Hacene Chebbani – The Removal Of Blame From The Great Imams
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
So today, we'll be talking inshallah about some
of our great imams of the past who
lived during the early days of Islam, specifically
during the first 300 years.
And we'll be talking about the four imams.
Of course, we had a huge number of
scholars, but these imams were famous because they
had more students and their students were able
to, you know, write books about their methodology
and about their fiqh.
So many people had access to their knowledge,
and they had students from different parts of
the world, the Muslim world.
That's why their madhab or their schools of
thought get, you know, were able to, or
these people, their students were able to develop,
you know, a body of knowledge that was
preserved and kept in books throughout different generations.
And they are well known in the Muslim
world, Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Malik, Imam Shafi
'i, and Imam Ahmed ibn Hamal.
And because some people are confused about, you
know, why do we have schools of thought,
then we try to answer this question tonight,
bi-idhnillahi ta'ala, by going through the
history of these schools of thought, of these
madhab, and also talk about their methodology, about
their methodology, and about the way they approach
fiqh, and the way they approach the Qur
'an, and the sunnah of our Prophet Muhammad,
salallahu alayhi wasalam.
And what I want to emphasize tonight, that
actually they belong to one community.
They were brothers, they were learning from each
other, some of them were best friends, and
they had a great relationship.
And the development of these madhab is not
something that happened like suddenly, someone like woke
up in the morning and decided to establish
a madhab.
That didn't happen.
It was a gradual process, right?
And maybe they did not mean, these Imams
did not mean to establish, you know, schools
of thought.
We don't have a proof that that was
their intention.
Their intention was to teach knowledge, and to
share knowledge with members of their local communities.
But later on, of course, as I said,
you know, their students were able to share
their knowledge and their fiqh with other people,
and they became, you know, their students, the
students of their student.
They were able to write books and everything,
and everything was attributed to one Imam.
So this is how, you know, this is
how these schools of thought were established.
But first of all, I would like to
share with you, you know, one of the
most important characteristics of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah,
that we Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah, and these
Imams are all Imams of Ahlus Sunnah wal
Jamaah, we uphold the truth, and we treat
people with mercy.
This is a very beautiful, you know, principle
that we learned from our Ulama of Ahlus
Sunnah wal Jamaah, and I think, wallahu alam,
this is taken also from the story of
Al-Khadir, alayhi salam.
If you go to Surah Al-Kahf 65,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told a great
messenger, one of the greatest messenger of Banu
Israel within the community of Banu Israel, who
is Musa, alayhi salam, to go and learn
from Al-Khadir, alayhi salam.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told him
that they granted him knowledge and mercy.
So we Muslims, if we want to, you
want to achieve the best results in our
da'wah work, we have to mix between
knowledge and mercy.
And mercy means wisdom, means, you know, a
soft approach.
It means also you have to, when you
share knowledge with people, with Muslims, you try
to keep the community together, try to find
solutions to people.
Fiqh is about finding solutions to people and
helping them have a good life on this
earth, while being a good servant of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, while being a true
servant of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So this is the purpose of Shari'ah,
is to serve people, you know, to bring
benefits into the life people and protect them
against harms.
That is the highest objective of Shari'ah.
And this is what mercy means here.
Even though we know the story of Al
-Khadir, alayhi salam, in all three incidents he
had to choose between two, maybe, but he
went for the lesser evil, and this is
part of mercy.
He went for the lesser evil in the
first case and the second case, and this
is part of mercy.
So anyway, if you focus on knowledge, who
is right and who is wrong, and you
forget about mercy, you might actually create some
division within the community.
You create some hard feelings, negative feelings within
our community.
So you have to combine between knowledge and
mercy when you do da'wah and when
you teach Islam.
Now today, inshallah, we'll get an idea about
what is a madhhab.
We'll talk a little bit about the approach
of our ulama to the main sources of
guidance in Islam, Qur'an and Sunnah.
We'll talk about the four schools of thought,
and the founder of the Hanafi madhhab is,
of course, Imam Abu Hanifa, rahmatullahi alayhi, who
lived most of his life in Iraq.
He was born in the year 80 in
the Hijri calendar, and he passed away in
the year 150, after the Hijra of Rasulullah,
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
Some ulama, they said, he belonged to the
generation of tabi'at tabi'in, the successors
of the successors, but there are some ulama
who said, no, actually he met some sahabahs
among them, Anas ibn Malik radiyallahu anhu, but
there is no proof that he learned from
him.
There is no proof that Imam Abu Hanifa
learned from the sahabah, got knowledge from the
sahabah.
But some ulama, they said that he met
some sahabah.
And it is possible he was born in
the year 80, after the Hijra of Rasulullah,
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
This is possible.
Anas ibn Malik, for example, he used to
live in Al-Basra, the city of Al
-Basra.
Abu Hanifa lived in the city of Baghdad,
so in the same area of Iraq.
And Anas ibn Malik, radiyallahu anhu, passed away
in the year 96, 95, after the Hijra
of Rasulullah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, 15 years
or 16 years after, so after the birth
of Abu Hanifa, radiyallahu anhu.
Anas ibn Malik lived in the city of
Medina, Imam Dar al-Hijra, and he was
born in the year 93, after the Hijra
of our Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
passed away in the year 179.
Imam Malik did not travel, he did not
go to any other city, he left only
the city of Medina, the only time he
left the city of Medina is for Hajj,
when he decided to go to the city
of Mecca to perform Hajj.
That's the only trip he made in his
life, he spent his whole life in the
city of Medina, rahimahullah.
And Abu Hanifa, rahimahullah, may Allah have mercy
on him, he left the city of Baghdad,
he traveled around, and he used to go,
he used to visit Mecca a lot, and
study, you know, with the scholars, the Meccan
scholars, the local scholars of the city of
Mecca, and he spent, he moved actually one
time to the city of Mecca, and he
stayed there for six years, around six years,
in the year 130.
So 20 years before he passed away, he
spent six years in the city of Mecca,
and he was, of course, spending his time
teaching and also learning from the scholars of
Mecca.
Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi'i, rahimahullah, he
was born in the year 150, the same
year Abu Hanifa passed away.
And he passed away, al-Shafi'i, in
the year 204, after the hijrah of Rasulullah
ﷺ.
Al-Shafi'i was from Quraish, so his
lineage goes back to Abdi Manaf, so he
is basically related to our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ,
but he was born in Gaza.
