The Qur’anic term kalala. Studies in the Arabic language and poetry, hadith, tafsir and fiqh. Notes on the origin of the Islamic law

Wide divergences exist concerning the interpretation of the Qur’anic term kalala. In this monograph the author attempts to shed light upon what presumably were the rules concerning the succession and the related practice intended by sura 4:12,176, and also upon the doctrinal changes that happened sometime after the Prophet’s death.

Through the examination of a single word, kalala, it is possible to throw light on the doctrinal development beginning from some evidence found in the Arabic poetry, the letter of the Qur’an, the traditionist reports, until the elaboration of each school of law. As far as the hadith literature is concerned, the author’s starting point is that the hadiths were used in different centres as a support of different doctrines based sometimes on a different interpretation of the wording of the Qur’an.

This research might be a contribution to the debate among Western scholars about the origins of the Islamic jurisprudence and the related question of the foreign influence on the Islamic law.