The Codification of Islamic Juridical Principles (Qawāʿid Fiqhiyya): A Historical Outline

92 ḤIKMAT

ples are those not mentioned in religious texts, but supported by legal texts and juridical evidence, such as the principle of "mā yuḍmanu bi ṣaḥīḥih yuḍmanu bi fāsidih." There is, of course, yet another group of principles formulated by jurists by adopting a uniform criterion for numerous similar cases. Sometimes classified as "al-ashbāh wa al-naẓā'ir," these principles are more commonly used by Sunni jurists.

In the last two groups, the jurist essentially deduces the criterion, basis, and the main principles of religious law and introduces them. Clearly this procedure provides a strong argument and positive proof in support of the fact that Islamic law has all the elements and qualities required to be classified as a legal system.

More information on the history of codification of juridical principles in Islam by Muslim Jurists is found in the following concise bibliography of relevant works compiled in the Sunnī, as well the Imāmī Shī'ī, schools:

1. Ḥanafi Fiqh

1. The oldest work in which a collection of juridical norms can be found is, according to ʿAlāʾī Shāfiʿī, al-Suyūṭī and Ibn Nujaym,⁴ the treatise of Abū Ṭāhir al-Dabbās. A Ḥanafī jurist of the 4th/10th century, al-Dabbās has reduced the most important principles of the Ḥanafī school to seventeen general principles. Imām Abū al-Ḥasan al-Karkhī, a contemporary of Abū Ṭāhir, may have adopted some of the material for his celebrated treatise Uṣūl al-Karkhī, on juridical principles, from the latter's work. It seems, therefore, that of the four different Sunni schools, the Ḥanafī’s was the first to compile works on juridical rules. A list of other important Ḥanafī compilations on this subject includes the following titles:

2. Uṣūl al-Karkhī, by ʿUbayd Allāh b. al-Ḥasan b. al-Dallāl also known as Abū al-Ḥasan al-Karkhī (260-340/873-951).