مقاصدِ شریعت بطور خارجی معیارِ نقد: ائمہ اربعہ کی اصولی آرا کا تجزیہ

MAQĀṢID AL-SHARĪʿAH AS AN EXTERNAL CRITERION OF ḤADĪTH CRITICISM: AN ANALYSIS OF THE UṢŪLĪ POSITIONS OF THE FOUR IMAMS

Abstract

Alongside the internal criteria of isnād and matn, a further criterion has long figured in debates over the acceptance and rejection of ḥadīth: one drawn not from the report itself but from the overall temper of the Sharīʿah and its universal purposes. Was this criterion actually operative among the four imams, and if so at what level? This article advances a two-part thesis. First, maqāṣid al-sharīʿah as a codified technical system did not exist in their period; it is the product of the later synthesis of al-Juwaynī, al-Ghazālī and above all al-Shāṭibī, so reading them as "maqāṣidī critics" is an anachronism. Second, the underlying practice that would later receive maqāṣidī vocabulary was nonetheless present: the assessment of reports against the settled principles and universal rules of the law. All four imams accepted this practice; they differed on where such universal rules are derived from and what evidentiary weight they carry. The article closes by examining the gravest objection to this method — its circularity — and proposes several constraints for contemporary maqāṣidī criticism of ḥadīth.