Investigating the Distinctive Attributes of Imam Shawkani in Resolving Conflicts: A Research Study

Abstract

The texts are sometimes apparently contradictory. The jurists and Muhaddiseen try to resolve this conflict in their own way. Imam Showkani has adopted two types of methods to resolve the conflict; One is conflict resolution by implementation and the other is conflict resolution by prioritization. Resolving the conflict through adaptation means considering the meaning of the texts and their meaning should be proved in such a way that the apparent contradiction between them is eliminated and it becomes possible to act on both the texts simultaneously. Imam Showkani is convinced of implementation as much as possible and adopts three methods for this; One is implementation by way of statement of difference, second is implementation by superimposition of absolute to limited and third is implementation by superimposition of general to particular. And the meaning of resolving conflict by preference is that if the meaning of two conflicting texts cannot be reconciled, then one of them should be declared as Rajah  (راجح)and the other as Marjuh(مرجوح) . Imam Showkani also adopts this in unavoidable cases and adopts three methods for it; the first is the priority based on the sanad (سند), the second is the priority based on the text (متن) and the third is the priority due to some reason other than the text and the sanad.