He was born in Palestine, and his father
passed away when he was two years old,
so his mother took him back to the
city of Mecca.
She wanted him to grow up within his
own tribe and with his own people, but
he was not satisfied with that.
He went and he lived with an Arab
tribe, Hudayl, because they were excellent in speaking
the classical Arabic language, so he learned poetry
from them.
He learned the Arabic language.
He went to Yemen.
He moved, he spent some time in Baghdad,
in the city of Baghdad, and the rest
of his life, he spent the rest of
his life in Egypt.
Imam al-Shafi'i, rahmatullahi alayhi, Muhammad ibn
Idrees al-Shafi'i.
Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, he was from the
city of Baghdad, from Iraq, but he traveled
a lot like Imam al-Shafi'i.
He went to Yemen, he went to the
city of Mecca, he went to the city
of Medina, and he traveled around, was collecting
the hadith.
Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, he said, he was
able to memorize around one million hadith.
And when we say one million hadith, we
don't mean one million different texts.
So, if we talk about, let's say, two
hundred hadiths with the same text, the ulema
at the time, they used to classify them
as different hadith because of the chain of
narration.
So this hadith is the same hadith, same
text, but it has two hundred chain of
narration or chain of transmission, two hundred chains
of transmission.
So it will be counted like two hundred
hadiths or three hundred hadiths.
So when we say that Imam Ahmad used
to memorize one million hadiths, it doesn't mean
one million different texts, but one million hadiths
with different chains of narrations.
But the hadith could be, as I said,
the same, the text hadith, the same text
will be repeated in two hundred, three hundred
hadiths.
And he was able to write his book,
al-Musnad, which is a great book.
Now, when it comes to al-madhhab, I
think we believe that the best path to,
I'll tell you about the ruling of al
-madhhab.
There are some people who are confused about
it.
Maybe I'll leave it till the end.
Do we have the obligation to follow al
-madhhab or not?
So we'll tell you what the ulema said
about it.
But this is what the methodology that we
try to follow, that we love and we
respect the Imams, but we do not encourage
blind following.
So this is how we keep a balance
in our life, in our religious life.
We have the obligation to respect and love
and appreciate the efforts of our Imam.
They were great scholars, but we did not
encourage a blind following.
Why?
Because we don't believe that they are ma'soom.
Ahl al-sunnah wal jama'ah, they believe
the only one who was ma'soom is Rasulullah
ﷺ, infallible.
That means he doesn't make a mistake when
it comes to religious matters.
If Rasulullah ﷺ makes a mistake in any
religious matter, then Allah ﷻ would correct him.
So he was not allowed to make a
mistake in religious matters.
Other people after him, including the Sahaba, no
one is infallible.
They don't know ilm al-ghayb.
There are some sects who believe that their
Imams know the knowledge of the unseen.
They know what will happen in the future.
They knew about what happened in the past.
They know what's going on now around the
world.
They know everything.
So basically they're giving them the attributes of
Allah ﷻ.
Right?
Al-ma'soom huwa al-rasool ﷺ.
So these Imams are not ma'soom.
They are not infallible.
They make mistakes.
And I give you examples, some stories about
the Sahaba who missed a hadith.
They didn't know about a hadith.
A hadith that could be now, or some
masail of fiqh, that could be now considered
basics in our life.
Just because we have access to knowledge and
we know about them.
But some of the Sahaba missed this knowledge.
So if that was the case with the
Sahaba, who are the most knowledgeable, the most
grounded in Islamic jurisprudence, the most mindful of
Allah ﷻ, the best among the Muslim community,
what would be the case with those who
are less important than them?
The other Imams, the Sahaba.
You know you have the Sahaba, the companions
of the Prophet ﷺ.
They are the best people of this ummah.
You cannot compare the status of an Imam
with the status of the Sahaba ﷺ.
Right?
And yet we found that the Sahaba missed
some knowledge ﷺ.
I will give you some examples here.
There are interesting stories about many things.
That we, these days, we know them.
Now when it comes to, let's talk a
little bit about the relationship between these Imams.
So at the end, when we say they
had their own schools of thought, what does
it mean?
It means that they disagreed on different masā
'il of fiqh.
This is a fact.
We cannot ignore it.
We cannot deny it.
Right?
If they all agreed on the masā'il
of fiqh, then we don't, we won't have
schools of thought.
Right?
We won't have madhhab.
Otherwise what's the point of having a madhhab,
Maliki madhhab, and Hanafi madhhab, and Shafi'i?
So there was some sort of disagreement between
these scholars.
But was it healthy or unhealthy disagreement?
That's the point.
And here today, I would like to say
that the relationship, these Imams had a great
relationship.
They enjoyed a great relationship.
They used to love each other.
Al-Imam, for example, Malik, he was the
student of Imam Shafi'i.
He said, Al-Shafi'i ustadi, he's my
teacher.
I took knowledge from him.
Shafi'i said about Imam Malik, he said,
I took knowledge from him.
He said, وَلَيْسَ أَحَدٌ أَمَنُّ عَلَيَّ مِنَ الْإِمَامِ
مَالِكِ He said, there is no one who
has more favors upon me than Imam Malik.
This is what Shafi'i is saying.
وَقَالَ إِذَا كَانَ إِذَا ذُكِّرَ الْعُلَمَاءُ فَالْإِمَامُ مَالِكُ
نَجْمٌ ثَاقِبٌ He said, if the ulama, the
scholars have mentioned, then Imam Malik among them
is like a shining star.
He's like a shining star.
This is Imam Shafi'i who spent time
with Imam Malik.
He went to city of Medina.
He studied his book, the book that was
authored by Imam Malik, Muwatta, Muwatta Imam Malik.
And Imam Shafi'i studied the whole book
with Imam Malik.
And he was able to memorize the book
in nine days, Imam Shafi'i.
And then he read the book, he went
through it with Imam Malik, and he was
discussing the masail of fiqh with him.
He was one of his best teachers.
And Imam Shafi'i was one of the
best teachers of Imam Ahmad.
Imam Ahmad considers Imam Shafi'i one of
his best teachers.
And he studied under him, he met him
in the city of Baghdad.
They used to love each other, to visit
each other, spend time together.
So they didn't have like, this is a
Hanafi university, this is a Shafi'i masjid,
this is a Maliki center.
They didn't have these things, at all.
It was one community, one community.
But they had teachers, and among the best
teachers were, like Imam, as I said, Imam
Abu Hanifa had students like Abu Yusuf Yaqub
Ibn Ibrahim.
