and the Sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ: the literal and the figurative; the commands and prohibitions; the ambiguous and the clarified; the unequivocal and the allegorical; the specific and the general; the absolute and the qualified; and the abrogating and the abrogated. He must distinguish sound hadiths from weak ones, and mutawātir reports from solitary transmissions, insofar as they pertain specifically to legal rulings. He must also understand analogy (qiyās) and the conditions governing it, and he must have a command of the Arabic language. All of this is detailed in the literature of uṣūl al-fiqh and its subsidiary works.

3 – The restricted mujtahid is the one who observes the diction of his school’s imām—both earlier and later statements—and follows the leading jurists of that madhhab in doing so.

4 – Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn said: These conditions required of a judge are to be met according to what is feasible. Al-Inṣāf adds: this has long been the prevailing practice, for otherwise people’s legal affairs would grind to a halt.

5 – The shaykh also said: It is obligatory that one perform ijtihād with respect to the evidences of the Quran and Sunnah, making them his guiding authority, for they are closer to people’s understanding and more conducive to arriving at the intended ruling. He further said: Whoever follows an imām yet departs from him on certain issues because of the strength of the evidence has done well.

6 – The shaykh said: The Lawgiver’s texts are concise maxims, universal propositions, and general principles; it is impossible for them to specify every single occurrence that will arise in the world until the Day of Resurrection. Hence ijtihād is indispensable in the particulars—whether they fall under those comprehensive texts or stand outside them. This was mentioned earlier, yet citing it in both places is fitting.

7 – Sharḥ al-Iqnāʿ states: The ruler must select for the judiciary the most qualified person he can find in knowledge and piety, for adjudicating by the sharīʿah is a branch of knowing it. The more excellent the judge, the firmer and more capable he will be; likewise, the greater his piety, the more confident people will feel in his decisions. He should be instructed to fear Allah and to prefer obedience to Him both privately and publicly, and he should be told to seek