SHARIAH AND SUFISM: HERMENEUTICAL APPROACHES (LEGAL HERMENEUTICS IN HAKIM TIRMIDHI’S WORKS)

Abstract

The article discusses the differences in the approaches of Islamic jurists and Sufis to issues related to Islamic jurisprudence. Unlike jurists, the Sufis, who advocated that Islamic jurisprudence should cover the spiritual aspects of issues, were able to discover the mystical-legal hermeneutics of sacred texts. Imam Shafi’i is considered the founder of legal hermeneutics thanks to his work “ar-Risala”. It should be noted that Abu Hanifa and Imam Malik, who lived before Imam Shafi’i, also worked on legal hermeneutics. A huge number of judicial decisions of the madhhabs were issued on the basis of the rules developed by them regarding usul al-fiqh. The article emphasizes that Shafi’i’s “ar-Risala” is the first written source and deserves special attention. Tirmidhi always avoided a literal understanding of sacred texts and chose the path of interpretation (ta’wil). Tirmidhi defined the word “ta’wil” as “searching for the beginning of a problem, studying it from the very beginning”. Tirmidhi mentions a special kind of scholars who can interpret. At the same time, Tirmidhi interprets the story of al-Mithaq: before the creation of Adam, mankind passed through three stages. At the first stage, Allah brought all mankind to Himself and illuminated them with His light. People were divided into infidels, blasphemers and believers, depending on their share of this light. At the second stage, after 50 thousand years, God created Adam. At the third stage, in the day of al-Mithaq, God received a covenant from the spirits of all mankind, who will be born before the Day of Resurrection.