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Chapter 2 - The Foundation of Analogy

‘Establishing the Validity of Qiyās against its Detractors’ from al-Mustaṣfā of Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111)

from Part I - Islamic Legal Theory (Uṣūl al-Fiqh) and Related Genres

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2024

By
Ziad Bou Akl
Edited by
Omar Anchassi  and
Robert Gleave
Omar Anchassi
Affiliation:
Universität Bern, Switzerland
Robert Gleave
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
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Summary

This chapter explores the seminal contribution to Islamic legal theory of al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111), focusing on his defence of legal analogy (qiyās) against its detractors in al-Mustaṣfā min ʿIlm al-Uṣūl. Al-Ghazālī discusses the justifications for analogy and bases its authority on revelation, rather than reason alone. He opposes both those who deem it rationally impossible to employ analogy in legal matters (against the Baghdādī Muʿtazila and the Shīʿa) and also those who deem it rationally necessary (such as the Baṣran Muʿtazilīs). His position is thus typically an Ashʿarī one: by showing that it is neither impossible nor necessary to use analogy, reason concludes that it is possible to use analogy. This discussion of a point of legal theory is thus heavily inflected by theological debates.

Keywords

Legal analogy (qiyās)Ijtihād‘Advantage’ (ṣalāḥal-aṣlaḥ)Ratio legis (ʿilla)Presumptive signs (ʿalāmāt).
Type
Chapter
Information
Islamic Law in Context
A Primary Source Reader
 , pp. 20 - 32
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Primary Sources

al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid. Asās al-Qiyās, ed. al-Sarḥān, F. (Riyadh: Maktabat al-ʿUbaykān, 1993).Google Scholar
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al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid. al-Mustaṣfā min ʿIlm al-Uṣūl, ed. al-Ashqar, M. S., 2 vols. (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1977).Google Scholar

Secondary Sources

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