a case specified in a revealed text with another whose prescribed ruling differs has drawn an unsound analogy. Likewise, anyone who equates two things or distinguishes between them on grounds other than the attributes deemed relevant in the ruling of Allah and His Messenger has drawn an unsound analogy. Some analogies, however, are known to be sound, others are known to be unsound, and others remain unresolved. Whoever rejects analogy altogether adopts a false position; whoever argues by an analogy contrary to revealed law likewise adopts a false position. Whoever relies on an analogy whose soundness has not been established by evidence relies on something he does not know to be sound, much like someone who relies on a report from an unknown man whose uprightness he cannot establish.

Arguments based on transmitted reports and on reasoning thus fall into three categories: those known to be sound, those known to be unsound, and those on which judgment is suspended until evidence establishes one or the other.

The term “text” sometimes refers to the wording of the Quran and Sunnah, whether its meaning is definitive or merely apparent. This is what is meant by the statement: “The revealed texts encompass the rulings governing the actions of those accountable under religious law.” The term “text” can also refer to wording whose meaning is definitive and admits no contrary interpretation, as in His words:

“That makes ten in all.”

And:

“It is Allah who has sent down the Book in truth and the Balance.”

The Book is the revealed text, and the Balance is justice. Sound analogy is a form of justice, for it treats like things alike and distinguishes between things that differ. What sound analogy indicates agrees with what the revealed text indicates. Every analogy that conflicts with the meaning of the revealed text is therefore unsound. No revealed text contradicts a sound analogy, just as no clear rational truth contradicts an authentic transmitted report.