Fanatical views have existed in Muslim society for centuries, to the extent of pitting Muslims against each other due to differences of opinion about Islamic law involving the mazhab. In the past era of taksub (fanatical devotion), those praying at the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca divided themselves into the four groups representing each mazhab—it was as if the prayers led by another imam were illegitimate. Imagine how divisive such a practice would be if it persisted today. When the Prophet Muhammad pbuh died, he left behind many Companions each of whom was considered an eminent scholar. Not one of them, however, demanded that whoever accepted the views of any of them should be barred from the opinions of any other Companion. No scholar in the period of the Four Caliphs insisted on exclusive loyalty, whether it was `Abd-Allah ibn Mas’ud, `Abd-Allah bin `Umar, `Abd Allah ibn `Abbas or any other—and these were the scholars who understood the teachings of Allah’s Apostle pbuh far better than any who succeeded them. Unfortunately, when the grand imams of mazhab emerged—Imam Abu Hanifah (80H-150H), Imam Malik ibn Anas (93H-179H), Imam Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi’i (150H-204H), Imam Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Hanbal Abu `Abd Allah al-Shaybani (164H-241H) and other prominent figures—all of a sudden their fanatical adherents began demanding that whoever accepted the views of one imam should be barred from listening to any other. Today there are fanatics of the Hanafi mazhab who protest if Pakistanis consider the opinions of other mazhabs, and likewise there are Maliki fanatics in Morocco. In our own country, there are those who protest if Malaysians depart from the mazhab of Shafi’i. Ironically, in doing this we clearly contradict our own acceptance of all four imams as prominent scholars of the Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jamā‘ah (the Sunni community as a whole) by rejecting their scholarship on the basis of national or regional difference. None of these imams ever held such opinions, and surely we recognise that the political and regional boundaries that divide us today were still unformed in the times of the imams themselves
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 09:51:31 +0000
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