Disagreements of the Jurists. al-Qadi al-Nu'man

      

      DISAGREEMENTS OF THE JURISTS

      LIBRARY OF ARABIC LITERATURE

      EDITORIAL BOARD

      GENERAL EDITOR

      Philip F. Kennedy, New York University

      EXECUTIVE EDITORS

      James E. Montgomery, University of Cambridge

      Shawkat M. Toorawa, Yale University

      EDITORS

      Sean Anthony, The Ohio State University

      Julia Bray, University of Oxford

      Michael Cooperson, University of California, Los Angeles

      Joseph E. Lowry, University of Pennsylvania

      Maurice Pomerantz, New York University Abu Dhabi

      Tahera Qutbuddin, University of Chicago

      Devin J. Stewart, Emory University

      EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

      Chip Rossetti

      DIGITAL PRODUCTION MANAGER

      Stuart Brown

      ASSISTANT EDITOR

      Amanda Yee

      FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM COORDINATOR

      Amani Al-Zoubi

      LETTER FROM THE GENERAL EDITOR

      The Library of Arabic Literature series offers Arabic editions and English translations of significant works of Arabic literature, with an emphasis on the seventh to nineteenth centuries. The Library of Arabic Literature thus includes texts from the pre-Islamic era to the cusp of the modern period, and encompasses a wide range of genres, including poetry, poetics, fiction, religion, philosophy, law, science, history, and historiography.

      Books in the series are edited and translated by internationally recognized scholars and are published in parallel-text format with Arabic and English on facing pages, and are also made available as English-only paperbacks.

      The Library encourages scholars to produce authoritative, though not necessarily critical, Arabic editions, accompanied by modern, lucid English translations. Its ultimate goal is to introduce the rich, largely untapped Arabic literary heritage to both a general audience of readers as well as to scholars and students.

      The Library of Arabic Literature is supported by a grant from the New York University Abu Dhabi Institute and is published by NYU Press.

      Philip F. Kennedy

       General Editor, Library of Arabic Literature

      ABOUT THIS PAPERBACK

      This paperback edition differs in a few respects from its dual-language hardcover predecessor. Because of the compact trim size the pagination has changed, but paragraph numbering has been retained to facilitate cross-referencing with the hardcover. Material that referred to the Arabic edition has been updated to reflect the English-only format, and other material has been corrected and updated where appropriate. For information about the Arabic edition on which this English translation is based and about how the LAL Arabic text was established, readers are referred to the hardcover.

      DISAGREEMENTS OF THE JURISTS

       A Manual of Islamic Legal Theory

      BY

      AL-QĀḌĪ AL-NUʿMĀN

      TRANSLATED BY

      DEVIN J. STEWART

      FOREWORD BY

      JOHN COUGHLIN AND JOHN SEXTON

      VOLUME EDITOR

      JOSEPH E. LOWRY

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York

      NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

       New York

      Copyright © 2017 by New York University

      All rights reserved

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Nuʿmān ibn Muḥammad, Abū Ḥanīfah, –974. | Stewart, Devin J., editor, translator.

      Title: Disagreements of the jurists : a manual of Islamic legal theory / by Al-Qāḍi al-Nuʿmān ; edited and translated by Devin J. Stewart.

      Other titles: Ikhtilāf uṣūl al-madhāhib. English

      Description: New York : New York University Press, [2017] | Series: Library of Arabic Literature | Includes bibliographical references and index.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2017026687 (print) | LCCN 2017024850 (ebook) | ISBN 9781479808076 (pbk.) | ISBN 9780814790281 (Ebook) | ISBN 9781479892358 (Ebook)

      Subjects: LCSH: Ikhtilāf (Islamic law) | Islamic law—Interpretation and construction.

      Classification: LCC KBP465 .N8613 2017 (ebook) | LCC KBP465 (print) | DDC 340.5/9—dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017026687

      Series design and composition by Nicole Hayward

      Typeset in Adobe Text

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      CONTENTS

       Letter from the General Editor

       About this Paperback

       Foreword

       Acknowledgments

       Introduction

       Notes to the Introduction

       DISAGREEMENTS OF THE JURISTS

       The Provenance of this Book

       Prologue

       Chapter One: The Cause of Disagreement

       Chapter Two: Disagreement over the Rulings of the Religion

       Chapter Three: Against Disagreement over the Rulings of the Religion

       Chapter Four: The Method of the Adherents of the Truth When the Correct Ruling on an Issue Is Not Known