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| Fiqh
of Islam (The Understanding of the Religion) |
| What they said about 'Fiqh': Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: Whenever Allah wants to bestow good on someone, He gives them Fiqh of the Deen. 4 Imams - HANFI - MALIK - SHAFI - HANBAL you will be surprised to learn what the 'Four Great Imams' said ... read more |
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... And now, are main article
on the subject of |
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FIQH By Yusuf Estes |
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All
praise due to Allah the Lord of the universe.
Worthy is He of all praise. As
He said in the Quran in verse 1 of Surah Fatir And
in verse 1 of Surah An' am (Interpretation of the meaning is): “Praise be to Allah
who hath sent to His servant the Book, and hath allowed therein
no crookedness.” He whom Allah guided
is rightly guided, but he whom Allah leaves to astray - for him
wilt thou find no protector to lead him to the Right Way. With your permission, O Allah guide us to the
difference in the truth. Peace and blessing be
upon the best of creation, Mohammed So turn thou thy face to the religion being upright, the nature of which Allah has made mankind. No change (there is) in the work (wrought) by Allah: That is the true religion: but most among mankind know not. Turn ye in repentance to Him and fear Him.Establish regular prayers, and be ye not among those who join gods with Allah - those who split up their religion and become (mere) sects - each party rejoicing in that which is with itself.(30:30-32) |
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In
an authentic hadith, the Prophet Mohammed &;As the Jews and Christians divided into 71
or 72 groups you (Muslims) will divide into 73. All of which would
be in the Fire of Hell, except one. And that is the one
that me and my companions are on today.
In present times we can see the reality of Rasulullah’s
The only way to reunite the Ummah of Rasulullah
Allah,
the Most High, has commanded the Muslims in this, and many other
versed of Quran to follow Rasulullah There is a hadith of Rasulullah Imam Ahmed, Abu Dawud, at-Tirmidhi in another
narration (Interpretation of the meaning is); “I left you in the clear
white, the day of it is like the night. Only the one who goes
away from it is lost. Whomever
among you lives will see a lot of differences, but he should follow
whatever he knows of my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Khulafa Rashedeen
Mahdeyeen.; In a separate hadith
narrated by Abdullah bin Ammar bin Al-As (May Allah be pleased
with him), Rasulullah The Messenger of Allah
To bring about a greater understanding of what
is happening to the Muslim Ummah today, to understand those who
follow the madhab and those who do not, and to fully grasp the
reason for the difference that exist, we must study hadith. In order to discuss the
hadith of Rasulullah Aside from certain etiquettes that he should follow, there are also certain things that a scholar of hadith should know. According to Imam Nawawi, they are as follows: he should know fiqh, and the fundamentals of Islam. He should have a command of the Arabic language. He must know the names of the narrators and the chins of narration. It is also important that he associates and collaborates with other knowledgeable scholars. As previously stated, there are also certain etiquettes that students of hadiths should follow. The student of hadith should only listen to strong hadith. He should avoid strange or weak hadith, and he should pay close attention to what he hears. He should write down for study only authentic hadith with trustworthy narrators. He should be humble and truthful. And above all, he should fear Allah. The hadith of Rasoolulah From this statement it is obvious that whatever
Prophet Mohammed It would be impossible to continue a discussion
of hadith without mentioning different kinds of hadith.
Including all of the books of hadith, we find that there
are more than one hundred.
Entire books could be written on this subject alone.
Therefore, for the purpose of this paper only about twenty
of these different kinds of hadith will be mentioned. We will start
with hadith Sahih, the authentic hadith. The leaders of this
field have defined hadith Sahih as a hadith in which the chain
of narration is continuous from a person who is well known for
being truthful and trustworthy, and for having a strong memory
and a good character, to another person with the same characteristics,
to one of the companions, to Rasulullah There are also different levels among the countries where hadith are narrated. Ibn Taymeeyah has said that the people of hadith have all agreed that the most authentic hadith are narrated by the people of Medina, next by the people of Basra, and after them by the people of As-Shams. Imam Khatib has also stated that the most authentic narration of hadith come from the people of Mecca and Medina. As previously stated, has many different levels.
