Abdullah Hakim Quick – Scholars Against Rulers Minarets And Thrones #08
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the upcoming session in the Muslim political party, which is focused on protecting Islam. They talk about the importance of legal and moral authority for protecting Islam, as well as the need for strong personalities to stand against falsehood. They also discuss the history and culture of the Islamic society, including its importance in the economy and political system. The speakers touch on the importance of protecting privacy and privacy in the Middle East and the importance of protecting individual privacy and privacy in the future. They also discuss the history and culture of the royal family and its use of the royal family's philosophy to defend their position.
AI: Summary ©
Okay Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem, Alhamdulillahi Rabbil
Alameen Wa usalli wa usallam ala sayyidil awwaleen
wal akhireen, nabiyyina muhammadan wa ala aalihi wa
sahbihi wa barak wa sallim All praise are
due to Allah, Lord of the worlds and
peace and blessings be upon our beloved Prophet
Muhammad the master of the first and the
last, his family, his companions and all those
who call to his way and establish his
sunnah to the day of judgment As to
what follows, salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh
Alhamdulillah, this is another session in our look
at minarets and thrones and that is the
relationship between scholars and the authorities, the umara
So it is the ulama and the umara
and these two sections of our leadership are
crucial for the survival and the thriving of
the Muslim ummah and we have looked at
the scholars the relationship the positives and the
negatives and we realized that the ideal situation
is that when the leader himself, the emir,
is a scholar and that is what we
call fusion That is the best possible situation
because along with the authority that he naturally
has he would understand the revelation and so
the combination of the two gives us that
sirat al-mustaqim, that straight path that we
are looking for in our nation The next
relationship that we looked at is a leader
who is not a scholar but he has
some consciousness and he relates to the scholars
So the emir or the khalifa in the
early days he cooperated with the scholars and
because of that they were able to develop
a positive Islamic relationship which of course reflected
on the whole society and gives us what
we are looking for in terms of Islamic
governance The next relationship that we are looking
at between the ulama and the umara that
is one of conflict and that is where
the leaders themselves are not necessarily doing what
is right all the time The scholars have
to take their position and so a type
of conflict develops and this is something that
is very frequent today in the Muslim world
where you have leaders who are kings and
authoritarian rulers and who don't care about the
Quran and the Sunnah and establishing Islam and
you have scholars who stand up to them
and so the precedent for this or one
of the basis for this understanding comes through
a hadith reported by Hudaifah ibn al-Yaman
and he is one of the close companions
to Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and
he said that كَانَ نَاسُ يَسْأَلُونَ رَسُولَهُ صَلَّمٌ
عَنِ الْخَيْرِ وَكُنْتُ أَسْأَلُهُ عَنِ الشَّرِّ مِنْ خَافَةً
عَنْ يُدْرِكُنِ So he said the people used
to ask the messenger of Allah about the
good And I used to ask about evil
Out of fear of it reaching me.
So this is a different type of mentality
That he has because most people want to
know about Jannah and they want to know
good things and whatever But Hudaifah He wants
to know what is wrong Okay, not just
because he's into evil, but because he wants
to protect himself so Hudaifah continues I asked
O messenger of Allah We were living in
ignorance and evil Then Allah brought this good
to us Will there be any evil after
this good?
So what he means here is that ignorance
is a time of Jahiliyya They were living
in this time and then you came the
Prophethood came the Quran came but after this
All this good that happened to us.
Will there be evil?
So the Prophet replied he said yes Hudaifah
doesn't end there Hudaifah continues to ask that's
how Hudaifah was So then Hudaifah asked or
he said then I asked will there be
any good after that evil?
And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam replied.
Yes, but it will be tainted It will
be good But it's tainted like something wrong
with it Right.
It's like having a nice Mango You know
and the bottom side on the left Is
rotten you can see it turn colors It's
not the whole mango So you so you
cut it off and still enjoy the mango
But something was happening now And if that
was let by alone That rotten side would
overcome the whole mango so in this case
The the Prophet peace be upon him said
it will be tainted the good will be
tainted.
So I asked what will be its taint?
He replied a people who guide others to
other than my Sunnah you will approve of
some of their deeds and disapprove of others
Okay, so this is the precedent here.
This is a long Hadith by the way
But this first section of it gives us
a look at this kind of Mixed leadership
where you're getting two signals So it's good
but They're not guiding people to the Sunnah
like they want to be the king They
want to be the ruler.
Their first option is not the Sunnah The
first option is what they want and if
they can find the Sunnah That meets it
then it's okay and The Prophet did say
to him that some of their deeds Will
be no good and you will disapprove but
others will be good So it's a mixture
and this is what Muslims find themselves in
today in many of the Muslim majority countries
Is that you have a ruler?
Who does some good?
But then there's other things that are not
good Okay.
So what is the relationship now?
Okay.
So this is what what this sets the
stage for this new relationship we're talking about
and The the scholars we have to remind
ourselves that the Ulama That their position is
to provide a type of moral authority so
the leader has physical authority If you do
wrong, he punishes if the enemy comes He
defends So he has Sulta He has moral
Physical Authority but the Ulama have moral authority
because they are the ones who interpret the
revelation and so Their authority is crucial on
all levels because the Quran the revelation deals
with all aspects of life What is concerning
us in our study?
