852 - Issue; He said: "And whoever acknowledges something, and makes an exception from it of a large portion, which is more than half, he is held to the whole, and his exception is void."

There is no disagreement in the school of thought that it is not permissible to make an exception of what exceeds half. This is narrated from the grammarian Ibn Durustawayh (1). Abu Hanifa, Malik, al-Shafi'i, and their companions said: It is valid as long as one does not exclude the whole; if he says: "He has a hundred against me except ninety-nine," he is only bound by one, by the evidence of the Almighty's saying: {By Your might, I will surely mislead them all, except Your chosen servants among them} (2). And His saying: {Indeed, My servants - no authority will you have over them, except those who follow you of the deviators} (3). Thus, in one place, He excepted the deviators from the servants, and in another place, the servants from the deviators, and whichever was the larger [group] has served as evidence for the exception of the larger [portion]. They cited the verse:

Pay back what has decreased by ninety from a hundred Then send a judge who is firm with the truth (4)

He excepted ninety from a hundred; because it is in the meaning of an exception and is analogous to it. Furthermore, because he has excepted a part, it is permissible, just like the exception of the lesser amount. Also, because he has lifted some of what the wording encompasses, so it is permissible regarding the larger amount, just like specification (takhsis) and substitution (badal). As for our view, it is that exception has not occurred in the language of the Arabs except for the lesser amount, and they have denied the exception of the larger amount. Abu Ishaq al-Zajjaj (5) said: Exception has only come in the case of the few from the many, and if a speaker were to say: "A hundred except ninety-nine," he would not be speaking in Arabic, and it would be a stammering in speech and a linguistic corruption. Al-Qutaybi (6) said: It is said: "I fasted the month except a day." It is not said: "I fasted the month except twenty-nine days." It is said: "I met the people, all of them, except one or two." It is not permissible to say: "I met the people except the majority of them." If it is not correct in speech, that which he acknowledged is not lifted by it, just like the exception of the whole. And as if he said: "He has ten against me, nay, five." As for what they used as evidence from the Revelation, in the first verse, He excepted the chosen ones from the children of Adam, and they are the few, as the Almighty said: {Except those who believe and do righteous deeds - and few are they} (7). In the other, He excepted the deviators from the servants, and they are the few; for the angels are among the servants, and they are not deviators, as God the Almighty said: {Rather, they are honored servants} (8). It is said: The exception in this verse is disconnected (munqati') in the sense of rectification (istidrak); thus, His saying: {Indeed, My servants - no authority will you have over them} remains upon its generality, and nothing was excepted from it, then He initiated: {except those who follow you of the deviators}. Meaning: but those who followed you from among the deviators, they have indeed deviated by following you. The correctness of this is indicated by His saying in the other verse to his followers: {And I had no authority over you except that I invited you, and you responded to me} (9). Based on this, they have no argument in it. As for the verse, the grammarian Ibn Fadlal (10) said: It is a fabricated verse, not established from the Arabs. Furthermore, this is not an exception, for the exception has specific words, and there is nothing of them here (11), and analogy (qiyas) is not permissible in linguistics. We then oppose them by saying: He has excepted more than half, so it is not permissible, just as the exception of the whole. The distinction between the exception of the more and the less is that the Arabs utilized it for the less and rendered it beautiful, and negated it for the more and rendered it ugly; therefore, it is not permissible to apply by analogy what they rendered ugly to that which they permitted and rendered beautiful.

Section: There are two views regarding the exception of half; one of them is that it is permissible. This is the manifest [position] of the words of al-Khiraqi;