Ṭawīl in Ibn Hazm's Understanding of Usūl Cover Image

İbn Hazm'ın Usul Anlayışında Te’vil
Ṭawīl in Ibn Hazm's Understanding of Usūl

Author(s): Rıfat Yıldız
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Theology and Religion, Islam studies, Sharia Law
Published by: Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi İlahyat Fakültesi
Keywords: Islamic Law; Usūl; Hukm; Ṭawīl; Word;

Summary/Abstract: Understanding the nusus and the interpretation of their texts has been at the center of the activities of many schools and ulama in fiqh studies, and as a result, each school of usool has sought to find a method suitable for their own understanding in order to understand and interpret the nusus in a sahih way. For this purpose, fiqh schools have developed some unique methods. It can be said that the main differences among the hukms that fiqh schools rely on are generally due to these methodological differences. One of the efforts to understand and interpret through the linguistic structures and patterns of the nusus is tawīl. For this reason, it is necessary to know conceptions of tawīl in order to accurately determine the hukm giving methods of fiqh schools. In this context, the thought of Zâhiri Ṭawīl, which is based on the zâhiri meaning of the words in the language and aims to solve the meaning pattern of the nusus within the framework of the rules of the language, is important. To this end, the tawīl understanding of Ibn Hazm (d. 543/1148), one of the leading ulama of Zâhiri thought, has an important position in the determination of their understanding of fiqh and usool. For this purpose, by searching the works of Ibn Hazm, how his understanding of tawīl, which he used as a method, is reflected in his fiqh thought, will be examined through his fiqhi inferences. The Qur’an used their language when addressing the societies. The Qur'an especially, on the one hand, has used the language they use to convey its messages to its interlocutors in a correct and understandable way, on the other hand, it has used a unique style without departing from the natural structure of the language in unseen matters due to the nature of religious language. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account the words of the texts in order to understand and interpret the language used. The word tawīl was used by the ilm circles in the first period to mean the same as the word tafsir and in naming the works written as the Qur’an tafsir, the word tawīl was preferred instead of tafsir. Mâturîdî, the writer of the first dirayah tafsir, which points to the distinction between tafsir and tawīl, defines the word tafsir as 'to express exactly what is the meaning and purpose of the Qur'an, which is the divine word' and states that tafsir can be done only by the the Ṣaḥābah who knows Quran and Sunnah well. According to one of the many theses about the origin of language, it is God given. In other words, language has been taught to man by a supreme power (Allah). Ibn Hazm also defends this view. According to Ibn Hazm, the basic elements / elements of the language were taught by Allah to Adam (a.s), and then people developed this language in proportion to their needs. Therefore, the indications of the words depend on the declarations of God and linguistic experience. As a matter of fact, Allah has attributed new meanings to words such as salat, allegiance, hajj and similar words used for other meanings in the custom of language, and the new meanings attributed to them are accepted as the truth for the meanings of these words. Usûlists who adopted the method of fuqaha in usool, in the methods of istinbat of hukm out of sharii dalils, have generally made the taqseem of the words in terms of the meaning they were given to as âm, khâs, mushtarak and muavval while their taqsseem in terms of the words’ being used or not in the sense they were given was haqiqat, majaz, sarih and kinayah. Compared to other schools, the issue of tawīl has a different meaning according to the Zâhirî usûlists and faqih who base on the zâhiri khitab. Since the zâhir of the nusus is primary and essential, there should be a certain usool, principle and rule to give up the zâhir of the nusus and to switch to another possible meaning. Ibn Hazm states that there are different opinions among the usûlists about whether the imperative form is indicant of hukm. He also says that according to some Hanafi, Malikî and Shafii usûlists, as long as there is no evidence showing that it is wujub, tahrim, nedb, ibahâ and karahah, then the imperative form cannot be views as indicating a hukm.

  • Issue Year: 24/2020
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 1199-1217
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: Turkish