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Among the Islamic schools of thought, intellect as a source for deriving jurisprudential rulings is usually mentioned by Shia Islam, the others like the Sunni school of thought suggest Comparison, Discretion, and other speculative arguments. [1] [2]
'Aql literally is used in wisdom, maturity, knowledge, contemplation in opposition to asininity and idiotism. [3] Technically, it is used for a faculty discovering good and evil and instigating good and avoiding evil. [3] Man's sayings, behaviors, and judgments of things are through this reasoning that helps analyze the data received and choose the best one. Thus, the intellectual proof here is any certain intellectual ruling that leads to a Sharia ruling. [4] Intellect can be classified according to its object into:
First: theoretical intellect that is used when intellect cognizes what is subject to knowledge and is non-relevant to practice like the impossibility of the conjunction of the opposites or two plus two is four. [4]
Second is the practical intellect; that is when intellect cognizes what is relevant to practice like an evil being of injustice or goodness of hospitality. What we mean here, as the intellectual proof is the practical one. [4]
The first Usūlīs have not declared intellect as a source of Sharia; for example, Sheikh Mufīd (413 A.H) considers the Quran and Sunnah as Sharia sources and regarded the intellect as one of the ways to reach to the Quran and Sunnah. Sheikh Tūsī (460 A.H) only mentions that intellect finds out the obligation of appreciating the kindness of others and that justice is good, and injustice is evil, without counting intellect as a separate source of Sharia. [5] Maybe Sayed Sharif Murtadhā (436 A.H) was the first one to name intellect as an independent source for Sharia rulings. According to him, when there is not a ruling for an issue in the three other sources (the book, Sunnah, and consensus), the jurist has to refer to intellect, and then, the ruling of intellect will be the ruling of Allah. [6] Ibn Idrīs Hillī (598. A.H) declares this issue later without explaining it more. [7] Later, Muhaqqiq Hillī (676 A.H) and Shahid Awwal (786 A.H)came to explain intellect as a source. [8] Then, recent scholars like Mīrzāye Qummī and Sahib Al-Fusūl delivered more accurate and detailed discussions concerning intellect. [8] On the contrary, Akhbārīs do not consider intellect as a source of Sharia. [9]
Intellect as an independent source for deducing Sharia rulings may be of two types:
It is when intellect deduces a Sharia ruling without appealing to any Sharia premise. In logic, any Syllogism is made of two premises (minor and major premises) and a conclusion. If both premises are intellectual then it is an independent intellectual proof. For example: [10]
- Justice is rationally good.
- Whatever is good rationally is obligatory according to Sharia
*Therefore, Justice is obligatory according to Sharia
Another example:
- Injustice is rationally evil.
- Whatever is evil rationally is prohibited according to Sharia.
*Therefore, Injustice is prohibited according to Sharia.
Studying the views of Usūlīs here shows that the only Independent intellectual ruling is the issue of essential intellectual good and evil. [11] In these arguments, the minor premise deals with the goodness or evil being of things and the major premise is the co-implication between the ruling of Sharia and that of intellect. Thus, there are two points to be explained: [10]
Being good and evil might be interpreted in different ways: [12]
A. what is counted as perfection and positive characteristic for man can be called good and contrary to it what is regarded imperfection is considered evil. For example, knowledge, bravery, kindness is good and ignorance, forgery, betrayal is evil. All scholars agree that intellect can specify this kind of good and evil.
B. what causes pleasure or is to the interest of man is considered by intellect to be good and what is unpleasing or is disadvantageous is taken to be evil. For example, exercising is good and drinking is evil. The scholars agree that intellect can specify this kind of good and evil as well.
C. those deeds that are befitting and admired by the intellect are considered to be good and their doers deserve rewards for doing them, like justice. On the contrary, the disagreeable, unappealing, inappropriate conducts are considered evil that their doers are to be blamed and punished such as injustice. Good and evil by this meaning are the subjects of debate here. [5]
Man's conducts in regard to their being essentially good or evil are of three types: [10]
A. Some acts are essentially good or evil so that they are fixed under any circumstances. For example, justice is always good and injustice is always evil. [13]
B. Some of the actions are demanding and require goodness or evil in normal conditions but they can lose this character under a specific condition, like truthfulness or lying. It means that truthfulness is good by itself but on some occasions, it might be evil, like a condition that telling truth may lead to the death of someone. This type of act is called accidental good and evil. [12]
C. Some actions are neutral in normal conditions and under specific conditions may be good or bad, like walking. Walking is not good or bad by itself. However, if one walks to go and help people, it turns good and if it is for hurting others, it becomes evil. [10]
As it is seen, the first meaning of good and evil is the matter of discussion here and the debate revolves around answering two questions:
-regardless of Sharia statements, are there essential good and evil in man's conduct?
-assuming the existence of essential good and evil in man's conduct, is the intellect capable to discover them?
