al-Kawkab al-Durri fima yatakharraj ala al-usul al-nahwiyya min al-furu al-fiqhiyya
- Author died
- 772 AH
- Editions
- Dar Ammar
al-Kawkab al-Durri fīmā yatakh arraj ʿalā al-uṣūl al-naḥwiyya min al-furūʿ al-fiqhiyya (The Brilliant Star on Deriving Substantive Legal Rulings from Grammatical Principles) is a specialized treatise on grammatical derivation in Islamic jurisprudence by the Shafi'i jurist and grammarian Jamal al-Din al-Isnawi (d. 772 AH / 1370 CE) .
Background and Purpose
The book belongs to the genre of legal works demonstrating the practical significance of the Arabic language by illustrating how substantive legal rulings (furūʿ) are extracted from grammatical rules (uṣūl naḥwiyya) . Al-Isnawi considered this work, along with his parallel jurisprudential work al-Tamhid fi takhrij al-furu ala al-usul, an original initiative among Shafi'i scholars in systematically bridging grammar and legal branches . In the introduction, he states that he sought divine guidance (istikhāra) to author two complementary treatises combining legal branches with linguistic and legal-theoretical foundations: one deriving jurisprudence from principles of legal theory (uṣūl al-fiqh), and the other deriving jurisprudence from grammatical rules . It serves as a practical application of the influence of Arabic grammar upon Islamic legal issues .
Structure and Sources
The treatise blends grammar and substantive Shafi'i jurisprudence, organized into four primary chapters (abwāb) :
- Nouns (al-asmāʾ)
- Verbs (al-afʿāl)
- Particles (al-ḥurūf)
- Miscellaneous compound structures (tarākīb mutafarriqa)
For grammatical rulings and concepts, al-Isnawi drew heavily upon grammatical reference works, including Irtishāf al-ḍarab by his teacher Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati and Ibn Malik's Sharḥ al-Tashīl . For Shafi'i jurisprudential branches, he relied principally on al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr by al-Rafi'i and Rawḍat al-ṭālibīn by al-Nawawi .
Reception and Subsequent Literature
Al-Isnawi and his treatise were praised in verse by contemporary admirers, who celebrated the book for illuminating the connections between grammatical and legal reasoning .
His method prompted later authors across various legal schools to compose works along similar lines . Among these subsequent works are Zīnat al-ʿarāʾis min al-ṭuraf wa-l-nafāʾis fī takhrīj al-furūʿ al-fiqhiyya ʿalā al-qawāʿid al-naḥwiyya by the Hanbali scholar Ibn al-Mibrad (d. 909 AH) and Qamar al-ṣaḥw fī tanzīl al-fiqh ʿalā al-naḥw by the Hanafi scholar Ibn Tulun (d. 953 AH) .
Editions
The work was edited by Muhammad Hasan Awwad and published in a single volume by Dar Ammar in Amman, Jordan, in 1405 AH / 1985 CE .
Answer updated