Shabah (resemblance, a ground of analogy in usul)

In language shabah is likeness, and one who is like another is said to be like him. The technical sense does not depart from the lexical one. ¹ The usulis define it as an attribute whose fitness to the ruling is not understood when considered in itself, yet fitness is supposed in it because the lawgiver attended to it in some cases. Others define it as what is not fit in itself but gives the appearance of fitness. It is one of the ways of identifying a cause, and deducing a ruling by it is called analogy of resemblance. ² An example: in removing impurity, the cleaning is for prayer, so water is required and no other liquid may be used as for minor impurity; the fitness between being a cleaning for prayer and requiring water is not clear. ²

The fitting attribute (munasib) is what suits the custom of rational people. ² Concomitance (tard) is the ruling accompanying an attribute without fitness; the converse (aks) is the absence of the ruling when the attribute is absent; and circling (dawaran) is both together. ³ Shabah therefore lies between fitness and concomitance: like concomitance it is not fitting in itself, and like fitness the lawgiver attended to it in general, which gives the appearance of fitness. ³

Al-Shafi'i holds it a proof because it resembles the fitting attribute. Some Shafi'is hold that shabah is a cause, not a method, accepted only if established by another method; Ibn al-Hajib among the Malikis agrees. The Hanafis reject it, as do al-Baqillani, Abu Bakr al-Sayrafi and Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi among the Shafi'is, because it resembles concomitance. ⁵ The full treatment is in the usuli appendix. ⁵

The Shafi'is and Hanbalis attach a foundling to whomever the physiognomist (qa'if) attaches him, since the resemblance he perceives is evidence; they cite the report of Aisha about Mujazziz al-Mudlaji who looked at Zayd and Usama and said that some of these feet come from others. ³ The Hanafis hold that a foundling's lineage is established by a claim alone and do not rely on resemblance, which is guesswork: strangers may resemble one another and relatives may not. They cite the report of the Bedouin whose wife bore a black son, when the Prophet ﷺ said perhaps the colour came from an ancestor. ⁴ The Malikis hold that a foundling's lineage is established only by proof or indication, and do not rely on the physiognomist for the foundling, though they use resemblance in cases such as the mixing of the children of a man's wife and of his slave-woman. ⁴ See the entries on physiognomy, the foundling and lineage. ⁵