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Understanding Hanafi Usul: Nasafi’s Manar Explained

The Divine has communicated the sacred law to us through revelation, the Quran and Sunnah. Words, as carriers of meaning, require understanding and, at times, interpretation. In the Islamic scholarly tradition, the principles and art of reliably understanding what God wants of humans is known as usul al-fiqh, or the foundations of jurisprudence. 

The science of usul al-fiqh is itself a foundational discipline, one which provides the intellectual and linguistic foundations for the whole process of deriving fiqh primarily from revelatory sources. Without this foundational knowledge, words can appear contradictory; individuals could make unfounded claims about what the Quran or Sunnah is saying; the particular rulings of fiqh become unrooted and seemingly arbitrary without their broader framework; and the very basis of the Islamic tradition and its approach to life can be put into question by proponents of modernism and other ideologies or blameworthy innovations. This is why the study of Islamic law and moral theology (fiqh), by itself, is never enough: the true student of the Islamic scholarly tradition cannot do without the foundational sciences, the primary of which is usul al-fiqh.

In this course, we will study one of the classics of this discipline—namely, the Manar of Imam Abu al-Barakat al-Nasafi. The course will introduce students to the entire range of major questions in usul al-fiqh, with particular attention paid to the principles and tools of linguistic interpretation and hermeneutics. 

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Skill Level: Beginner
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Class Time: 2:00 PM TRT
About the text:

The Manar of Imam al-Nasafi is one of the most widely studied textbooks in the discipline of usul al-fiqh since it was authored. It has formed the basis of many curricula in Islamic law around the world and throughout history. It successfully introduces the student to all of the fundamental questions of the science, with extensive attention paid to the linguistic interpretation that serves as the basis of all other jurisprudential methods. Students who master this text will find an entire library of commentaries, super-commentaries, and glosses open to them and will be empowered to delve into specific issues in greater depth while remaining clear as to how these issues are connected to broader questions in linguistics, theology (kalam), and law.
About the Author:

Imam Abu al-Barakat Hafiz al-Din ‘Abd-Allah b. Ahmad al-Nasafi (d. 710) was from Nasaf, a locale of Transoxiana in Central Asia (presently Uzbekistan). This area was the heartland of Hanafi and other learning at the time, and he studied with some of the greatest scholars of his era, such as Sham al-A’imma al-Karadari and Husam al-Din al-Saghnaqi. He authored numerous works that were well received throughout Islamic history and are studied until today, such as the tafsir Madarik al-Tanzil, more commonly known as Tafsir al-Nasafi, a primer of fiqh entitled Kanz al-Daqa’iq, a work in dialectics called al-Mustasfa, and this work that forms the basis of this course, al-Manar in usul al-fiqh. All of these works formed the basis of many college curricula throughout the centuries and found such reception amongst scholars that dozens of commentaries exist upon them.
Who is this course for:

This course is suitable for students who have already completed a Level 2 primer in Hanafi usul al-fiqh, such as al-Aqhisari’s Samt al-Wusul, Mukhtasar al-Manar, or Usul al-Shashi and have studied an entire book of fiqh prior to beginning this course. It is deemed an intermediate-level treatment of usul al-fiqh.
Learning outcomes:

  • Understanding the sources of Islamic jurisprudence and how the ulema derived rulings therefrom
  • Comprehending how language is a vehicle for meaning, the different perspectives from which interpretation is possible, and in what ways an interpretation is deemed invalid or inconsistent with sound hermeneutics
  • Perceived how the disagreement between ulema upon some of these foundations underlies or leads to differences between their positions in some of the detailed rulings of fiqh
  • Understanding how ijtihad works and how to distinguish valid forms of ijtihad from invalid claims thereto
  • Recognize what makes the Hanafi tradition of usul al-fiqh at times distinct from that of the speculative scholastic theologians (al-mutakallimun) and where they are in agreement
Self enrolment (Student)