Plural of Few in The Hadiths of Iba’dah: A Statistical, Sharia and Semantic Study

Abstract

Reflecting on the linguistic connotations of words and constructions, and exploring their depths in determining the correct semantic meaning of the word or formula in the text or construction, especially if there is a disagreement regarding the meaning of the word within the context. This research aims to explore the connotations of the multitude of the few in some of the prophetic Hadiths selected from the Hadiths of worship in the book Umdat al Ahkam by Imam al-Maqdisi and to find out the meanings and Sharia linguistic connotations that they lead within different contexts and structures, and then attempt to separate between the conflicting Sharia connotations in denoting the few or the many, and to return them. Furthermore reflecting on their linguistic origins for weighting, taking into account the context and circumstances of the speech, then giving preference to some Sharia meanings over others, according to the strength of the semantic linguistic origins, so that they are compatible with the context of the Prophet’s speech, while counting the numbers of the few groups that were mentioned in the specific Hadiths, and trying to interpret these numbers, based on the Arabs’ uses of such plurals, the research adopted the descriptive and analytical approach to address the linguistic materials and their Sharia connotations, and then concluded with a set of results that prove the importance of conducting this study and the Sharia linguistic materials it included, with an analysis of the origins of these materials semantically, and an analysis of the way they are used in Prophetic text.