a prescribed way in the matter of religion,” it may either be interpreted as … (1).

Likewise, “rulings of the sharī'a” may mean those rulings that the Lawgiver has disclosed, on the understanding that rulings are attributes of actions which the Lawgiver has clarified and revealed. Some are known through reason, either immediately or through reflection, and some are known through both. All are called rulings of the sharī'a. Alternatively, this designation may be restricted to rulings known only from the Lawgiver. This is the terminology of the Mu'tazila and other speculative theologians and jurists, both of our school and of others.

The expression may also mean those rulings which the Lawgiver has established and introduced, and which would not have existed otherwise, on the premise that an act has a ruling in itself, and that the ruling consists only of what the Lawgiver has introduced. This is the position of the Ash'arīs and those who agree with them, both of our school and of others.

It may then be said that the ruling is the Lawgiver’s address itself: His imposition of an obligation or prohibition. Alternatively, it may be said that it is what that address entails and gives rise to: obligation or prohibited status, for example. Or it may be said that it is the relationship between the address and the action.

The correct view is that the term “ruling of the sharī'a” applies to all three. It may further be said that it applies both to what the Lawgiver has disclosed and to the address He has introduced and what it entails. This parallels what we have said concerning religious knowledge. Reflect, then, on these three fundamental concepts: religious knowledge, rulings of the sharī'a, and the sharī'a itself. And Allah knows best.