RULING ON FOLLOWING A PARTICULAR MADHHAB (SCHOOL OF THOUGHT) Should every country be obliged to follow a particular madhhab (school of thought), like Imam Abu Haneefa, Imam Maalik, Imam al-Shafi and Imam Ahmad (May Allah be pleased with them)? Praise be to Allaah. With regard to ijtihaad and taqleed, people in a country fall into two categories: 1–The scholars and mujtahids who have reached a level of shar’i knowledge where they have the tools of ijtihaad and instinbaat, whereby they are able to derive rulings. Their duty is to follow the truth wherever they see it, on the basis of evidence. 2–The vast majority of people – those who have not specialized in study of shar’i sciences or have not reached the level of being able to engage in ijtihaad and being qualified to issue fatwas. These are the majority of people, or those who are educated and specialized in other fields of knowledge. Their duty – in both shar’i and natural terms – is to ask the people of knowledge and take from them. We see this in the words of Allaah: “So ask of those who know the Scripture, if you know not” [al-Nahl 16:43]. So the people of each country are obliged to ask the scholars and follow their fatwas, but they are not to follow absolutely in the sense that they regard the one whom they follow as infallible and sacred, with the right to legislate and decide religious issues on the basis of their own ideas– as happened among the Jews, Christians, Raafidis, extreme Sufis and Baatinis – because that is going beyond the bounds of religion and taking rivals and gods besides Allaah, and Allaah says: “They (Jews and Christians) took their rabbis and their monks to be their lords besides Allaah (by obeying them in things which they made lawful or unlawful according to their own desires without being ordered by Allaah), and (they also took as their Lord) Messiah, son of Maryam (Mary), while they (Jews and Christians) were commanded [in the Tawraat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel)] to worship none but One Ilaah (God — Allaah) Laa ilaaha illa Huwa (none has the right to be worshipped but He). Praise and glory be to Him (far above is He) from having the partners they associate (with Him)” [al-Tawbah 9:31]. The idea behind obliging people to follow the fatwas of the scholars is to enable them to learn the rulings of sharee’ah via the specialists who have studied the principles and usool of sharee’ah and have reached the stage of being qualified in that field of knowledge based on evidence, not sanctity given in the name of the Lord or in the name of “sainthood” and other such false notions. Ibn Taymiyah said in Majmoo’ al-Fataawa (20/211): Allaah has enjoined upon mankind to obey Him and obey His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), but He has not enjoined upon this ummah to obey anyone in particular in all that he enjoins or forbids, apart from the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). Even the Siddeeq of this ummah and the best of them after its Prophet (i.e., Abu Bakr) said: “Obey me so long as I obey Allaah, but if I disobey Allaah, then you are not obliged to obey me.” They are all unanimously agreed that there is no one who is infallible in all that he enjoins or forbids except the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). Hence more than one of the imams said: The words of any person may be adopted or abandoned except the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). As far as a knowledgeable person is concerned, he doesn’t have to follow any particular Imam (Taqleed), rather he should follow the Quran and Sunnah and this is the opinion of the Imams regarding (Taqleed) following them, because Allah says in the Quran: “(And) if you differ in anything amongst yourselves, refer it to Allah and His Messenger, if you believe in Allaah and in the Last Day” [Quran 4:59]. Referring to Allaah means referring to His Book, and referring to the Messenger of Allaah (peace be upon him) means referring to his Sunnah (Hadith). As far as the issues with the less informed Muslims are concerned, the Ijmaa (scholarly consensus) recommends following a particular Imam (Taqleed) until he gains knowledge to understand the evidence quoted for the various opinions (Madhabs) and to follow that which is closest to the Quran and Sunnah. None can deny the contributions and the dedications made by the Imams to the Muslim world, and their efforts to unite Muslims as one ummah. After the Taabi’een came the fuqaha’ of the various regions, such as Abu Haneefah, Maalik and others whom we have mentioned and whom we have not mentioned. So the people of each region followed the madhhab of the faqeeh for the most part. There are reasons why some of these madhhabs spread in other lands and some became extinct… That does not mean that one should blindly adhere to one madhhab or opinion, in the sense of obliging people to follow it to the letter without any ijtihaad or effort to correct it. Rather the point is that the school of fiqhi thought that people, seekers of knowledge and scholars should study should be taken from one of the four madhhabs. Then, if it becomes clear to one who is qualified to engage in ijtihaad that the madhhab is mistaken on a specific issue, he should reject that fatwa and follow the view that he thinks is correct from the other madhhabs. Thus people may adhere to the academic way which was followed by the salaf and imams, and they may rid themselves of some of the negatives that resulted from ignorance and blind following. It says in Fataawa al-Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ibraheem (2/10, tape 2): Following one of the four madhhabs is correct, rather it is like consensus, and there are no reservations about that, such as saying that one follows one of the four, because they are qualified imams according to consensus.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 09:37:46 +0000
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