Would be more of what they'd call today
the political side So this is the relationship
with the rulers themselves and so therefore that
moral authority When it comes to justice establishing
justice upholding the truth You see this is
the job of the Ulama if they see
falsehood They have to oppose it If they
see injustice they have to stand against Injustice
and They have to be strong Even though
the odds might be against them, but the
duty of the scholars Is to to stand
up.
So this is not easy It's not easy
at all.
And this is the reason why the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam actually said Al Ulama
warathatul anbiya So he said that the scholars
are the inheritors of the Prophets So literally
the people who reach this stage of scholarship
are standing in the position of the Prophets
themselves And this is very important Because this
is the essence of an Islamic society So
what the scholars do how they interpret it
and then how it's put into practice by
the rulers This will determine whether you have
an Islamic society or you don't And that's
the reason why when you speak about the
organization of Islamic cooperation the OIC Which is
like the United Nations of the Muslim world.
It's got 57 countries where Muslims are the
majority or a very significant part of the
population but Unfortunately, none of them Can be
completely called an Islamic state There are some
that have more Islam than others There are
some where people dress a certain way Islamically
They have Salat, regular Jummah They have Eid
public There's halal food Okay, some societies don't
allow Alcohol and drugs to be sold in
the society But then other things happen, you
see and people might say well, you know,
Saudi Arabia And I have to be very
straightforward Even Saudi Arabia that is not Jazirat
Al Arab.
It's not the original Arabia.
It is Saudi Arabia It's a political state
governed by a family And I remember being
in Medina as a young student and I
was trying to save my money you know
to take care of my family and you
know, whatever and so then I I Would
put my money, I said let me put
the little money I have in the bank
Okay, so then that way I can preserve
it and then after a month or so
I got a communication from the bank and
it said Okay, this is what you have
and it had my money and some extra
money So I said, what is this extra
money?
and he said in Arabic, fa'idah Fa
'idah means benefit It's some benefit.
I said no, wait a minute.
This is interest Like you have given me
you took my money and you invested it
This is interest Okay, so this is not
Benefit this is like dara, this is harm
so I took my money out of the
bank and I put it into a money
lender and And That money lender, alhamdulillah He
did not take interest and he, jazahullah khair
His name was Sheikh Rajahi.
Rajahi is a big person in Arabia Rajahi
Bank because he started as a money lender
in Medina and He was he would hold
people's money and no interest, you know He
invested and he continued to work and Allah
blessed him until he became like a billionaire
where he had millions of dollars and recently
the news came that You know, he gave
up his millions of dollars He gave it
in sadaqah in charity To be given to
the poor and so he lost his status
they took him off the status of you
know Millionaires billionaires, they took Rajahi off, but
he is really a millionaire with Allah subhana
wa ta'ala Okay, but the point is
It was Saudi Arabia and it was an
interest bank So therefore that's not an Islamic
society If the economy is basing itself on
interest it's not an Islamic society and the
scholars technically speaking Should would have to stand
up against this they would have to stand
up and They tried in the best way
and through the example of Rajahi and other
people It's spreading now even more in many
Muslim countries.
You have interest-free banks that are there
and so It is that moral authority that
the scholars Are supposed to live by and
Allah subhana wa ta'ala tells us in
Surah Nisa or you who believe Be persistent
كونوا قوامين بالقسط Persistently stand firm in justice
شهداء لله Witnesses for Allah Even if it
is against yourselves or your parents and relatives
This is serious because for a lot of
people when it comes to your family your
parents or your relative That's when you stop
Because that's their tribe, but that's their family
But Allah is saying that the believers are
supposed to stand up for the truth and
justice under all circumstances so that is the
role of the scholars and One of the
great scholars who is an example of this
For us is Imam Abu Hanifa Imam Abu
Hanifa Was known for his independence and very
stubborn strong person who refused to compromise, you
know his religious principles He lived under Umayyad
dynasty.
Now remember after the Khulafah Rashidin 30 years,
right?
Then it became Mulk kingdom That's Umayyads So
the Umayyads ruled for around a hundred years
and then another dynasty from Quraish took over
called Abbasids Okay, so this is what this
means so Imam Abu Hanifa lived right at
the end of the Umayyads when it turned
into the Abbasids There was a transition Okay,
and he was strong because he would not
he wouldn't be used by anybody Okay, and
that that's the strong position he had and
Just as an aside because people might want
to know a little bit about You know
his Islamic Position what he contributed that this
is not the subject of our course You
get another course on Abu Hanifa's fiqh or
Abu Hanifa's what he did for Islamic jurisprudence,
but he was remember he was Just they
say he met Anas ibn Malik he met
one of the Sahaba So because Anas ibn
Malik lived to be about a hundred and
twenty years old or something like that from
the blessing of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam And so you could say that he
is a Tabi'i you have Sahaba and
then you have Tabi'in and Tabi'in.
