Tajdeed

Refutation of qiyas (analogy in religion) by Ibn Hazm

Ibn Hazm cites in refutation of qiyas include: Qur’an 42:21: “What! Have they partners (in godhead) who have established (sharau) for them some religion for which God has given no permission?;” Qur’an 65:1: “And any who transgresses the limits of God does verily wrong his (own) soul,” arguing that transgressing the limits of God is exactly what one does when declaring something lawful or prohibited on the basis of qiyas, Qur’an 2: 140: “Say: Do ye know better than Gad?,” arguing that the qa’is presumptuously filling in what he sees as gaps or blanks which God somehow failed to account for explicitly; and Qur’àn 16:89: “And We have sent down ta thee a Book explaining all things,” in reference to the Qur’an itself.

Qur’an 16:44: “And We have sent down onto thee the Message, that thou mayest explain clearly to men what is sent for them” as proof that God has reserved exclusively for Himself and the Prophet the right to make clear matters of the Shari’a and that He did not delegate (lam yakil) this task to any human being, nor to any opinion (rayy or qiyas, but rather to the Arabic text of the Qur’an and to the sayings of the Prophet recorded in the Hadith. Thus, not only do we not have clear textual evidence in support of qiyas, which is already enough to invalidate it in Ibn Hazm’s view,

Qur’an 4:59: “lf ye differ in anything among yourselves, refer it to Gad and His Messenger.” He also cites Qur’an 16:116: “But say not – for any false thing that YOUR tongues may put forth – ‘This is lawful, and this is forbidden,’ so as to ascribe faIse things to God,” and Qur’an 10:59: “Say: ‘See ye what things God hath sent down to you for sustenance?

Yet ye hold forbidden some things thereof and (some things) lawful.’ Say: ‘Hath Gad indeed permitted you, or do ye invent (things) to attribute to God?’”

Reference: The Epistemology of Qiyas and Talil between the Mu’tazilite Abu l-Husayn al-Basri and Ibn Hazm al-Zahiri – By Carl Sharif EI-Tobgui, P.70-72