Shia, Muʿtazila, and some Ashʿarī scholars believe in the essential good and evil in man's conduct, regardless of the Shari rulings. On the other hand, the majority of Ashʿarīs believe that the deeds of man have no value other than what Sharia ascribes to them. Thus, what Sharia considers to be good is good and what it regards as evil is evil.
The first group appeals to man's conscience-based-based cognition from any religion or thought to find justice good and injustice evil. So that it is beyond the teachings of religions. Besides, without essential good and evil, even one cannot prove the truthfulness of prophets and they cannot be trusted, because if we deny essential good and evil, then it is not evil to lie, and also injustice is not evil. Therefore, the person who claims to be a prophet can lie and Allah can give miracles to liars and this injustice and misguidance are not evil. Then, how can we trust prophets and follow them? [10]
Concerning the second question, Shia Usūlīs believe that man can discern essential good and evil through the intellect without referring to the statement of Sharia.
We first need to clarify the meaning of co-implication and then suggest proof for it.
1. To understand the meaning of this co-implication look at the example one more time:
- Justice is rationally good.
- Whatever is good rationally is obligatory according to Sharia
Therefore:Justice is obligatory according to Sharia [10]
In the major premise, it has been claimed that what intellect deduces is implied by Sharia so there is an implication or co-implication between the ruling of intellect and Sharia. Thus, deduction of the Shari ruling out of intellect depends on accepting this implication.
2. The proof for the co-implication is rational as well. When intellect finds certain expediency and goodness in doing an action or when it is certain on evil being of another action and had a certain ruling for necessity of performing or abandoning that action, then the intellect will have another ruling beside it; that is to say: any rational and wise law-giver has to find this action obligatory or prohibited as well. [5]
It is when intellect deduces a Sharia ruling by appealing to some Sharia premises. So that some of the premises are Sharia and some of them are intellectual. For instance:
-Allah has commanded to perform Salāt in the Quran (Sharia)
- The command of Allah denotes obligation (intellectual rule)
Therefore: Salāt is obligatory.
Another example:
- Salāt is obligatory (Shari)
- Whatever is obligatory then its preliminaries (Muqaddamāt) are obligatory too. (Intellectual)
Therefore: The preliminaries of Salāt are obligatory according to Sharia
Concerning dependent intellectual proofs, Usūlīs discuss the following issues separately:
Fiqh is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is often described as the human understanding and practices of the sharia, that is human understanding of the divine Islamic law as revealed in the Quran and the Sunnah. Fiqh expands and develops Shariah through interpretation (ijtihad) of the Quran and Sunnah by Islamic jurists (ulama) and is implemented by the rulings (fatwa) of jurists on questions presented to them. Thus, whereas sharia is considered immutable and infallible by Muslims, fiqh is considered fallible and changeable. Fiqh deals with the observance of rituals, morals and social legislation in Islam as well as economic and political system. In the modern era, there are four prominent schools (madh'hab) of fiqh within Sunni practice, plus two within Shi'a practice. A person trained in fiqh is known as a faqīh.
Ḥadīth or Athar refers to what most Muslims and the mainstream schools of Islamic thought believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval of the Islamic prophet Muhammad as transmitted through chains of narrators. In other words, the ḥadīth are transmitted reports attributed to what Muhammad said and did.
In Islam, sunnah, also spelled sunna, are the traditions and practices of the Islamic prophet Muhammad that constitute a model for Muslims to follow. The sunnah is what all the Muslims of Muhammad's time evidently saw and followed and passed on to the next generations. According to classical Islamic theories, the sunnah are documented by hadith, and along with the Quran, are the divine revelation (Wahy) delivered through Muhammad that make up the primary sources of Islamic law and belief/theology. Differing from Sunni classical Islamic theories are those of Shia Muslims, who hold that the Twelve Imams interpret the sunnah, and Sufi who hold that Muhammad transmitted the values of sunnah "through a series of Sufi teachers."
Ijtihad is an Islamic legal term referring to independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law, or the thorough exertion of a jurist's mental faculty in finding a solution to a legal question. It is contrasted with taqlid. According to classical Sunni theory, ijtihad requires expertise in the Arabic language, theology, revealed texts, and principles of jurisprudence, and is not employed where authentic and authoritative texts are considered unambiguous with regard to the question, or where there is an existing scholarly consensus (ijma). Ijtihad is considered to be a religious duty for those qualified to perform it. An Islamic scholar who is qualified to perform ijtihad is called as a "mujtahid".
Ijmāʿ is an Arabic term referring to the consensus or agreement of the Islamic community on a point of Islamic law. Sunni Muslims regard ijmā' as one of the secondary sources of Sharia law, after the Qur'an, and the Sunnah. Exactly what group should represent the Muslim community in reaching the consensus is not agreed on by the various schools of Islamic jurisprudence. Some believe it should be the Sahaba only; others the consensus of the Salaf ; or the consensus of Islamic lawyers, the jurists and scholars of the Muslim world, i.e. scholarly consensus; or the consensus of all the Muslim world, both scholars and lay people. The opposite of ijma is called ikhtilaf.
