Bilal Philips – My Writings The Evolution of Fiqh

			Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh among the first books that I wrote, is another book called
The evolution of here's the original design of the cover, which I made. I designed the cover myself,
		

			and published it myself, as I did for the fundamentals of Tawheed. This is the new version, this the
hardback soft back from International Islamic publishing house in Riyadh, they printed with this
cover in terms of the
		

			reason as I explained before, there are reasons behind basically
		

			all of the books that I wrote, I need and necessity, I had found myself
		

			in a
		

			state of confusion
		

			regarding
		

			what really represented Islamic
		

			law or Sharia or Islam as a whole. Where are we supposed to get it from? Because when I first
accepted Islam,
		

			I was eager to gain as much knowledge as I could
		

			about Islam. Now, I accepted Islam in 1972, in Toronto.
		

			And at that time, there were a few immigrants there with me some Egyptians, some from Bangladesh,
from India, from Pakistan.
		

			And I was getting information from each one of the Born Muslims who attended the masjid, whilst that
avenue Masjid
		

			at that time, but the knowledge was an information was somewhat vague, because they were not
scholars, they were not learned. Then I was given the opportunity to go to the UK, I was told by
brothers from Gematria believe that in the UK, there are over 50 mosques, and every mosque has a
Maulana, who has studied Islam is a scholar, you can go and learn from
		

			them. So I went for the first HDMI or conference held in the West, in Sheffield, England.
		

			And while I was there, I spent four months there. While I was there, I went from master to master
the crown the country sitting with the scholars there and collecting information
		

			about Islam, understanding Islam was very few books were available very little, very little. So,
what happened
		

			was that you know, the scholars I was dealing with their the malanez.
		

			They taught basically on the question answer way, I would ask them a particular question, then they
would give me the answer.
		

			Yes, no,
		

			possibly, or whatever.
		

			So I kept notebooks with me, and I recorded all that information. When I returned back to Canada,
		

			after spending the four months there and
		

			in the UK, studying with brothers from the Jamaat WF learning, basic Arabic reading of the Quran,
from them. In particular, we had Colonel Amira Dean, who was the leader for the GMAT club live in
North America. And I became like his sidekick. I became his protege. He was tutoring me I stayed
with him, learn from him. He helped me with the reading of the Quran was proper Tajweed, etc, etc.
Anyway, after returning to Canada, I moved with my wife next door to the mosque in the east end of
Toronto is then mosque
		

			and
		

			there the Imam was an Egyptian who had learned
		

			done studies he was not like a qualified didn't have the status of shares or
		

			doctor or whatever.
		

			But he had learned, studied in circles etc, focusing mainly on ship persona. Now, the material which
I studied in the UK under the malanez really didn't, wasn't sourced it. There was no indicator of
where it came from, etc to just province SLM, did didn't do whatever do don't do etc. Whereas in the
case of Shepherd Sunnah the Imam there was teaching me privately
		

			based on Hadith with referencing, where it came from
		

			positions of scholars on it, etc.
		

			And I started to see differences. Then I made friends with people from Morocco. So Moroccans had
emigrated to Toronto, and I found them praying with their hands by their sides, instead of clasping
their hands, either on the chest area as the Shafi practice,
		

			the Imam from the eastern mosque was teaching that and or, you know, under the navel as the Jamaat
tably, more Lana's were teaching. So, this created
		

			some confusion for me. So which one is right? This is when all the mazahub all of the schools of
Islamic thought, were correct. I should mention that, while I was in the UK, I was told that they're
also that they're all correct. But you must follow on. Otherwise, your Imam would be shaytaan.
		

			So you had to follow on.
		

			As a result, one had to be chosen, you know. And when I asked them, What did they think what is the
best? What's the advice as to which one is best? They said to me, Well, you know, Abu Hanifa was the
mommy Azzam, the greatest Imam. That's the title that they gave him. And, you know, he was the first
		

			and most Muslims in the world are Hanafis. So perhaps that's better. I said, Okay, fine, I'll become
a Hanafy. And I learned the special Hanafi prayer for women, so I could teach it to my wife when I
went back to Toronto. So now,
		

			when I found this discrepancy between the Moroccans, the Egyptians, and the subcontinent, in the
Pakistanis in prayer, and
		

			they're saying, It's all right, all of them are right, you know, the Prophet SAW Salem did all of
them or whatever. I could sort of understand that. But when I was told
		

			by the Imam of the Eastern mosque, you know, in the fickle sunnah, studies that I had with him, that
if a man when we're looking at what they call, no aka they will do the things which nullify or break
one state of purity
		

			gained by wudu,
		

			the ablutions they explained, that among the things which nullifies will do, other than urinating,
defecating, farting, etc. It says, if you touch a woman,
		

			okay, you touch a woman and your will do is broken. But then,
		

			when I went back to my notes, from the Hanafis, scholars of the Jamaat, who they said, when you
touch a woman, your widow is not broken.
		

