An Inductive Approach to the Ijtihad Literature of al-Khilāf

Inductive research logic is the foundation of many methods of content analysis and a common method in scientific research. In this method, the researcher purposefully selects certain concepts and then organizes them in specific terms. Then, he comes to a conclusion with reference to data and findings, and provides a sort of description. In the present paper, I draw on the logic of induction to analyze the book, al-khilāf,in statistical terms and in terms of its documentations, as well as al-Shaykh al-Ṭūsī’s ijtihad literature or discourse via finding the frequency of words such as consensus, hadiths, the Quran, jargons of jurisprudence (fiqh) and principles of jurisprudence (uṣūl al-fiqh), as well as his methods of argumentation with opposing views, his drawing on the views of Sunni jurists and inferential sources of Shiite jurisprudence by way of comparative jurisprudence. One research priority resulting from an induction of al-Shaykh al-Ṭūsī’s principles of ijtihad is that, because of political and religious circumstances of his time and the necessity of unity among Shiite jurists, he invented a new definition of consensus (ijmā’) as discovering the view of the Infallible (Ma’ṣūmīn) leaders of Islam, and cited it more than any other principle. Although he rejects analogy (qīyās) as a source of inferring jurisprudential rulings for Shiism, he made appeals to it in order to account for certain Shiite jurisprudential rulings and make them acceptable to Sunni jurists. Moreover, he relied on rationalism to try to develop comparative jurisprudence given his assessment of the conditions of his time and his mastery of Shāfi’ī jurisprudential sources as well as to other Islamic denominations to some extent.