الفِقْه
al-fiqh
Jurisprudence
Knowledge of the practical rulings of the Sharīʿa, drawn from their detailed evidences.
- الفِقْهُal-fiqhJurisprudence
- Knowledge of the practical rulings of the Sharīʿa, acquired from their detailed evidences.
Read the definition slowly. “Practical” excludes creed, which is not the business of fiqh. “Acquired” excludes what a person knows without effort, and excludes the knowledge of Allah and of His Messenger ﷺ, which is not acquired by ijtihād. “From their detailed evidences” excludes uṣūl al-fiqh, which studies the evidences in the general rather than in the particular.
Fiqh and uṣūl al-fiqh
Fiqh is the ruling itself — that wuḍūʾ is a condition of the prayer. Uṣūl al-fiqh is the method by which such a ruling is reached: the Book, the Sunna, ijmāʿ, qiyās, and the rules by which a text is understood. The one is the fruit, the other the tree.
Sources
- الورقاتAl-Waraqāt
The shortest classical primer of uṣūl al-fiqh; the definition above is its opening matter.
Related entries
The change that comes over the end of a word because of the governor that enters upon it — whether the change is pronounced or only intended.
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