			So now I was caught.
		

			Because while the Prophet SAW Salem, according to their explanations, may have prayed with his hands
below his navel on his chest. And then by sides, they may have done that. And that's conceivable
whether that's actually factually true or not, that's another story. But that's still conceivable
that the Prophet SAW Salem could have done different things at different times. But when it now came
to the state, the issue of being in a state of voodoo and not being in a state of voodoo,
		

			it can't happen at the same time. They can't both be correct.
		

			These were contradictory differences.
		

			They
		

			others we could call variational differences, how he's placed his feet in the prayer, where he
raised his hands, whether it is this high or this higher, whatever. But this one of having to do or
not having to do now became problematic. There was no explanation for that.
		

			So then I realized I needed to go and study Islam from the sources, scholarships became available to
go and study in Medina. So I set off along with
		

			a close colleague of mine, Dr. Abdullah Hakim quick, who in fact, was among the people who gave me
Shahada. I accepted Islam, at his hand,
		

			we both went to study in Medina, actually went ahead of me
		

			by six months or something like this, after studying there,
		

			it became clear to me that, in fact, there was right and wrong in this matter, about having to do or
not having to do, and a number of other differences that existed that couldn't coexist among these
various schools of thought. So that clarity came to me. And whilst I was in Riyadh, doing my
master's,
		

			I took a course in tady. attached here, Tyree, Hunter shear, or the history of legislation.
		

			And in the course of it, we studied the math hubs, different schools in much more details, how they
evolved, how they developed, the different opinions, which are held by the scholars, etcetera,
etcetera, why they held these different opinions, their opinion, their evidences, and all these
other kinds of things. This class was very elucidating to me,
		

			it opened my eyes. And I could finally understand this is on the masters level is the store's
course, which they gave on the masters level. Though in my mind, I felt this is something we should
be getting on the bachelors level to get that clarity. But anyway,
		

			the point is that after studying that course,
		

			I felt that this knowledge needed to be shared.
		

			So, this led me to write the book, the evolution of check their audit, at the same time that I wrote
the book on the fundamentals of Tawheed.
		

			And this book I sent to Muslim publishing institutions, main one in the UK, I sent it to them, they
said they wanted to have their scholar, the scholars
		

			look it over and give the okay for publication. So they looked it over. And then they told me, they
wanted me to change a variety of things. When I looked at the changes, basically, they wanted me to
change the approach and the conclusions of the book,
		

			to match the standard view that all Medina hymns are equal. They're all correct. So of course, I
couldn't publish it through them because then it was no longer the book which I wanted to write the
manuscript. I just one other point I just like to mention
		

			when I gave it to Pakistani journalist, he was retired actually had been a journalist for about 30
years, something like this. They retired. In dive, I asked him to go over it for me edit it. When he
brought it back to me. He brought it back to me he had tears in his eyes. I was surprised why his
eyes were teary. filled with tears. Some tears had come down his cheek even. I said, Why are you
crying? What's the reason for it said,
		

			you know,
		

			I'm 70 odd years old.
		

			And I've grown up
		

			in Muslim world.
		

			People follow in different schools of thought, etcetera, etcetera. And he said, for the first time
in my life,
		

			I finally understood what the various schools were about the medina hype for the first time.
		

			So Hamdulillah that was a great encouragement to me. But I still couldn't find any publisher and
ended up publishing it mice.
		

			self in the late 80s
		

			along with the fundamentals of Tawheed those were the first two books, which I published was self
published. As I showed you, I designed the cover, I laid out the pages and everything.
		

			I will hamdulillah BarakAllahu li COMM And I pray that the work continues to open the eyes of many
in the Muslim world who don't understand what the mudarabah about and don't understand how they
should approach the mother have various schools of Islamic law thought
		

			in order to be
		

			comfortably on a straight path without worrying and confused, understandings etc.
		

			I do ask a lot to make it among the books which would benefit the Ummah, some schools, universities,
etc. Like I know in Southern Philippines,
		

			the University of Mindanao.
		

			They do use the book as one of the textbooks and a number of other universities have taken it also
as a textbook. Baraka logical, so radical MURAMATSU law