ABSTRACT

How should a Muslim jurist interpret the sacred texts of Islam? Before determining legal rulings, it was regarded as essential to have absorbed sound principles and methods to use in that task since a legal ruling must be based on responsible treatment of the Qur’an and Hadith. This chapter analyses al-Ghazālī’s section on ta’wīl in his major work on the principles of jurisprudence, min ‘ilm or The Essential Theory of

Legal Thought (al-Ghazālī 1904-1906:I:387-402).1 The literature of al-fiqh (principles of jurisprudence) is concerned not with determining positive law but with establishing the methods to be used in determining the law Hence two issues, the legitimacy of sources and, second, principles for their correct interpretation, lie at the

heart of its concerns. Reflecting this, is divided into four parts, each termed a

The first discusses sharī‘a rules, the second the sources of those rules, the third how to derive rules from those sources and the fourth, the requirements for being a mujtahid or one who strives to determine the law. Not surprisingly, the passage in focus in the present chapter occurs in the third part, on how to derive rules from sources, since correct interpretation is central to any such endeavour.2