The highest of them is what Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim
have agreed on. Next,
is what Imam Bukhari and his student, Imam Muslim has collected
from authenticated sayings and teachings of the prophet, peace
be upon him. After that comes whatever
has been narrated according to the rules and conditions as set
forth by both Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim together.
Then comes the hadith that have been using the conditions
set Imam Bukhari. The
next level consists of hadith that have been narrated according
to Imam Muslim’s conditions. Of all the books
of hadith, the most authentic is Imam Bukhari’s Sahih Bukhari. After writing his book,
Imam Bukhari stated that he had memorized one hundred thousand
authentic hadith and two hundred thousand other kinds of hadith.
Yet the books of Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim combined
contain only a fraction of this number. Therefore, it is obvious
that these two books, Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, do not contain
all of the authentic hadith that exist. Three other books of
hadith, the Sunman Abu Dawud, At-Tirmidhi, and An-Nasai’,
along with the "Sahih"s of Bukhari and Muslim make up what the
scholars call Al Usulu Khamsa. These five books of
hadith contain most but not all of the authentic hadith. There are seven different
kinds of Sahih hadith, and we have already explained these.
Among the common hadith, that is hadith that are authentic,
good, or weak, there are nineteen different kinds. And among the weak hadith
there are nine. These
classifications have been made by the scholars of hadith, and
from them are derived other classifications that are too technical
for the scope of this paper. Now,
we turn the focus of our discussion to the weak hadith. The reason for this
is the fact that weak hadith have caused some of the differences
that divided the Muslim Ummah today. However, this does not
mean that weak hadith are bad. Imam Sakhawi has said
that Abu Dawud includes weak hadith in his book of hadith because
he says that the weak hadiths are dearer to him than the opinions
of the scholars. Imam Ahmed Ibn Hanbal
has said that his son, Abdullah Ibn Ahmed, said that he heard
his father, Ahmed, saying that you only see a man using his own
opinion if he has some wrong in his heart; and the weak hadith
are stronger to him than opinions. Also, Imam Ahmed Ibn
Hanbal was told about two men in a village; one narrated hadith
but did not know which were authentic and which was not, the other
gave his own opinions. Imam Ahmed advised the
people in the village to seek advice from the man who had knowledge
of the hadith of Rasulullah Qias is a kind of ruling
that scholars use when they have been asked a question and they
do not have a narration. They base their answer
on a narration that is similar to what they have been asked. Another kind of hadith that has not been mentioned
thus far is hadith al-mawdua’ (fabricated). This is hadith that
has been made up, fabricated. The scholars of hadith
can recognize which hadith are mawdua’ and which are not
by looking at the chain of narration, by looking at the words
of the hadith, and by knowing whether or not the hadith contradicts
a well known sunnah of Rasulullah Sometimes
they are the result of an honest mistake on the part of the one
who is narrating the hadith. Perhaps he was half-asleep,
or he was not paying full attention when he heard the hadith.
Maybe as he became old his memory became weak. Some narrators have
fabricated hadith to give people glad tidings, or to warn them.
