Ikhala (suggestiveness of a cause in analogy)

Ikhala (suggestion of a cause). The verb akhala means to be confused; one says of a matter that it is not hidden from anyone, meaning it is not unclear. ¹ The usulis use the word in analogy and in the open interest (al-maslaha al-mursala). Ikhala is a description such that its being the cause of a ruling is fixed at once by a plain appeal to a link between the description and the ruling, without text or anything else, because it brings the cause to mind; hence it is called "suggestive" (mukhayyil). ² General ruling. A description is appropriate when it is accepted by reason on presentation, that is, one that leads to bringing a benefit to a person or averting a harm from him; for example, the killing of a Muslim used as a shield by unbelievers in their war with the Muslims, since killing him serves to defeat the enemy and prevent their killing of Muslims. ² A merely accidental description is not suggestive: the colour of wine or its consistency, for instance, does not bring the mind to its cause of prohibition, since it involves no harm calling for its prohibition. Intoxication in wine, though it involves the harm of clouding the mind, is not suggestive in the same way, because a text gives it as the cause, namely the saying «every intoxicant is forbidden», agreed; had this text not come, intoxication would have been suggestive. ² Thus the appropriate is wider than the suggestive. ² There is a dispute over whether the ruling of the basis may be explained by a suggestive description for analogy, and likewise over establishing a ruling by it as an open interest; see the usuli annex on analogy and open interest. ²