Mohammad Badawy – The Legendary Imam Shafi’i
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AI: Transcript ©
We begin in the name of Allah,
the Exalted, the Sublime, the Most Merciful, and
the Bestower of all Mercy. We send peace
and blessings upon his prophet Muhammad and
his wives and his family members and his
companions and all those who tread in their
path until the day of judgement begging Allah
to make us amongst them.
So we spoke the last 2 weeks with
the grace and the bounty and the mercy
of Allah
about 2
great imams in Islamic history.
The first of them 2 weeks ago was
who?
Who's the first imam?
Abu Hanifa and Naman.
He was born the year 80 after the
hijra, and he died 1 50. Then last
week, who do we speak about?
And where was Imam Al Khalifa?
Iraq. Right? In Al Kufa,
around a 100 miles away from Baghdad. And
then last week was Imam Malik ibn Anas
ibn Anir,
He was born 93 years after the hija,
and he died 179
after hija. And he was based where entire
his entire life?
In Medina, the the city of the prophet
Muhammad And
this week, our appointment is with the 30
mem chronologically
in of the former Dahib, Abu Abdullah Muhammad
ibn Adris Al Shafi'i Rahamalullah. And he was
born the year 150 after the hija, and
he died 204.
What's special about the year 150 after hija?
Just said it.
We just mentioned. What's what happened in 150?
Abu Hanifa dies. Alright. So Imam Shafa is
born the year that Abu Hanifa
dies. He was born in Gaza in Philistine.
May Allah grant victory to the Muslims there
and, aid them all over.
So he was born in Marne De Gaza,
and his father, Adris, was either,
he either died right before he was born
or shortly thereafter. But either way, he was
a orphan from very early on, either right
before his birth or right after.
Even though he was born and raised, he
was born and he spent the 1st 2
years of his life in Gaza, he's originally
from Mecca.
He his great
great great great great
grandfather,
6 times back,
and the grandfather of the prophet, are
cousins.
So his great great great great great grandfather
and the prophet's grandfather are cousins. So he's
from Quraysh. Alright. He's from the not just
Quraysh, but the most honorable branch of Quraysh,
and he is a cousin of the prophet,
what is it? 7 times removed? I don't
know how these things work. You guys you
guys get it right way back. They're they're
related. So they have the same
great grandfather times 6.
For for Shafa and for the prophet
that's his grandfather.
So at 2 years old now, he's an
orphan, and he is from a noble lineage
as we just mentioned. So his mother wishes
to take him back to Mecca so to
preserve his lineage. Because if he is a
orphan in a town that's not his, then
he's gonna marry someone that's also not from
Quraish. The lineage disappears over time. And back
then, especially, even till today, but especially back
then, lineage was very important. What tribe are
you from?
What tribe do you associate with? They're the
people who support you financially, support you physically,
support you in terms of your nobility, in
terms of opportunities,
how far you can climb up and down
the social ladder. All of that has to
do with your lineage.
And without a strong lineage, often, very often,
none of that was possible to climb in
the social status or in wealth and things
like that. It's very rare without strong,
lineage. So she takes them back to Maquette
to take care of that lineage to make
sure to safeguard it and also for the
language.
So
because they were because he was an orphan,
they didn't have income. So they were very
poor as he was growing up in Mecca.
And, he narrates about himself that my mother
wouldn't have money to pay for teachers.
People come and teach him language, teaching hadith,
whatever it may be, she couldn't pay them
because they didn't have the money.
And, she also couldn't afford for him
actual
utensils. You know, back then, they had, like,
rocks for writing or, you know, dipping,
stones in in dye, things of that nature.
They'd write mostly on,
special leather that was cured and and treated
for writing, but didn't have paper like we
have it today. But either way, she couldn't
buy any of that. So he says she
used to give me a bone, a shoulder
bone from an animal. She picked out of
the garbage somewhere to write notes on.
And until after years had passed, our house,
our tiny house, obviously, was filled with bones.
Right? These are all his notes, his notebooks.
And he said the teachers would dictate to
us, the students,
to write down what they are saying. Maybe
it's one hadith of the day or whatever
it may be. So he says by the
time the teacher had finished what he was
saying for the day, when he wanted to
memorize that one hadith or that one section
of poetry or whatever it may be, I
had memorized in its entirety. So he was
born with exceptional memory, photographic memory. He was
very keen and very eager, and it was
very easy for him to memorize things. So
he says when the when the teacher had
finished telling us what to write, while everyone's
still trying to get it down, I had
already memorized it. So there's no need for
him to even write.
