What is the ruling on dividing the rulings of the Shari'ah into principles and branches?

The questioner : Well, Shaykh, I mean, there is also disagreement among students of knowledge regarding the terminology of "principles" and "branches," and the words of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, and although he uses it frequently in his speech, and I have also heard you mention this terminology in some of your sessions, is there any objection to using this terminology, dividing the rulings of the Shari'ah and the matters of the Shari'ah into principles and branches?

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you. As you know, there is no dispute over terminology, but this is not an absolute statement. If one agrees on a term and does not intend by it to belittle one of the two categories, since both are from the Shari'ah, or to give it a status in the Shari'ah that the Shari'ah did not give it, then there is no dispute over terminology. We leave this agreed-upon division for now and come to the division of worship, for example, into obligatory (fard) and recommended practice (sunnah), without the other details. There is no objection to this division, even though it did not exist previously, because it is not intended for its own sake, but rather to clarify legal realities. We say "fard" and "sunnah." The term "sunnah" as the opposite of "fard" did not appear in the Shari'ah, in the Sunnah, let alone in the Qur'an. However, "voluntary" (tatawwu') appeared in place of "sunnah," and that is in the hadith of Talhah ibn Abi 'Ubayd Allah, in which it is stated that . And on this occasion, I point out that the addition "and his father" is anomalous, and it must have passed by you, if Allah wills. The point is that the Shari'ah made worship into two categories: obligatory and voluntary. Then it was agreed to name the voluntary "sunnah," and then the sunnah was divided into other categories. There is no objection to this division. Similarly, for example, the division of rulings that fall within the scope of prohibitions, dividing them into what is forbidden with a definitive prohibition, which is the forbidden (haram), and what is forbidden with some consideration regarding the way it was transmitted or the way of its indication, so this category was called "disliked" (makruh) in terms of prohibition. And opposite to this "disliked in terms of prohibition" is "disliked in terms of recommendation" (makruh tanzihan). So we also say there is no objection to this terminology, on the condition that when we find the word "dislike" (karahah) used in the Book or the Sunnah, we do not interpret it with the later terminology, which is "dislike in terms of recommendation," but rather we interpret it in light of the Arabic, Qur'anic, and Shari'ic terminology. And so, if we know this reality and return to the division of the Shari'ah in general into principles and branches, there is also no objection to this division, with the condition mentioned earlier. But I see, with great regret, that this division has not stopped at this condition, but has been abolished, especially in the present age, the age of trials and chaos, and so on. They have come to call the Shari'ah, dividing it into two other innovated categories, saying the Shari'ah is the core and the shell, and that we should not concern ourselves with the shell today, but rather with the core. This is said by many individuals of the parties, and I do not say the parties as a whole, to be fair. When the division reaches this extreme division, then we say that it is not permissible in the Shari'ah, ever. And it followed from this division in the Old Covenant that they reached the point of dividing the hadiths of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) into taking them in the branches but not in the principles.