al-Usul wa al-Dawabit
- Author died
- 676 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Bashā'ir al-Islāmiyyah
al-Usul wa al-Dawabit (The Principles and Controls) is a legal treatise on Shafi'i jurisprudence and legal maxims by the Syrian scholar Abu Zakariyya Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi (631–676 AH / 1233–1277 CE) .
Purpose and Scope
In his bibliographical compendium Kashf al-Zunun, Hajji Khalifa records that al-Nawawi described the work as an assembly of essential rules, principles, and succinct legal objectives needed by students of the Shafi'i school . The book functions as a focused manual of legal maxims (qawa'id) and regulating principles (dawabit) governing various substantive legal branches .
Contents and Scholarly Reception
The text gathers foundational legal principles and citations from earlier Shafi'i authorities. Shams al-Din al-Sakhawi notes that al-Nawawi cited his teacher, the Chief Judge Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn al-Husayn ibn Razin (d. 680 AH), in al-Usul wa al-Dawabit .
Later Shafi'i scholars and legal theorists frequently cited the treatise for al-Nawawi's legal positions and classifications. In discussions on legal dispensations (rukhas), al-Nawawi counted delaying the noon prayer during severe heat (al-ibrad bi-l-zuhr) as a recommended dispensation in al-Usul wa al-Dawabit . In al-Ashbah wa al-Naza'ir, Ibn al-Mulaqqin referenced the work alongside other writings by al-Nawawi regarding whether specific legal quantifications constitute approximations (taqrib) or exact definitions (tahdid) .
Editions
The work was edited by Muhammad Hasan Hitto and published by Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyyah in Beirut .
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