The Nature of Signatory Rulings with Focus on Criticism of some Contemporary Scholars’ Opinions

 A portion of Islamic teachings apart from devotions and obligatory deeds are signatory rulings, i.e. the rulings in which the sharia legislator has not made any new adjustments and has acted upon the conduct of the intellectuals.  Having defined the signatory rulings, the present research has discussed issues on the nature of signatory ruling in three sections: the first section is dedicated to the difference of signatory rulings to recommendatory commands and prohibitions, the issue which has been mistakenly considered as the same; the second section is to answer this question that if signatory rulings are regarded as a category of sharia rulings or they are merely about intellectual affairs which have nothing to do with the sharia legislator per se. The third issue deals with the division of signatory rulings into the desired and imposed as claimed by some contemporary legal researchers. The results of this research prove the criticism of these three contemporary opinions with respect to signatory rulings that has not been conducted earlier. [1]