His name is very interesting.
This is one of the most famous students
of Imam Abu Hanifa.
Abu Yusuf Yaqub Ibn Ibrahim, with Ibrahim alayhi
salam, Prophet Ibrahim.
He was, you know Prophet Ibrahim alayhi salam
had a son, has a grandson.
His children were Ishaq and Yaqub, but his
grandchild was Yaqub alayhi salam.
And Yaqub alayhi salam, one of his children
was Yusuf alayhi salam.
So he missed Ishaq in his name here,
but his name used to be Abu Yusuf
Yaqub Ibn Ibrahim al-Kufi.
And he was one of the best students
of Imam Abu Hanifa.
One of the best students also, Muhammad Ibn
al-Hassan al-Shaybani.
Imam Shafi'i traveled to Baghdad, sat down
with Muhammad Ibn al-Hassan al-Shaybani.
He took knowledge from him, he studied his
books, the books that were written by Muhammad
Ibn al-Hassan al-Shaybani.
So they used to interact with each other
and spend time and support each other.
So whenever one of the Imams is asked
about another Imam, who would say something beautiful
about him.
For example, Imam Shafi'i said about Imam
Abu Hanifa, He said, Imam Shafi'i said
about Abu Hanifa, that people are like children
to Abu Hanifa in the area of Fiqh.
Or they are all dependents of Abu Hanifa
in the area of Fiqh.
And Imam Shafi'i himself, he was the
teacher of Imam Ahmad, but he used to
tell Imam Ahmad, you have more knowledge about
Hadith.
So whenever you find an authentic Hadith, tell
me about it, so I can use it
in my research.
Imam Shafi'i, who was the teacher of
Imam Ahmad, telling Imam Ahmad, you have more
knowledge about Hadith and about the Rijal, the
narrators.
Rijal of Hadith, the narrators of Hadith.
If you find an authentic Hadith, then tell
me about it, so I can use it
in my research.
So that was the relationship between these four
Imams.
And of course, that was the same relationship
between these Imams and other Imams, with some
exceptions.
Nothing is perfect in this life.
With some exceptions.
We have in the books of history, you
know, some scholars, they had some frictions.
They had some unhealthy, you know, unhealthy disagreements.
But that was not the norm.
It was, these are isolated cases.
But all these great Imams used to respect
each other, and learn from each other.
Now when it comes to the history of
the Islamic jurisprudence, so when the ulema talk
about the golden era for the Islamic jurisprudence,
they divided this era, this golden era, into
four phases, or four periods of time.
Now, this is usually the case, you might
read some other books, they have a different
arrangement.
But this is usually the case, they divide
this golden era into four periods of time.
So the first period, without any disagreement, is
the period of Rasulullah ﷺ.
The era of our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ started
from 610 in the Christian era, till 632
in the Christian era.
So Rasulullah ﷺ was sent as a messenger
in the year 610.
So that would be 12 or 13 years
before the Hijrah.
12 or 13 years before the Hijrah of
Rasulullah ﷺ, and 11 years in the Hijri
calendar in the city of Medina.
Because when he moved to Medina, he stayed
there for 11 years, and he passed away
ﷺ.
During this period of time, the only sources
of knowledge were the Qur'an, and the
sunnah of our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
And who was interpreting the Qur'an and
giving fatwas to Muslims?
It was Rasulullah ﷺ.
He was the only authority, the only source
of legal authority at that time.
So no one would take the opinion of
another Sahabi, when Rasulullah ﷺ is still alive
and he is present.
Right?
So that was, it was very simple.
And all the Sahabi ﷺ had the obligation
to follow the sunnah and obey the messenger
ﷺ.
The second era is the era of the
rightly guided caliphs, al-Khulafa al-Rashidun.
And it started from the time of his
death to approximately 662 in the Christian era,
660.
These are approximate numbers from the year 11
till 41.
41 is Aam al-Jama'ah.
Aam al-Jama'ah when Ali ibn Abi
Talib ﷺ was assassinated.
Then al-Hasan, his son, radiallahu anhu, became
the khalifa.
But he became the khalifa for only six
months or nine months, al-Hasan ibn Ali
ibn Abi Talib.
And then he gave up the position of
al-Khulafa.
He allowed Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan to be
the khalifa at that time.
But it was called Aam al-Jama'ah
because there was some disagreement between two big
parties, Ali ibn Abi Talib and Muawiyah.
And then the Muslims became united again, alhamdulillah,
when Muawiyah became, Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, radiallahu
anhu, became the leader or the khalifa.
And that's the starting of the Umayyad Caliphate.
From 141 till 125 or 126 if I'm
not mistaken.
And then came the Abbasid Caliphate.
So here, during this period, the era of
the four rightly guided Abu Bakr as-Siddiq,
who ruled for two years or two years
and a half, Umar ibn Khattab for 10
years, Uthman ibn Affan maybe for 12 years,
radiallahu anhu, and then Ali ibn Abi Talib.
So these four khalifa were greatly respected by
the Muslims at that time.
And they were ulama, they were mujtahidun.
Mujtahid is a scholar who has reached the
highest level of expertise in the area of,
you know, in the interpretation of Islamic laws.
So he knows the Qur'an, he knows
the Arabic language, he knows most of the
ahadith.
So he's a mujtahid, he has the tools,
he has the ability to derive rulings from
the Qur'an and the sunnah of our
messenger, That was the case with the khulafa
ar-rashidun.
So most of the time, most of the
time people when they have a problem, an
issue, or they need a fatwa, they go
to this khulafa, or they go to the
sahaba, radiallahu anhu, who used to live during
that time.
For example, Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, Abdullah ibn
Umar, Abdullah ibn Abbas, Mu'ath ibn Jabal,
Zayd ibn Thabit, Ubayy ibn Ka'b.
These are the fuqaha among the sahaba.
They used to help the khulafa ar-rashidun
in teaching people, teaching them fiqh.
But Abdullah ibn Mas'ud and Ali ibn
Abi Talib, they spent the rest of their
life in Iraq, in the area of Iraq.
That's why they say, the people, the historians,
they said most of the fiqh of Abu
Hanifa, is taken from Abdullah ibn Mas'ud
and Ali ibn Abi Talib, because they lived
in Iraq.
Because these sahabis taught some, they had students.
And these students had students, and Imam Abu
Hanifa, for example, one of his best teachers,
Hammad ibn Abi Sulayman, who learned from someone,
his name Alqama, this guy Alqama was one
of the students of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud.
