Dealing with Differences of Opinion in Islamic Law

Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah. Continuing from our previous video, in which I explain that the nature of Islamic law of interpretive Islamic law is speculative, it is only

building upon that. How do we handle differences of opinion? This is a very important topic. And I believe in our time especially, a lot of people have misunderstood this topic and gone far away from the Sunnah and the actual methodology of the early Muslims in handling differences of opinion.

We often find in our times that people treat their opinions in vec, or the opinions of their teachers, as if it is absolute, as if it is quote, A as if it is from directly from the Quran, will no room for any kind of difference. And they tried to intimidate and bully people into following their opinions and shame people following a different opinion.

And this makes life very difficult for the average Muslim.

We go back to the statement of Omar Ibn Abdul Aziz Rahim Allah that we mentioned in the previous video, where he said that the differences amongst the Sahaba

are there to make Islam easy for us said the religion is not too rigid.

That when there is a difference of opinion, this leaves some room for flexibility.

So how do we deal then with these differences, especially especially if the difference is on whether something is haram or not. So we have to make a few distinctions. Right, number one, distinguish between what is clearly haram by consensus like Xena, and alcohol, and homosexual acts, these are prohibited by consensus. Here, there is no room for difference of opinion, year the correct opinion is enforced year we will command the good we will forbid the evil, we will make it clear that violating these rules will not be tolerated. We can make people feel bad for violating these rules. You know, you can literally in Islam and Islamic country, it wouldn't be wrong, you actually be

right to create a culture where people feel ashamed of committing distance. Right. I know for some people living in the West, that sounds weird, but this is the culture as opposed to create a one where people feel ashamed of committing sins. But we have to distinguish between these laws, which are clear cut and agreed upon across the board.

And things which are matters of difference of opinion things which are specular, the big things which are learning. And this is where many of us mess up. Because when it comes to zoning, or speculate of issues, issues that are open to difference of opinion, you cannot force your opinion on someone else. If they are following a legitimate opinion. You cannot you cannot take your opinion and force it to other Muslims, because there is clearly a difference of opinion on this matter. So for example, if there was

a,

a sport that was invented in a Muslim neck, or a type of game that was invented in a Muslim app, and some people believe that that game or that sport is haram. And they have the reasons it's wasting time it's addictive. Some people are using it for gambling, whatever it is. They have the reason so they believe it to be haram. Another group of scholars looks at the same sport and or the same game and they say that things are halal by default, as long as you avoid certain things. There's nothing wrong with it. And so now you have two opinions, you have some scholars saying it's allowed some scholars saying It's haram. This happens a lot nowadays, right? There's a lot of big issues

nowadays, where this happens. What do you do in this case, you can teach your opinion, you can preach your opinion, you could make your opinion, the opinion that has to be followed in your home when you're the head of the household. But you can't force it on anyone else.

Meaning for example, if you believe a certain game is haram, based on the US based on a speculative deduction,

and someone else believes that he's Halal also based on chaos.

You have to just let them be you have to let them follow the opinion that they believe is correct.

And these days, Muslims seem to find this very hard. Honestly, the majority of things that we fight about on a daily basis are not the things that are definitely

If we don't find missions fighting on a daily basis, about salah being five times a day, or Ramadan being the month of fasting, or that Zina is haram, these are the big ones. These are the things that yes, it's clear, right that what is right and what is wrong, what we fight over on a daily basis. I've seen families break ties over this. I've seen communities break up over this, I've seen people reaching out to the fold of Islam over these things are often secondary matters, which are speculative in nature.

So any Sharia land? How would these things be handled? Well, there's two levels here. One, if it affects the rights of others, then if it is taken to the court, and the audit passes the judgment, then that judgment can be enforced, even if the judgment is a result of chaos of a speculative deduction, right, because the party has to have this power. Otherwise, what's the point of record? What's the point of a judge if they have no power to enforce rulings. So it's only when something

affects the rights of others. And it's taken to a court level that a judgment could be made that can be enforced on those individuals, it wouldn't necessarily be enforced on the entire community, but of that specific case.

So for example,

if there is a business dealings that some people consider halal, and others consider more cruel, others considered haram. And one person feels like he was tricked into that kind of dealing, and he didn't know the ruling at the time, and he takes it to the court.

And the court declares it to be haram and declares the other person that the transaction is invalid, and the other person has to give him his money back. In that case, it can be enforced or it will be enforced. In that case, it will be enforced, because this is now a court case involving the rights of others. That's very different from day to day pick from things that don't involve the rights of others. So for example, if you were living in a Sharia leg, and you were of the opinion, that

suggesting in a certain way is not permissible.

And that opinion is based on your understanding of the Sunnah. Right? Like, for example, some Muslims have the opinion that you have to dress like an Arab or an Indian, and the dressing in western clothing is not permissible. This is an opinion to exist, I don't believe in it, but it needs an opinion it exists. So if somebody has that opinion, and they see somebody else dressed in western clothing, but they always covered they meet all the minimum legal obligations, they cannot force the opinion on that person. Even if they are a judge, even if they are a mufti, they cannot now say that the entire country, the entire Muslim world has to follow my opinion on this matter.

Sharia doesn't work like that.

