Elements of the pragmatic thinking in the principles of islamic jurisprudence, with special reference to medieval sunnī legal theorists' models of textual communication

• Main Author: Ali, Mohamed Mohamed
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-1997
• Subjects: Religion

Muslim legal theorists develop a very sophisticated model of textual communication. This model is based on four main pillars: establishment, use, interpretation and signification. This thesis aims to formulate and explore this model. Chapter I offers a general background about the topic. Chapter II deals with the distinction between establishment, which concerns language as a given lexicon and grammatical patterns, and use, which concerns the speakers' behaviour. My focus is to discuss how each utterance, as legal theorists suggest, pertains partly to establishment and partly to use. This is taken up through the discussion of universal and particular establishment, general and specific establishment, use, intention and context. Chapter III examines the distinction between fiqh, understanding and interpretation and discusses context from the addressee's point of view. An account of the mainstream model of interpretation is provided via examining five communicative principles. Chapter IV includes a formulation of what I call 'Ibn Taymiyyah's contextual theory of interpretation', which represents the salafis' account of interpretation. My formulation of this theory displays its coherence by delving into its underlying philosophical principles. This involves relating it to his relevant ontological, epistemological and theological outlook. Besides, the inquiry includes his theory of cognitive relativism, his contextual theory of definition and his views on language, meaningfulness, the establishment-use dichotomy, meaning-intention distinction and signification. More important is his critical view of the distinction between literal and non-literal meaning, and his model of interpretation. Chapter V is concerned with two significational classifications: a semiotic classification and a text-based classification.