Mawsuat al-Qawaid al-Fiqhiyya

Mawsuat al-Qawaid al-Fiqhiyya (The Encyclopedia of Legal Maxims) is a twelve-volume compendium of Islamic legal maxims compiled and explained by the contemporary scholar Muhammad Sidqi Al Burnu (d. 1446 AH / 2024 CE) al-Qawaid al-Fiqhiyya wa …+1. It gathers and categorizes thousands of maxims spanning the various schools of Islamic jurisprudence in an alphabetical dictionary format al-Qawaid al-Fiqhiyya wa …+1.

Background and Purpose

The author’s engagement with legal maxims began around 1400 AH, when the Department of Usul al-Fiqh at the College of Sharia at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh introduced the subject into its undergraduate curriculum and tasked him with designing the syllabus and teaching it Mawsuat al-Qawaid al-Fiqh…. Finding few printed classical works on the subject at the time—primarily those of al-Karkhi, Abu Zayd al-Dabbusi, Ibn Rajab, Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, and Ibn Nujaym—he began collecting and compiling legal maxims from specialized treatises, works of distinctions (furuq), and major compendia across the legal schools Mawsuat al-Qawaid al-Fiqh…+1. His objective was to provide an accessible reference work covering maxims across the diverse schools of Islamic jurisprudence Mawsuat al-Qawaid al-Fiqh…+1.

Structure and Organization

The encyclopedia opens with introductory treatises (muqaddimat) establishing the principles, definitions, historical development, and classical literature of legal maxims Mawsuat al-Qawaid al-Fiqh…+1. The core text is divided into twelve thematic parts (aqsam) organized strictly according to the Arabic alphabet by the first letter of each maxim:

• Part 1 (Volumes 1–2): General introductions and maxims beginning with the letter Hamza, totaling nearly seven hundred maxims Mawsuat al-Qawaid al-Fiqh…+1.
• Part 2 (Volume 2): Maxims beginning with the letters Ba, Ta, and Tha Mawsuat al-Qawaid al-Fiqh….
• Parts 3 and 4 (Volumes 3–4): Maxims beginning with Jim, Ha, Kha, Dal, Dhal, Ra, and Zay Mawsuat al-Qawaid al-Fiqh….
• Parts 5 to 10: Maxims covering the middle letters of the alphabet, including Fa and Qaf (147 maxims in Part 8) Mawsuat al-Qawaid al-Fiqh….
• Part 11 (Volume 9): Maxims beginning with the letter Mim, containing 719 maxims Mawsuat al-Qawaid al-Fiqh….
• Part 12 (Volume 12): Maxims beginning with the letters Ha, Waw, and Ya, containing 64 maxims Mawsuat al-Qawaid al-Fiqh….

Methodology

For each entry, the author applies a systematic framework:

1. Assigning a sequential number to the maxim and noting its primary subject matter or legal term Mawsuat al-Qawaid al-Fiqh….
2. Presenting the exact wording (lafz wurud al-qaida) and recording alternative variant phrasings where relevant Mawsuat al-Qawaid al-Fiqh….
3. Explaining the linguistic and technical meanings of the terms and the legal significance of the maxim Mawsuat al-Qawaid al-Fiqh….
4. Providing illustrative legal applications and subsidiary rulings (amthilat al-qaida wa-masailuha), detailing differences among schools Mawsuat al-Qawaid al-Fiqh….
5. Verifying cross-school attributions by checking disputed rulings against the primary authoritative texts of the cited madhhab Mawsuat al-Qawaid al-Fiqh….
6. Documenting citations and source references with volume and page numbers in footnotes Mawsuat al-Qawaid al-Fiqh….

Publication

The work was issued in successive volumes in Riyadh and Beirut by Maktabat al-Tawba and Dar Ibn Hazm starting in 1418 AH / 1997 CE Mawsuat al-Qawaid al-Fiqh…+1. The complete twelve-volume first edition was published in Beirut by Muassasat al-Risala in 1424 AH / 2003 CE al-Masail al-Fiqhiyya all…+1.