Dalil (evidence in the principles of jurisprudence)

In lexicon a dalil is a guide or a revealer. As a term it is what, through sound reasoning, leads to knowledge of a factual aim, even if only probable; some restrict the word to the certain. ¹ Defining the principles of jurisprudence as the evidences of fiqh works on a broad sense of dalil that includes the probable, since the principles cover the certain (the Qur'an and mass-transmitted Sunna) and the probable (general terms, solitary reports and analogy). ¹

For the principles, an amara is what leads to a factual aim that is only probable; the jurists did not separate it from the dalil. ² A burhan is what separates truth from falsehood; a hujja is a certain proof, and a persuasive hujja is what those unable to reach certain demonstrations can accept, and which may yield certainty by accumulation. ²

Four sources are agreed: the Qur'an, the Sunna, consensus and analogy, to which the general sources of fiqh return. ² The disputed sources are many; al-Qarafi gathered them in the introduction to al-Dhakhira. They include juristic preference (istihsan), public interest (maslaha mursala), blocking the means (sadd al-dhara'i), custom, the view of a Companion, the law before us, presumption of continuity, and the consensus of the people of Medina. ² Rulings are of two kinds: the five assessments (obligation, recommendation, permission, disapproval and prohibition) and the declaratory rulings such as condition, impediment and cause. ²

A dalil considered in itself, apart from the ruling it bears on, is a general evidence; considered as bearing on a particular ruling it is a detailed evidence. ³ The Qur'anic command to pray is the example: as a command that implies obligation it is general; as a command to establish prayer in particular it is detailed. ³

Revealed evidence divides into four classes by certainty of transmission and of meaning: certain in both, certain in transmission but probable in meaning, probable in transmission but certain in meaning, and probable in both. ³ The Hanafi principalists tie each ruling to its evidence: the first class establishes an obligation of the strongest kind (fard), the second and third establish a wajib, and the fourth establishes a recommended practice. This differs from the majority, who do not separate fard from wajib in the same way. ³