A Study of the Authoritativeness of the Normative Conduct and Assumptions of the Wise

The assumption of the wise people enjoys significance in inferring and deriving laws because of the validity of a report by a trusted person as well as the validity of the apparent meanings of words and statements. What the scholars of Ilm al-Usul have said regarding the authority of the wise people's assumption are varied and even discrepant. That is because according to some scholars the authority of the wise people's assumption is inherent and essential and according to some others, it is not essential. In addition, some others are of the view that the assumption of the wise people is nothing but the intellectual judgment of a man with a sound mind while others believe that it is not man's intellectual judgment. These differences originate in two things: 1- The wise people as regular people have not been differentiated from the wise people "as wise people". The first one is not based on anything but a strong probability while the second one originates in a particular reason, or habit or instinct. The second one is decisive and emanates from common sense. The authoritativeness of the intransitive has not been differentiated from the authoritativeness of the transitive because when the origin of the assumption of the wise people as regular people is from a particular intellectual perspective, it will not be concomitant with Shari'ah. As for the assumption of the wise people "as wise people", there is concomitance between it and the transitive authoritativeness.