Understanding Usul Al-Fiqh by Abu Tariq Hilal - Abu Ismael al-Beirawi

Some jurists have coined the term „Asbab an-nuzool‟ for incidents that the revelation came to clarify.

The question arises, do these Ahkam remain specific to these incidents and not go beyond them or do we apply these Ahkam on every similar incident?

The answer is, these Ahkam are applied on every similar incident and this is established in two ways:

1. By examining all the Ayat which were revealed clarifying the rules of these incidents we find that they came with expressions that were general and not specific and hence they must be taken in their generality.

2. The Messenger (saw) took these Ahkam in their generality and applied them on every similar incident.

So the Ayah of stealing was revealed regarding the theft of Majn or Rida of Safwaan, the Ayah of Zihar with regards to Salamah bint Sakhar or Khawlah bint Tha‟labah the wife of Aws b. Saamit, the Ayah of imprecation (Li‟aan) regarding Hilal b. Umayyah. Even though they were all revealed regarding specific incidences the Messenger (saw) and the Sahabah (may Allah be pleased with them) took them as general due to their general form and they applied them on every similar incident. This is proven by the Sunnah and Ijma of the Sahabah.

It was from these evidences that the follwing Shari‟ah principle was deduced: „The consideration is for the generality of the expression and not for the specificity of the cause‟ (Al-„ibra bi „umoom al-lafz laa bi khususiyyat as-sabab).