He's like three generations, right?
So he would be considered to be from
the Tabi'in at that time People had
Hadith scholars were around but there were no
sets of Hadith The Quran itself had just
really been codified Okay, so they did have
the Quran the Uthman text But in terms
of the Hadith they didn't have Hadith in
books.
So today you have Bukhari, you have Muslim
you have different.
No, they didn't have that.
So therefore as a person who had to
make decisions Because he was living in an
area of Iraq After the Quran itself and
what you knew from the Sunnah or the
Hadiths you have to actually You have to
make some judgments So you have to use
your reasoning your Islamic reasoning and this was
important because at that time Islam is spreading
and It's going into areas that were not
like Arabian Peninsula So when you go into
Iraq now, you are in the Persian and
you go into the Persian lands the Turkish
lands Okay, and then they start going north
into Damascus.
You are now going into different cultures and
So you're going to run across issues and
Maybe the Hadith Didn't talk about or maybe
it did but you didn't get the Hadith
Because there's no Hadith book, right?
Today you can say okay.
I want to know about intoxication So I
turn on my Hadith collection to the section
on intoxication Okay, but you couldn't do that
in those days So you have to make
a judgment You have to make a judgment
Okay, I can remember Being in Medina and
we would get questions from The Muslims in
North America and different parts of the world,
you know ask the Sheikh this and you
know, I was in California for a little
while and California is a strange place with
all types of Drugs and all types of
you know, immoral.
It's a strange place in any event the
Muslims there was a thing called angels dust
and This was a new type of drug
that was on the streets Same way just
recently they had a drug called ecstasy So
ecstasy sounds like something really good You're ecstatic
You're like super happy, right?
It's a drug.
So this this drug was called angels dust
and they would take the drugs from the
embalmers fluid which they put in dead bodies
and They would snort this and go crazy
Okay, so this is they called it angels
dust So they wrote to me and said,
you know, what what does the Sheikh think
about this?
so I took it to the Sheikh and
Egyptian Sheikh from Azhar and I and he
said, okay translate that and I said, ah,
okay Torah but Malika Right the dust of
angels That's the only way I could translate
it.
So the Sheikh said dust of angels.
Let me have some of that Because everybody
wants the dust of the angels, right But
then I explained to him what it was
He said no, no, no, no, no This
is hammer This is intoxicant and it's haram
You see so there's no hadith book to
talking about angels dust.
He had to make A Like a gas
they call, you know where you are basing
it on something it gets you intoxicated So
it's the same so I classify it as
hammer.
You see that's that's how Islamic reasoning so
Imam Abu Hanifa He was really the first
of the ulama, you know to develop a
system of Islamic reasoning and this Islamic reasoning
Is that you have texts You have Quranic
verses you have hadiths, but then you have
new situations And you need a practical solution
So they later called it istihsan Okay, which
is like, you know how you Prefer things
how you choose things Okay, so this istihsan
is now part of the Hanafi School of
thought so if you were to study Hanafi
fiqh today, then you would be taught about
istihsan Okay, but that's how it was Developed
in a very, you know, simple way of
looking at it.
And so This was very important, especially for
Islam.
Remember he is in the area of Kufa
and Iraq and now Islam is spreading into
the Persian lands and then up into the
Turkic lands Okay, so therefore his Way of
thinking the rulers eventually they took his way
of thinking to be Their system because they
needed a way to teach people how to
pray how to fast You need like a
system to do it.
You can't just say go to the Quran.
There's no hadith book So his rulings, his
judgments were later on made to be The
judgments of all the leaders of the empires
in those areas.
It stretched to India So now Pakistan, Afghanistan,
all these areas up in there These became,
not because of Abu Hanifa as you're going
to see Because Abu Hanifa didn't deal with
the rulers Okay, if there's something wrong with
the ruler, he's not gonna Necessarily accept it,
but his students Abu Yusuf and some of
his students they Eventually worked with the rulers
and the rulers chose Hanafi school and they
taught it in all the madrasas So now
if you learn how to pray in those
places then when the imam says in Maghrib
Wala Daaleen, you say Ameen Silently That's Hanafi
Right.
Whereas if you were Shafi, that's another great
imam, then they learn to say Ameen out
loud And there's proof for both sides Okay,
but this is how it How it developed.
So this was very important to have how
to reason Islamically.
So you find Hanafi thinking Was used by
many of the judges Even in Shafi and
Maliki and other lands because it's a system
of reasoning Okay, so yeah When
Islam, the question is why if it's flexible
in reasoning, what about before?
Well, you see When Islam, when it was
revealed, it was revealed amongst the Arabs And
so within Arab culture, there's a certain way
of living There's certain foods that you have,
there's certain clothes that they wear But now
you're going into other lands and there's totally
different foods Different clothing, different lifestyle, you see,
so therefore if you try to use the
Islamic Arab version Like for instance, you have
a nice tauban and it's, you know, you
know white and it's very nice And you
go up on the mountain in Afghanistan in
the wintertime and you put on your taub,
right?
