The College of Islamic Sciences at the University of Karbala witnessed the defense of a Master’s thesis entitled: “The References of Conflicting States of Wording in the Usuli Tradition”, presented by the researcher Rashid Ghadir Eidi Muhsin.
The study aims to deepen the Usuli understanding of Islamic texts by analyzing the science of conflicting states of wording, regarded as a central discipline in developing juristic aptitude, due to its role in comprehending complex jurisprudential issues.
The researcher adopted an analytical inductive methodology, tracking the meanings of wording through three main stages:
- Stage of Familiarity – addressing the apparent conflict between the principles of polysemy and transfer.
- Stage of Usage – examining the role of criteria such as majority, prevalence, strength, and contextual indicators.
- Stage of Seriousness – based on the principle of outward meaning and mechanisms of preference between conflicting interpretations.
The dissertation highlighted several Usuli conflicts such as: metaphor and ellipsis, specification and polysemy, generality and restriction, and differences in perspective or transmission, explaining their impact on interpreting texts, understanding legal objectives, and applying jurisprudential rulings.
The research concluded with several significant findings, including:
- Enhancing the Usuli scholar’s ability to distinguish between overlapping meanings.
- Presenting an integrated methodology for understanding Islamic texts in cases of conflicting wording.
- Supporting the process of preferring between conflicting evidences in a way that enriches Islamic jurisprudence and develops tools of ijtihad.
