"التعارض والترجيح" عند الأصوليين وأثرهما على الأحكام الفقهية

“Al-Ta’āruḍ wal Tarjīḥ” Among the ‘Usūliyyīn and their impact on jurisprudential rulings

Abstract

There is no contradiction between the shar'i arguments in reality, but in the eyes of the mujtahid, so it is an apparent contradiction, not a real one. Due to this apparent contradiction, the two contradictory arguments require that in a case for which the mujtahid is seeking a ruling, different and contradictory rulings apply at the same time. The condition for this apparent contradiction is that the two arguments are equal in strength, such as two verses of the Qur'an or two Ahadith. In this case, a mujtahid seeks out the history of both texts.  Now here, it raises the question of how can we resolve the conflict? So, if the mujtahid learns of their history, he immediately decides that the text that arrives later cancels the text that arrives first. But if one does not know the history of the two contradictory texts, then the mujtahid should prefer one text over the other and adopt the five major methods prescribed by the usooliyeen (scholars of Usool e Fiqh), which are: Abrogation, then “weighting,” then “combining and reconciling,” then “falling both proofs.” This article contains these five methods in detail.