You freeze to death Because you're now in
a land where you have to have woolen
clothes You see, so that's where the flexibility
is because What's that?
Yeah, on the border areas.
So therefore that's That's the flexibility that now
Islam is spreading to different lands, fast Right,
so the scholar's got to make decisions.
Do you eat this?
Don't eat that You do this, you do
that, you know, so you have to have
a reasoning system.
That's where Hanafi school was excellent and he
was a Persian person, his family was Persian
and there is some Historical proof to say
even that his father actually accepted Islam around
the time of the Prophet He was early
convert, a revert to Islam And so Abu
Hanifa was raised in a Muslim family, but
they were new Muslims Okay, that's interesting point
too, right?
Because a lot of people who are rigid
about their families were the true Muslims You
know their Imam his father Embraced Islam So
his father at one point in time was
a fire worshiper Okay, they had Persian culture
They did not have Arab culture You see,
so this very interesting so now Abu Hanifa,
you know, he started off as a merchant
and he would sell cloth and whatnot in
the marketplace and he was known to be
a very Honest type of person, good businessman
and then he ran into, the scholars were
coming He was in the city of Kufa
and remember Kufa and Basra are the two
main cities in Iraq So he was in
Kufa and he ran into this great scholar
Hamad ibn Abi Suleiman And he was great
scholar and so Abu Hanifa Got attached to
him and studied for him for 18 years
Until he mastered the information from the Shaykh
Hamad And Allah blessed him with his abilities
And he became a great scholar in his
own right.
Okay, so that's the basis of who he
is now During the time of the Umayyads
and the Abbasids, there's power struggles going on
so therefore They're not necessarily using the way
of the Prophet, they're using the way of
kings because remember the difference between Khalifa and
the Malik or the king there's a difference
between the two and so One of the
things that they had especially when the Abbasids
came in They needed to prove to people
that they were true Muslim leaders You had
to prove it to people because people were
not sure about them And one of the
best ways is to have great scholars to
be underneath you as your judge As your
Qadi, so you surround yourself with scholars and
you have great judges And so one of
the Khalifas Al-Mansur He approached Abu Hanifa
and he wanted him to be not just
Qadi but Qadi al-Qudat He wanted him
to be the judge of judge supreme judge
Today will be Supreme Court judge he wanted
him to be and Abu Hanifa Answered him
and he basically said to him.
I'm not fit for this job Really inside
he didn't want to submit he didn't want
to be a stooge Right or somebody just
used by the person put into this position
right, but he answered to him and he
said I'm not fit for this and Mansur
continued on and said no.
Yes, you are fit say you're fit Trying
to force him right and then Abu Hanifa
said basically in words if I was to
say to you After I told you I'm
not fit that I am fit then that's
proof.
I shouldn't get the job Very intelligent you
got to be intelligent dealing with these Kings
right because they're like chop your head off
Right.
They were like, you know, they were like
serious.
They were violent But this so this Mansur
he didn't like this He did not like
this So therefore and this is our reality.
A lot of people don't know this about
their leader Abu Hanifa, right?
but Abu Hanifa was put into prison and
While he was in prison He was actually
tortured And they beat him they beat him
repeatedly to try to make him Accept loyalty
To the king to the Amir and they
continue and Abu Hanifa refused to accept he
refused and he stayed in prison for a
period of time and This is where he
stands up as a great leader and in
767 he died while in prison This is
a great Hanafi leader.
A lot of people don't know that But
he died in prison some people say we're
not sure he might have been poisoned But
he actually died in prison Because he refused
To be used by the king or by
the Amir Right and he stood by his
principles Okay, so this is now where?
the scholar is opposing the ruler and Mansur
was not all bad.
He was doing a lot of good things
People making hajj, they're fasting this halal food
You know Islamic society But is this power
struggle, right?
Abu Hanifa refused and So he will be
known for this for his stance that he
took independence of the scholar He set the
stage for other scholars that they should be
independent Right, they should not submit To the
rulers just because the ruler says so and
you have some scholars today Unfortunately, they will
say oh, you know you obey your leaders
no matter what they say You obey your
leaders you see them doing wrong.
I'm not naming countries But you see them
introducing wrong and where where they don't say
anything Right, but the reality is according to
the Hadith you obey the leader as long
as the leader obeys Allah But the leader
does not obey Allah Then you don't have
to obey them.
So Abu Hanifa is a great testament to
the strength of the scholars and his teachings
Continue as one of the great Imams of
the great four Imams that we have Another
great Imam is Imam Malik Ibn Anas Imam
Malik and He is known for what you
call the Maliki school of thought.
So you have Hanafis and Then you have
Maliki school of thought.
Okay, and his school of thought Especially affected
the Arabian Peninsula But especially North Africa West
Africa And when Islam was in Al-Andalus,
which is Spain and Portugal it also spread
to that area there so Imam Malik was
born in 711 AD or CE.
He was born in Medina like he spends
most of his life basically in Medina and
He was Yemeni.
He was a Yemeni.
Remember the Yemenis today are strong, right?
He was a Yemeni right and His family
had moved from Yemen up into Medina and
He grew up, you know, he's Medina.
