The Pragmatics of Usul Alfiqh Thinking: A Research on the Centrality of Context in Usulist Research

Abstract

This study aims at clarifying some of the pragmatic aspects of Usul Alfiqh relied on to build the origins of sharia provisions. The study enumerates these aspects in two contextual conditions: intent and benefit. Although the first condition is related to the speaker and the second to the addressee, they are complementary and interrelated. Each of them calls the other contextually because the process of communication with interest and benefit is organized by the context. Therefore, we have included what is related to the intent condition within the expressive context specific to the speaker and included what is related to interest within the reception context specific to the addressee. However, the Usulists ’concern with the condition of benefit appears prominent in comparison with the condition of intent and the justification for the second is often a means to reach the first. The position of the Usulist, or the position of the Muslim scholar in general, in the production of knowledge is the position of the revealed intent to understand the discourse and applying it in a changing social reality in a suitable and useful way which enables gaining benefits and avoiding harm.