Rules change from time and place according to the Masālih — from Ibn Bazīza al-Mālikī

An excerpt from a research paper that I am hoping to publish soon, a short excerpt from ‘Matāmih ul-Ifhām Shar’h Kitāb ul-Ahkām’:

𝐑𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐚𝐬ā𝐥𝐢𝐡

Ibn Bazīza al-Mālikī citing Imām al-Usaylī Ibn Bazīza¹ the Tunisian Maliki theologian, hadīth scholar and specialist in Islamic jurisprudence in his commentary on the “smaller collection of legal hadīth”² (Ahkām ul-Sughra) of the renowned Sevillian scholar of hadīth, Abd al-Haq Ishbīlī³, expands on the prophetic statement to his wife Ā’isha: “O’ Ā’isha, had your people not recently been pagans, I would have demolished the Ka’ba and rebuilt it on the foundations laid down by Ibrāhīm (Abraham), as the Quraysh when they rebuilt it they reduced its size!”⁴, saying: “these hadīth are explicit (zāhira), in them, there is clear consideration given to the masālih (best outcomes and interests) and acting accordingly.” Ibn Bazīza cites an earlier authority in Maliki usūl ul-fiqh, stating: “Abū Muhammad al-Usaylī took from this a fine principle (qā’idah hasana) and that is: rules change according to the masālih, and built on this many masā’Il (questions of jurisprudence) in matters related to marriage (nikāh) and others⁵.”

¹https://app.alreq.com/ar/Authors/Author/08d9062d-e8e4-4f3e-823f-2609dacd1d14

²https://journals.uom.edu.pk/murjis/article/view/153

³For a full translation of the whole hadīth see here: https://www.iium.edu.my/deed/hadith/muslim/007a_smt.html

⁴The editor explains this is: Abdullān bin Ibrāhīm bin Muhammad bin Abdullāh bin Ja'far - he states Dr Yūnus Dayf has a treatise written on him and his life titled “Abū Muhammad Abdullāh bin Ibrāhīm al-Usaylī (died 392Hijri) - Imām, Muhadith, Faqīh”, and states despite his honorific status among Muslim scholarship little of his own works have survived save what exists in the biographical literature, and commentaries on hadīth where he is cited (such as our example) and in works of fiqh. This was published by the Rābita Muhammadiyya in Morocco.

⁵ Ibn Bazīza, pages 428-429 volume 1, 2023, ‘Matāmih ul-Ifhām Shar'h Kitāb ul-Ahkām - “Shar'h Ahkām ul-Sughra li-Abd al-Haq al-Ishbīlī’’, published by al-Asfār, Kuwait.