So the scholars are there and you know,
he's in this environment and he got to
actually study with many of the Tabi'een
You know and not Sahaba because the last
one had passed So but the Tabi'een
and you know, he was very fortunate and
just to look at his approach Okay a
little bit about his fiqh is that Amongst
his teachers.
He had a number of teachers that are
really important, but two important teachers.
One is Nafia Mola Ibn Umar and Nafia
was the freed slave or bonded servant of
the famous companion Abdullah Ibn Umar Okay, so
he was like a servant.
It's not slavery like, you know today, but
but you know, he came under You know
the rule the possession of Abdullah Ibn Umar.
He freed him Right and and he became
his like right-hand man Okay, and Abdullah
Ibn Umar was a great scholar.
He is the son of Umar Ibn al
-Khattab And so he was one of the
great Scholars after the early Sahaba.
He's considered to be one of the you
know, really strong scholars and so Nafia Got
his information directly from Abdullah Ibn Umar right
and so Imam Malik got his information from
Nafia okay, and So his chain of information
Just to show you isn't that because a
lot of isn't that sometimes sound like really
long and stuff, right?
His isn't that he would say he would
present a hadith And he would say this
is this was reported from Nafia Who reported
it from Ibn Umar?
Who reported it from the Prophet?
You see how close that is So that
is called the golden chain Like his chain
is one of the closest chains if you
want to follow it Okay, and that is
the basis of his book called al-Muwatta
So al-Muwatta follows this golden chain Coming
from Nafia another one of his scholars that
we looked at in the previous class was
Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri and Al-Zuhri as
we learned Was a great scholar who cooperated
with with the Khalifa Umar Ibn Abdulaziz And
we studied that last class and al-Zuhri
his systematic approach to hadith He was the
one that influenced people To actually codify hadith.
Imam al-Zuhri Was one of the key
people.
Okay, so he had an influence over Imam
Malik and Imam Malik Codified and so his
book al-Muwatta is the first codified book
of hadith even before Bukhari and Muslim.
There's no Bukhari and Muslim at that time
Okay, and so okay, but what what's important
to us now?
What's important to us?
What's important to us is the relationship with
the rulers.
Now Imam Malik Kept was low-key He
taught his classes He was in Medina calm
setting Okay, but he was very courageous person
and he was a person he refused To
be influenced by rulers.
He refused Even it's and it's amazing.
There's a story one time where a group
came from Mecca and The group leader said
we have some students the Emir of Mecca
Wants you to teach these students, especially this
one here one in particular And the Emir
of Mecca, of course You're talking about the
the Umayyads, you know period So, you know
and so so the Emir of Mecca wants
you to teach the Imam Malik this person
So Imam Malik said no Take him away
Then the person did the leader of the
caravan said please The Emir has specifically said
this person is a genius Please so Imam
Malik said okay send the boy so he
sat the boy down with him in words
and He tested him and checked him out
and he said I'll take the boy.
Okay, you know that was that was Imam
al-Shafi'i Think about this now, you
see how Maliki said I'm a Shafi'i
and you're a Maliki.
He was a student He was the best
student of Imam Malik That's what Imam al
-Shafi'i was and he actually improved on
Imam Malik's school of thought But he didn't
separate it, right?
He didn't disrespect him Right, he was a
student so that's how Imam Malik was now
you have your rule the Abbasids take over
And they want everybody to now swear loyalty
to them You must swear loyalty to us
now Imam Malik had made a ruling a
fatwa and it said that if you Are
forced to do something If you're forced to
take an oath or if you're forced to
do a marriage contract It's not valid Because
it was done by force So nothing anything
done by force is invalid.
So now There's an issue here because this
is the issue of Be'a and the
Be'a is the oath to the Khalifa
Okay, and they're forcing everybody to do it
but the fatwa of Imam Malik said That
anytime you're forced to do something, it's not
valid So when they try to force the
people in Medina and the students of Imam
Malik who knew him They said no, Imam
Malik's fatwa is clear Like you can't force
us to accept you.
Maybe we do maybe we don't But you
can't force us.
So now They came now on Imam Malik
and they said, okay, what is this?
So the Umayyad governor of Medina, excuse me
it's the Umayyads, the Umayyad governor of Medina
Jafar Ibn Sulaiman He ordered Imam Malik Because
Imam Malik refused to change his fatwa.
I'm not going to change it for you
because you're the leader So they ordered for
him to be publicly flogged Beat him publicly.
This is Imam Malik man This is your
Imam Maliki school of thought, right?
the great leader, the Muwatta To beat him
publicly, Imam Malik, no Imprison him, Imam Malik
refused.
They even pulled his arms Until the arm
came out of the socket Okay, and they
said that at some points Imam Malik when
he prayed He had to pray with his
hands on the side Now some people claim,
you know in the struggle against Madhhabs they
say that's why Maliki's prayed like this with
a hand on the side like the Shia
because Imam Malik was wounded, right?
He couldn't raise his arms.
