The Qur’ān as Legal Proof: Authority, Language, and Juristic Argument in al-Jaṣṣāṣ’s Aḥkām al-Qur’ān

Ummi Amaliyah; Ida Safitri; Shofwatun Niswah

Authors

Ummi Amaliyah Universitas PTIQ Jakarta
Ida Safitri Universitas PTIQ Jakarta
Shofwatun Niswah Universitas Islam Negeri Sumatera Utara

Keywords:

al-jaṣṣāṣ, qur’anic legal exegesis, textual authority, ḥanafī jurisprudence, islamic legal hermeneutics

Abstract

This article examines how Abū Bakr al-Jaṣṣāṣ constructs the Qur’ān as authoritative legal proof in Aḥkām al-Qur’ān. While the Qur’ān is universally recognized as the primary source of Islamic law, its legal meanings are not treated by classical jurists as self-evident or automatically operative. This study addresses the problem of how Qur’anic wording is transformed into binding legal doctrine through language, proof hierarchy, and Ḥanafī juristic reasoning. Using a qualitative library-based textual method, the article applies document analysis, qualitative content analysis, and legal-hermeneutical interpretation to Aḥkām al-Qur’ān as the main corpus and al-Fuṣūl fī al-Uṣūl as an internal theoretical reference. The findings show that al-Jaṣṣāṣ constructs Qur’anic authority as procedural authority: legal meaning is produced through the analysis of lafẓ, dalālah, mujmal, bayān, qirāʾah, khabar, qiyās, ijmāʿ, atsar, and madhhab-based argumentation. The study further demonstrates that sunnah and khabar function as clarifying and epistemically graded proofs without displacing the Qur’an’s central authority, while Ḥanafī reasoning organizes evidence into a coherent hierarchy of legal validity. The article contributes to Qur’anic studies and Islamic legal theory by repositioning Aḥkām al-Qur’ān not merely as a work of legal exegesis, but as an applied laboratory of Ḥanafī legal hermeneutics in which scripture becomes law through disciplined interpretive procedure.

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