| المستخلص: |
The Islamic civilization has produced a vast heritage in all of the various sciences and arts. Among those who enriched the Islamic tradition and diligently contrib¬uted in propagating Islamic culture Is the erudite Jalal ad-Deen as-Suyuti. This study comprises three discussions: 1- The age during which as-Suyuti lived. 2- A sketch of his life. 3- His influence on the science of the Principles of ju¬risprudence. The first discussion expounds the sate of weakness and fragility that the experienced by the Islamic commu¬nity had fallen into sometime before the second half of the seventh century AD. It explains how, by the will of Allah to protect His religion and preserve His Book, Egypt and al-Sham became the flag-bearers of knowl¬edge and led the Islamic scientific, literal, religious, and political movements. These countries in the same king¬dom with its capital at Cairo all spoke the same tongue, the Arabic language, and became the only sanctuary for Arab [scholars] with the aim of preserving Islam. The second discussion presents as-Suyuti's biography, upbringing, studies, his scholarly career- writing and issuing fatwas, the sciences he studied in depth as well as those he found difficult, al-Sakhawi's criticism of him and the defense of later scholars against this criti¬cism, and as-Suyuti's call to absolute ijtihad [personal reasoning]. In the third discussion, the researcher discusses the status of the science of the Principles of Jurisprudence in the thought of the Sheikh, for it is one of the most influential sciences on the development of a juristic intellect. Biographers of as-Suyuti have stated that he authored five books on the Principles of Jurispru¬dence. The researcher examined as-Suyuti's book Ar- Rad 'ala man Akhlada ila al-'Ard wa Jahala an al-Ijtihad fi kul 'Asr Fard . The first of its four chapters deals with the ruling for ijtihad, the second deals with the issue of whether any era may be void of a mujtahid, the third comprises instructions of the salaf and khalaf (the Pre¬decessors and Successors) and their encouragement of ijtihad, while the fourth is entitled 'Fawa'id manthura tata'alaq bil-ijtihad' (Miscellaneous benefits related to ijtihad). In the last, the researcher devotes a section to a brief study of as-Suyuti's book Taqrir al-lstinad fi Tafseer al- Ijtihad. He starts off by saying that ijtihad is from among the communal obligations and proceeds to once again take up briefly the issue of an era being void of a mu¬jtahid. He then goes on to mention the conditions of ijtihad and lists the sciences which are necessary for engaging in it.
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