The following list consists of notable concepts that are derived from Islamic and associated cultural traditions, which are expressed as words in Arabic or Persian language. The main purpose of this list is to disambiguate multiple spellings, to make note of spellings no longer in use for these concepts, to define the concept in one or two lines, to make it easy for one to find and pin down specific concepts, and to provide a guide to unique concepts of Islam all in one place.
The Hanafi school, Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools (Fiqh) of Islamic Law (madhhab). It is named after the 8th century Kufan scholar, Abu Hanifa, a Tabi‘i whose legal views were preserved primarily by his two most important disciples, Imam Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani. It is considered one of the most widely accepted maddhab amongst Sunni Muslim community and is called the Madhhab of Jurists. A plurality of Hanafi Muslims follow and have followed the Maturidi school of theology.
Mohsen Kadivar is a mujtahid, Islamic theologian, philosopher, writer, leading intellectual reformist, and research professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University. A political Iranian dissident, Kadivar has been a vocal critic of the doctrine of clerical rule, also known as Velayat-e Faqih, and a strong advocate of democratic and liberal reforms in Iran as well as constructional reform in understanding of shari'a and Shi'a theology. Kadivar has served time in prison in Iran for his political activism and beliefs.
'Uṣūl al-fiqh' or Principles of Islamic jurisprudence are traditional methodological principles used in Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) for deriving the rulings of Islamic law (sharia).
A faqīh is an Islamic jurist, an expert in fiqh, or Islamic jurisprudence and Islamic Law.
The ʾAkhbāri's are a minority of Twelver Shia Muslims who follow the Quran and Hadith, and unlike the majority Usuli branch of Shi'ism, reject the use of reasoning in deriving verdicts in Islamic jurisprudence.
Usulis are the majority Twelver Shi'a Muslim group. They differ from their now much smaller rival Akhbari group in favoring the use of ijtihad in the creation of new rules of fiqh; in assessing hadith to exclude traditions they believe unreliable; and in considering it obligatory to obey a mujtahid when seeking to determine Islamically correct behavior.
Ahkam is an Islamic term with several meanings. In the Quran, the word hukm is variously used to mean arbitration, judgement, authority, or God's will. In the early Islamic period, the Kharijites gave it political connotations by declaring that they accept only the hukm of God. The word acquired new meanings in the course of Islamic history, being used to refer to worldly executive power or to a court decision.
Maqasid or maqāṣid al-sharīʿa is an Islamic legal doctrine. Together with another related classical doctrine, maṣlaḥa, it has come to play an increasingly prominent role in modern times. The notion of maqasid was first clearly articulated by al-Ghazali, who argued that maslaha was God's general purpose in revealing the divine law, and that its specific aim was preservation of five essentials of human well-being: religion, life, intellect, lineage, and property. Although most classical-era jurists recognized maslaha and maqasid as important legal principles, they held different views regarding the role they should play in Islamic law. Some jurists viewed them as auxiliary rationales constrained by scriptural sources and qiyas. Others regarded them as an independent source of law, whose general principles could override specific inferences based on the letter of scripture. While the latter view was held by a minority of classical jurists, in modern times it came to be championed in different forms by prominent scholars who sought to adapt Islamic law to changing social conditions by drawing on the intellectual heritage of traditional jurisprudence. These scholars expanded the inventory of maqasid to include such aims of sharia as reform and women's rights ; justice and freedom ; and human dignity and rights.
Shaykh Tusi, full name Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Tusi, known as Shaykh al-Ta'ifah was a prominent Persian scholar of the Twelver school of Shia Islam. He was known as the "sheikh of the sect ", author of two of the four main Shi'i books of hadith, Tahdhib al-Ahkam and al-Istibsar, and is believed to have founded the hawza. He is also the founder of Shia jurisprudence.
‘Aql is an Arabic language term used in Islamic philosophy and theology for the intellect or the rational faculty of the soul that connects humans to God. According to Islamic beliefs, intellect is what guides humans towards the right path and prevents them from deviating. In jurisprudence, it is associated with using reason as a source for sharia or "religious law" and has been translated as "dialectical reasoning".
Various sources of Islamic Laws are used by Islamic jurisprudence to elaborate the body of Islamic law. In Sunni Islam, the scriptural sources of traditional jurisprudence are the Holy Qur'an, believed by Muslims to be the direct and unaltered word of God, and the Sunnah, consisting of words and actions attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the hadith literature. In Shi'ite jurisprudence, the notion of Sunnah is extended to include traditions of the Imams.
Twelver Shīʿism, also known as Imāmiyya, is the largest branch of Shīʿa Islam, comprising about 85 percent of all Shīʿa Muslims. The term Twelver refers to its adherents' belief in twelve divinely ordained leaders, known as the Twelve Imams, and their belief that the last Imam, Imam al-Mahdi, lives in Occultation and will reappear as the promised Mahdi.
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