Maqam al-Rashad bayn al-Taqlid wa al-Ijtihad
- Author died
- 1376 AH
- Editions
- Abī al-ʻĀliyah Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Jūrānī
Maqam al-Rashad bayn al-Taqlid wa al-Ijtihad (The Station of Rectitude Between Legal Conformism and Independent Reasoning) is a treatise on legal theory (usul al-fiqh) by the Hanbali scholar and judge Faisal ibn Abd al-Aziz Al Mubarak (1313–1376 AH / 1895–1957 CE).
Subject and Method
The treatise addresses the principles governing independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) and legal conformism (taqlid), framing them within the foundational sources of Islamic law—the Quran, the Sunnah, consensus (ijma), and valid analogy (qiyas). The author advocates adherence to textual proof over uncritical attachment to opinions, while outlining the permissible and prohibited boundaries of following scholarly authority. Rather than engaging in abstract speculative definitions, the text is structured around concise syntheses of excerpts and arguments drawn from earlier authorities.
Content and Sources
The work begins with definitions of jurisprudence, knowledge, conjecture, doubt, and the seven legal classifications of acts, citing Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni's al-Waraqat. It incorporates passages from al-Shafi'i's al-Risalah on the levels of knowledge, the necessity of evidence, and the status of analogy as a recourse of necessity when direct textual indications are absent. It quotes Abu Sulayman al-Khattabi's introductory critique in Ma'alim al-Sunan regarding the rift between traditionists who neglect legal comprehension and jurists who neglect the critique of hadith and rely on theological dialectic (kalam).
The author examines the duty to refer disputes to the Quran and the Sunnah, citing analyses by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya from I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in on the divisions of personal opinion (ra'y), the types of analogy, and the categories of taqlid—distinguishing between the blameworthy neglect of revelation and permissible recourse for those incapable of independent deduction. He incorporates selections from Ibn Taymiyya's al-Ikhtiyarat regarding qualifications for judicial ruling, fatwas, the impermissibility of ruling by personal desire, and the legitimacy of departing from an imam's ruling when supported by stronger proof. The treatise further includes citations from Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-San'ani's poetry, personal letters of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, al-Shawkani's Irshad al-Fuhul, Ibn Battal, and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani's commentary in Fath al-Bari.
Manuscripts and Publication
An autograph manuscript in the author's hand is preserved at King Saud University in Riyadh (ms. no. 1156), comprising thirteen folios written in Ruq'ah script with catchwords.
The text was initially printed as part of a three-work collection titled al-Majmu'ah al-Jalilah in Riyadh (1372 AH), and reprinted in Damascus (1404 AH) and al-Qasim. It was later published as a separate treatise in Riyadh (1413 AH) edited by Rashid ibn 'Amir al-Ghufayli, and subsequently re-edited from the author's autograph manuscript by Abu al-'Aliyah Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Jurani.
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