Praise be to Allah, the Alfuighty. Peace and blessings
be to His Apostle, Muhammad, the noblest of
creation; a bearer of glad tidings and a warner. He
delivered the message and fulfilled the task assigned
to him. May Allah bless him, and may grace and
peace be to the Prophet's kith and kin and to his
noble wives. Peace and blessing be to the Prophet's
compamons and to all believers to the Day of
Reckoning.
Brothers,
Thank God for this auspicious meeting. I feel
grateful to the organizers of Al-Janadiryyah Heritage
Festival for giving me the chance to talk to you
tonight. The title of my address 'the Islamic rules of
debate' has been suggested by the organizing
committee of the festival, and so I pray to Allah that I
be up in this task.
I'll start my talk with a definition of debate and
its objectives; I'll then describe briefly the causes of
differences of opinion among people. After that, I'll
discuss the main principles and rules of debate. I'll
conclude with the moral guidelines of debate.

5

Definition

The word "debate" (Arabic hiwar or jidal)
occurs in the Holy Qur'an, as the following example
shows:

"God has indeed heard the statement of the
woman who pleads with thee concerning her
husband and carries her complaint to God: and
God hears the arguments between both sides
among you: for God hears and sees all things."
(LVIII, 1)
In conventional usage, debate is a discussion
between two or more parties aiming at modification
of opinions, proof of an argument, demonstration of
truth, falsification of suspicions, and a refutation of ~
unfounded statements and concepts.
Some of the methods employed in debate are the
laws of logic and the niles of syllogism such as
causes and effects, as expounded in books on logic,
theology, rules of research, polemics, and principles
of jurisprudence.(!)

1) See Al-Jitjani, Ta'reefat. under ~adala', and Al-
Misbah Al-Muneer, under 'hawara' and ~adala'

6

Objectives of Debate

The main · objectives of a debate are the
substantiation of truth with proof and the refu- tation
of doubts and fallacious statements and propositions.
It follows that debate should be held with the sincere
cooperation of the debaters to unveil truth and state it
to his partner correctly. A participant ought to work
for revealing to his partner what the latter fails to
perceive, and to follow the correct methods of
inference to arrive at truth. AI-Thahabi says in this
connection: "A debate is only justified to unveil truth,
so that the more knowledgeable should impart
knowledge to the less knowledgeable, and to
stimulate a weaker intellect." ( 1)
Besides the main objectives, there are secondary
or supportive objectives of debate. Some ofthese
objectives are listed below:
- · A general preliminary objective is getting

acquainted with the other party's or parties' point-of-
VIew.

- Reaching aِpromise that satisfies all the
concerned parties.
1) See Al-Zurqani, Sharh Al-Mawaheb, Vol. V, p. 390
- Investigating broad-mindedly for bringing into