A Jurisprudential Study of the Principle of Social Justice

Especially in this era, to make inferences from the legal injunctions compounded with problems and difficulties raised by certain new issues, a Muslim jurist, faqih, is in need of a set of rules by which he can make inferences and set them as criteria for determining the extent to which his fatwas are true or false. One of these rules is the rule of social justice. Social justice is the most important index for the development of human life and it is considered as an important goal in Islam to establish it in society. In the Qur’anic texts and numerous traditions, justice is introduced as one of the goals of religion and of the divine Prophets. In this article, the writer deals with the concept and nature of social justice as one jurisprudential rule which is needed by the Muslim jurist in making inferences from legal injunctions (judgements). Discussions of the article will revolve around the fact that a Muslim jurist can make use of this rule as a primary judgement for the confirmation or disconfirmation of an injunction. He can also set it as a criterion and a measurement for verifying his inferences, in which case it will be dominant over other proofs. To establish the rule in question, references will be made to the proofs such as the QurÞÁn, tradition, reason and consensus and instances of its application in the deduction of religious laws in two respects (the source and origin of the deduction of laws and the criterion for the measurement of inferences (deductions) will be mentioned.