Piecing Together (Talfiq)

Abstract

This chapter supplements the preceding chapter on selection. Piecing together (talfiq) here means that the jurist may take only a part of an existing position in one of the schools and another part from another school, and then piece them together in order to provide a suitable response to a given question. None of these segmented positions would individually validate the outcome so obtained, but when pieced together a permissive ruling is arrived at. For these reasons, and the complexity that talfiq may entail, it is viewed with a degree of circumspection. Talfiq may consist of merging of the opinions of several schools of thought, or individual scholars, into one position that is often dissimilar to all the others, and that did not exist before.