al-Masail al-Fiqhiyya allati alayha al-Fatwa inda Mutaakhkhiri al-Hanafiyya - Jaman wa Dirasatan -
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- al-Masail al-Fiqhiyya allati alayha al-Fatwa inda Mutaakhkhiri al-Hanafiyya - Jaman wa Dirasatan -
al-Masa'il al-Fiqhiyya allati 'alayha al-Fatwa 'inda Muta'akhkhiri al-Hanafiyya – Jam'an wa Dirasatan (Jurisprudential Issues Designated for Fatwa According to Later Hanafis: A Compilation and Study) is a contemporary legal treatise authored by Sinad Tasarnaktsh . The work compiles, contextualizes, and analyzes the substantive legal rulings within the Hanafi school that later authorities formally endorsed for issuing fatwas .
Background and Purpose
The book originated as a Master's thesis submitted to the Department of Fiqh at the College of Sharia in Riyadh, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, during the academic year 1440–1441 AH (2019–2020 CE), under the supervision of Professor Abdullah ibn Abdul-Wahid al-Khamis .
Tasarnaktsh framed the study around the historical era of the later Hanafi jurists (al-muta'akhkhirun), defined in the text as extending from the middle of the 5th century AH to the end of the 7th century AH . He selected the topic due to the importance of standardizing authoritative legal rulings within the school, serving the legal needs of regions where the Hanafi school predominates, and addressing the period wherein core foundational texts (mutun) were produced, rationales (ta'lil) were established, and rulings were debated and refined against counterarguments .
The explicit criteria for inclusion required that each legal issue carry an authoritative formula of preference or fatwa issued by later scholars—such as 'alayhi al-fatwa ("upon this is the fatwa") or bihi yufta ("according to this rulings are issued")—drawn directly from relied-upon texts of that era .
Structure and Contents
The work is organized into an introduction, a preparatory conceptual chapter (tamhid), three main subject chapters following the standard tripartite division of Hanafi jurisprudence (acts of worship, transactions, and punishments), a conclusion, and reference indices :
- Preparatory Chapter (al-Tamhid): Divided into three sections outlining the historical development of Islamic fiqh, foundational concepts of the Hanafi madhhab (classes of jurists, tiers of books and legal issues, terminology, and canons of weighting [tarjih]), and precise definitions of the terms al-muta'akhkhirun and 'alayhi al-fatwa .
- Chapter One (Acts of Worship / al-'Ibadat): Encompasses four main sections containing issues across ritual purification (tahara, such as used water, stagnant water, wiping over socks, and menstruation rulings), prayer (salah, covering the timing of Maghrib, prostration posture, and Eid takbirs), legal circumvention regarding zakat liability, and a pilgrim in ihram hunting game held by another .
- Chapter Two (Transactions / al-Mu'amalat): Contains twenty sections addressing contracts and interpersonal law, including marriage and the prolonged absence of a guardian, divorce phrases in non-Arabic tongues, zihar by a non-Muslim subject (dhimmi), oaths, spousal maintenance (nafaqah), hiring for pious deeds (al-ijarah 'ala al-ta'at), preemption (shuf'ah), division of shared property (qismah), state levy exemptions, tort liability (daman), legal interdiction (hajr), estimation of non-fixed indemnities (hukumat al-'adl), and inheritance portions reserved for the fetus .
- Chapter Three (Penalties / al-'Uqubat): Covers criminal sanctions across two sections, specifically treating the effect of elapsed time on the execution of prescribed corporal penalties (al-hadd al-mutaqadim) and the impact of distance on penalties for armed highway robbery (qat' al-tariq) .
The book closes with the author's stated findings, recommendations, and six analytical indices covering Quranic verses, hadiths, non-prophetic traditions (athar), biographical names, sources and references, and subject matters .
Methodological Approach
The study employs both an internal school-specific method and a general comparative approach :
- Within the Hanafi school, each legal issue is introduced, traced to its exact locations in classical Hanafi texts alongside its primary evidences, and verified to ensure that the later authorities established it as the settled fatwa without internal dispute over its preponderance . The author contrasts the positions of earlier and later scholars, analyzes cases that deviate from standard school rules of preference, and investigates whether shifts in rulings stemmed from changing social contexts and eras rather than conflicting textual proofs .
- In comparative legal analysis, the author conceptualizes the issue, determines areas of scholarly consensus versus disagreement, documents the opinions of other recognized legal schools from their primary literature, and details their respective arguments and debates .
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