And this was something he of course, as
a gift from Allah was also inheritance from
his mother. His mother was very sharp, very
knowledgeable,
and very sharp witted, and knowledgeable Islamically as
well. It's narrated that, you know, when he
was younger,
the judge of Mecca wanted
her to testify for something.
And it may have been a business transaction
or something because it was her, one woman,
and a man. As you know, in certain,
testimonies, if there's not if there's not 2
men, you could take a man and 2
women.
So
when they came forward, the judge told her,
go on the side. I'm gonna ask each
of you, the woman, the 2 women, your
testimony separately.
So that way you don't, you know, borrow
from each other's stories and you help each
other when it may not be true. So
I'll take your testimony separately, and I'll take
her testimony separately thereafter. So she told the
judge, you can't do that.
Alright. That's not okay. So he told her
why. So she told him, Allah
and
Allah says in the verse about the that
says that woman can testify in 2. If
why does Allah say 2 women, in case
one of them forgets, the other one reminds
her. Meaning, they're supposed to testify together.
See how she drew that out of the
a, it's not something that me or you
or even the average teacher or a sheikh
would come across. Like, it's something that needs,
deeper thinking and
contemplation about the verse of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. That's why Ibn Hajj says,
this was a very strong deduction
in an advanced topic. Because she's not looking
at the rest of the verse. She's just
saying this one sentence indicates this. That's not
something anyone can pull out. It could someone
that, you know, has studied or is is
familiar or gives, you know, deep contemplation to
things by someone that that pours over the
ayat and the hadith really looking for the
benefit.
So, likewise, he grew up sharp and, strong
witted and quick to memorize and understand,
and he was sent to live with the
tribe of Hubei. Hubei lived on the outskirts
of Mecca. They'd come into Mecca a lot,
but they lived outside. They were a Bedouin
tribe, and they will do this to people
even from ancient Arab history so that they
can pick up the pure language that's been
unaffected by the dialect of the city. City,
you have a lot of people coming in,
especially a city like Mecca where all the
Arabs coming from all over the Arabian Peninsula
from as far as the other nations like
Yemen and modern day Bahrain.
So the language they to to keep the
language pure, the child would go learn with
the Bedouins. And this is especially the case
in Imam Shafi'i's time because now you're talking
about over a 100 years later after the
death of the prophet The
language of the non Arabs began creeping in
into the cities. So now they have, you
know, they're picking up words and dialects from
from, other nations. So she kept him she
sent to live with the tribe of Hodeil.
And some say they were the top linguists
of the Arab tribes, that they their their
language was the purest. Some say they're second
to Quraish. Either way, they're one of the
top. So he says, I stayed with them.
I rode where they rode, and I stayed
where they stayed, and I went down where
they went down. Meaning, they're Bedouin tribe that
is migrating from one area to another doing
you know, going about their lives. So he
says, I just went with them, not questioning
where or how I just stuck with them,
and I did that for 17 years.
And that's why after this, he became one
of the biggest Arabic language scholars
in, Islamic history.
So
because he spent so long with Hubei, and
the purpose of it was for language, and
their language was known to be strong and
and proper. And, you know, they're very eloquent
eloquent and developed. So he became one of
the top imams in the Arabic language. None
from the and the, you know, the the
scholars throughout history
have reached his level of perfection or poetry
in language. And, and even later on, at
2 Arabic books, codifying the Arabic language, classifying
it, putting into chapters, he is often used
as a source.
So if the if if they you know,
an author may say, I put this here
or I classified it as such because Imam
Shafi'i says in his poetry this this and
that. So he's used as proof or as
a source
for linguistics and the organization of the language
because he's such an expert. So if he
said it like this, it must be correct.
Right? There's there's not there's no doubt in
anyone's mind. He says
he's the famous,
biographer of the prophet, he wrote one of
the earliest complete seerah of the prophet, Muhammad,
and he became one of the most famous
to the extent that many of today Sira
use
his original work.
He was a contemporary of Mem Shefir, and
he says, I met him, and I was
so amazed by his skill. You met him
as a young man now, 15, 16 in
Mecca, and he's so amazed at his skill
and his language and his eloquence
and his ability to speak and produce language
that he said, I didn't know that Allah
created men like this. I didn't know that
this was a real thing, that this person
can reach his level of eloquence and skill
and understanding. And this is specifically about the
law, about the Arabic language.
To the extent that people who are not
students of knowledge, they were not interested in
a hadith or rulings, they would come and
sit in these gatherings. Some of them were
Bedouins who didn't even read, who didn't even
have anything to do with Islamic learning. They
have their flocks of sheep. They come home
at the end of the day. That's it.
