Journal of Islamic Studies > Volume 26, No. 3, 2014

Ijma' in Jurisprudential Rules: Theory and Application / Hesham Mohammed Alsaeed

The research is concerned with jurisprudential rules as Shari'ah generalizations. It aims to :identify the rules based on ijmaa'/consensus; to record and induce possible rules associated with ijmaa' as marked by various related expressions; to critically evaluate the validity of claimed ijmaa' by means of tracing the source of the anecdote in the case of each rule; to classify the identified ijmaa' rules in a variety of ways; to show the characteristics of that type of rules as well as the influence of ij'maa' on them and on their derivatives. The research follows an inductive analytical methodology. The research reveals nine findings the most important of which are the following: ijmaa' is either general agreement among all scholars or special agreement among specialists in fiqh rules; agreement has various forms levels and sources; consensus status of derivatives and their general rules is reciprocal; ijmaa' bestows on jurisprudential rules a reliability advantage due to ijmaa' traits. Among the research recommendations are the following: more attention be given to conducting further inductive studies on issues related jurisprudential rules, particularly issues of agreements and differences on rules and related general requirements; and a special study be directed to the critical investigation of the area of dispute in jurisprudential rules.