So they said most of the fiqh of
Abu Hanifa was taken from Abdullah ibn Mas
'ud and Ali ibn Abi Talib, because they
lived in Iraq, and people had the opportunity
to learn from them.
So, and Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, radiallahu anhu,
for example, made a statement.
And this statement shows their methodology.
Their methodology was always the same.
He said, if I am dealing with a
fiqh issue, or I'm looking for an answer
for something, I would consult the book of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
If I don't find anything in the book
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, I would
look into the sunnah of our messenger, sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam.
This is after the death of the prophet.
And then if I don't find anything in
the sunnah of the messenger, sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam, I would consult the sahaba.
If they all agree on one ruling, then
this is ijma', the consensus of the sahaba,
and Abu Bakr radiallahu anhu, he said, I
would use it.
I would use it as an answer, as
a solution for this matter at hand.
If they disagree, then he had the choice
to choose between two opinions of the sahaba.
He had two opinions about something, then he
would choose one of the two opinions, radiallahu
anhu.
If he was not able to get any
feedback from the sahaba, then he said, I
will use ijtihad.
Ijtihad could be through qiyas, which is analogy,
or he will look at the principles, general
principles of fiqh, and come up with a
fatwa or a solution to any problem he
deals with, or he dealt with.
So that was the methodology of all the
sahaba, radiallahu anhu, and specifically the khulafa ar
-rashidun.
But it was a period of legal interpretation,
like the ulama, they said here, they have
some description of this area.
There was elaboration of Islamic principles taken from
the Qur'an and the sunnah, and doors
were open for ijtihad.
The sahaba were allowed to do ijtihad, which
is legal reasoning or juristic reasoning.
And also there was the emergence of the
third primary source of legislation, which is ijma
'a.
So we have the primary sources of legislation
in our deen, Qur'an, and the sunnah,
ijma'a, number three, and then qiyas, number
four.
And then the other sources of legislation, they
are controversial, they are not agreed upon.
But all the ulama agreed that the Qur
'an is the primary source of guidance, then
the sunnah, then ijma'a, which is consensus,
when all the ulama agree on a masala,
and then qiyas, which is analogy.
Now the second, the other, the third phase,
is the era of young companions and successors.
So we have some young companions, like Anas
ibn Malik, who was young at the time
of Rasulallah ﷺ, but he lived a long
life, till 96 or 95, he died at
the age of 96 or 95.
So he had the opportunity to live with
successors, tabi'een.
Hassan al-Basri used to live in the
city of al-Basra, and he used to
study with Anas ibn Malik, he took his
knowledge from Anas ibn Malik.
Some other tabi'een, many tabi'een, had
the opportunity to meet Anas ibn Malik and
the rest of the sahaba.
So here, this is the era of, they
call it the young companions and successors, and
it is from 662 to 722.
As I said, these are approximate numbers, but
in the hijri calendar from 41 to 100
in the hijri calendar.
100 is the time when Umar ibn Abdul
-Aziz used to be a khalifa.
Many ulama consider him a rightly guided caliph.
Ya'ani khalifatun rashid.
Umar ibn Abdul-Aziz was following the path
of the four caliphs, Umar, Abu Bakr as
-Siddiq, following their methodology and their guidance.
Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, Umar ibn al-Khattab,
Uthman and Ali.
And then came the fourth phase.
Of course, during the third phase, there are
some, you know, here the four imams were
not active during this period.
Who was teaching during this period?
We had famous teachers in different cities, like
Ata'a ibn Abi Rabah, Muhammad ibn Sirin,
al-Hassan al-Basri.
There are scholars in the city of Basra,
in Al-Kufa, in Medina, in the city
of Mecca.
Different scholars, but these scholars did not establish
schools of thought.
Right?
They are not like the four imams.
But the four imams learned from these scholars.
Like Imam Abu Hanifa at this time, he
is 20 years old.
And he just started learning.
He just started learning because he did not
start searching for knowledge at a younger age.
He was a tajir.
He was a merchant.
And he started learning at a later, I
don't know at which time in his life,
how old was he when he started learning.
But he didn't start it.
Like there are some other ulama who memorized
the Qur'an when they were still young,
when they were children.
And they started collecting the ahadith when they
were young.
But anyway, it doesn't degrade the status of
Imam Abu Hanifa.
It doesn't matter.
He became a great imam.
And his school is one of the recognized
schools of thought within the Sunni Muslim world.
Now, during this era, the scholarly research was
expanded.
But there was always a problem.
It was this era, third phase, witnessed the
emergence of hadith fabricators.
Hadith fabricators.
There are people who had a very ill
intention.
And they wanted to hurt Islam from inside.
Some other people maybe did it with a
good intention.
Maybe some people did it for other reasons,
Allah knows.
But this era has witnessed the emergence of
hadith fabricators.
Some people started fabricating ahadith.
And this is of course a major sin.
But the ulama had to deal with this
issue.
And that's why they started collecting the ahadith
of Rasulallah ﷺ and verifying the isnad and
the chains of narration of this ahadith.
And trying to sort this ahadith out and
distinguish between what is weak, what is fabricated,
and what is sahih.
Now the last here, the fourth phase, is
the era of compilation and codification of laws
and expert jurists.
We mean here the four imams and the
other scholars who lived during their time.
Imam Malik, Abu Hanifa, al-Shafi'i, and
Imam Ahmed.
And this started with the year 100 after
the death of Umar ibn Abdul Aziz till
350 in the Hijri calendar.
And it was a rich era.
People were very active in teaching and learning.
These cities that I mentioned had big names,
big scholars teaching and having their students.
And the Muslim community they used to give
attention to the matter of learning and teaching.
People used to memorize the ahadith of Rasulallah
ﷺ.
We find people there who used to memorize
thousands of the ahadith of Rasulallah ﷺ.
They used to write books.
The fatawa of the sahaba.
They were collecting the fatawas of the sahaba.
The fatawas of the tabi'in.
So the ummah was very active at that
time in expanding the scope of research.
Scholarly research.
But after that, after this period of time
after the 4th Hijri or the 4th century
within the Hijri calendar then most of the
people who came after them they did not
bring something new.
They were just elaborating the work elaborating on
the work of the previous imams.
Or summarizing their work or writing trying to
work with the foundations of this imam or
that imam or this school of thought.
So after that people were satisfied with what
is called taqlid.
What is taqlid?
