Extensibility of Jurisprudential Inferences of Quranic Stories with a Focus on Surah Yusuf

The holy Quran is regarded as the first and most reliable source of Shari’ah rulings by Shiite and Sunni jurisprudents. However, the Quran's extensible jurisprudential capacity has not been carefully exploited. In the meantime, the use of non-jurisprudential verses, such as the verses of Quranic stories, has received less attention from Quranic scholars to infer Shari’ah rulings. To pave the way for the exploitation of this capacity, the present study, first, explains the reasons behind the versatility of the ayat al-akam (verses including Shari’ah rulings), and then examines and extracts the existing Shari’ah rulings in Surah Yusuf and compares them with the headings of the branches of Islamic jurisprudence. The findings of the study indicate the high capacity of Quranic stories for deducing Shari'ah rulings such that it is possible to derive rulings from Surah Yusuf under the three headings of ibadat (acts of worship), siyasat (rulings dealing with diyeh, ta’zir, hadd and qisas) and mo’amelat (transactions), including the necessity of reciting salat (daily prayers) in Arabic, permission for betting on archery and horse-riding, rulings related to the lost and found property whose owner is not known, legitimacy of trying to avert slander, acceptance of the position offered by a tyrant ruler and legitimacy of kefalat (to stand surety) and zemanat (gaurantee).