quality:corruption
Parts of the Shiite Uṣūl al-Fiqh

Discussions of this science are presented in various parts in the works of uṣūl al-fiqh. However, the best division is presented by al-Muhaqqiq al-Isfahani (d. 1940) in his last course of teaching (as narrated by his great student Muhammad Rida al-Muzaffar in his Uṣūl al-Fiqh, p. 11) according to which all uṣūlī topics are discussed in the four following parts: Discussions of "terms," of "intellectual implications," of "the authority," and of "practical principles."Discussions of terms deal with denotations and appearances of terms from a general aspect, such as appearance of the imperative in the obligation, that of the prohibition in the unlawfulness, and the like.Discussions of intellectual implications survey implications of precepts even though such precepts may not be inferred from terms, such as discussing truthfulness of mutual implication of intellectual judgments and juristic precepts, of obligation of something necessitating obligation of its preliminaries (known as "the problem of preliminary of the mandatory act"), of obligation of something necessitating unlawfulness of its opposite (known as "the problem of the opposite"), of possibility of conjunction of the command and the prohibition, and so on.Discussions of the authority investigate whether some specific thing is juristically treated as a proof; for instance, whether report of a single transmitter, appearances, appearances of the Quran, Sunna, consensus, intellect, and the like are authoritative proofs.Discussions of practical principles deal with what the jurist refers to when he cannot find a persuasive proof, such as the principle of clearance from obligation, that of precaution, and so forth.