This theme invites papers that examine how madhhab-based legal reasoning moves from foundational principles to concrete judgments. Possible angles include the pistemological relationship between uṣūl al-fiqh and juridical applications, the role of interpretive mechanisms such as taḥqīq al-manāṭ, istiḥsān, maṣlaḥa, and sadd al-dharāʾiʿ, and broader reflections on rule-based and purpose-oriented reasoning within the madhhab tradition. Contributions may address these questions historically, theoretically, or comparatively across legal schools.

This theme invites contributions that explore the relationship between Sufism and madhhab-based legal thought. Papers may examine whether and how spiritual disciplines function as forms of epistemic refinement within juristic practice, and how ethical–spiritual formation informs legal perception, discretion, and judgment. Possible areas of inquiry include Sufi–juridical syntheses in figures such as Aḥmad Zarrūq (d. 899/1493), Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111), Abū al-Ḥasan al-Māwardī (d. 450/1058), ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī (d. 973/1565), Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (d. 751/1350), Abū al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597/1201), Aḥmad Sirhindī (d. 1034/1624), and ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī al-Harawī (d. 481/1089) among others. Or the interaction between taṣawwuf and maqāṣid-oriented reasoning; and the question of whether distinct spiritual sensibilities can be identified within particular madhāhib (for example, Mālikī or Ḥanafī traditions), without reducing madhhab law to mysticism or treating taṣawwuf as an external add-on.

This theme focuses on fatwā as a concrete site of practical epistemology within madhhab law. Contributions may analyze how jurists negotiate internal hierarchies of evidence—such as tarjīḥ and the dynamics of rājiḥ, mashhūr, and related positions—and how these hierarchies shape authoritative legal outcomes. Papers may also examine the role of the muftī as both an epistemic and moral agent, whose judgment integrates textual mastery, methodological fidelity, and ethical discernment. Fatwā collections may be approached as archives of lived legal reasoning, revealing how legal doctrine is continuously interpreted, adapted, and applied within specific social and historical contexts.

This theme examines the sharḥ and ḥāshiya traditions as dynamic spaces in which legal knowledge is refined, contested, and transmitted within the madhhab. Rather than functioning as mere repetition, commentaries and glosses may be analyzed as loci of epistemic negotiation, where marginalia operate as sustained interpretive arguments. Contributions may explore practices of taḥqīq, verification, and correction, as well as the ways these genres reflect evolving conceptions of authorship, authority, and scholarly responsibility. Attention may also be given to how layered commentary traditions preserve continuity while enabling methodological flexibility and intellectual renewal within Islamic legal thought.

This theme invites examination of how legal knowledge is structured, justified, and evaluated within and across the Sunni legal schools. Ikhtilāf may be examined not merely as disagreement but as a constitutive epistemic feature of the madhhab tradition. Contributions may address comparative theories of legal reasoning—such as the use and scope of ʿilla and dalīl—the limits, functions, and authority of ijmāʿ, and the role of rājiḥ/marjūḥ distinctions in managing plurality and uncertainty. Particular attention may be given to how schools conceptualize legal certainty, probabilistic knowledge, and methodological coherence while sustaining intra-school diversity and cross-school intelligibility. In addition, this theme welcomes work that approaches khilāf as an ontological feature of the madhhab tradition, insofar as inter-madhhab disagreement (khilāf ʿālī) contributes to the formation, demarcation, and ongoing maintenance of boundaries between the legal schools.

This theme investigates the theological frameworks that underlie and shape juristic reasoning within the madhhab traditions. Possible contributions may examine how differing conceptions of causality, moral ontology, and divine agency inform legal methodology, including perspectives commonly associated with Ashʿarī, Māturīdī, and Ḥanbalī thought. Topics may include the relationship between reason and revelation in uṣūl al-fiqh, the epistemic status of rational inference, and classical debates surrounding taʿlīl al-aḥkām. Particular attention may be given to how theological commitments condition legal interpretation without collapsing jurisprudence into theology, and how jurists negotiated coherence between creed and law in practice.