The Search for God’s Law

Islamic Jurisprudence in the Writings of Sayf al-Din al-Amidi

By Bernard G Weiss

Scholars praised the 1992 edition of The Search for God’s Law as a groundbreaking intellectual treatment of Islamic jurisprudence. Bernard Weiss’s revised edition brings to life Sayf al-Din al Amidi’s classic exposition of the methodologies through which Muslim scholars have constructed their understandings of the divine law.

Weiss’s new introduction provides an overview of Amidi’s jurisprudence that facilitates deeper comprehension of the challenging dialectic of the text. This edition includes an in-depth analysis of the nature of language and the ways in which it mediates the law, while shaping it at the same time. An updated index has been added.

Bernard G. Weiss is professor of languages and literature at the University of Utah. He is the author of The Spirit of Islamic Law and co-editor of the Brill series Studies in Islamic Law and Society.

Table of Contents:

Preface to the Revised Edition
Preface to the First Edition
Introduction

Part I. Postulates
Chapter 1. The Theological Postulates
Chapter 2. The Fiqh Postulates
Chapter 3. The Lugha-Related Postulates

Part II. The Indicators Of God’s Law
Chapter 4. The Qur’an And The Sunna
Chapter 5. The Ijmac
Chapter 6. The Transmission Of Texts
Chapter 7. Commands
Chapter 8. General And Unqualified Expressions
Chapter 9. Ambiguity, Lucidity, And Diversion To Nonapparent Meaning (Ta’wil)
Chapter 10. Implication
Chapter 11. Abrogation
Chapter 12. Analogy: Definition And Conditions of Validity
Chapter 13. Analogy: Ascertaining the Occasioning Factor
Chapter 14. The Defense of Analogy
Chapter 15. Istidlal and the Invalid Indicators of the Law

Part III. Mujtahids, Muftis, And Commoners
Chapter 17. Consultation And Advice: The Mujtahid As Mufti

Part IV. The Weighing Of Conflicting Indicators

Epilogue
Notes
Index

Praise and Reviews:

"An astonishing achievement of linguistic and analytical skills and dedicated hard work, and a foundational element for the next generation of scholars in this field."—Norman Calder, University of Manchester

"The Search for God’s Law is all that one might hope for in its depth, its subtlety, and its comprehensive vision."
—Kevin Reinhart, Dartmouth College

"It is certainly not every day that something significant happens in the field [of Islamic jurisprudence]. In The Search for God’s Law that significant something has happened."—Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo, International Institute of Islamic Thought