They were pulled out But the Maliki's would
say no We have proof that there were
people amongst the people of Medina who actually
prayed like this with their hand on the
side It's not because of the injury Okay,
but Imam Malik held this position and eventually
he was released and He leaves a great
legacy number one that you know, he is
Authentic and when he brings his Hadiths He's
bringing you probably the most authentic chain of
information that you can have So he sets
the stage for all the other people who
are going to come afterwards in Terms of
what you know your chain what you want
your Isnab to be He also was independent.
He had high integrity He refused to submit
to oppression of the leader.
If the leaders were doing what is right,
he has no problem But if they're forcing
him to do something Then he will not
do it So this is the great Imam
Malik another example of this Amazing legacy The
third Imam that we're looking at tonight Is
Imam Ahmed Ibn Hanbal Rahim Allah and This
is the fourth We've already mentioned Abu Hanifa
Malik Shafi So the fourth of the four
great schools is Hanbali school okay, and Imam
Ahmed Was highly respected Strong person in traditions
He follows the traditions and he has a
great influence up until today Who was Imam
Ahmed?
He was born in 780 in Baghdad.
So he was Arab tribe the Shayban tribe
Okay, so he was born in Iraq his
father died when he was young so he
was raised by his mother and His mother
had knowledgeable person So she supported him She
saw that he was inclined toward knowledge and
then set him with the ulema from an
early age and So he was able to
study under some great Leaders who were there
and great teachers So he had a really
great education Plus the fact that now he
was different than Imam Malik.
Imam Malik stayed in Medina But Imam Ahmed
traveled So Imam Ahmed traveled to Kufa, Basra,
Mecca, Medina.
He even went down to Yemen Syria So
he traveled all around meeting scholars So he
was able to meet with many of the
great scholars and he was able to collect
hadiths So he was remember the codifying You
know system was already there, you know, they're
being so now he is the one who's
sweeping He's sweeping the area and he's codifying
information and One of his teachers look at
the chain now One of his teachers is
Imam Ashrafi Okay, so now how you say
I'm a Hanafi.
I remember one time the brother came to
me and said, you know Can a Hanafi
marry a Shafi?
That's what he said to me Can a
Hanafi marry a Shafi?
I said wait a minute These are teachers
and students of each other How can you
say something like this?
That's how divided we've become like if you're
a Hanafi You must be an Indian or
Pakistani if you're a Shafi, you're a Somali
or Yemeni, you know If you're Hanbali, you're
from Saudi Arabia, you know, if you're Maliki
or North African or Nigerian We made it
into tribalism But it's not tribalism and it
was never supposed to be and so he
studied under Hisham Ibn Bashir Sufyan Ibn Uyayna
Right great scholars of hadith And so he
was really into hadith You know and by
that time there was a lot of Collections
out there now.
There was a lot of information and so
he was able to Go deep into the
study of hadith so remember Abu Hanifa His
system there's not that many hadith around you
have the Quran some hadith you got to
use your reasoning Okay, Imam Malik He also
used Amal Ahlul Medina the actions of the
people of Medina he considered that almost like
a hadith Because he was these were the
Tabi'een He grew up in Medina So
so he considered their actions to be like
a hadith if there was 50 of them
doing something then it must be right right
So that that becomes part of the Maliki
school, you know of thought and but Imam
Ahmed He was very strict in terms of
the Quran and he wants to go directly
to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam You
know he used Qiyas, he used analogy he
used you know other things, but he would
prefer a hadith He prefer a hadith you
have the Quran and it's an issue.
What did the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
say?
Okay, now because he traveled so much his
book of hadith called the Musnad Imam Ahmed
it was it's a collection of 30,000
hadiths Like if you put it on your
bookshelf, it's like huge right 30,000 hadiths
He collected Imagine how much time he had
to spend.
I mean we don't even have enough time
to read 30,000 pages of books He's
collecting the hadith compiling them putting them in
the Musnad okay, and It's not you know
as authentic as say the Muwatta or Bukhari
or Muslim But it has it's true.
He brought in You know those hadiths so
therefore for just about every subject Every issue
in the in the Hanbali school of thought
you can get a hadith So this is
why the Hanbalis they are called Ahlul Hadith
And this name now is being used by
a group that's in the Muslim world called
Salafi so the Salafi group really This is
all this use of Salafi how it's being
used today It's only in the past, you
know a few decades people before that it
would be Ahlul Hadith So it's the people
who Hanbalis Because they prefer to have an
authentic hadith over somebody's opinion Even if the
hadith was not that strong.
It's a little weak.
They'd rather have that than somebody's opinion Okay,
so this is now what's concerning us What's
concerning us is The trial and the imprisonment
the Mihna the Inquisition now Imam Ahmed His
life was in the Abbasid period So the
Abbasids were ruling with you know their force
They were ruling and in the 9th century
the Khalifa called Ma'mun Okay, he's a strong
Khalifa again.
Remember our hadith in the beginning.
They're good, but there's something tainted Okay, but
they do a lot of good that's how
he is because he does a lot of
good Baitul Hikmah, all the science and all
the stuff is under his rule But there's
something tainted.
