Ibn Rushd the Jurist

For centuries, Ibn Rushd has been known to Muslim scholars in northwestern Africa primarily for his writings on fiqh, or jurisprudence. There are four "schools" of law, or systems of legal thought, in Sunni Islam, and the western part of the Muslim heartland was (and still is) dominated by the Maliki madhhab, or school. Ibn Rushd ranks among the most important Maliki scholars.

Ibn Rushd devoted himself to a broad continuum of intellectual subjects, as did many of his contemporaries: The workings of the human body, the movement of the stars, the relationship of reason to religion, and the logic of the law were all suitable subjects of inquiry for a Muslim man of letters. Ibn Rushd refers frequently to the Qur'an and the hadith—the traditions, or reports of the Prophet Muhammad's words and deeds—in his works on natural science, while echoes of his philosophical works can be found in his legal writings.

Given his family history, it was perhaps inevitable that much of Ibn Rushd's life would be devoted to the law. His grandfather is also a major figure in Maliki thought; indeed, many a careless reader has confused the two, since both had the same names, both served as qadi, or judge, in Córdoba, and one died the year the other was born. Ibn Rushd's father was also a judge, and since Ibn Rushd himself heard cases in Seville and Córdoba, jurisprudence was not just an academic matter, but a family métier.

By his own account, Ibn Rushd took 20 years to produce Bidayat al-Mujtahid wa Nihayat al-Muqtasid, his primary work of fiqh. The book is intended not for the layman, but for Ibn Rushd's learned peers. Eschewing partisan polemic, Ibn Rushd goes beyond quoting the Maliki position on various legal questions. Instead, he tackles each issue by first describing the areas of agreement among the madhhabs, then outlining the points disputed by the various scholars, and finally discussing the reasons for these differences. What emerges is a detailed exposition of the principles of Islamic law, their use in each school of jurisprudence, and their practical application in the daily lives of Muslims.

Ibn Rushd demonstrates that legal differences result from each school's distinctive intellectual process. Though they differ in other respects, the Shafi'i and Hanbali madhhabs both base their rulings squarely on the hadith, even if this means relying on an isolated, uncorroborated report of the Prophet's behavior. In such cases the Hanafis uphold istihsan, or the preference for whatever solution is judged most appropriate to the situation. The Malikis refer to the consensus of the early Muslim community in Madinah, arguing that Muslims who had observed the Prophet Muhammad first-hand would not deviate from his example. Bidayat al-Mujtahid also makes frequent reference to the Dhahiri school, which accepted only the most literal interpretation of the Qur'an and hadith. This madhhab had a strong presence in al-Andalus, but the school's rigidity ultimately led to its extinction.

The title Bidayat al-Mujtahid wa Nihayat al-Muqtasid holds a clue to Ibn Rushd's ultimate purpose. A literal translation might be The Beginning of the Independent Jurist and the End of the Mere Adherent to Precedent. A mujtahid is one who undertakes ijtihad, defined by fiqh scholar Taha Jabir al-Alwani as "striving and self-exertion; independent reasoning; [or] analytical thought. Ijtihad may involve the interpretation of the source materials, inference of rules from them, or giving a legal verdict or decision on any issue on which there is no specific guidance in the Qur'an and the sunnah," the example-of the Prophet. In addition to knowledge of the Qur'an and hadith and fluency in Arabic, a mujtahid must possess a thorough understanding of the principles of Islamic law and their application—which is exactly what Ibn Rushd seeks to provide in his text. Arguing in favor of ijtihad and independent reason-ing, Ibn Rushd uses a simple analogy. Most jurists, he writes, believe that "the one who has memorized the most opinions has the greatest legal acumen. Their view is like one who thinks a cobbler is he who possesses a large number of shoes, rather than one who has the ability to make shoes. It is obvious that even someone who has a large number of shoes will one day be visited by someone he cannot fit. This person will then go to a cobbler who can make shoes that suit his feet."

Source: english.islammessage.com