An annotated translation of the manuscript Irshad Al-MuqallidinʾInda Ikhtilaf Al-Mujtahidin (Advice to the laity when the juristconsults differ) by Abu Muhammad Al-Shaykh Sidiya Baba Ibn Al-Shaykh Al-Shinqiti Al-Itisha- I (D. 1921/1342) and a synopsis and commentary of its dominant themes
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Authors
Gamieldien, Mogamad Faaik
Issue Date
2018-06
Type
Thesis
Language
en
Keywords
Uṣūl al-Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence or Legal Theory) , Sharī ͑ah (the collective name for Islam’s religious, liturgical, ethical, and jurisprudential systems) , Ḥadīth (Sayings of the Prophet) , Ikhtilāf (juristic divergence) , Taqlīd (following a specific school of legal thought) , Ijtihād (the exercise of a creative but disciplined application of
scholarship and legal acumen upon the juridical sources in order to derive legal rulings therefrom) , Tarjīh (The rule of preferring one proof text over another.) , Muqallid (a follower of an independent jurist) , Mujtahid (a juristconsult) , Madhhab (an orthodox school of Islamic law) , Naskh (abrogation) , Qiyās (analogical reasoning) , Ijmāʿ (consensus) , Mutashābihāt (The mutashābihāt are equivocal words or statements in the Qur ʾān which are ambiguous and therefore lends itself to scholarly
dispute. It is the opposite of muḥkamāt which are clear unequivocal statements and words of the Qur ʾān.) , Muḥkamāt (Verses that are entirely clear and unambiguous relating toaḥkām (commandments etc.), al-Farā-id (obligatory duties) and al-
Ḥudūd (criminal law relating to punishments).
Alternative Title
Abstract
In pre-colonial Africa, the Southwestern Sahara which includes
Mauritania, Mali and Senegal belonged to what was then referred to as
the Sudan and extended from the Atlantic seaboard to the Red Sea. The
advent of Islam and the Arabic language to West Africa in the 11th
century heralded an intellectual marathon whose literary output still
fascinates us today. At a time when Europe was emerging from the dark
ages and Africa was for most Europeans a terra incognita, indigenous
African scholars were composing treatises as diverse as mathematics,
agriculture and the Islamic sciences.
A twentieth century Mauritanian, Arabic monograph, Irshād al-
Muqallidīn ʿinda ikhtilāf al-Mujtahidīn1, written circa 1910/1332, by a
yet unknown Mauritanian jurist of the Mālikī School, Bāba bin al-Shaykh
Sīdī al- Shinqīṭī al-Ntishā-ī (d.1920/1342), a member of the muchacclaimed
Shinqīṭī fraternity of scholars, is a fine example of African
literary accomplishment.
This manuscript hereinafter referred to as the Irshād, is written within the
legal framework of Islamic jurisprudence (usūl al-fiqh). A science that
relies for the most part on the intellectual and interpretive competence of
the independent jurist, or mujtahid, in the application of the
methodologies employed in the extraction of legal norms from the
primary sources of the sharīʿah. The subject matter of the Irshād deals
with the question of juristic differences. Juristic differences invariably
arise when a mujtahid exercises his academic freedom to clarify or resolve
conundrums in the law and to postulate legal norms. Other independent
jurists (mujtahidūn) may posit different legal norms because of the
exercise of their individual interpretive skills. These differences, when
they are deemed juristically irreconcilable, are called ikhtilāfāt (pl. of
ikhtilāf).
The author of the Irshād explores a corollary of the ikhtilāf narrative and
posits the hypothesis that there ought not to be ikhtilāf in the sharīʿah.
The proposed research will comprise an annotated translation of the
monograph followed by a synopsis and commentary on its dominant
themes.
Description
Text in English and Arabic