His taint was this philosophical movement called Mu'tazila
Okay, and this Mu'tazila movement It goes back
to the time of Al-Hasan al-Basri.
So this is the Tabi'in One of
his students Wasil ibn Ata He disagreed like
there was a question that said okay if
a person commits sin You know he commits
adultery or he drinks alcohol.
Is that person still a Muslim?
So Al-Hasan al-Basri said the person's
still a Muslim.
They're just a Fasiq And Wasil didn't like
this right and he Separated.
This is sort of like a it's almost
like a Khawarij way of looking at things
the people who went outside of Ali So
he left and he got into his own
group and they started their own philosophy and
now they were influenced heavily by Greek and
Roman philosophy because remember during this time all
types of philosophies were being translated into Arabic
So you have Socrates and you have Plato
and all these things translated into Arabic Okay,
so this movement called Mu'tazila Okay, and it
comes from I'tizal, which means they separated from
Imam Hassan al-Basri.
So this group They had some different positions
okay, and one of their positions that they
had is and this is the main controversy
is And this is a minor point that
should never be a big thing But the
point is that is the Quran Kalamullah Is
it the words of Allah or is it
a creation?
So is the Quran like a creation?
No, I mean originally it wasn't a physical
book, but even the words themself Which came
into a physical book, but even before that
is that Kalamullah or is it a created
thing?
Are these words a created thing?
And their argument they argue say well, you
know if you say it's Kalamullah Then to
speak you got to have a mouth If
you got a mouth you got a head
So you're saying Allah is a man?
You know like this philosophical argument But Imam
Ahmed's position is this is the Kalamullah.
It is not created Allah sent this down
how Allah did it Only Allah knows It's
obviously not like human beings Because the Quran
says There's nothing like Allah.
So there's no tongue and there's no head
Okay, so so But it's a philosophical argument.
It gets into egos and My movement against
your movement you see and so they reached
the Khalifa and the Khalifa took on this
philosophical movement and He started to he said
I want all the scholars to accept Muatazila
If you don't I'm gonna punish you so
many of the scholars You know agreed, but
there was a group of them They disagreed
and some of them were actually put into
this caravan and chains, whatever and brought to
the capital Imam Ahmed refused Okay, and this
is a great Imam Known by so many
people But he refused he said bring me
proof What's your deleal bring me something from
the Quran bring me something from the Hadith
if you don't have proof No, and he
refused and he was also punished He was
beat so bad.
He went unconscious These are your Imams, right?
It's not easy to be an Imam, right?
Because you're standing for the truth and Shaitan
is so powerful amongst people, right?
You got to be strong So he stayed
in jail for like two years But he
was so beloved by the people that when
the Mujahideen were out fighting They were calling
Imam Ahmed's name and the leadership changed.
So when the leadership changed Imam Ahmed came
out and A celebrated Imam and he gives
us a powerful legacy He will he and
they say that he saved the Ummah Abu
Bakr saved the Ummah in the beginning.
Remember when the people went outside of Abu
Bakr and they said after him Imam Ahmed
Saved the Muslim Ummah Because this philosophy was
about to overcome The most destroy our connection
here with Quran and Sunnah and Imam Ahmed
stood his ground So he is a central
important person resilient strength and You know one
of one of our great Imams So this
now these are three examples of the struggle
that goes on between the rulers And The
scholars.
Okay.
This is our example.
I want to open up the floor for
any questions That anybody may have concerning this
group Yes,
so so many people naturally took the position
of you know, Imam Ahmed but People in
the government and the other people they were
forced.
A movement started by one of the Mu'tazila
And this is Abu Hassan Ash'ari and
Ash'ari he was into this philosophy and
everything and then he repented from this and
he developed a system of Argumentation how to
defeat the Mu'tazila in an argument and that's
called today Ash'ari school of thought so
if you get into these debates about Aqidah,
right?
So they'll say Salafi, Ash'ari, you know,
whatever the Ash'ari school, you know, their
leader was originally Mu'tazila But then he left
it and he developed a way where you
could logically argue against these people Imam Ahmed
and them they didn't argue against them.
They just said bring me proof If you
don't bring me proof, I don't want to
hear you But that's not enough for some
people some people need some kind of Argumentation.
So Imam Ash'ari He developed this system
he's Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah and But
some people say that because he had so
much in him that it even influenced his
philosophy slightly and And this is where you
have an argument between Salafis and Ash'aris
It really shouldn't be a major Argument, it's
very hair-splitting points on the names and
descriptions of Allah and things like this shouldn't
be a major thing Azhar University is Ash
'ari Azhar, Egypt and many universities So it
really shouldn't be and it isn't really, you
know a major difference But small-minded people,
you know turn it into a difference there
The key point that we're looking at is
about Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal Imam Abu Hanifa,
Imam Malik questions His name was Wasil ibn
Atta Wasil, Wasil ibn Atta.
He was a student of Al Hassan al
Basri You said Imam Maliki prayed with a
hand on his side, right?
So it had to be during the Prophet's
time he did that too?
According to the Maliki school of thought, I'm
not Maliki to know the details No, I'm
just saying like the Prophet did that when
he was praying Salat Did he pray any
time like that?
