The Economy of Certainty: An Introduction to the Typology of Islamic Legal Theory

by Aron Zysow, Robert Gleave (Preface by)

Overview

Aron Zysow's 1984 Ph.D. dissertation, "The Economy of Certainty," remains the most important, compelling, and intellectually ambitious treatment of Islamic legal theory (usul al-fiqh) in Western scholarship to date. It continues to be widely read and cited, and remains unsurpassed in its incisive analysis of the most fundamental assumptions of Islamic legal thought. Zysow argues that the great dividing line in Islamic legal thought is between those legal theories that require certainty in every detail of the law and those that will admit probability. The latter were historically dominant and include the leading legal schools that have survived to our own day. Zahirism and, for much of its history, Twelver Shi'ism, are examples of the former. The well-known dispute regarding the legitimacy of juridical analogy is only one feature of this fundamental epistemological division, since probability can enter the law in the process of authenticating prophetic traditions and in the interpretation of the revealed texts, as well as through analogy. The notion of consensus in Islamic legal theory functioned to reintroduce some measure of certainty into the law by identifying one of the competing probable solutions as correct. Consequently consensus has only a reduced role, if any, in those systems that reject probability. Another, more radical, means of regaining certainty was the doctrine that regarded the legal reasoning of all qualified jurists on matters of probability as infallible. The development of legal theories of both types, that of Zahirism no less than that of Hanafism, was to a large extent shaped by theology and, most significantly, by Mu'tazilism, and subsequently by Ash'arism and Maturidism. Zysow's important work is published here in full, for the first time, with updated references and some further reflections by the author.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781937040277
Publisher:	Lockwood Press
Publication date:	06/23/2014
Series:	Resources in Arabic and Islamic Studies , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	360
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Aron Zysow received his A.B. (Classics), Ph.D. (Islamic Studies), and J.D. from Harvard. From 2000 to 2005 he served as Research Associate for the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School. Before that he taught Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle and Washington University in St. Louis and commercial law at Baruch College, City University of New York. Prior to his academic career he worked as an attorney in New York City. His main academic interests are Islamic law, particularly legal theory, and theology. He is a former fellow of The Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia (TRI) at Princeton University, where he also taught in the Department of Near Eastern Studies.

Table of Contents

Series Editors' Preface ix

Foreword xi

Author's Preface xxi

Acknowledgments xxv

Abbreviations xxvii

Introduction 1

Addenda 5

1 The authentication of prophetic traditions 7

I The Concurrent Tradition 7

1 The Conditions of Concurrency 7

2 The Classification of Concurrent Knowledge 13

II The Mashhur Tradition 17

III The Unit-Tradition 22

1 The Unit-Tradition in Hanafism 22

2 The Unit-Tradition in Zahirism and Hanbalism 29

IV Discontinuity 34

1 The Mursal Tradition 34

2 Inner Discontinuity 41

Summary 46

Addenda 46

2 Interpretation 49

I The Nature of Islamic Hermeneutics 49

II The Hermeneutical Apparatus 52

III The Linguistic Postulates 58

IV The Imperative 60

1 The Deontological Value of the Imperative 60

2 Performance of the Commanded Act 74

V The General and Special Terms 76

1 Introduction 76

2 Theological Background 80

3 Specialization of the General Term 86

4 Hermeneutical Procedure 91

VI Zahiri Hermeneutics 93

VII The Argumentum a Fortiori 96

VIII The Argumentum a Contrario 100

Summary 109

Addenda 109

3 Consensus 113

I Introduction 113

II The Basis of the Doctrine of Consensus 115

III The Operation of Consensus 121

IV Tacit Consensus 125

V Consensus of the Majority 131

VI Inqirad al-'asr 138

VII Consensus after Disagreement 142

VIII Zahirism and the Support of Consensus 147

IX Conclusion 155

Summary 157

Addenda 158

4 Analogy 159

I Introduction 159

II The Foundations of Analogy 163

1 Arguments for Analogy 163

2 Anti-analogism 167

3 The Explicit Cause 188

III Noncausal Analogy 192

IV The Epistemology of the Cause 196

1 Appropriateness 196

2 Effectiveness 204

3 Formal Methods 215

V The Ontology of the Cause 222

VI Al-Masalih al-mursala 237

VII Istihsan 240

VIII Specialization of the Cause 243

Summary 254

Addenda 254

5 Ijtihad 259

I Ijtihad and Probability 259

II Infallibilism 262

III Consequences of Infallibilism 272

Summary 277

Addenda 277

Epilogue 279

I The Supposed Zahirism of Ibn Tumart and Ibn 'Arabi 279

II Twelver Shi'ism 282

III Conclusion 291

Addenda 293

Bibliography 295

Works cited in the Addenda and Preface 308

Table of Page Correspondences 313

Index of Qur'an Citations 317

Index of Arabic Terms and Proper Names 319

Editorial Reviews

"It is no exaggeration to say that Zysow's contribution is the single most important work on Islamic legal theory (us.u-l al-fiqh) in any western language." Marc Herman, Center for Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization "The Economy of Certainty is a classic of Islamic studies and the first academic source in a Western language on usul al-fiqh. I strongly recommend it." Abdessamad Belhaj, Catholic University of Louvain, Journal of the American Oriental Society 135.3 (2015)

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