Study plan
Weeks and tasks. Tick what you finish; progress is saved in your browser.
Week 1
The whole system in one week
Draw the inference pipeline from memory and place every chapter on it.
Week 2
Foundations and history of the discipline
Define usul al-fiqh, distinguish it from fiqh and legal maxims, and know the schools of writing and their main books.
Week 3
The legal ruling
Classify rulings as obligating or declaratory, and distinguish fard/wajib and fasid/batil in the Hanafi school.
Week 4
Qur'an, Sunna and abrogation
Weigh textual evidence by its transmission, know each school's conditions for solitary reports, and tell abrogation from specification.
Week 5
Consensus and analogy
Break an analogy into its pillars, derive its cause by a recognised method, and know the grades of consensus.
Week 6
Disputed sources
Know who relies on each disputed source, under what limits, and with what results.
Week 7
Linguistic principles, command and prohibition
Know the particles on which rulings turn and what command and prohibition entail in each school.
Week 8
General and specific, absolute and qualified
Identify general terms and their specifiers, the Hanafi view that the general is definitive, and the cases of reading the absolute by the qualified.
Week 9
Modes of signification and conflict of evidence
Name a mode of signification in both Hanafi and majority terms, and resolve a conflict by each method's order.
Week 10
Objectives and ijtihad
Use the objectives within the limits of the texts, and know the conditions and ranks of the mujtahid.
Week 11
Following a school and reading the classical texts
Know how the relied-upon position of a school is determined, and parse a passage from an unfamiliar classical text.
Week 12
Usul at work
Trace a fiqh disagreement to its usul root, and know how to continue studying.