Just following the fiqh of the previous imams
without any ijtihad.
Actually some scholars after that later on they
would say, okay there will be no ijtihad.
The door of ijtihad should be closed.
And we are not supposed to look into
new matters.
And just follow what the previous imams have
written and have left for us.
And that's it.
And this is wrong of course.
Now who is a mujtahid?
We talked about a mujtahid.
He is an Islamic scholar who has achieved
the highest level of expertise.
As I said, he doesn't have to...
The ulama amazingly they said it's not condition
for a mujtahid to memorize the Qur'an
but he has to be familiar with the
knowledge of the Qur'an.
He has to be familiar with the hadith
of Rasulallah ﷺ.
He has to be an expert in the
Arabic language and so on and so forth.
Now when it comes to the methodology of
these great imams.
So there are principles that they agreed on
them.
And these principles are very important for us.
If you want to be moderate in your
religious life.
If you want to keep a balance, a
good balance.
When it comes to following ulama or listening
to ulama or adopting a certain methodology.
We need to understand their methodology.
For example, Sheikh Islam al-Jamiyya when he
wrote this book.
I got this title from his book that
he wrote.
Raf'ul Malami Al-A'immati Al-A
'lam You know the removal of blame from
the great imams.
That is the title of a small book
written by Sheikh Islam al-Jamiyya.
Right?
He confirmed these principles.
That all these imams, رضي الله عنهم ورحمهم
He said none of these imams would deliberately
oppose the Prophet ﷺ in any aspect of
his sunnah.
So don't have any misconception about their methodology.
That none of them would all purpose oppose
the sunnah of Rasulallah ﷺ.
He would know the hadith.
And the hadith is clear.
The meaning is very clear.
And it is sahih, authentic.
And he will use his personal interpretation against
the hadith.
And he could come up with a new
opinion that is different.
Than the guidance that was provided or included
in the hadith of Rasulallah ﷺ.
So he said none of them would deliberately,
would do it on purpose.
يُخَارِفْ سُنَّةَ الرَّسُولِ ﷺ عَنْ قَزَةٍ هَذِهِ لَيْسَتْ
مِنْ طَبِيعَةَ هَا أُولَٰئِ الْآئِمَّةِ رَحِمَهُمُ اللَّهُ They
were in profound agreement, he said, regarding the
obligation of following the Prophet ﷺ.
Because we need to know their methodology, their
status, their taqwa.
And also at the same time, of course
we should know that they were not perfect,
and were not infallible, and they would make
mistakes.
And they used to believe that the opinion
of anyone other than the Prophet ﷺ may
be accepted or rejected.
This is a famous statement made by Imam
Malik.
But it was adopted by all these Imams.
Imam Malik, one time he made a statement,
he said, كُلٌ يُؤْخَذُ مِن كَلَامِهِ وَيُرَدْ إِلَّا
صَاحِبُ هَذَا الْقَبْرِ He was in the prophetic
masjid, beside the grave of our Prophet Muhammad
ﷺ.
And he said, anyone, anyone, his opinion could
be rejected or accepted, except the companion of
this grave.
And he pointed to the grave of our
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
Except the inhabitant or the companion of this
grave.
So, they agreed on it.
مَثَلَنَّ الْإِمَامَ أَبُو حَنِيفَةٌ has a famous statement,
and Shafi'i made the same statement.
إِذَا صَحَّ الْحَدِيثُ فَهُوَ مَذْهَبِ إِذَا صَحَّ الْحَدِيثُ
فَهُوَ مَذْهَبِ They all said, when the hadith
is authentic, that is my madhab.
When the hadith is authentic, that is my
madhab.
This is a statement that was made by
Abu Hanifa radiallahu anhu.
And Shafi'i also made the same statement.
And Imam Malik made another statement.
He said, truly I am only a human.
I make mistakes sometimes and correct other times.
Therefore, investigate my opinions.
Most likely he was addressing his own students.
Right?
He was talking to his own students.
Telling them that you need to investigate my
opinions.
All that agrees with the book of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, and the sunnah accepted,
and all that does not agree with the
book of Allah, and the sunnah of his
messenger, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, then ignore it.
This is in Jami' bayan al-ilm wa
fadlih.
The author of this book, Ibn Abdulbar.
And also al-Muwafaqat, the author of this
book is al-Shatibi.
Both of them were Maliki scholars, but were
great Maliki scholars.
They would follow the dalil.
If the dalil is authentic, they would go
against the opinion of Imam Malik.
And that was also the practice of Muhammad
bin Hassan Shaybani, Abu Yusuf, these great students
of Imam Abu Hanifa.
They would sometimes make ishtihad, because they were
mujtahideen themselves.
Yes, the students of Abu Hanifa, but they
were mujtahideen.
If they find a hadith, that is authentic,
they make ishtihad, they reach a conclusion, different
than the conclusion of their Imam, they would
follow the sunnah of Rasulallah salallahu alayhi wa
sallam, against the opinion of their own Imam.
So, all of them, all of them, all
of them agreed about the status of the
Quran, and the status of the sunnah of
our messenger, salallahu alayhi wa sallam.
As an example, as an example, there was
a student, Imam Malik had a student, his
name is Abdullah ibn Wahab.
So, he was sitting with Imam Malik, and
there was a group of students, sitting in
front of him.
He was asked about takhleel al-asabi' ar
-rijlein, takhleel al-asabi' ar-rijlein fil wudhu,
cleaning the toes, or rubbing in between the
toes, in wudhu.
So he said, laysal nasu ala dhalik, and
he said, people don't have to do it.
That was the response of Imam Malik.
His student, Abdullah ibn Wahab, got some knowledge.
He knew about a hadith, from Rasulallah salallahu
alayhi wa sallam.
So he said, intadhartu hatta khaffan nasu.
He waited, he didn't tell him, hey Imam,
you know, this is your opinion, I have
a hadith against your opinion.
He didn't do that.
He didn't do that.
He said, I waited until people left.
And then I approached my teacher, Imam Malik.
He said, ya Imam, I have a sunnah
regarding this matter.
He said, what is this sunnah?
And then he told him the hadith.
If I'm not mistaken, narrated by al-Mustawrid
ibn Shaddad, or Shaddad ibn Mustawrid radiallahu anhu.
He said, I saw Rasulallah, the sahabi said,
I saw Rasulallah salallahu alayhi wa sallam, yadliku
bayna asabi ilijlayhi.
