الحمد لله الذي هدانا إلى الصراط المستقيم و الصلوة على من اختص بالخلق العظيم وعلى آله الذين قاموا بنصرة الدين القويم.
All praise belongs to Allāh who has guided us to the straight path; peace be upon the one who has been chosen with the best of character, and upon his family, those who are steadfast in helping the true religion.
اعلم أن أصول الشرع ثلاثة الكتاب و السنة و إجماع الأمّة و الأصل الرابع القياس.
Know that the sources of the sharīʿah are three: the Qurʾān, the Sunnah, and the consensus of the ummah; and the fourth source is qiyās (analogical reasoning).
The commentators note that ʿAllāmah al-Nasafī uses the phrase أصول الشرع (the sources of the sharīʿah) rather than أصول الفقه (the sources of jurisprudence) in order to indicate that the three sources cover not only fiqh but ʿaqīdah as well. This is the position of the mutaqaddimūn; the mutaʾakhkhirūn disagree.
Why does the author mention three sources of the sharīʿah and then add a fourth? Several reasons are offered. One is that qiyās is itself derived from the preceding three.
A second reason for treating qiyās as a fourth source is that, unlike the other three, it is not qaṭʿī. One might object: is all the evidence from the Book and the Sunnah qaṭʿī? Is all qiyās ẓannī? The reply is that the majority is what counts: most of the evidence from the Book and the Sunnah is qaṭʿī, while most inferences from qiyās are ẓannī.
The author's use of الرابع (the fourth) signals the order in which qiyās stands: it is consulted only after the first three. Where a ruling can be drawn from one of those three, there is no need for qiyās.
أما الكتاب فالقران المنزّل على الرسول المكتوب في مصاحف المنقول عنه نقلا متواترا بلا شبهة
As for the Book, it is the Qurʾān: revealed upon the Messenger ﷺ, written in the codices, transmitted from him by mass-narration (tawātur), without any doubt.
The condition of tawātur has been added to the definition of the Qurʾān to exclude rare readings, such as the qirāʾah of Ubayy on the qaḍāʾ of Ramaḍān (فعدة من أيام أخر متتابعات), or the qirāʾah of Ibn Masʿūd on the punishment for stealing (فاقطعوا أيمانهما), where the Qurʾān itself has ﴿فاقطعوا أيديهما﴾.
و هو اسم للنظم والمعنى جميعا
And it (the Qurʾān) is a name for the wording (naẓm) and the meaning (maʿnā) together.
The reason meaning is mentioned alongside wording here is to negate Imām Abū Ḥanīfah's once-held view that it is permissible to perform ṣalāh in Persian for those who do not know Arabic. Imām Abū Ḥanīfah held that the meaning of the Qurʾān is what is decisive, and that the naẓm is not imperative; concentrating on the Arabic, in his earlier view, would detract from one's focus and humility in ṣalāh. He later retracted this position.
و إنما تعرف أحكام الشرع بمعرفة أقسامهما و ذلك أربعة
The rulings of the sharīʿah are known by recognising the divisions of these two (the naẓm and the maʿnā), and the divisions of these two are four.
الأول في وجوه النظم صيغة و لغة و هي أربعة الخاص و العام و المشترك و المؤوّل
The first is in terms of the wording, its grammatical form, and its lexical meaning; and it is of four kinds: Khāṣṣ (specific), ʿāmm (general), mushtarak (homonymous), and muʾawwal (interpreted).
These will be illustrated with examples later in the text.
و الثاني في وجوه البيان بذلك النظم و هي أربعة أيضا الظاهر و النص و المفسّر و المحكم و لهذه الأربعة أربعة تقابلها و هي الخفي والمشكل والمجمل والمتشابه
The second is in terms of the clarity of the wording, and it is also of four kinds: Ẓāhir (manifest), naṣṣ (definitive), mufassar (explicated), and muḥkam (decisive). For these four there are four counterparts: Khafī (hidden), mushkil (problematic), mujmal (succinct), and mutashābih (ambiguous).
و الثالث في وجوه استعمال ذلك النظم و هي أربعة أيضا الحقيقة و المجاز و الصريح والكناية
The third is in terms of the usage of that wording; and it too is of four kinds: Ḥaqīqah (literal), majāz (figurative), ṣarīḥ (explicit), and kināyah (allusive).
و الرابع في معرفة وجوه الوقوف على المراد و هي أربعة أيضا الاستدلال بعبارة النص و بإشارته و بدلالته و باقتضائه.
The fourth is in terms of how one ascertains the intended meaning; and it is of four kinds: inference by the text's ʿibārah (sentence brought for that purpose), its ishārah (allusion not brought for that purpose), its dalālah (a meaning the wording requires), and its iqtiḍāʾ (implication, e.g. الحمدلله implies "there is no god but Allāh").
و بعد معرفة هذه الأقسام قسم خامس يشمل الكل و هو أربعة أيضا معرفة مواضعها و معانيها و ترتيبها و أحكامها.
After knowing these (twenty) categories, a fifth category encompasses them all; and it too is of four parts: knowing their wuḍūʿ (placement and definition), their maʿnā (meaning), their tartīb (order), and their aḥkām (rulings).
وحكم الأمر نوعان أداء و هو تسليم عين الواجب بالأمر و قضاء و هو تسليم مثل الواجب به The ruling of …
ʿAllāmah al-Nasafī defines _khāṣṣ_ as any utterance fixed for a single known meaning, whether of a genus, a species, or an individual, and lays out its ruling and seven subsidiary applications.
ولا يقتضي التكرار و لا يحتمله: and the amr does not demand repetition, nor does it encompass it. The difference between mūjib and muḥtamil, and how the Aḥnāf account for the repetition of acts of worship through their asbāb.
وكذا اسم الفاعل يدل على المصدر ولا يحتمل العدد حتى لا يراد بآية السرقة إلا سرقة واحدة وبالفعلالواحد لا تقطع إلا يد واحدة …