That was their they they they had no
share of Islamic learning or these gatherings. They'd
come sit there as well, so people would
ask them, why are you here? You know,
these people, they wanna learn hadith. They wanna
learn silk. We know you you're not about
that. Why are you here? So they would
tell them, we're here just to hear him
speak Arabic,
Just to hear his eloquence, to hear, you
know, how he's gonna phrase things, they love
that. That was their, you know, their entertainment,
to see how well people can produce language,
how well people can, you know, eloquently say
the same statement. To them, that was a
big deal. So they come just to hear
that, to hear him produce language in such
a natural proficient manner.
Rabi Adam Suleiman who was one of his
main students when he later went to Egypt
at the end of his life as we'll
see, he said, if Imam Shef Hayy wrote
the way that he spoke and debated with
people, no one would be able to read
his books. So you have a couple of
famous books that survived until today, and they're
already known to have advanced Arabic. But he
and Rabiya is saying, if he were to
write the way that he spoke and debate
with people, no one will understand a word
that he's saying. He meaning, he has such
a level a high level of skill in
producing language,
that, you know, he he he dumps it
down for people to read it. Otherwise, it
would be too advanced of a work. It's
not something that would be, that would reach
as much people as he intended.
He says it about himself, these 17 years
I spent Hodeil. He says, in those 17
years, I memorized over 10,000 lines of Hodeil
poetry, poetry from Hodeil. So that's just poetry
from Hodeil. So you can imagine the rest
of the poetry that was available in those
times from different tribes.
It shows you the extent to which he
became proficient in language.
So for those first 15 to 20 years,
he lived in Mecca. He studied with the
grand mufth day of Mecca who was Muslim,
Ibn Khaled al Dinji, and
Soufiane was one of the biggest of the
time. Soufiane ibn Aaina was the was perhaps
the greatest faqih of Mecca of that time.
He was the most famous. His gatherings were
the largest people who would specifically come to
make Hajj, and once they finish, look for
the gatherings of Safayn Sofian, ibn Aina because
of how much knowledge he had. So he
began to seek knowledge with them primarily amongst
many others. And by the age of 15,
both of them had, issued
official declarations that this man can give Fatur.
He's 15 years old. Right? He's a young
man. Today, you wouldn't let him drive, right,
without you sitting next to you. But they
they said he is we officially declared that
he can give fatwa. His fatwa is, considered
and applying.
So back then, you know, they they gave
importance to learning from an early age. Of
course, this is the barakah of Allah. It
was a different time. But, that doesn't mean
that we can't draw on this to make
more of our 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,
15 year old. Now I have to make
them.
It might not be possible, and that's okay.
But we could definitely,
push them to produce more as well as
ourselves.
And he said about himself also that I
had by that time, I had memorized.
What's, guys?
Who wrote Al
Muhtar? It's a collection of
hadith. Right? He has around 2,000 hadith in
there,
of the authentic collection that he had. So
he he says I memorized Al Muhtar in
9 nights.
So if I had 2,000 hadith, that's,
like, 200 hadith a night. Right?
That's if it was 10 nights. It's 9.
So you could do the difference. So he
he said I memorized
in 9 nights.
And he around that age also, at the
end of his teen years, he traveled to
Medina, and he learned from Imam Malik as
well. And, because at this age now, he's
getting he's gaining prominence. People are seeing his
skill to memorize, his skill to understand his
sharp wit. So the ruler of Mecca, actually,
the governor of Mecca sends him
to Medina to learn from Imam Malik. That
was he didn't just go on his own,
but he was specifically sent by the ruler
of Mecca. And he sent a letter with
him to the ruler of Medina saying, when
he comes when a chef comes,
have an have Imam Malik teach him. Because,
of course, Malik is famous. Remember, I spoke
how big he was in the,
not only religious circles, but all around. He's
a celebrity for his knowledge and for his
reverence for the prophet and the Hadith.
So when Shafi comes to to when Shafi
comes to Medina and gives the letter to
the ruler, the ruler says, well,
you know, if
if if I have to take you to
Melech and tell Melech to teach you, that's
not gonna go well. Right? Because we spoke
about Melek. Remember, he doesn't he doesn't like
knowledge to be taken like it's a commodity.
Like, here, take this and give me that.
