two designations as distinct books, which has been identified as a bibliographic confusion arising from the author's opening line: "This is a clarification of the evidence of rulings pertaining to the angels, the messengers, and the rest of creation" . The treatise is also cataloged by Isma'il Pasha al-Baghdadi in Hadiyyat al-Arifin .
Subject and Structure
The book addresses how legal rulings are derived from divine discourse, organizing its exposition into ten chapters (fusal) . Ibn Abd al-Salam divides rulings into two principal categories:
- Rulings demanding the performance or avoidance of an act (talab li-iktisab fi'l aw tarkihi).
- Declaratory rulings devoid of demand, such as permissibility (ibahah), the appointment of legal causes (asbab), conditions (shurut), impediments (mawāni'), validity and invalidity, as well as determinations regarding timelines, prompt performance (ada'), and making up missed duties (qada') .
The author notes that religious demands and options attach strictly to voluntary, acquired acts (af'al kasbiyyah), whereas innate natural traits (af'al jibilliyyah) are not subject to legal praise, blame, reward, or punishment except by virtue of their acquired effects . He classifies the textual indicators of rulings into verbal forms (lafzi)—whether direct imperative formulations or informative statements—and conceptual implications (ma'nawi), connecting all such inducements and prohibitions to the underlying procurement of benefits and repulsion of harms (al-manafi' wa-l-madarr) .
In the second chapter, Ibn Abd al-Salam demonstrates how commands can be recognized from thirty-three indirect scriptural modes beyond the literal imperative verb, including praising the action or the actor, expressing divine love or pleasure, describing an action as upright, blessed, or pure, swearing an oath by it, or establishing it as a cause for divine guidance, pardon, peace, or worldly and otherworldly reward . The work also includes doctrinal discussions affirming the seven attributes in accordance with Ash'ari theology .
Reception and Manuscripts
Taj al-Din al-Subki praised the book as "extremely exquisite" (badi' jiddan) .
Manuscript copies of the work are preserved in libraries, including manuscript no. 1197 in the Istanbul University Library, a microfilm of which is held at the Institute of Arabic Manuscripts in Cairo (no. 36 Tawhid) .
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