The nature of signed ordinances

Signed ordinances are a major part of religious ordinances having existed as normative before the institution of divine canonization and having been approved without any or with slight modification by the legislator and having entered the canon law. Some neo-mu‘tazilites believe these ordinances are related to the praxes of the time of legislation, and by the disappearance of those customs they have been canceled in consequence. In cases where the norm is the main element of the subject of signed ordinances, those views are right. But normally, custom is the background of issuance of religious rulings and not the basic element of them, which in itself requires reasoning. Additionally, in cases where the custom provides the background of issuance of ordinances – which is the case with many signed rulings – the change of ordinances depends on the change of the customs only when the legislator does not find approval and decides to rely on reported attitude of the intellectuals. This paper will demonstrate that the nature of signing (approval) in signed ordinances is the approval of the legislator; since in the process of signing the legislator approves a ruling similar to that of the intellectuals, and for this reason, the validity of the verdict shall not be challenged by the disappearance of the praxis.