In Sunni Islamic jurisprudence, qiyas (Arabic
قياس) is the process of analogical reasoning from a known
injunction (nass) to a new injunction. According to this method,
the ruling of the Quran and sunnah may be extended to a new
problem provided that the precedent (asl) and the new problem
(far) share the same operative or effective cause (illah). The
illah is the specific set of circumstances that trigger a
certain law into action. Both Sunni Islam and Shi'a Islam share
Qur'anic interpretation, the Sunnah, and Ijma' (consensus) as
sources of Islamic law, although the two sects differ
significantly with regards to the manner in which they use these
sources. The sects also differ on the fourth source. Sunni Islam
uses qiyas as the fourth source, whereas Shi'a Islam uses 'aql
(intellect). Other methods of deducing the law, such as mafhm
al-nass (the clear implication of the text), tamthil (similarity
or likeness), istihsan (juristic preference), or istislah
(consideration of public interest), either explicitly rely on
qiyas or use methods of analysis that are similar in their
approach to qiyas.
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