The Preference Criteria Over The Contradictory Narrations And Their Influence On The Islamic Law: The Shirazi Example

Abstract

The concept of narration is used by the early methodists to mean a word that is likely to be true or false by its nature. The concept of ta'arud (conflict) is defined in the procedural sources as each of two evidences preventing the other on the same issue or each of the two evidences confronting the other in a way that prevents the necessity (judgment) of the other. It is seen that there is an apparent inconsistency/conflict among some of the narrations reported from the Prophet (PBUH). Fiqh scholars have developed some methods to eliminate the apparent conflict among some of the narrations transmitted from the Prophet (PBUH) in accordance with their definitions of the concepts of narrations and disagreement. While some methodists follow a sequence in the form of nash (revoking judgment), cem`(gathering of narrated sayings and deeds), tercih (preference) and tesakut (comparison of narrated sayings and deeds) in eliminating the conflict; some of them followed a sequence such as cem`, nash, preference and tahyir (liberty of mind). For the preference method, one ofthe conflict eliminating methods, the methodists evaluated the narrations in terms of the promissory note and determined some criteria for both the promissory note and the text. However, while the scholars were in agreement on some of the criteria, they also disagreed on some. This situation has caused the scholars of fiqh to make different ijtihads on some fiqh issues. Shirazi defines the narrations as a word that is inevitable to be true or false, unlike the definition made by the proficient methodologists. For the concept of conflict, he gives information about the method to be followed in eliminating the conflict that is seen in the narrations directly without making any definitions.Shirazi used the method of cem and nash, respectively, and if this was not possible, he finally accepted the method of choosing from among the proofs. Shirazi's preference for writing and text to eliminate the contradiction between narrations/hadith, and the absence of an independent study on the reflections of these criteria on fiqh issues so far is motivating for this research. The concepts of narrations, conflict and Shirazi's approach to these concepts were emphasized in the study. It has been analyzed with examples that the preference criteria for the script and text, which Shirazi bases on to eliminate the conflictamong contradictory narrations/hadiths. At the end of the study, it was determined that Shirazi adopted the method of mutakallimun, which is based on the methods of cem', nash, preference, in order to eliminate the conflict among the narrations, and mentioned a total of twenty-four criteria for preference as a method of eliminating the conflict. Based on the examples given, it has been concluded that these preference criteria, which he mentioned, are also reflected in the fura fiqh, which will cause the emergence of different jurisprudence.