ABSTRACT
This study is concerned with examining the role of al-ʿaql as an independent source of Sharīʿa (al-dalīl al-ʿaqlī) as listed alongside the Qur’ān, the Sunna and specific juristic consensus (al-Ijmāʿ). To identify exactly what is meant by al-dalīlal-ʿaqlī, in the sense of reason as one of the four sources of or indicators to Sharīʿa, it is important to first note that reason and rationality have a remit within uṣūlal-fiqh that goes beyond its theoretical inclusion as an independent source of Sharīʿa precepts. Uṣūl al-fiqh itself may be considered a rational (ʿaqlī) discipline. It is a system developed through a form of philosophical analysis applied to socio-linguistic principles (al-uṣūlal-lafḍiyya) and rational norms (banā’al-ʿuqalā) in order to determine general rules for the interpretation of what may largely be reduced to the apparent meaning of texts (ẓuhūral-alfāḍ) and rational correlations (mulāzamāt͑aqliyya). Not only is the method of analysis in uṣūl al-fiqh based upon rational/nontextual argumentation and analysis, but also the method that it accords for the inference of Sharīʿa precepts, theoretically at least, is firmly entrenched within a framework shaped by a continued adherence to the Muslim interpretation of Aristotelian logic. The theory of uṣūlal-fiqh, both in the manner in which it is developed and applied, has come to operate within a methodological framework that privileges syllogistic forms of reasoning that aim to ensure certainty in one’s reasoning process. The extent to which this is actually achieved is open to question – a question whose further examination would be tangential to the main concern here, for this study is concerned with the role of al-ʿaql not as a method or source of analysis, but as an indicator to, or a source of, Sharīʿa precepts themselves. In arguably the most extensive analysis of al-ʿaql found in any of the textbooks of uṣūlal-fiqh currently taught in the Shī‘ī seminaries, Muḥammad Riḍā Muẓaffar defines al-dalīlal-ʿaqlī when considered ‘in contrast to the Book and the Sunna’ as:
every judgement of al-ʿaql that necessitates certainty in Sharīʿa precepts. In a second formulation, it is every rational proposition through which certain knowledge of Sharīʿa precepts are attained.1
