«تَرْتِيبُ الْحُكْمِ عَلَى الِاسْمِ الْمَوْصُوفِ بِصِفَةٍ»
“Attaching a ruling to a noun qualified by a description.”
A branch of the discussion asks what follows when a ruling is stated about a person or object bearing a particular attribute, such as a believing woman. Does mentioning the attribute necessarily exclude every instance lacking it?
The Shafii approach presented here allows the description to function as a restrictive qualification, supporting a contrary implication in some cases. In the Hanafi approach, mentioning a particular attribute does not on its own establish a contrary ruling for all unmentioned cases without further evidence.
The explicit ruling regarding described cases must therefore be distinguished from the unspoken case, whose ruling is not automatically established by opposition.