What is the difference between the general and the absolute, and between the specific and the restricted, in the principles of jurisprudence?
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The questioner:
What is the difference between the general and the absolute, and between the specific and the restricted, in the principles of jurisprudence?
The Shaykh:
The general applies to the entities, whereas the absolute applies to the attributes. The absolute is in the attributes and the general is in the entities; this is the difference between them. What is it?
The questioner:
And the specific and the restricted.
The Shaykh:
Yes, the absolute is in the attributes, and the restricted is restricted by a specific attribute. For example, Allah the Exalted said:[Al-Mujadila 58:3] This is absolute regarding any neck, meaning any slave. However, in another verse it says, "the freeing of a believing neck," so the absolute is restricted by the word "believing." The phrase "the freeing of a neck" is absolute, and it is restricted by the phrase "the freeing of a believing neck." Therefore, the absolute is interpreted according to the restricted.
What is the difference between the general and the absolute, and between the specific and the restricted, in the principles of jurisprudence?
The Shaykh:
The general applies to the entities, whereas the absolute applies to the attributes. The absolute is in the attributes and the general is in the entities; this is the difference between them. What is it?
The questioner:
And the specific and the restricted.
The Shaykh:
Yes, the absolute is in the attributes, and the restricted is restricted by a specific attribute. For example, Allah the Exalted said:
then [there must be] the freeing of a slave before
فَتَحْرِيرُ رَقَبَةٍ مِّن قَبْلِ أَن
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما الفرق بين العام والمطلق وبين الخاص والمقيد في علم الأصول؟ للشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.