The Feasibility of Extraction of Good Faith Principle in Jurisprudence

The Islamic legal rules are divided into two parts: “documentary to text (manṣūṣ)” and “adoption of texts (iṣṭiyādī)”. In the latter group there is no Qur’anic or narrative text that embraces all the provisions of the rule. Instead, jurisprudents have extracted them from a collection of verses and narratives, which they, as a whole, prove the provisions of the rule. The present study is aimed at investigating the compatibility of the Roman principle of good faith with Imamiyya jurisprudence and the feasibility of the extraction of good faith rule in Imamiyya jurisprudence. Some scholars, referring to some samples of the principle of good faith in the jurisprudence, especially in contracts, believe that this principle exists in jurisprudence. In this study, we critique this view and conclude that extraction of the principle as a general rule from the texts is not possible.