I saw the messenger of Allah cleaning, or
rubbing between his toes.
So he said, Imam Malik said, this is
a hadith that is hasan.
We should follow this sunnah.
So he changed his opinion.
And Abdullah ibn Wahhab, he said, later on,
I heard him being asked about the same
question, and giving a fatwa based on the
guidance of the hadith.
So he didn't know about this sunnah, radiallahu
anhu wa rahimah.
But his student reminded him about this hadith,
and he changed his opinion, based on the
hadith that he got from one of his
students.
And the ulema basically, they said about this
mas'ala, this is on the side, the
fiqh mas'ala.
They said, if you are sure, confident that
the water has reached in between the toes,
then you don't have to rub in between
the toes.
But if you are not sure, so it
becomes only, it is only recommended to rub
in between the toes, if you are sure
that water has reached this area.
But if you are not confident, then you
should put your finger between your toes, and
rub or clean between your toes, wallahu ta
'ala alam.
So you should do it, to be in
the safe side, because Rasulallah sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam, used to do it.
So when it comes to the reasons, behind
their disagreements, mas'ala Sheikh Islam al-Utaymiyyah,
he said the excuses could be in three
categories.
All these excuses, because they had excuses.
Whenever we find that an imam, had an
opinion, that went against the guidance of a
specific hadith, then this imam must have an
excuse.
And these excuses, could be classified into three
categories.
Number one, the scholar did not believe that
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said the
hadith.
He believed that the hadith is fabricated, or
he believed that the hadith is weak, or
he believed that there was no hadith about
it.
He couldn't find a hadith.
The scholar did not think that the issue
in question was covered by the prophetic hadith.
So the hadith is there, he knows about
it, but he doesn't believe that this mas
'ala is included in the hadith.
So it is a matter of interpretation.
His interpretation of the hadith was different than
the interpretation of another scholar.
I'll give you an example.
Start your fasting when you see the new
moon, and break your fast when you see
the new moon, right?
Was it an instruction for the whole ummah,
or for the local community of Medina?
Two interpretations.
Some ulama thought that this is an instruction
for the whole ummah.
That's why they believe in what is called
international moon sighting.
But some other ulama, they used to believe
that this instruction, this command, was for only
the local people in Medina.
Rasulullah ﷺ was talking to his own people.
Because they didn't believe that, of course at
that time, it was difficult for people to
know.
You know, if you live in one city,
it would be extremely difficult for you to
know what's going on in the other city,
on the same night, on the same day.
You have to travel, you have to ride
your horse or camel, and we travel for
hours to know what's going on in the
other city.
But nowadays, we know about moon sighting in
Mecca or Medina or Baghdad or Pakistan on
the same day.
If there is an announcement that is made,
we will know about it right away, right?
It's a different story.
So anyway, but this is an example about
one hadith, but the ulama would have different
interpretation about the hadith.
Number three, they said the scholar believed that
the ruling contained in the hadith to be
abrogated.
It is abrogated, and you know what is
abrogation?
It's changing a ruling.
You know that Rasulullah ﷺ would command the
sahaba to do something, and then later on,
or he would prevent them from doing something,
and later on, he will tell them, you
know, you can do it.
It is permissible.
Like in the beginning, he told them, do
not visit the graves.
And then later on, he said, visit the
graves, for they will serve as a reminder
of al-akhirah.
This visit will help you to remind yourselves
about al-akhirah.
When you go there, visit the graves and
the cemetery, and you remember death, and you
start thinking about al-akhirah, but your own
death, that one day you're going to go,
you know, and die, and meet Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, and you'll be alone in
the grave.
So this is something that you can use
to soften your heart, right?
So that's the purpose Rasulullah ﷺ said, in
the beginning he said, do not visit the
graves.
But this is a sort of abrogation.
So this is a nahi, and then it's
called an Arabic naskh.
This is a ruling, and then the ruling
was cancelled, and replaced with another ruling, wallahu
ta'ala.
Now these, you know, reasons could be divided
into, or these categories could be divided into
specific reasons.
The first one here, one of the reasons,
there are many reasons, but I will mention
only some of them.
The hadith did not reach this scholar.
Like, for example, Abu Hanifa used to live
in Baghdad, and there was a hadith that
was used in the city of Medina.
And the people of Medina did not share
this hadith with other people from different cities.
So for example, Imam Abu Hanifa didn't know
about it.
He would not use it.
But when we find the hadith later on,
ourselves, or the people who came later on,
you cannot accuse Imam Abu Hanifa of ignoring
the hadith.
You cannot blame him.
Because the hadith did not, Abu Hanifa is
an example.
This example applies to Imam Shafi'i, applies
to Imam Malik, applies to anyone.
To anyone.
Anyone could miss a hadith.
And here I have examples from the life
of the sahaba, radhiyallahu anhum.
For example, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, radhiyallahu anhum,
a grandmother came to him, asking about her
share of the inheritance.
And he said, I don't find anything for
you in the Qur'an, in the book
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
I don't find anything for you in the
sunnah of the messenger, salallahu alayhi wa sallam.
Until two or three sahabis told him that
the Rasulullah, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, has designated
a share for her, for the grandmother, and
it is the sixth.
One of six.
Which is 16%, 16%, 16.5% from
the inheritance.
So the sixth.
But Abu Bakr, radhiyallahu anhu, was a great
scholar.
And Abu Bakr and Umar, radhiyallahu anhum, used
to spend a lot of time with the
Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam.
They had a very close relationship with Rasulullah,
salallahu alayhi wa sallam.
He would often say, I went with Abu
Bakr and Umar.
I entered with Abu Bakr and Umar.
I traveled with Abu Bakr and Umar.
I was with Abu Bakr and Umar.
They were together all the time.
Abu Bakr, radhiyallahu anhu, used to spend some
time after isha, at night, with Rasulullah, salallahu
alayhi wa sallam.
They would be talking about the affairs of
the Muslim community.
And talking about some issues within the Muslim
community all the time, most of the time.
He was one of his best friends.
And he missed this hadith.
He missed the share of the grandmother from
the inheritance.
Umar ibn al-Khattab.
This is something that happened a lot to
Umar ibn al-Khattab.
He missed, for example, the hadith of sunnah,
related to seeking permission.
That you have to ask permission for three
times.
If you are not given permission, then you
are allowed to leave or you are supposed
to leave.
They used to say, assalamu alaykum, a-adkhul.
Assalamu alaykum, come close to the door.
