Fiqh and Usul

Fiqh and Usul

The Conflict Between Iṭlāq (Generality) and Taqyīd (Restricted): Disagreement or Convergence Among Scholars

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Saeed Ahmadi Fard 1
Seyyedeh Zahra Sakhaie 2
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Fiqh and Principles of Islamic Law, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran
2 Level-Three Seminary Student, Hazrat Khadija Seminary, Babol, Iran
10.22067/jfiqh.2024.84672.1656
Abstract
Debates regarding the opposition between iṭlāq and taqyīd reveal notable divergences among jurists, who have classified them as the opposition of affirmation and negation, as contrariety (in two distinct formulations), and as privation and possession (ʿadam va-malakāh). Āyatullāh Khūʾī has addressed the issue on both the ontological and the epistemic levels. Ontologically he favors contrariety and epistemologically he favors privation and possession. Drawing on the premise that iṭlāq and taqyīd are fundamentally custom-based concepts, the present article argues several points: first, that both ontologically and epistemically, taqyīd is existential and iṭlāq is non-existential. Second, by distinguishing between two types of iṭlāq, i.e. iṭlāq-i tafhīmī or essential (corresponding to intended usage) and iṭlāq-i iḥtijājī or momentary, corresponding to intended meaning), the study reconciles the divergent scholarly views by associating the contrariety model with iṭlāq tafhīmī and the privation and possession model with iṭlāq iḥtijājī. Third, at the epistemic level, the research shows by outlining three possible configurations that scholarly disagreement ultimately reduces to the third configuration, which includes cases in which taqyīd is impossible both ontologically and, consequently, epistemically. Relying on the custom-based and verbal nature of the indication of the absolute and the restricted, the study establishes that in the third configuration, whether in primary or secondary classifications, no iṭlāq is present; rather, the expression is indeterminate (muhmal), contrary to Nāʾīnī who restricted indeterminacy (ihmāl) to secondary classifications on the basis of the impossibility of taqyīd in such cases.
Keywords
iṭlāq
taqyīd
opposition between iṭlāq and taqyīd
primary classifications
secondary classifications
impossibility of taqyīd
Subjects
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