Development of Legal Theory and the Usul Tradition

Al-Hajwi's treatment of the development of usul al-fiqh — the theoretical foundations of Islamic legal reasoning — represents one of the most important sections of Al-Fikr as-Sami. He traced the emergence of systematic legal theory from its implicit foundations in the practice of the earliest Muslim scholars through its explicit formulation in works like Al-Shafi'i's Risalah and its subsequent elaboration by jurists across the four schools.

He analyzed how the four main sources of Islamic law — Quran, Sunnah, scholarly consensus (ijma'), and analogical reasoning (qiyas) — were understood and applied differently by different schools, and how the theoretical debates about these sources shaped the substantive legal differences between the schools. The question of when consensus has been achieved, for instance, generates different answers in different usul frameworks, with consequential differences for which legal positions can be departed from.

For Al-Shafi'i's foundational role in systematizing usul al-fiqh, al-Hajwi offered a nuanced assessment: acknowledging Al-Shafi'i's decisive contribution while also noting that many features of the later usul tradition went beyond what Al-Shafi'i himself had articulated. The development of usul al-fiqh from a relatively modest beginning in the Risalah to the elaborate systematic works of the tenth through fourteenth centuries was itself a complex historical process that al-Hajwi traced in some detail.

His treatment of the role of maslaha (public interest) in Maliki legal theory — the doctrine associated with al-Ghazali and ash-Shatibi that legal rulings should serve the purposes (maqasid) for which they were revealed — reflects his awareness of one of the most distinctive features of the Maliki tradition and its continuing relevance for contemporary legal questions.

The history of ijtihad — independent legal reasoning — and the question of when or whether the 'gate of ijtihad' closed is addressed in Al-Fikr as-Sami with al-Hajwi's characteristic combination of historical precision and willingness to take a position.