The Jurisprudential Impacts of Permissibility of Using a Word in More than One Meaning in the Quran

One of the issues discussed in Usul - e Fiqh (lit. P rinciples of Jurisprudence) and which is as old as Usul - e Fiqh is the permissibility or impermissibility of ‘using a word in more than one meaning’. Discussions revolving around this issue have always remained in their rudimentary and theoretical level not making progress with the scholars of jurisprudence and its principles. The proponents and opponents of this topic have neve r dealt with its benefits and uses in jurisprudence or its instrumentality in the process of deriving Islamic laws from the Quran. In the present article, the writer makes reference to instances of Quranic verses where he believes one word can be assumed as having been used in more than one meaning. He has elaborated on the benefits of this particular assumption in the Quranic jurisprudence giving examples of verses which, according to both proponents and opponents, can be considered as having two or several meanings. The dispute is only around the phrase i.e. ‘using one word in more than one meaning’. When it comes to certain instances, their dispute and contention seems to be very serious .