And they have done this with the best intentions. Others have narrated
hadith al-mawdua’ to give support to their own opinions. Still others have done
it to please those in authority. Also, some of these
hadiths have been narrated by the Sufis. May Allah guide us and
protect us all. Yet,
after the whole Ummah has accepted these books and held them in
high regard, some present day scholars have criticized them. They have said that
some of the hadith contained in these books are weak because of
some of the narrators. So let us examine the
validity of this criticism by considering what many other respected
scholars have to say on the subject. Hafiz Abu Bakr Al Khatib
has said that whatever hadiths Bukhari and Muslim have narrated,
and whatever narrators they have narrated their hadiths from should
be accepted. They should be accepted
even if some of the narrators have been accused of some character
flaw, like lying, because there is not enough evidence to support
such accusations. In one of his books,
Imam Nawawi has said that when some scholars say that certain
of the hadiths narrated by Bukhari and Muslim are weak they are
wrong because the reasons they use to say that the hadith are
weak are not serious enough to make the hadith weak. In the introduction
to his book, Al Fath, Ibn Hajar had the following to say about
the narrators used by Bukhari and Muslim, “Every fair man
should know that whenever Bukhari and Muslim narrated a hadith
from certain narrators, it means that this narrator is fair, truthful,
and has a strong memory.” He told the
man that each of the narrators had passed the bridge.
This means that even though the narrators might have had
some shortcomings, as all humans do, they have fulfilled all of
the requirements that narrators must meet. Therefore, whenever
someone says that the hadiths that Bukhari and Muslim have narrated
are weak, these sayings should be ignored according to the scholars
that have mentioned. As a footnote, it is
necessary to emphasize the importance of hearing a narration first
hand rather than reading it in a book. The best way to illustrate
this point is by the following example. When his students pointed out the fact that he narrated hadith from Al-Kallbi himself, he told them that he knew when Al-Kallbi was lying and when he was telling the truth. This is not to say that Bukhari or Muslim have done something like this. It is just an example to illustrate the handicap of those who investigate hadith today. Now,
that we have some background information, we can begin to explore
the main topic of this paper, the religious differences that exist
in the Muslim Ummah today. In order to fully understand
these differences, it is imperative that we talk briefly about
the companions of Rasulullah
He was responsible for narrating 5,374 hadith. In addition to this,
more than three hundred men have listened to him and narrated
his hadith. Imam
Shafi’ has said that Abu Hurairah had memorized more hadith
than any one else at his time. At the funeral of Abu
Hurairah, Ibn Umar said that Abu Hurairah was guardian and protector
of the hadith of Rasulullah He memorized 2,630 hadith.
After him is Ana Ibn Malik who narrated 2,286 hadith. Ibn Abbas narrated 1,660
hadith. Jabir Ibn
Abdullah narrated 1,540 hadith. Abu Sa’id Al-Khudri
narrated 1,170 hadith. And
the Mother of the Believers, A'ishah narrated 2,010 hadith.
None of the other sahabah who narrated hadith narrated
more than 1,000. May
Allah be pleased with them all. There is poetry about
the sahabah who narrated more than one thousand hadiths that goes: “Seven
among the companions have narrated more than one thousand hadiths
form the Prophet
This is according to Ibn Hasb. From the fatawas of
each one of these, entire books could be written. After them there are
twenty other companions of Rasulullah There are many reasons
for this. Some of
them died before the people needed them. Others kept themselves
busy worshipping Allah and fighting Jihad, so they passed away
without narrating many hadiths. Also, many of the older
companions did not narrate as many hadith as some of the younger
companions like Ibn Umar and Ibn Abbas because they did not live
as long after the Prophet’s Usul refers to the basic
things. Furua’,
on the other hand, refers to extra things that are not basic.