Did he adopt that?
They claim that Amongst the Sahaba were those
who prayed like that And it was the
actions of some of the people of Medina
and that's why they do it Okay But
amongst the Malikis the ones who are the
correcting, there's a correction of the Maliki Madhhab
And the correction of the Maliki Madhhab is
that the overwhelming Hadiths all the Hadiths that
are authentic say that he's holding his hand
in the Qabat Right?
So even Malikis now pray But you'll see
some Malikis pray like on the side Yeah
Where was he from?
From Oman?
From Yemen Okay Because the thing is the
Omanis it's not Yemen it's Oman, right?
But the Omanis also pray with their hands
on the side But they're Ibadis That's the
Ibadis That's another group, Khawarij They're the remnants
of the Khawarij movement that left Ali and
they pray like this too You know and
Yeah, I mean I was confused one time
I was in in Zanzibar I was traveling
in East Africa And we went to the
Masjid And one of the brothers came in
and he was standing on the side and
he went like this with his hand on
the side You know, so I said to
the brother Is this a Shia?
And he said no, it's Ibadi So Ibadi
is considered not in Ahlus Sunnah, right?
Not in Shia It's Khawarij Although they say
that Ibadi has now changed their Madhab And
they have now Shafis are there too, if
you go to Oman there's Ibadis and Shafis,
they're all together Okay So there's a lot
of people who pray with their hands on
the side to show that there is some
proof that it's real So the argument that
it's only because the Imam's I've heard rebuttal
to that argument It's not They have more
of a proof But the strongest position now
in the correction of the Maliki Madhab is
Fawzia Fawzia Any questions online?
Okay, which Madhab is closest?
This is another class that you need All
of them are Sunnah So Ahlus Sunnah wal
Jammah, all of them are great Imams and
their teachings are all Sunnah Nobody can really
say which is closest You can argue this
and argue that But they never contradict each
other?
There's some differences of opinions, there are differences
But in the major Usul, the major foundations,
there's no contradiction Ameen out loud Ameen silently
You're sitting in Tashahud Do you go like
this?
Or do you wiggle like this?
Maliki is this or they hold it straight
There's proof for both So it's okay So
keep your mind open for all the different
aspects of the Sunnah But naturally, the area
that you live in the system of your
Imam and your family you basically follow that
system The only time you can really start
following all the systems you have to be
a Mujtahid You have to be a person
who's on a high high level and can
choose So everybody sort of follows a method
But don't get stuck in the method A
quick question, like if you travel in Yes,
I mean I heard from a great scholar
he said that when you're in the lands
of other you know, Ahlus Sunnah you know,
pray like them Because otherwise it causes a
confusion Yeah, I mean I was in the
Caribbean once, I don't want to say which
place But I was in the Caribbean You
might know because of my background But we
were in the Masjid And the Imam read
really nice Maghrib, he said And I said,
Ameen I was the only one in the
mosque Yeah That's
right, so now when they finished, they said,
where's that Shaytan And they came to me
to try to I said, get the Bukhari
Hadith And I said, read it in the
front, and the Sahaba said Ameen so loud
it shook the building They said, we didn't
know this Yeah, so
it's better just to, you know, don't say
it out loud It's ok Yeah,
it's alright as long as there's some broad
ways of doing things, that's fine Question online?
So there's many ways, but the key thing
for us here is the relationship of the
scholars to the rulers That's the key thing
And now we see another type of relationship
that developed Yeah,
it's not really that's a little deep for
this class I'm not an Ashari to be
honest with you Yeah, I mean
his arguments was to explain the wrong positions
of the Murtazila How to explain it how
to reason with them and to show them
that they're wrong So this is what his
argument was His basis is Quran and Sunnah
But there is a philosophy that's there and
it can be used originally it was used
to defend Islam But then later on over
years it became the philosophy of the Asharis
And you will learn that in Aqidah So
you learn certain things in Aqidah from the
Ashari thing But they're not major issues They're
more philosophical like Ilm al-Kalam It's philosophy
And it's not areas really of importance I'm
not trying to learn more about the difference
between the Ashari or something like that I'm
more interested to know about what was the
Murtazila's philosophy that he started preparing those arguments
against them I can't imagine what those arguments
against them were because if the philosophy was
like Lincoln-Rowland was influencing them then was
it like a certain mindset that he taught
the people to question?
It's a combination of it But the basis
of it is the Greek and Roman philosophy
where they try to logically reason everything out
And there are some things that you cannot
logically reason out that we believe We believe
Allah is above the throne You can't But
some of the people will say no You
can't say above because that's a direction that
he's in They get into this high philosophy
Maybe at another point we could discuss it
But this particular class is dealing with the
political side of the relationships So we'll close
there and we'll have another interesting class next
week dealing with another relationship, maybe we'll look
at a positive relationship How the leader cooperated
with the imam and great results came from
their cooperation So I leave you with these
thoughts Alhamdulilah Rabbil Alameen Wassalamualaikum Warahmatullahi
Wabarakatuh