The Nature and Reasons for mantaqat al-faragh (Law-free Zone) in Islamic Legislation

Given the fact that any argument about the 'discretionary area', the area of vacuum (mantaqat al-faragh) is possible in the existence of an Islamic government and a jurist having the power to administer and execute religious laws, this theory can be very much applicable in the de facto situation in which all the requirements are met. In this study, the term mantaqat al-faragh has been defined and ambiguities have been discussed and removed. The rational and textual reasons have been presented to prove such a discretionary area for wali amr i.e. the ruling jurist. The discretionary area where an Islamic jurist can legislate has something to do with nonmandatory rules which can be changed into mandatory and binding rules by a qualified ruling jurist, if the conditions are met. As well this article seeks to examine whether a ruling Muslim authority can have discretion over mandatory rules or not. If he can, what kind of discretion can he have? Since in this study the aim is to study the nature and reasons that substantiate mantaqat al-faragh, the objections and criticisms concerning the subject-matter have not been dealt with, though efforts have been made to present the theory in such a way that it is prone to less objections. That is to say the possible objections have been answered in an implicit way.