to a single governing analogy or to a regulative rule that links them. They therefore serve as a foundation for scattered subsidiary rulings: the jurist turns to them, gathers what is dispersed, and fastens each particular with the firm bond of the juristic maxim that rules over them. In essence, they are built on bringing together issues that share a legal resemblance.

The subject matter of this science of maxims, then, is those comparable legal questions and rulings, along with the analogy or regulative rule that unifies every cluster of similar cases—this unifying element is what we call the “maxim.” By contrast, uṣūl al-fiqh is the discipline concerned with deriving subsidiary rulings from their evidences.