al-Qawaid al-Nuraniyya
- Author died
- 728 AH
- Editions
- Dār Ibn al-Jawzī
al-Qawaid al-Nuraniyya (also known as al-Qawaid al-Nuraniyya al-Fiqhiyya or al-Qawaid al-Kulliyya) is a treatise on Islamic legal maxims and regulatory principles authored by the Hanbali jurist Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728 AH / 1328 CE) .
Scope and Method
The book organizes legal principles across substantive areas of Islamic jurisprudence, beginning with the chapters of worship (ibadat) and proceeding into transactions (mu'amalat) . Although it addresses core legal maxims (qawaid) and specific legal guidelines (dawabit), its exposition integrates extensive legal reasoning and scholarly disagreements (khilaf) among the various Islamic schools of law . A reader examining the treatise initially might perceive it as primarily a text on comparative legal disputes, though closer inspection reveals maxims embedded throughout the discussions .
A central section of the treatise is its third major principle concerning contracts and contractual stipulations, where Ibn Taymiyya examines which conditions are licit or illicit, and which are valid or invalid . In this discussion, he analyzes whether the default legal ruling regarding contracts and conditions is general prohibition—permitting only what the Law explicitly allows—or general permissibility, developing an expansive legal theory on stipulations . Another distinct rule in the text (the fourth principle) establishes that a stipulation agreed upon prior to a contract is treated as though it were concurrent with it .
Distinction from Related Works
The title al-Qawaid al-Nuraniyya is shared with a distinct work written by Ibn Taymiyya's student, Badr al-Din al-Ba'li (d. 778 AH / 1376 CE) . Al-Ba'li named his own work al-Qawaid al-Nuraniyya fi Ikhtisar al-Durar al-Mudiya, which was an abridgment of Ibn Taymiyya's Egyptian legal responsa collection known as al-Fatawa al-Misriyya (or al-Durar al-Mudiya) . Al-Ba'li's abridgment was published under the title Mukhtasar al-Fatawa al-Misriyya, whereas Ibn Taymiyya's standalone book al-Qawaid al-Nuraniyya remains an independent treatise .
Editions and Publication
The work has been published both as an independent book and in collected volumes :
- The earliest widely circulated print edition was edited by Muhammad Hamid al-Fiqi .
- Most sections of the treatise were incorporated across multiple volumes of Ibn Qasim's compilation Majmu' al-Fatawa, with the exception of the fourth principle regarding prior stipulations .
- An edition was prepared by 'Abd al-Salam Muhammad Shahin and published by Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyya in Beirut in 1414 AH .
- A critical edition was published by Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Khalil (Dar Ibn al-Jawzi, 1422 AH), relying on two manuscript copies, collated copies of scholars, and the text in Majmu' al-Fatawa .
- An edition based on seven manuscripts was prepared as an academic thesis by Muhaysin ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Muhaysin and published by Maktabat al-Tawba in 1423 AH (2002 CE) under the title al-Qawaid al-Kulliyya, which he identified as the correct title of the manuscript .
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