In speaking about these differences the scholar Waliullah
Al-Dahlawi has said in his book, Al-Huaja Al-Baligha, that during
the time of the Prophet
It is evident from this, and from the other examples that
can be found in Quran that the sahabah only asked questions about
things that would benefit them. Ibn Umar, may Allah
be pleased with him, cautioned the people about asking questions
about things that did not happen. He also said that he
heard Umar bin Khattab cursing the person who asked about things
that did not happen. Qasim said, “You
ask about things that we did not ask about, and you search about
things that we did not search about them. You ask about things
I do not know, and if I knew it would not be lawful for me to
hide it inside.” Also,
Umar Ibn Ishaq said that he had seen many of the sahabah, and
he had not seen since them a people who were easier in their lives
and less strict. From
the examples in the previous paragraph we can see that Rasulullah
Differences
also arose from misunderstandings and forgetfulness. For instance, when Rasulullah
This
happened, for example, when Ibn Umar narrated that Rasulullah
Also,
differences came about when Rasulullah Now
that some of the differences of the companions have been explained
and discussed, we can go on to understand why the people of one
city knew hadith that the people of other cities were unfamiliar
with. And we can also begin
to understand the differences between the mahadhab. Scholar Waliullah Al-Dahlawi
has written in one of his books that Allah created after the early
successors people who carry the knowledge to fulfill the promise
of Rasulullah
Later, other scholars studied and memorized these hadith
and fatawas and wrote them down. After them other great scholars
like Imam Malik, Imam Haneefah, Imam Shafi’ etc. came and
they memorized different hadith from different times and different
places. During the
time of Imam Malik, the Caliph at that time decided to order the
Muslims to read and follow Imam Malik’s books, but Imam
Malik advised against it saying, “…There has reached
the people knowledge before mine, and they have heard different
hadith. Each group
of people have practiced what they have heard before me.
There are differences so leave the people with whatever
they have chosen for themselves.”
It is important to note that among the people of Medina
Imam Malik was the most authentic man in narrating hadith, and
the most knowledgeable of the fatawas of Umar bin Khattab, Abdullah
ibn Umar, and A'ishah and the seven fuqahah. His students and companions
gathered, collected, and wrote down his fatawas and speeches.
With this knowledge they spread across the west portion
of the Muslim world in much the same way as Imam Abu Hanifa’s
companions had earlier spread to the east. He was especially knowledgeable
in furua’. He
used to carefully investigate day and night to get to the best
saying of it. His madhab became famous
in the eastern part of the Islamic world when one of his students,
Abu Yusuf, became a judge. Mohammed ibn Hasan was
another one of Imam Abu Hanifa’s student. He studied fiqh from
Abu Hanifa and Abi Yusuf. He also went to Medina
and read Imam Malik’s book, Muwatta. Then he applied both
of the madhahab together one question at a time. If they agreed he would
accept them, but if there was a disagreement he would try to find
a saying of the sahabah or the early successors in support of
Abu Hanifa or Abi Yusuf. If he could not he would
use the hadith of Imam Malik. He studied the work
of the scholars who came before him and he found that some of
them had used hadith that were mursal or mukata and this would
sometimes weaken the judgment. Instead he used to look
for hadiths with authentic narration and he would act according
to them. This was the time when
Imam Ahmed Ibn Hanbal and the people of hadith came and began
to study hadith. They
knew which hadith were authentic and which were not.
They also knew which hadith contained weaknesses in their
wording or in their chains of narration. These people devoted
their lives to the pursuit of knowledge. They studied the hadith
of Rasulullah It
is a gift that He has not bestowed upon any other religion.
The Jews do not have any sayings that they can trace directly
back to Moses
However, now the hadith have come together. If we have any questions
we should consult the Quran and the Hadith. If the answer cannot
be found in either of them we should look to the scholars.
If there is one thing that they have agreed on we should
accept it as the most authentic answer and follow it. We should follow the
example of Abu Bakr and Umar bin Al-Khattab. As it has been mentioned
earlier, whenever Abu Bakr was asked a question he would look
in the book of Allah. If he found an answer
he would use it, if he did not, he would look to the hadith.
If he still found no answer he would go to the companions
and the people and ask if anyone had heard a saying from Rasulullah
These people have spent
their lives learning Islam and practicing the sunnah of Rasulullah
It is the way of Rasulullah
Follow what has been revealed
to from your Lord. And do not follow friends
other than Him.” “Give glad tidings
to my slave. Those
who hear the saying and follow the best of it.”
They are the right-minded.
Also, Allah has said in Surah Nisa' (Interpretation of
the meaning is): This
is My straight path follow it and do not follow other paths,”
came to Rasulullah |