حنفی اصولی فکر : مشائخ سمرقند کی آرا کا تنقیدی جائزہ اصول السرخسی کے مطالعے کی روشنی میں

Ḥanafī Uṣūlī Thought: An Appraisal of Samarqandi Ḥanafī Theorists in the Light of Uṣūl al-Sarakhsī

Abstract

The Ḥanafī legal theory is characterized by the fact that unlike other Islamic legal theories it has been extracted from the Ḥanafī fiqh developed by its founding jurists. Later, the Ḥanafī fiqh seems to have gradually split down into trends; one representing the jurists/theorists of ‘Irāq and the other representing those of Mā Warā’ al-Nahr/Samarqand. Both of these trends have left a great impact on the Ḥanafī legal theory. The paper aims to look over this bifurcation and trace its origins to the Ḥanafī fiqh itself. For this purpose, it analyses the works of pioneering Ḥanafī theorists such as Abū Bakr al-Jaṣṣāṣ, Abū Zayd al-Dabūsī, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Bazdawī, and Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Sarakhsī in chronological order. The paper finds that al-Jaṣṣāṣ is the pioneer in terms of the development of the Ḥanafī legal theory; al-Dabūsī’s work is characterized by introducing new terminologies; and the works of al-Bazdawī and al-Sarakhsī are useful for arriving at the conclusive stance of the Ḥanafī legal theory. Though the latter two theorists belonged to Mā Warā’ al-Nahr, their preference in some occasions for the views of ‘Irāqī theorists indicate that they did not engage as communal competitors; rather, they played their roles as referees by relying greatly on Ḥanafī fiqh while developing Ḥanafī legal theory. They made robust efforts for tracing the origin of a Ḥanafī theoretical viewpoint to Ḥanaf┘ substantive law or furū‘. This is how they successfully showed the coherency and consistency in Ḥanafī fiqh and uṣūl. This paper specially focuses on al-Sarakhsī’s Uṣūl in which he critically examined the views of his predecessors from Mā Warā’ al-Nahr r on certain issues.