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What are the books that deal with legal maxims in detail, such as "There shall be no harm or reciprocating harm" and "Warding off harm takes precedence over gaining benefits," knowing that Abu Hanifa established more than forty legal maxims?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

"Islamic legal maxims are fundamental, overarching principles that encompass general legislative rulings. Their sources are the Quran, the Sunnah, and the sayings of jurists. Their codification began late, after the stabilization of the madhhabs (schools of thought) and the emergence of fanaticism towards them. The Hanafis were the first to compile them, with Al-Dabbas abridging Abu Hanifa's maxims into seventeen rules. Subsequently, scholars continued to collect and author them within each madhhab. Among their most famous books are "Usul al-Karkhi" for the Hanafis, "Al-Furuq" for the Malikis, "Qawa'id al-Ahkam" for the Shafi'is, and "Al-Qawa'id al-Nuraniyyah" for the Hanbalis."

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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