Usul al-Fiqh alladhi la yasa al-Faqih jahluhu
- Author died
- -
- Editions
- Dar al-Tadmuriyyah
Usul al-Fiqh alladhi la yasa al-Faqih jahluhu (Principles of Jurisprudence that a Jurist Cannot Afford to Ignore) is a contemporary handbook on Islamic legal theory by the Saudi scholar Iyad ibn Nami al-Sulami .
Composition and Purpose
Al-Sulami, a professor in the Department of Usul al-Fiqh at the College of Sharia in Riyadh, composed the work in response to requests for a medium-sized textbook that gathers the core questions of usul al-fiqh in clear language, supplemented by illustrative examples that make its utility evident to students of Islamic law . Observing that contemporary students often lack the time for extensive classical commentaries or the aptitude to decipher dense historical compendia, he intended the text to present legal theory as an instrumental discipline directly integrated with substantive jurisprudence (fiqh) . The author also structured its topics to encompass the curricula taught in the faculties of Sharia and Usul al-Din across Saudi universities .
Structure and Contents
The book is organized into a preliminary introduction, six primary chapters (abwab), and a conclusion :
- Preliminary Introduction (al-Tamhid): Definition of usul al-fiqh .
- Chapter One: The legal ruling (al-hukm al-shar'i) .
- Chapter Two: The textual and rational sources of legal rulings (adillat al-ahkam al-shar'iyyah) .
- Chapter Three: Linguistic implications of texts (dalalat al-alfaz) .
- Chapter Four: Apparent conflict among proofs and methods for resolving it (al-ta'arud wa-turuq daf'ih) .
- Chapter Five: Independent legal reasoning (al-ijtihad) .
- Chapter Six: Legal conformity and following authority (al-taqlid) .
Method
Al-Sulami focuses on established scholarly positions and their essential proofs, deliberately avoiding protracted disputes and minor theoretical digressions . He devotes special attention to elucidating the substantive outcomes and practical fruits of theoretical disagreements (thamarat al-khilaf) and correcting common misreadings of classical treatises . In doing so, he occasionally departs from the standard formulations or definitions preferred by the majority of legal theorists where he judges an alternative view to be more accurate . To maintain readability, footnotes are kept sparse, limited primarily to documenting rare reports, while hadith citations are integrated directly into the main text, sufficing with references to Sahih al-Bukhari or Sahih Muslim whenever applicable .
Publication
The work was first published in Riyadh by Dar al-Tadmuriyyah in 1426 AH (2005 CE) and subsequently saw multiple reprints, including a sixth edition issued by the same publisher in 1433 AH .
Answer updated