He doesn't like people if he gets the
sense that the person is not serious with
knowledge, remember, he kicked them out of the
message even. For some some people who ask
certain questions, he felt they are not serious,
or they are making light of things, or
they are causing a ruckus, you know,
controversial questions, he'd kick them out. So now
the will of Medina knows Medic. He says,
how am I gonna take this kid to
Medic and say, teach him? Like, it's it's
he's afraid. Right? And he said to Shafei,
if the wale of Mecca had told me
to go walking from Mecca to Medina, it
would have been easier than me to go
knock on Imam Malik's door and tell him
to do this or do that. Can't do
it. Right? This is the ruler now. He's
he's shy or he's ashamed or,
timid to go in front of Imam Malik
and command anything. Right? Despite being the ruler,
this is the personality that Malik had and
the reputation he had, especially now that's at
the end of his life.
So when he when he says that, I'm
afraid to go to Emilek with the chef.
I say, if you're afraid to go to
him, then
what's another solution?
Tell him to come here. How's that gonna
go?
Right? We we spoke about how Imam Malik
reacted to people saying, come teach us here.
He doesn't he doesn't he didn't like that
at all. So when when the when Shepherd
said tell him to come here, he tell
him he told him, okay. Yeah. You you
stop with the advice. Right? That's not not
gonna happen. He told him, hey. Hey. Like,
that's not something that's ever going to happen.
We know that Malik is not gonna come
here to teach you.
So he decided, you know what? We'll go
to his house. Maybe he'll
by the way, this is because he would
not entertain people in his house. If you
want something, you'd come to the Masjid. He's
there, you know, several hours a day for
majority of the day even, but he would
not entertain people in his own home. That's
why the the wedding does not wanna go.
So he said, you know, we'll just go
knock on his door. Maybe he will be
accommodating. Maybe he will see, the letter and
change his mind. So he he he came
to him,
and they knocked and they waited.
And he says, a slave girl opened the
door, one of his servants, and she said,
why are you here? They told her he
told her the story. So she says, I'll
be right back. She's he they she goes
into the home. She comes back out. She
says, Melek says, there's 2 options. If you
have a question, tell it to me. I'll
tell it to him, and I'll give you
the answer. If you want this kid to
learn, this child to learn, this boy to
learn, then you know the times of the
lectures and the message, go there. But other
than that, you know, he's he's not going
to entertain anything else. So the the Wali
tries again, and Imam Shafi'i speaks as well,
and he tells her, you know, we have
a letter from the Wali of of Mecca
that he's specifically requesting this. She's, you know,
she goes back inside. She calls Imam Malik.
He finally comes out. He sits down. He
reads the letter, and he becomes very upset.
And he says, have we reached the point
where the hadith of the prophet
is being taught through letters?
And he see he saw this in disrespect.
You're coming to tell me teach hadith through
a letter? The prophet the prophet teachings and
his words deserve more respect than that.
But then when he's when Imam Malik when
Imam Shafi'i spoke to him and he saw
him, he, you know, he of course, he
was handsome. He was a handsome young man.
He had, like, what he said, sharp intellect.
All these things showed. And Imam Malik had
Farafa. You know, Farafa is like, intuition.
It's like where you you see someone, you
meet them for the first time, and you
get certain vibes about them. Sometimes they're correct.
Sometimes they're not. That's called
People who have their vibes are always correct,
you know, or or generally
more accurate than other people's.
So that's that's a real skill. That's not
something that could be taught. That's something that
is, it's intuition given by Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. And there's certain indications that some people
say could be taught. Who knows? Right? But
this is something that you'll find a lot
referenced a lot in Islamic writing.
Because it it it does have the place
of a science even though it's, you know,
can be taught with a board and all
those things. But, anyway, this is something that
Imam Malik was known for, and Sheikh is
known for, Abu Bakr is known for, Amr
was known for,
and so many other people throughout Islam history.
So because of his faras and intuition, he
he, you know, he heard a few words
from Imam Shafa, and he just met him.
He saw him. He said, fine. Why don't
you come to the
time, and bring with you someone to read
Al Muwaddah? Why Why does he have to
bring someone to read Al Muwata
when he's coming to sit with Imam Malik,
who wrote the Al Muwata?
Why? Why? Why? Why? Doesn't read Al Muwata
anymore. Remember, at the end of his life,
he said, I will not read it. Whoever
wants to learn it, there's people reciting it
day in and day out. And that makes
sense, because if you have 200 people reciting
it a day or something, you know, it
it wouldn't make sense to hear it from
people 1 by 1. Instead, he would make
sessions where people recite it, and he himself
would not recite it, just,
correct and teach.
So he says, come tomorrow and bring someone
with you to read Al Mu'ta. So tells
him what?
