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Encyclopedia

Knowledge card

al-Qiyās (Analogical Reasoning)

Uṣūl al-Fiqh (Legal Theory)Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamāʿah

Symbol

Qiyās

The fourth and most contested root: extending an established ruling to a new case sharing the same operative cause (ʿillah).

Uṣūl al-Fiqh

Dimension I

Definition

What it is — and what it is not

What it is
  • S1In language — Qiyās means measuring one thing against another.
  • S2In the Sacred Law — Extending an established ruling to a new case that shares its operative cause (ʿillah).
Boundary of meaning
  • S3A derived, not primary, source; it cannot establish the core obligation, only resolve subsidiary cases. [1.1]

Dimension II

In practice

How to deal with it

Warnings
  • S4An analogy is only as sound as the operative cause it rests on; scholars often differ here.

References

  1. Illustrative qiyās from the manuals of uṣūl al-fiqh.

    • 1.1

      Making up a missed prayer — The duty to make up (qaḍāʾ) a prayer missed by oversight is reasoned by analogy to the one who oversleeps — "whoever sleeps through a prayer or forgets it, let him pray it when he remembers" (al-Bukhārī 597) — extended to other excuses.

      AmbiguityTenuous

      Qiyās is the most contested of the four roots; the ruling here rides on the operative cause (ʿillah) identified, and is not itself a primary text.

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