Unity of the cause (ittihad al-sabab)

اتحاد السبب

In the terms of jurists and usulis, the sabab is an apparent and regular attribute to which the Lawgiver attached a ruling, such that its presence entails the ruling and its absence entails none. ¹ Unity of the cause means that several causes are alike, belong to one class, or are in fact one. ² Usulis discuss it in the question of the unrestricted and the restricted text when the cause is one but the rulings differ. ² Most jurists allow one cause to produce two rulings if the rulings do not contradict each other. ³

Summary

The sabab, in the terms of jurists and usulis, is an apparent and regular attribute to which the Lawgiver attached a ruling; its presence entails the ruling and its absence entails none. ¹ Unity of the cause means that several causes are alike, belong to one class, or are one. ²

Sabab and illa

Scholars disagree whether sabab and illa are synonyms, distinct, or related as general and particular. On the first view the same definition serves both and neither needs a connection to the ruling; on the second, the sabab conveys a ruling without influence while the illa conveys it with influence. ²

Overlap of effects

Overlap (tadakhul) is one effect following from two different causes. Unity of causes and overlap cross each other: repeated theft, which calls for amputation, is a case of several similar causes whose effects overlap. ²

The unrestricted and the restricted text

When an unrestricted and a restricted text give different rulings, the unrestricted is not read as restricted. The Shafi'is and those who agree with them read the unrestricted text in the light of the restricted one when cause and ruling are the same, to join the two texts. ² ³

One cause, two rulings

The preferred view allows one cause to produce two rulings, either affirmed or denied, provided the rulings do not contradict each other. ³

Where it is discussed

The jurists treat it under purity, fasting, ihram, confession, the hudud, oaths and offences against persons; the usulis treat it under the unrestricted and restricted texts. ³

Biting and the liability for injury it causes (add)

In the lexicon, add is gripping a thing with the teeth and holding it. If a person bites another without right and a wound results, the biter must pay the damages for the wound, assessed as a just award by experts. If one man bites another's hand and the bitten man pulls it free so that the biter's front teeth fall out, most jurists hold that there is no liability, relying on a prophetic judgement in such a case; the Shafi'is limit this to a bitten man who chose the easiest means of release, and the preferred Maliki view requires compensation.

Unity of the cause (ittihad al-sabab)

At a glance