I already know Al Mu'ta, all of it.
So Imam Malik doesn't believe him. So he
says begin to read it. So he starts
to recite the hadith Al Mu'ta 1 by
1, and he says, every time I'd stop
thinking, like, okay, that's it. He heard it.
He tell me, keep going. Keep going. He
was so impressed by his memory and his,
of course, his language. He's not making any
mistakes, and he's going through the hadith. And
he's so young, 15, 16, 17 years old.
So Imam Malik was very impressed, and he
said, come every single day to learn. Come
to me to learn. And so he spent
some time in Medina before returning to Mecca
learning with Imam Sheffer.
And at this point, he becomes a very
strong supporter of Malik Mehtab. Right? He's a
young man. He's, of course, this is the
greatest teacher that he's met so far in
his life,
and
he becomes a strong supporter of Imam Malik's
methab. He goes back to to, Mecca for
a few years, and at the age of
30, he's appointed as a governor or a
mayor of sorts over a small area in
Yemen. He has appointed this position,
but he doesn't last long there. Remember how
we said every imam has his fitna? Any
every person really has his fitna. So here,
likewise, the first fitna that he's going to
encounter is that people accuse him of aiding
or revolt. Remember, we spoke last week how
there's revolts left and right, uprising, people trying
to return
the,
the Khalifa to what they saw as the
correct point in time, whether it was during
the time of Ali or after with Al
Hasan or afterwards with the Umayyad. There's different
people at different points in time, and they
increase every decade where they say we have
to go back to that or we have
to give victory to that cause. Some of
them are from.
Some of them,
they associate with even though they're not from
them. Some of them have nothing to do
with this. There's just there's a as well.
So it was a very, difficult time for
certain areas of the Ummah.
So while he's in Yemen as a governor
for a very short time, they accused him
of aiding a revolt that happened nearby.
Of course,
it was an unfounded accusation, but just by
virtue of that, and he's such a huge
figure,
the authorities are afraid. Right? He has the
ability to rally people around him. People will
listen to him. So they arrest him along
with all the other conspirators, and they send
him to the Khalifa in at the time
he was in Raqqa
in in Syria. Grant
aid to the Muslims.
So and the Khalifa by that at that
time was Harun Rashid. So someone who's righteous,
but, of course, the is big. The communication
is slow. He he he of course, he
knows Imam Shefei,
but the case hasn't been presented to him
yet. So he sent him, you know, miles
100 of miles away. And when he gets
to Raqqah, he is not tried immediately.
It's not like, you know, a top
top priority case where he's taken from Khalifa.
No. In fact, he has to wait in
prison for months.
It's not prison like the dungeon that you
hear about, but he's still not free to
go about his life to go home for
months before his case is even heard, before
he's, you know, he was forgotten about. Whatever
the case may have been, he had to
wait for months. So what did he do
while he was there? He went to find
Mohammed
ibn Hassan al Shaybani and study under him
for this entire period. Who's Mohammed ibn Hassan
al Shaybani?
He's he's the one of the main students,
the top two students of Abu Hanifa. The
other one was Abu Yusuf.
So he studies with,
Imam Mohammed bin Hassan. And here now he's
this is his first serious exposure to the
Hanafi madam now. So So remember, the Hanafi
madam focuses more on what what
is it's perhaps one of the strongest points
of the Hanafi madam is its use of
qiyaf and logic and deduction
and analysis of rulings and bringing out, Assur
from that. And then the strongest point of
Imam Malik, he
he favored
relying on the hadith, and he was a
Mujadil. So now he's seeing both
from the sources. Imam Malik is the source
of his madam, and imam, Hamad al Hassan
is direct student main student of imam Abu
Hanifa. So now he's
going to meld between the 2 as they're
going to see benefit
from learning from both of them.
Anyway, the months passed by. He proves this
case that he's innocent. Right? He's he's able
to to successfully prove that he had nothing
to do with Darval, and he's freed. And
he returns back to Mecca, and he also
visits Yemen. And he goes back and forth
visiting different lands, learning, teaching, eventually settling in
Egypt in the year 199.
There's different
stories to why he left each place. Sometimes
it's a issue or problem. Sometimes it's just,
you know,
tribulations that he didn't or sometimes it's just
it's narrow that he didn't like living there
like it was Baghdad. He didn't prefer he
didn't, he wasn't fond of the atmosphere. Whatever
it may be, he went around seeking knowledge
and teaching
for his entire life.
When he reaches Egypt in the year, 199
after Idris, so just 5 years before his
death,
one of the,
local students tells him, if you're gonna live
in Egypt, you need 2 things.
