Abstract
From an early period on, debates over matters of Islamic Jurisprudence (Fiqh) were performed in accordance with a certain methodology. In fact, when performing these debates, certain types of questions and answers were selected, and the questions were arranged carefully, all in accordance with this methodology. This enabled parties involved to demonstrate both validities of their own, and invalidity of their opponents, in their arguments without running into contradiction. The present work deals with first the science of Jadal and its application to Islamic Jurisprudence and then analyzes a debate over divorce narrated to be taken place between two prominent scholars well-known for their abilities to perform debate well, namely, the Ḥanafīte scholar Qudūrī and the Shāfiʿite scholar Abū al-Ṭayyib al-Ṭabarī. This debate includes both the ways in which both scholars deduce their legal opinions and objections one has over the other’s opinion. Qudūrī argues that a woman divorced by way of mukhālaʿa can be subject to rijʿī divorce during her ʿidda while Ṭabarī argues that a divorce in such a case would be invalid. At the core of this debate lies the fact that Qudūrī syllogizes woman divorced by way of mukhālaʿa to one who is divorced by way of rijʿī divorce. Ṭabarī makes use of such ways of questioning as muṭālaba, iʿtirāḍ, and muʿāraḍa while Qudūrī tries to establish the validity of the ʿilla of the two cases that he comes up with. When examining this debate, which is important also thanks to the references it makes here and there to the rules of debate, the present work shows how the information provided in the section on the application of Jadal to Islamic Jurisprudence was put into practice.