and to unite such counterparts⦗1⦘—together with many other momentous benefits and noble advantages that are beyond reckoning.

Indeed, “one of the outstanding merits of the Sharia, and a mark of its perfection, beauty, and majesty, is that all its rulings—foundational and subsidiary, devotional and transactional, every single matter—rest upon principles and maxims that regulate their judgments, bring together what is dispersed, spread out their branches, and trace them back to their roots.”⦗1⦘

A qāʿidah (legal maxim) is a universal proposition that applies to numerous particular cases, the rulings of which are inferred from it.⦗2⦘

When the maxim is firmly established and the principle properly understood, it becomes possible to encompass a host of issues that are but branches of that maxim, to avoid confusing matters that might resemble one another, and to facilitate the comprehension, retention, and accurate mastery of knowledge. In this way one’s discourse is built upon solid learning, fairness, and justice.

For that reason Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) said: “A person must have universal principles to which he refers the particulars, so that he will speak with knowledge …”