One is you need savings.
You need to stockpile food
for 1 year.
Because Egypt is expensive. It's more expensive. It's
a little bit more difficult. The lifestyle is
different. He tells him, my advice is stockpile
food or resources for 1 year. And then
number 2 is,
after
staying in after what's it called, stockpiling food
for 1 year,
what you what you should do is,
sorry. I'm just looking at these these papers.
Looks like I got the wrong one, but
it's okay.
After starting, he tells the stockpile of food
for 1 year. So the second thing you
should do is,
regularly visit
an authority figure and come close to him.
So the stockpiling food, that's for your physical
well-being. It's hard to get by here to
live harder than what you're used to. So
make sure you have savings for a whole
year. That way, you can be comfortable to
acknowledge and to teach. You don't have to
worry about where your food didn't come from.
As for sticking to the the authority, that's
so that you can have power, he told
him, so you can be strong.
In this, you'll find strength, freedom to do
as you please. You have power backing you
up. I'm close with so and so, the
wali, or the governor, whatever it may be.
So when when he tells him that, Imam
Shaka'i tells him
that the true strength, the true power, he
says,
The only real you'll get strength, power, support,
authority is from
remembering, fearing, and obeying Allah. You're not gonna
find out any so and so or such
and such a person who has an office
or a suit or authority.
You want real power that doesn't fade, strength
that doesn't falter, support that never
betrays you, that is through the taqwa of
Allah only. That's a reality. No one can
deny that. Right?
And then as for what you said about
the food, he says, I lived from with
my mother
in poverty in Mecca,
and there wasn't a single night where we
had food for the next day. You're telling
me stockpile for a year, we can never
have enough for tomorrow.
And we never went hungry a single day.
Allah provide for us.
We were never starving, and we never had
enough for tomorrow, and Allah took care of
us. So why should I wear it today?
So you see that the you know, a
lot of times you hear these stories of
these imams, and hear how they studied in
this. It kinda sounds repetitive that, okay. Yeah.
They memorized the law, and they went and
they went to this gathering, that gathering. But
the the biggest point that you could take
home besides just the studious nature that you
could see is a little repetitive is this
attitude,
this way of approaching life, of looking at
adversity, looking at problems. They had a different
mindset, and because that's that's because they had
different hearts.
Worship meant something else to them. Taqwa meant
something else to them. Reliance upon Allah meant
something else to them. And because of that,
they were able to do everything else. Because
of that, they were great. It started with
their hearts, and there's many narrations where you
see
this point.
Even about Abu Bakr himself,
some of the latest haba,
they said there's people who prayed more, who
fasted more, who gave more in charity in
terms of numbers.
We know that we prayed more than him
in terms of raqat and how often we
pray. We know that we'd fast more than
him in terms of number of days. We'd
give more in terms
of gold and silver.
But we realized that it's something in his
heart that gave him his status.
This intense reverence and love and sincerity for
Allah's Messenger that no one else had. And
because of that, Allah raised him higher than
the entirety of this ummah combined. So likewise,
these imams, they had a different approach to
adversity towards difficulty in life. So when he
was told Egypt is a hard place to
live, you need a lot of food, you
need a lot of resources, you need a
lot of savings,
you need to have connections.
His answer was simply, by fear Allah, I
have nothing I have no need of any
other power, no other support, and he never
let me down in terms of my provision
before. I don't have anything to worry about
now. So this was his approach. This was
his attitude.
So he says about himself. I came to
Egypt the year 199, and he found them
split between 2 factions,
between supporters of Imam Malik and supporters of
Abu Hanifa.
And because now we're talking about, you know,
almost 30 years after the death of Malik
so Malik has passed away now around 30
years ago. So the people are
the students now, a lot of them are
students of students or students of students of
students. Right? This is 3 decades later. So
he finds a lot of them are
very staunch
in their support.
Like, they wouldn't take another opinion. They weren't
willing to hear another opinion. And he says,
I found them that when people tell them
the hadith says this, they answer with, but
Malik said this. And he didn't like that.
So
all of these imams, everything that they say
from Abu Hanifa
to the 4 that we know, Al Malik
and Shefa and Ahmed, and even the ones
that are not as popular as the madhhab
didn't survive today like Al Azai, like Alizai.
All of these people, when they say something,
this is their interpretation
of what the prophet said or what Allah
said. They're not telling you take my words
over the hadith. They're telling you I read
the hadith too, and this is how I
interpret it.
