Ithar al-Insaf fi Athar al-Khilaf
- Author died
- 654 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Salam
Ithar al-Insaf fi Athar al-Khilaf (Preferring Equity in the Traditions of Juristic Disagreement) is a work on comparative jurisprudence (ikhtilaf) by the jurist and historian Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 654 AH / 1256 CE) .
Purpose and Scope
In the introduction, Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi states that he authored the book in response to requests to compile the hadiths pertinent to well-known legal disputes among the jurists, confining his focus to the textual proofs of celebrated points of contention . The work belongs to the genre of comparative legal texts that treat major substantive issues over which the Sunni legal schools disagreed, with the author defending the doctrine of the Hanafi school while assessing competing arguments .
Methodology and Structure
For readers seeking an exhaustive discussion of evidence across all issues, the author refers them to his larger comparative manual (tariqatuna al-khilafiyya) . In determining legal preference (tarjih), he relies primarily on the consensus of the Prophet's Companions (Sahaba), and when transmitted reports are lacking for a specific topic, he draws inferences from general Quranic texts .
The work follows the standard arrangement of legal treatises, beginning with the "Book of Purification" (Kitab al-Taharah), which opens with the ruling on whether impure matter exiting from other than the two primary passages invalidates ritual ablution—presenting the Hanafi stance alongside the views of Malik, al-Shafi'i, and Ahmad ibn Hanbal .
Title Variants and Attribution
Although the author explicitly named the work Ithar al-Insaf fi Athar al-Khilaf, he frequently cited it in his universal chronicle Mir'at al-Zaman under the title al-Khilafiyyat . Other sources, such as al-Taqi al-Fasi's Muntakhab al-Mukhtar, cite it under the variant title Ithar al-Insaf fi Masa'il al-Khilaf .
Due to the similarity of title with works by his maternal grandfather, Ibn al-Jawzi, some bibliographical records listed it among the grandfather's writings; however, bibliographers confirm its attribution to Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi, noting that a manuscript copy was preserved in Damascus in the collection of the Hanafi mufti Abu al-Yusr 'Abidin .
Editions
The work has been published in single-volume modern editions:
- In Cairo by Dar al-Salam (1408 AH / 1987 CE), edited by Nasir al-Ali al-Nasir al-Khulayfi .
- In Beirut by Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyya (1998 CE) under the title Wasa'il al-Aslaf ila Masa'il al-Khilaf, edited by Sayyid Muhanna .
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