istiḥsān

istiḥsān, in Islamic law, juristic discretion—i.e., the use of a jurist’s own judgment to determine the best solution to a religious problem that cannot be solved by simply citing sacred texts. Istiḥsān found special application as Islam spread to new lands and encountered new environments. Proponents of istiḥsān believe that Muhammad sanctioned this procedure when he said: “Whatever true Muslims prefer, is preferable in the eyes of God.” Most religious authorities restrict the use of istiḥsān to cases that cannot be satisfactorily solved by applying such other well-established norms as analogy (qiyās) and consensus (ijmāʿ). Certain prominent theologians, however, among them Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Shāfiʿī (died 820), forbade the use of istiḥsān altogether, fearful that true knowledge and correct interpretation of religious obligations would suffer from arbitrary judgments infused with error. The followers of Abū Ḥanīfah (died 767) held the modified view that istiḥsān is in fact a form of analogy because any judgment about what is best necessarily follows careful consideration of all alternative solutions.