THE RELEVANCE OF QIYAS (ANALOGICAL DEDUCTION) AS A SOURCE OF ISLAMIC LAW IN CONTEMPORARY TIME

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Department of Law

ABSTRACT
Islamic Law covers every sphere of human endeavor. It comprises of the primary and the secondary sources of Law. The former consists of the Qur’an and the sunnah, to which all the jurists are at ad-idem. Qiyas is the second secondary source. However, there are divergent opinions amongst the jurists as to whether it can stand as a source or not. It is in view of this that the choice of the topic of this thesis namely The Relevance of Qiyas (Analogical Deduction) As a Source Of Islamic Law In Contemporary Time. Scholars of earlier times and the contemporary ones differ as regards to Qiyas been a source of Islamic law or not. The question however is: are the opinions different in essence? It is this fundamental question and others that this thesis will examine. The aim of the research is to analyze the different opinions of the scholars. Also to clarify some fundamental controversial issues as relates to our present day world. Also, to show that Islamic law is not rigid and barbaric as misconceived by some people. Hence, it can be applied to solve modern day needs brought about by rapid development achieved due to break -through in technology. Observation in this research work shows that Qiyas is a correctly accepted source of Islamic law and the opponent of the above view are indirectly using Qiyas as a source of Islamic law. It has been observed that Muslims abandoned Qiyas and believed that they were solving their legislative problems. However, all they succeeded in doing was crippling their own intellectual powers. Even so, there has never been a time when the call for Qiyas was entirely silenced, only that such calls were never enough to extricate the ummah from the intellectual crisis in which it was, become ensnared, and as a result, Qiyas was left mainly to heretics, deceivers and the orientalists. If jurists were to articulate ideas to which people were unaccustomed to or to announce their readiness to practice ijtihad, Muslims could have advanced better. The ummah must understand that Qiyas provides it with the fundamental means to recover its identity to re-establish its place in the world. The express textual injunction in the Qur’an and the sunnah are limited in number, while the incidents and problems of life are unlimited and unending. Hence, it would be illogical to assert that all the problems and exigencies of life will be covered by the textual injunctions. Reason demands that rules of law should be derived from the fundamental sources by means of exercising reasons and individual opinion. Qiyas therefore is a mode of reasoning to legislate for novel questions, to reveal the divine rule of law and to harmonize between divine legislation and human interests. No one among the Companions is reported to have injected correct qiyas, nor had any of them ever hesitated to exercise it in legal matters. They were all at one on the validity of this doctrine. From this, one must conclude that the companions must have been familiar with the permissibility of this doctrine, and of exercising correct personal opinion and independent legal reasoning by the instruction of the Prophet (SAW). Public benefit and general interest are the aims and objectives of divine legislation. If two incidents are similar, and one of them is covered by clear legal rule, but not the other, it would be illogical not to apply the rule of the one to the other on the basis of the common link. If the purpose of the prohibition of wine is the preservation of human sense and reason, then all intoxicants should logically be prohibited on account of intoxication hence the importance of this which most jurists wrote about in Arabic. The study comprises of five chapters. Chapter one centers on general survey of the sources of Islamic law. Chapter two deals with the various definitions of qiyas in accordance with the various views of the jurists. Chapter three discusses the four pillars of qiyas namely: original case, new case, effective cause and the ruling. Chapter four discusses the validity of qiyas as a source of Islamic Law and Chapter five, being the last of all the chapters, consist of summary, conclusion and recommendations.