al-Qawaid lil-Hisni
- Author died
- 829 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Rushd li-l-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī‘
Kitab al-Qawaid (Arabic: كتاب القواعد) is a work on legal theory principles (qawaid usuliyyah) and jurisprudence maxims (qawaid fiqhiyyah) in the Shafi'i school, authored by Taqi al-Din al-Hisni (d. 829 AH / 1426 CE) .
Composition and Sources
The book is an abridgment of al-Majmu al-Mudhahhab fi Qawaid al-Madhhab by Salah al-Din al-Ala'i (d. 761 AH) . Al-Hisni derived the entirety of his work from al-Ala'i's text, preserving the bulk of its material without adding extraneous content beyond what he abridged . In one instance, al-Hisni corrected an example given by al-Ala'i concerning the balancing of competing benefits and harms .
While the title appears on manuscript copies as Kitab al-Qawaid—with one manuscript adding the descriptive subtitle fi al-fiqh 'ala madhhab al-Imam al-Shafi'i—biographical dictionaries frequently refer to it generally as Qawaid al-fiqh .
Structure and Method
Al-Hisni followed the structural sequence of al-Ala'i's original treatise with only minimal deviations :
- Legal Theory Principles (al-Qawaid al-Usuliyyah): Arranged according to the conventional order of legal theorists, opening with linguistic rules, discussions of the Lawgiver (al-hakim), legal rulings (al-hukm) and their categories, the legal subject and legal acts, and the evidentiary sources of the law (the Quran, the Sunnah, consensus, and the authoritative status of Companion opinions) .
- Juristic Maxims (al-Qawaid al-Fiqhiyyah): A collection of substantive legal maxims—such as the rights exclusive to God or to humans, compensatory and punitive measures (al-zawajir wa-l-jawa'bir), and travel distance rulings—alongside extensive branch applications (furu') .
Al-Hisni adhered closely to the phrasing of al-Majmu al-Mudhahhab, condensing passages by removing individual words, sentences, or short paragraphs, while only occasionally substituting terms of his own .
Reception and Manuscripts
Biographical sources attributed a work on legal maxims to al-Hisni, including entries by Ibn Qadi Shuhbah, al-Sakhawi, and Ibn al-Imad . Later scholars rarely cited al-Hisni's abridgment directly, as they relied instead on al-Ala'i's more comprehensive original work, and because manuscript copies of al-Hisni's text were scarce .
The work survived in an undated authorial autograph copy preserved at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin (MS 3226, 168 folios), estimated to date from the late eighth century AH, which bears ownership marks from al-Hisni's descendants . A small five-folio fragment of the opening was also identified alongside a manuscript of al-Hisni's commentary on al-Tanbih in the Süleymaniye Library (Ayasofya MS 1210) . The text was edited by Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah al-Sha'lan and Jibril ibn Muhammad al-Busayli and published in Riyadh in 1418 AH (1997 CE) .
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