Describing lawful rule according to khitāb of the god

Abstract

The subject "rule", which is one of the most fundamental issues of the Islamic legal theory (usūl al-fiqh), has been in the center of methodological debates. There is one important term in this regard, which should be studied very carefully: Khitāb (speech) of the God. It is because that, especially since the first period of Islam, it has been taken with some significant terms in the field of Kalām such as Husn (pretty; good), Qubh (ugly; evil), and the quality of God's talk. Yet, adopting this term in the description of the "rule" shows that Fiqh is based on divine inspiration, and it also emphasizes that even though there are some differences in details, wisdom of human being is not ignored when adjudicating. Moreover, it suggests that the validity or methodological accuracy of the "rule" which is adjudicated with ruling case is related to the connection through the term speech or divine inspiration. In this regard, Kalām dimension of the term and its affect to legal theoretical discussions are very important in terms of historical process of the definition of the "rule" in Islamic law. In this study, I tried to examine whether or not the term "khitāb of the God" which is used in the definition of the "rule" formed a limitation for consideration of legal evidence in Islamic law and if there is any limitation for the legal evidence regarding being only in the Qur'ān and the Sunnah due to this definition.