A Guide to Jurisprudential Issues in Confession

Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success and reward you with good. Regarding the issues the author (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned in the two previous chapters on confession, is there any explicit textual evidence for them that they did not mention? Or are they matters of independent legal reasoning?

Answer:
My brother, fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) may have explicit textual evidence from the Book and the Sunnah, or it may have an operative cause, or it may fall under a legal maxim. You know the maxims of fiqh, you know the principles of jurisprudence, and you know that it is not necessary for every issue to have a verse or a hadith. That is not necessary. Yes, the verse and the hadith are the foundation, but an issue may fall within a general text, or fall under a legal maxim, such as a jurisprudential maxim, or it may be part of a general text that has many meanings beneath it, or it may have an operative cause. It may have an operative cause without there being a textual proof, rather it is an operative cause or analogical reasoning. Fiqh is broad, my brothers. It is not the case that for every issue you say, "No, give me a verse or a hadith, or what?" No, that is not correct. Fiqh has principles, maxims, sources, and foundations that are not suitable except for a scholar who understands fiqh and the sources of the jurists. As for what some of them say, "This has no evidence, so just leave it," that is the saying of people, that is the saying of men, it is not this correct, nor is it this seeking of knowledge, and this is the student of knowledge. So be aware of this matter. Yes.