Legal Maxims as a Genre of Islamic Law

Al-qawāʿid al-fiqhiyya are legal maxims or principles that are usually expressed in the form of terse adages, such as: al-umūr bi-maqāṣidihā (acts are [judged according] to the objectives behind them); and al-mashaqqa tajlub al-taysīr (hardship brings about facilitation). Most of al-qawāʿid (sg. al-qāʿida ) are specific to individual schools of law, although some of them are acknowledged by all schools. The most accepted definition of al-qāʿida al-fiqhiyya is: “A predominantly valid legal determination ( ḥukm aktharī ) that applies to most of its particular cases ( juzʾiyyāt ) so that their legal determinations will be known from it”. Another designation of the genre is al-ashbāh wa’l-naẓāʾir (similitudes), referring to the similarities between cases included under the rubric of each qāʿida . The schools of law ( madhāhib , sg. madhhab ) are agreed on two types of qawāʿid fiqhiyya: general qawāʿid that apply to all or most fields of the law, which are therefore known as kulliyya (universal), and specific ( khāṣṣa ) qawāʿid that apply to one or more, rather than all, fields of fiqh; the latter are also known as ḍawābiṭ (sg. ḍābiṭ , regulators).