And they say, assalamu alaykum, am I allowed
to enter?
Rasulullah, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, he said, if
you say it three times and you are
not allowed, then leave.
Abu Musa al-Ash'ari came to the
house of Umar ibn al-Khattab.
And he followed the sunnah of Rasulullah, salallahu
alayhi wa sallam.
He asked for permission for three times.
And then he was not allowed.
Then Umar paid attention that Musa was in
front of his house.
He sent some people and said, call him
back.
So they called him back and he came.
Why did you leave?
I was just busy.
I was planning to actually answer you and
allow you to come in.
But I was busy doing something.
So he said, Rasulullah, salallahu alayhi wa sallam,
told us that we need to seek permission
for three times.
If we are not allowed, then we leave.
He said, from where you got this?
Then Umar ibn al-Khattab was amazed.
How did, how come?
How come he missed this hadith or this
sunnah from Rasulullah, salallahu alayhi wa sallam?
He said, I need a witness.
And then Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, you
know, Umar ibn al-Khattab was a very
difficult man to deal with.
It was not easy to deal with.
So Umar, Abu Musa al-Ash'ari was
very concerned.
He was looking for a witness.
In one narration, he said, he found Ubay
ibn al-Ka'b, who knew about the
same sunnah.
In the evening, told him, he is my
witness.
Ubay ibn al-Ka'b, he knew about
it.
And he said, he is a trustworthy man.
And then he said, Don't be tough with
the sahaba of Rasulullah, salallahu alayhi wa sallam.
He said, subhanallah, I just wanted to verify
this knowledge.
I heard something, but I wanted to make
sure that what Abu Musa al-Ash'ari
was talking about is right.
So, that was his way, his approach, radiallahu
anhu, to always make sure that people are
not making mistakes when conveying a message from
Rasulullah, salallahu alayhi wa sallam.
Umar ibn al-Khattab, he didn't know about
the sunnah of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa
sallam, regarding plagues.
You know, when he was travelling to the
area of Hisham, and he heard that there
was a plague.
People are infected in the area of Hisham.
He didn't know what to do.
Should he go in with an army, a
Muslim army coming from the city of Medina,
thousands of people?
What happens if they go inside the city,
and they get sick?
That would be a huge problem.
Should he go back to the city of
Medina and save the whole army?
He was confused.
He didn't know what to do.
He consulted the Muhajireen.
No one knew anything about it.
We have no knowledge.
Consulted the Ansar.
Ansar didn't know about it.
Until Abdul Rahman Mu'awf came and he
told him, I know, I am aware of
the sunnah from Rasulullah, salallahu alayhi wa sallam.
He told us, if it happens in a
city, in a place, you are in it,
you don't leave that place.
Because if you leave that place, you will
take it with you, right?
You affect other people.
It's very obvious, right?
And he said, if you hear about it,
talking about plague here, if you hear about
it in a different city, then do not
go into it.
So then Umar ibn Khattab, radiallahu anhu, decided
to go back with the Muslim army.
He had also a discussion with Ibn Abbas
about the problem of one who has experienced
doubts in his prayer.
Like if you have doubt, did you pray
3 rak'ahs or 4 rak'ahs?
He was not aware of any sunnah regarding
this until, again, Abdul Rahman Mu'awf told
him about this mas'ala.
He said, if you are in doubt, you
can always work with certainty.
What is certainty here?
If you have a doubt, did you pray
3 rak'ahs or 4?
What is certainty here?
3!
You build on 3.
Consider yourself that you prayed 3 rak'ahs,
and you add a fourth rak'ah, and
then you do sujood as-sahu before, before
salam in this case, right?
But Umar ibn Khattab didn't know about it.
He had a discussion with Abdullah ibn Abbas,
he didn't know the answer, until Abdul Rahman
Mu'awf told him about it.
Him and his son, Abdullah ibn Umar, was
another scholar too.
They didn't know about the ruling of putting
perfume before entering into the state of ihram.
You know, before entering into the state of
ihram, we are allowed to put perfume.
But the moment you are, you start your
ihram, if you start saying, labbaykallahumma umrah, you
are not allowed to use perfume.
But before, so they thought it's haram.
Even before entering into the state of ihram,
if you are planning to do hajj and
umrah, you are not allowed to put perfume.
Until, of course, they heard the hadith of
Aisha radiallahu anha.
Aisha told them about a hadith from Rasulallah
ﷺ, that she herself perfumed Rasulallah ﷺ before
entering into the state of ihram.
Uthman ibn Affan radiallahu anhu, he didn't know
that a woman should stay in the house
of her husband after he passes away, until
the period of iddah is over.
The period of iddah for a woman whose
husband passed away is four months and ten
days.
Right?
She should stay in his house.
For she is allowed to leave during the
day time and do her things.
But she is supposed, it's an obligation upon
her to spend the night in the house
of her husband, unless there is a concern
about her safety or some other excuse.
For her to leave the house of her
husband, she must have a valid excuse.
So Uthman radiallahu anhu did not know about
this ruling until Al-Furai'ah bint Malik,
a sahabiya.
Al-Furai'ah bint Malik, she told him
about this sunnah.
She shared a hadith with him.
Ali radiallahu anhu and Abdullah ibn Abbas issued
a fatwa that a woman whose husband died
while she was pregnant, must observe the longer
of the two specified waiting period.
So the two specified waiting period for a
pregnant woman, either the time of her delivery
or the end of the specified iddah in
the Quran which is 4 months and 10
days.
Right?
So if she delivers a baby after 1
month, based on their opinion, Ali ibn Abi
Talib and Abdullah ibn Abbas, she has to
stay till 4 months and 10 days are
over.
This is the longer of the two waiting
periods.
Until a sahabiya, her name, she came to
them and she said, No.
Rasulallah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told me that
my iddah was over after I delivered my
baby.
And she delivered her baby after her husband
passed away by 2 weeks.
By 2 weeks.
So now Ali ibn Abi Talib and Abdullah
ibn Abbas, they are great scholars.
They are great scholars but they didn't know
about this sunnah until a woman came to
them and she told them about her story
with Rasulallah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
The point is, anyone could misknowledge.
No one is perfect.
No one is infallible.
So you cannot say, you cannot hold your
madhhab or give your madhhab the status of
the Quran or the sunnah of our Prophet
Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
No.
2 The hadith reached the scholar but he
did not believe it was authentic.
So one of the transmitters of the hadith
was unknown to the scholar.
