Concise Introduction to Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence Based on al-Waraqat By Imam al-Harmayn [Part 10]
1. The Exception
The exception is excluding some of the general utterances by using words of exception. If it had not been for the exception, the excluded things would be included in the general utterance.
For example, Allah says, interpretation of meaning, (By the time! Indeed, man in loss save those who believe, perform righteous deeds, exhort one another to adhere to the truth, and exhort one another to be steadfast.) [Surah al-Asr: 1-3]
Conditions of Connected Specification by Exception
• Some of the things from which the exception is made remain. For example, we cannot say, ‘Honor the students except the students.’ We can say, ‘Honor the students except the lazy.’ If a man said to his wife, ‘You are divorced three times except for three times.’ This is an invalid exception as there is nothing that remains from the excluded thing.
• The speech is connected. For example, if someone says, ‘Honor the men.’ Then, after one day, he says, ‘except Zaid.’ This is an invalid exception because there is a long time separating the exception and the thing from which the exception is made.
• The excluded thing can be mentioned before the thing from which the exception is made. For example, ‘except Zaid, no one stands.’ The original statement is ‘No one stands except Zaid.’
• The excluded thing may belong or may not belong to the class/kind from which the exception is made. For example, ‘The men came except Zaid. The men and Zaid are human beings. In the Arabic language, the following sentence can be said, ‘The people came except the donkey.’ Though the donkey does not belong to the same class/kind of people, the exception is valid.
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