The Rule of "Permissibility to Oblige City Dwellers to Observe City Laws"

Document Type : Original Article

Author

The Institute of Contemporary Jurisprudence Studies

10.22081/jtc.2023.63400.1004

Abstract

Living in the city requires devising laws to better manage the city and prevent chaos. In the meantime, some residents may not abide by the city rules and cause chaos. In order to prevent this, it is necessary to oblige city dwellers to observe city laws. In this research, it is attempted to state and separately examine various arguments that approve the "permissibility to oblige city dwellers to observe city laws" as a jurisprudential rule. These arguments are: the obligation to enjoin what is good and forbid what is evil; the rule of prohibition of disrupting the system, the attitude of the wise (sīrat al-uqalā’), the rule of action, and the principle of "believers should abide by their terms" (al-muminūn inda shurūṭihim). Some of these arguments prove the permissibility of requiring city dwellers to observe the urban laws in all communities, and some others are only specific to Islamic communities. In this research, what is meant by laws is the laws that are not against the evident Islamic Shari’a. The method of collecting information in this article is library and its processing method is analytical-argumentative. The author has tried in this article to explain all the arguments that are "possible" to refer to as evidence to prove the claim, even according to one of the principles existing on the issue.

Keywords