Islamic juristic reasoning uses analogy to extend prohibitions to adjacent situations

Evidence

As she expected, the phone call between the COSA and her father resolved nothing. The two men agreed to meet instead. Yasmin had told her father about the COSA’s idea of her sitting in another room during the dance, and her father sought advice on the idea. He called up Sheikh Ibrahim, a local African-American Muslim leader who, Ismail figured, had grown up in New York and so was familiar with both American ways and Muslim doctrines. Ismail asked him if his daughter could attend the dances, and, as expected, the sheikh said that she should not. Ismail then asked if she could go but sit in the basement. The sheikh’s answer employed analogical reasoning. If you’re in a drug house, he rationalized, and it’s a three-bedroom house, and somebody is using drugs in one of the bedrooms, when the police come, you will still be arrested as being a part of that house. His answer was resolute and categorical. She could not attend the dances. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 365

Categorization

• DEFINE: Illustrates analogical reasoning (qiyas) in Islamic legal reasoning with a concrete example.
• XREF: Connects to my interest in how premodern legal/theological reasoning methods persist in modern Muslim-American communities. — connects to: Judges expand or narrow precedent by reasoning analogically, not mechanically. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1278