Lessons in Islamic Jurisprudence

by Mottahedeh, Roy

• ISBN13: 9781851683932
• ISBN10: 1851683933
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-09-01
• Publisher: Oneworld Publications

Summary

Used widely by Shi'ite seminaries, and valued by Sunni scholars for its intellectual rigor, Muhammad Baquir as-Sadr's Lessons is a key study of Islamic jurisprudence. Throughout the work the reader is introduced to the active engagement with philosophy and reason which characterizes Shi'i thinking on legal matters.

Author Biography

Translator Roy Mottahedeh is Gurney Professor of History in the Middle East Studies Department at Harvard University, and author of the acclaimed The Mantle of the Prophet. He lives in Brookline, MA.

Table of Contents

Preface	viii
Introduction	1	(34)
Characterization of Jurisprudence
A preliminary word	35	(2)
Characterization of jurisprudence	37	(2)
The subject-matter of jurisprudence	39	(1)
The discipline of jurisprudence is the logic of legal understanding	40	(1)
The importance of the discipline of jurisprudence in the practice of derivation	41	(1)
Jurisprudence is to legal understanding as theory is to application	42	(2)
The interaction between legal-understanding thought and jurisprudential thought	44	(2)
The permissibility of the process of deriving divine-legal rulings	46	(8)
Substantiating Arguments
The divine-law ruling and its subdivision	54	(1)
The division of rulings into injunctive and declaratory	55	(1)
Categories of the injunctive ruling	56	(1)
Areas of discussion in the discipline of jurisprudence	57	(1)
Division of the discussion according to types	57	(1)
[Probativity of assurance is] the element common to both types	58	(4)
Type 1: substantiating arguments	62	(1)
Subdivisions of the discussion	63	(56)
The divine-law argument	64	(1)
The Verbal Divine-Law Argument	64	(1)
Introduction	64	(1)
What ``designation'' and ``lexical connection'' are	65	(5)
What is ``use''?	70	(2)
Literal speech and figurative speech	72	(1)
The figurative is sometimes turned into the literal	73	(1)
The classification of language into substantive and relational meanings	73	(2)
The form of the sentence	75	(1)
The complete sentence and the incomplete sentence	76	(1)
The lexical signified and the assentable signified	77	(3)
Declarative and performative sentences	80	(2)
Significations which jurisprudence discusses	82	(1)
The form of the imperative	83	(2)
The prohibitive form of the verb	85	(2)
Absolute expression	87	(1)
Particles of generality	88	(1)
The particle of the conditional	89	(2)
The probativity of the prima-facie meaning	91	(3)
Applications of the principle of the probativity of the prima-facie sense to verbal arguments	94	(2)
The connected and independent context	96	(1)
Establishing the source	97	(3)
The Non-Verbal Divine-Law Argument	100	(3)
Rational arguments: the study of rational connections	103	(2)
Subdivision of the discussion	105	(1)
Connections arising between one ruling and another	105	(1)
The connection between mandatory and prohibited	105	(3)
Does prohibitedness require invalidation?	108	(1)
Connections arising between a ruling and its subject	109	(1)
Promulgation and actuality	109	(2)
The subject of a ruling	111	(1)
Connections between a ruling and its dependent object	112	(1)
Connections arising between a ruling and its necessary preliminaries	113	(3)
Connections within a single ruling	116	(3)
Procedural Principles
Introduction	119	(26)
The fundamental procedural principle	120	(3)
The secondary procedural principle	123	(2)
The principle of the inculpatoriness of non-specific knowledge	125	(2)
The inculpatoriness of non-specific knowledge	127	(3)
The analytical resolution of non-specific knowledge	130	(1)
Occasions of hesitation	130	(2)
The presumption of continuity	132	(1)
The previous condition of certainty	133	(1)
Doubt concerning persistence	134	(2)
Unity of the subject and the presumption of continuity	136	(1)
The Conflict of Arguments
Conflict between substantiating arguments	137	(1)
The case of conflict between two verbal arguments	138	(2)
Other situations of conflict	140	(1)
Conflict between [procedural] principles	141	(2)
Conflict between the two types of argument	143	(2)
Analytical Summary by the Translator	145	(28)
Glossary	173	(22)
Arabic Terms Mentioned in the Glossary	195	(6)
Index	201