al-Mustaṣfā: the logic prolegomenon

Al-Mustaṣfā, written in 503/1109, is al-Ghazālī's last work on uṣūl al-fiqh, and it opens with a summary of logic: definition, the syllogism and the conditions of proof. Al-Ghazālī was the first to give logic its own section in a work of uṣūl, and he states that logic is the precondition of all sciences, so that the knowledge of one who does not master it cannot be trusted. Few later uṣūlīs followed him; Ibn Qudāma and Ibn al-Ḥājib did, and Ibn Qudāma was criticised for it, while Ibn Rushd accepted that logic is necessary but objected to placing it inside a work of uṣūl. The prolegomenon became a much-read text and a landmark in the integration of logic into Sunnī legal theory.

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