So
there's nothing wrong with saying said this or
said that.
But that has to come with a pinch
of salt because they themselves from all 4
of them and others, you'll find quotes that
say, if you find the hadith that says,
opposite of what I said, take what I
said and throw it away, and take the
hadith.
If the hadith is authentic,
it has reached you and it's authentic and
you read it and you understand it, this
is my method. He's telling you my method
is what the prophet said. Whether I know
that or not or whether I I rule
by it or not because I made a
mistake or I forgot, that doesn't matter. This
is my way. I'm telling you, take this
way if you find it.
And then there's certain things with a different
interpretation, and that's valid. So there's nothing wrong
with that except if it reaches the point
of blind support.
That's where it becomes a problem. There's nothing
wrong with saying, I'm a stick with what
my medic said. Or remember Shefey said, because
I know he understands this sooner better than
me, so I'll stick with him with everything.
That's a safe route to follow. There's nothing
wrong with that. But if someone were to
teach you, if something were to reach you
that, you know, that the other, for example,
all agreed that they this opinion is not
correct or that they that the the the
position in this madad is very weak.
In that case, you'll be obligated to do
your research and find what's most convincing, what's
closest to the sunnah in your
in your research. Right? You're not supposed to
just say, well, the madad says this. I'm
done. Right? This is this is not what
they intended
themselves when they founded these Med'ev.
So because of that,
he said, what I'm going to do,
present them with a third opinion
in certain situations
so that they can stop doing this. He
wanted, you know, the scholars say why did
he do this?
Because as you'll see, it did cause some
problems. He saw that they are reaching a
level of reverence and following of these imams
that was no longer acceptable.
And this was born out of love for
them, love for their knowledge, love for their
teaching, love for for them as people and
how they revered the sunnah and Islamic knowledge,
but then the love went too much. Now
it became where these imams can do no
wrong. Now it became where people are physically
fighting because the imams differed. And we see
that till today. Right? We still see this
same, as it's called, extreme, you know, staunch
support, blind support,
have continued till today. So he himself loved
Imam Malik. He would pride himself in front
of others by saying, I'll assume, Malik. He
would only refer to Malik as Alustad, the
teacher. Even after now, he's 30, 40. Now
he's 49 years old coming to Egypt. He
came to Egypt at the age of 49.
He would still refer to Malik as the
teacher.
But despite that, he differed with Malik on
some issues.
And despite being a supporter of Imam Malik,
a very strong supporter of the Mehtab earlier,
now he's developed into his own
imam, where he has his own issue ahead
that difference with Malik. So he purposely insisted
on presenting these opinions, hoping that he can
stop the people from bickering and fighting
and, blindly adhering to their to their imams.
So he he says he said, I would
actively teach them hoping that they would take
this third opinion instead of fighting and bickering.
And seeing that,
Imam Malik, Imam Hanifa, Imam Shafi'i, as well,
they're all human beings that have their own
viewpoint and understanding of certain hadith, and they
are all prone to error by virtue of
being human.
So the the the
the the student's narrative that his halakkah would
start after fej,
and it would continue up until last.
So you have, like, 12 hours of halakat.
He said they'd begin with Quran, and then
a hadith and tafsir and silk, and then
language and then poetry, and there would just
be one lesson after the other uninterrupted except
by salah until last, and then he would
go home. And when one batch of students
would leave, another batch would come. The linguists
come, then the hadith students, and the Quran,
and so on and so forth.
So he he was a ocean of knowledge.
He was jack of all trades. He had
studied all subjects, and he had given all
subjects a lot more time
than than anyone else around him, even his
teachers.
Even he was considered,
by some people to be superior to his
own teachers. Imam Ahmed says,
when he would come to Mecca to make
Hajar or just visit, he would go to
a Shafi'i
gathering instead of Sofian ibn Aina, who's his
teacher, and who's much older than a Shafi'i.
So when he was asked about this, how
can you go to a Shafi'i gathering, the
young man,
when Sofian ibn Aina is there? And they
asked him to remember, Sofia was very famous,
very well known, the Faqih of Mecca he
was called. So they said, you leave the
Faqih of Mecca
to sit with some random Bedouin
because he would Imam Sheffer dressed as a
Bedouin because he grew up with the Bedouins
for 20 years. So he took their style,
he took their culture, he took their language,
and he took the way that they dress.
So they said, you'd rather choose some random
Bedouin over
Sofia Sophia and Ibn Rayna. It makes no
sense. They didn't know that this was a
Shefei. Right? They heard the name, but they
couldn't tell that was him because of the
way he dressed and how simple he he
looked.
