The Method of Criticizing Deduced Juridical Opinions

Criticizing views and thoughts does not necessarily mean rejecting or confronting them; in fact, a criticism is meant to study and evaluate the origins, dimensions and implications of an idea or viewpoint in a fair way. Naturally, just as interpreting and understanding those ideas and theories are dependent on certain principles and special rules, criticizing them also requires observance of certain procedures and framework without which the possibility of any critical confront would get reduced. The exact number and order of the rules which the methodology of criticism is based upon, can be dependent on the type of work and approaches. However, when it comes to criticizing the juridical opinions which generally derive from the Holy Quran and prophetic traditions, the first step is to have a clear understanding of the categorization of sciences into mentally-posited ( etibariat ) and existential ( takviniyat ). The next step is to understand the presuppositions and implications of the theories without which one would have an imperfect imagination of the nature of the work which is supposed to be criticized. As well, the criticizer must avoid mixing up the motivations and motives so that he may not end up falling into a personal dispute and may distance himself from being fair in all stages. In addition, criticizing a deduced juridical view depends on certain principles which can be identified through looking at the issues of Fiqh (jurisprudence).