The science of qawāʿid al-fiqhiyya and its development in the Shāfiʿī school

This study examines the science of qawāʿid al-fiqh (Islamic legal maxims), one of the significant fields of Islamic law, within the framework of the Shāfiʿī school, aiming to analyze its formation, historical development, and its role in juristic reasoning (fiqhī reasoning). The research demonstrates that, within the Shāfiʿī tradition, this discipline attained a clear methodological stability (uṣūlī consistency) at a very early stage. In this context, it is argued that legal maxims functioned as guiding principles in legal reasoning in both uṣūl (legal theory) and furūʿ (substantive law), and that the earliest examples of the formulation of legal maxims can be clearly observed in Imām al-Shāfiʿī's approach, particularly through his systematic ordering of evidences and his intra-school method of legal inference (istidlāl). Accordingly, it becomes evident that Imām al-Shāfiʿī's foundational role in the codification of uṣūl al-fiqh was also decisive in the formation of qawāʿid-based legal thought. The study further identifies that Imām al-Shāfiʿī's approach provides early and influential examples with regard to the process of systematizing legal maxims, their operation in the derivation of rulings (istinbāṭ al-aḥkām), and their function within juristic reasoning. Indeed, many universal principles (kullī principles) articulated by him are shown to have gradually transcended the boundaries of his school and become part of the shared corpus of Islamic jurisprudence. As a concrete reflection of this approach, it is observed that scholars of the Shāfiʿī school were among the earliest jurists to treat fields such as al-Ashbāh wa'l-Naẓāʾir (legal analogues and parallels), furūq (legal distinctions), ḍawābiṭ (regulative principles), kulliyyāt (universal principles), maqāṣid-based maxims (maxims related to the objectives of the Sharīʿa), and taqāsīm fiqhiyya (juristic classifications) as independent subjects of scholarly composition. The study consists of three chapters. The first chapter outlines a general framework of the science of legal maxims, addressing its definition, sources, relationship with uṣūl al-fiqh, and related disciplines, particularly the literature of al-Ashbāh wa'l-Naẓāʾir. The second chapter examines the historical development of qawāʿid prior to its emergence as an independent discipline, the methodological structure of the Shāfiʿī school, the constituent elements and conditions for the formation of legal maxims, as well as their types and developmental trajectory within the school. The third chapter focuses on the compilation and organization of Shāfiʿī qawāʿid literature, the institutional character this discipline acquired within the school, the evidentiary value of legal maxims, the role of exceptions (istisnāʾāt), the relationship between maxims, exceptions, and analogy (qiyās), and their connection with other modes of legal reasoning, illustrated through applied examples. Keywords: Shāfiʿī School, Qawāʿid al-Fiqh, Uṣūl al-Fiqh, Furūq, al-Ashbāh wa'l-Naẓāʾir, Islamic Legal Thought.