Or one of them, he had a doubtful
reputation, mutahham bil kadhib.
Or the chain of narration was disconnected.
If it is disconnected, the hadith is weak.
So they have their own rules.
It's a branch of knowledge that we study
in the science of hadith.
And the same hadith, might have reached another
scholar with a good chain of narration.
So in the opinion of another scholar, this
hadith is authentic.
In the opinion of another scholar, the hadith
is not authentic, it's weak.
So the other scholar will base his fatwa,
his opinion, on something else, like an ayah
from the Quran, an opinion of a sahabi,
qawl al sahabi, qiyas, analogy.
The other alim, he had this hadith, and
he's confident about the authenticity of this hadith,
then his fatwa will be based on the
hadith.
So basically these two ulama, they will have
two different opinions, because one of them was
able to verify the status of the hadith,
the other person believed that the hadith is
weak.
Right?
But both of them are excused in front
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
You know when a mujtahid get it right,
how much, what will be his reward?
Yeah, his reward is double.
Right?
Two rewards.
But if he makes ijtihad, and he gets
it wrong, if he has the tools of
ijtihad, and his ijtihad is accepted within the
boundaries of ijtihad, he doesn't use his own
interpretation and comes up with something new that
is against the teaching of Islam, or the
Quran, and he says, I am mujtahid.
No.
If his ijtihad will lead him to something
weird, something that is against, not in line
with the principles of sharia, then we tell
him, sorry, your ijtihad is not right.
You are not following the right manhaj, the
right methodology.
But let's say one of these ulama, one
of these ulama, who follows the right methodology,
but he got it wrong.
He got it wrong.
Then he will be rewarded by Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
How can you blame someone who is rewarded?
So he got it wrong, but he is
rewarded because he made the effort.
And he reached a wrong conclusion because he
is a human.
He is a human.
So this is how we should look at
these mazahib.
Wallahu ta'ala alam.
La ilaha illallah.
We don't have time.
Let me summarize it in five minutes.
Is that ok?
So here, the scholar does not know the
implication of specific hadith.
For example, la talaqa fi ighlaq.
There is no divorce in state of ighlaq.
Ighlaq, some ulama, they said, could be compulsion,
when someone is forced to divorce his wife,
or extreme anger.
Different interpretations.
So both of them, they know the status
of the hadith, but they disagreed about the
meaning of certain terms.
This could be a reason for their disagreement.
Now, other reasons, the scholar thinks that the
hadith is opposed by a contrary evidence which
is more reliable.
So he has the hadith, but he feels
that there is a verse from the Quran
that has a different implication.
Or another hadith that is more authentic than
the other hadith.
So they use their ijtihad.
Now, ok, I'll go to the last slide.
Following a madhab.
What is the ruling of following a madhab?
What do you think?
Do we have the obligation to follow a
madhab?
Ok, the majority of Muslim scholars believe that
we don't have the obligation.
We don't have the obligation to follow a
madhab.
But it is permissible.
Look at this.
It is permissible to follow a madhab as
long as you do not develop any unhealthy
unhealthy association with your madhab.
You do not treat your madhab like you
treat the book of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala or the sunnah of our prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
As long as you don't have something called
in Arabic, at-ta'asub al-madhabi at
-ta'asub al-madhabi which could be translated
as bigotry, fanaticism, narrow mindedness.
As long as you do it without any
narrow mindedness.
You don't say, ok, this is my madhab.
I don't care about the other madhab.
I don't care about the other ulama.
Just follow my madhab.
This is wrong.
So it is permissible to follow a madhab
if you are willing to have a healthy
relationship with your madhab like the way of
Muhammad ibn al-Hassan and Abu Yusuf and
all the students of these great scholars.
If they found a hadith against the opinion
of their own imam, they will go and
ignore the opinion of their own imam and
follow the hadith of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam.
But if someone does not follow a madhab,
is he sinful?
He is not.
Because I'm telling you, majority of Muslim scholars,
including the classical scholars, they said there is
no obligation.
Why?
Because the sahaba did not have, who are
the best Muslims, they don't have a madhab.
Abu Hanifa himself radiallahu anhu, who is the
first imam among the four imams, the first
one, he was born in the year 80.
And he started searching for knowledge after the
year 100.
So from the time Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam passed away to 100, that's 90 years.
90 years, these people were the best people
in our ummah, sahaba, tabi'een.
They didn't have madhab, they didn't have specific
madhab.
So what is the obligation of a Muslim?
فاسأله أهل الذكري إن كنتم لا تعلمون You
have to identify people of knowledge in your
community or in the international community, because we
have access now to other scholars in different
places, we have access to their websites, phone
numbers.
You identify who are the scholars in your
time, what are the right sources of knowledge,
and you seek knowledge by asking or reading
the fatawas or the books of the ulama.
فاسأله أهل الذكري إن كنتم لا تعلمون If
you ask scholar, you believe he's trustworthy and
he's reliable, that is your obligation.
Regardless if he is, whether he's following your
own madhab or not.
But if you want to follow a specific
madhab, you do it without ta'asub madhabi,
without any narrow mindedness, without bigotry, without partisanship,
without fanaticism, without ta'asub, you don't say
okay, no, this is my madhab, and it's
the right madhab, and it's the right madhab.
You can't say that.
You can't say that.
These are schools of thought.
And look at these ulama, they were good
people, they were great people, they were very
cool, they had mashallah great relationship, they were
very easy, they used to love each other,
respect each other, learn from each other.
One community, one community, but later on we
had people, we had people who said this
is a Hanafi masjid, I'm not going to
pray in this masjid, this is a Hanbali
masjid, this is a shafi'i madhab, we
had people in our history, we had people
who said the Hanafi should not get married
with a shafi'i lady, or a shafi
'i man should not get married with a,
we had these people in our history.
But we shouldn't, it shouldn't happen again, because
this is wrong, this is wrong.
nasallahu subhanahu wa ta'ala al tawfeeq al
jamee' barakallahu feekum Sheikh Hamza Aidi is coming
next week, next Friday, to talk about can
Muslims celebrate Halloween, and mashallah the week after,
I'll come back to this program and I'll
do a different subject, maybe talking about nawafil,
voluntary prayers, all the voluntary prayers, the rulings
related to these voluntary prayers bi-idhnillahi ta
'ala, nasallahu subhanahu wa ta'ala al tawfeeq
al jamee' barakallahu feekum may Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala bless you and bless your families,
and you can make the adhan now.