Semantic Principles of Islamic Law

Paying attention to the lingual analysis of the legal concepts and propositions is one of the most important sections studied in philosophy of law. The nature of the science of law necessitates its intermingling with words; law, contract, verdict, legal authorship, all have to be put into words to be understood and executed. The first stage of understanding a text or a speech – including a legal proposition – is to understand its meaning. Thus, this research seeks to find a semantic pretext for legal propositions. There is much material in this respect in analytical philosophy and the science of semantics, which has helped legal experts have better understanding of law. Nevertheless, Iranian legal logic and principles of law have been adopted from the principles of jurisprudence. The legal theorists (uṣūlīs) have proposed many discourses on the meaning of legal terms and the relation between words and meanings. Concerning the relation between a word and its meaning, it is opined that this relation is essential and conventional. Similarly, most of the legal theorists consider the object or dependant (muta‘allaq) of the meaning of non-conventional words as rational nature or percipient. Acceptance of any of these approaches has a direct impact on the legal experts’ attitude towards law, particularly in exegesis (tafsīr).