Sharia is only strict on those matters, that are definitive, agreed upon major sins and crimes. Right? Something that's definitive, something that's agreed upon something that's a major sin, and something that counts as a crime. These are the areas where the Sharia will really force lots of people. Otherwise, people are left to live their lives. And people are left to follow the understandings of Islam. And people are left to follow the map. So people are left to follow their groups, and people are left to follow their local scholars. And nothing is enforced on a person beyond this. So you could live your life in a proper Sharia land, according to whichever school of

thought you follow. Nobody can now come and say, Oh, you have to follow our school of thought.

So in our time, we have a problem in both the Muslim lands and the non Muslim lands, in the Muslim lands, we have government's making laws, and claiming that it Sharia

and one of the mistakes they make is they will take an opinion, and they would force it on the entire community. And they will say this is the Sharia.

But in reality, that opinion is just their own speculative judgment. This is not possible. The government in Islam is not supposed to have the power to meddle with the Sharia. Right and to force their opinions on an entire community like this. This is actually the opposite of how Sharia functions. But we see this like a government could say that, in our opinion, it's haram for women to drive. While if the majority of people in your community or even if a minority are following a different opinion, guess what, this is not a clear cut issue. There are other opinions right? To force this opinion on the entire committee.

ad can be an act of oppression, it's something that goes against how Sharia supposed to be practiced. So these things should be left to the people to follow the opinions that they believe is strongest. It should not be something that a government just forces on people to follow whatever opinion they believe is correct. This is one of the causes of problems in our time, you know, we are living

in one of the only points in history the past 100 years, one of the only points in history is where Muslims really feel pressurized by tyrannical governments. And one of the reasons for this is that governments now have control over the law. For the bulk of Muslim history, even when they were tyrants in power, they did not have control over the law itself. Right, they had to follow the Sharia, yes, they will try to find loopholes. And they would sometimes just ignore the Sharia when dealing with the enemies, but they couldn't, they couldn't enforce

their opinions on people, without pushback from the people in the public. Right? Like, if a ruler tried to change the rules of Joomla, or eat or something like this, people would push back, it wouldn't be something where the government has the right to change it rather, it is the Allama that interpret the law, not the government. So this is the problem in the Muslim as in the non Muslim lands, we have a different problem that because we live as minorities in non Muslim lands, we, we shoot, I think, as a defense mechanism, this is what I think it is, it is a defense mechanism to protect our people from losing their religion and losing their culture. We tend to become over

strict about things that Allah and His Messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam were not strict about. And so they we made the religion unnecessarily difficult on our people. And I've seen this in many minorities, that they tend to be strict about things that people are not strict about in the Muslim world, they tend to enforce rulings on their communities on matters that are considered secondary in the Muslim world and considered secondary historically. And so we find that there's a lot of

rigidity in how thick is applied and understood amongst minorities, that we seem to think that we have to follow the harshest opinions and force it on our communities. Otherwise, they would get caught up in the

the culture of the non Muslims that become more like them.

That's, that's not a good move.

Because when you push people too hard, and when you make Allah's religion, unnecessarily restrictive, it's going to push people in the opposite direction, it's going to have a slingshot effect on people pushing it from one extreme to the other. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wonders, he said, The religion is easy, and the extremists make it difficult on themselves. Right, the extremists make it difficult on themselves. So we need to have a more balanced view, when something is clear cut, when something is definitive, when something is a matter of consensus, then yes, we should be strict about it, we should enforce it, we should

call people out when they do it. We should, you know, stay away from people that are trying to change those rulings, when something's a matter of dispute with something is speculative. And something is a matter where there's different opinions in different madhhab different cultures in different parts of the Muslim world. They're just let people be just let people follow the opinion that they believe is strongest, and do not try to force your opinion on them. Because doing so unnecessarily restricts that which Allah made vast, and he takes a religion that is meant to be very practical, and makes it unnecessarily restricted. So these are the two issues in our time. On one

hand, we may have governments who are trying to interpret the Sharia and end up making it unnecessarily restrictive. And then on the other hand, when Muslims are living away from such governments, we have the people themselves trying to make their religion unnecessarily difficult on themselves and their families. We have to go back to the way Islam was practiced for the bulk of its history, which is that there are certain things that we are strict about the major sins, the obligations that we chase consensus upon, but beyond that, it is a difference of opinion. I follow my opinion, you follow your opinion, and we do not get personal about it. We do not make it a big

deal. That is rarely how the Sharia function for the bulk of our history that you would find Muslims of all Madhab and all sects living together in the Muslim world. And yes, they were incidents of sectarian violence and outbreaks here and there. But

For the bulk of our history, they live together. And they were able to just follow the understandings of Islam without anyone trying to force their understanding of everyone else. Now, some of you are going to bring up incidents in history, like when the mortality rates came into power, and you try to force their views on others. These are the exceptions. These are people who did not understand a religion. And that's why their stories stand out. Because it's an anomaly. It's not how things were practiced for the bulk of our history, right? For the bulk of our history, if there was a difference of opinion, it was not enforced, unless it evolved the rights of others,

involved the rights of others. And if you went to court, then the audit could pass a judgement and when Akagi passes a judgment on something, then it is enforced. Otherwise, people followed whichever opinion, they believed was strongest, they follow the local scholars, and if there was a difference of opinion, each group follow the opinion and they learn to live together in peace. Understanding that this Sharia is wide enough to accomplish all of these opinions.

And Allah knows best just after the hero or after the 100 Unite European army