While jurisprudents agree that the Sharia serves to benefit human beings because God is wise and merciful, they disagree as to the nature of the correlation between God’s rulings and these benefits. Does God legislate with the purpose of benefitting consumers of the law? In this essay I investigate the Ashʿari doctrine on whether God can be said to act purposively and how this doctrine influences legal theory (usul al-fiqh). I will examine Sayf al-Din al-Amidi’s position on this issue in his theological writings and his work on legal theory. By focusing on one particular aspect of legal theory, I will demonstrate how the issue of purposiveness in God’s acts substantively impacts methodologies for the derivation of legal rules. I will then highlight the mechanisms al-Amidi develops as a means of constructing a theory that maintains consistency and integrity, and compare his view to that of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (d. 606/1209).

中文翻译：

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神圣目的性及其在法律理论中的含义：Kalām 和 Uṣūl al-Fiqh 的相互作用


虽然法理学家同意伊斯兰教法有益于人类，因为上帝是明智和仁慈的，但他们不同意上帝的统治与这些利益之间相关性的性质。上帝立法的目的是使法律的消费者受益吗？在这篇文章中，我研究了 Ashʿari 教义关于是否可以说上帝是有目的的行为以及该教义如何影响法律理论（usul al-fiqh）。我将在 Sayf al-Din al-Amidi 的神学著作和法律理论著作中考察他在这个问题上的立场。通过关注法律理论的一个特定方面，我将展示上帝行为中的目的性问题如何实质性地影响推导法律规则的方法论。