So he told them, Imam Ahmed answers, if
I miss something from the class of Sufyan,
I can get it tomorrow.
Ask the students
to find out what happened. But if I
miss a class of a chef, that's knowledge
that passed me that I will never get
again.
This man drops knowledge and, you know, shares
gems of silk and understanding and language that
no one else can offer me. So if
I miss this class, you know, if you
ask because if you ask someone else, they're
not gonna give it to you like a
chef I gave it to. Right? They're gonna
paraphrase it or summarize it or make a
mistake.
And he said about this, his comprehensive,
studious nature, how he went to each topic.
He says he was so humble in it.
Right? He was he was he had so
much humility despite this knowledge and despite the
gatherings that he had. He said,
I would have loved if every single person
knew what I know, learned what I learned.
I wish this knowledge I had, this is
how he felt about it. After getting all,
I wish everyone knew it without a single
bit of it being attributed to me ever.
I don't want them to know and have
Imam Shekhar teach them or know that Imam
Shekhar knows this. No. No. I just want
them to know it because knowledge
breeds tranquility in the heart. It gives you
satisfaction. It's the purpose of your existence. Right?
It brings you closest to your creator. It
solves the problems of your life, of your
family, of your finances. This is what Islamic
knowledge does. So he, experiencing all that, says,
I wish everyone knew this. And then the
credit doesn't have to come back to me.
I don't have to teach them. They don't
have to know that I know it. They
don't have to hear it from me. I
just want them to know. Right? This was
his desire that everyone knew what he knew.
And in addition, another snapshot of his humility,
he says,
I have never debated someone
and wished that they made a mistake.
So this is very humble, very sincere. Because
when you debate someone, you wanna crush them.
Right? You wanna prove that they're wrong. You
wanna make sure that they look like the
fool, not you. Even if it's an Islamic
debate, you wanna make sure that you prove
they're right. Once they make you mistake,
you you capitalize. You say, yeah. Exactly. That
doesn't make sense. Right? You contradicted yourself. We're
that's that's human nature. And some people more
than others, right, depend depending on, you know,
how fiery they get or how how, worked
up. But he says, as for me, I
never debated with someone
except that I
and I I I never debated someone, and
I love that they make a mistake. In
fact, I love that they wouldn't make a
mistake. I'd love for you to be correct.
And, that was his viewpoint when debating others.
So when I debate someone,
I do it with the possibility in mind
that maybe they're right and I'm wrong. And
when I say something, when I'm screwing my
point, I say it with mind with the
thinking I'm right, but with the possibility that
I may be wrong. So when he listens
to you, he's thinking what?
Let me find something that will make this
right, because maybe it's right.
And when he speaks, he's thinking maybe I'm
saying something incorrect, or there's a possibility that
I could be incorrect despite my confidence and
my knowledge. So that shows you humility.
That shows you,
honest
intellectual
approach.
It's very honest, hoping to hear something correct,
looking for correctness in his opponent, and,
you know, giving
himself room to second guess himself despite his
confidence and his knowledge.
So this is a a very
successful approach to take or take knowledge. The
humility, the possibility of being incorrect, the possibility
of making mistakes, constantly being on your mind,
it's something that will help, guide
us in our journey in seeking Islamic knowledge
or knowledge in general.
He's most famous for his two works, Arasalah
and Al
Both works in the Sur al Surk and
Sur al Hadith
and things of that nature. Arasalah, which means
the letter was an actual letter. He was
he he's written to by Ahmed ibn Mahdi,
who told him, give me
write me a letter on usul al Silk.
So usul al Silk deals with how do
we make Islamic rulings?
How do we determine if something's halal, haram,
noba
sunnah, makruh,
or farad?
How do we determine these 5 categories? What
makes the prophet saying this be Farid and
him saying something else and the situation means
Sunnah?
What are the defining factors? So Surah Al
Filk deals with all of that. What makes
this hadith?
We can derive rulings from it, and this
one, no. Why is this one an exception?
Sometimes you come across that, where scholars say,
this is not a ruling, it's specific to
this person, or specific to this story.
What are the factors that determine that? That's
what a Surah Al Firth deals with.
Say it
again?
That could be an issue.
Hadith the availability of hadith hadn't been,
like, you still have to travel all over
hadith. So but now we're talking about.
So if I even if I have just
10 hadith,
I can tell you how I get rulings
from them. The more hadith I have, the
more
that field will grow. So that's true. But
he
he he's he's Abhishek Madi, specifically
asking, write me something about. How do you
derive rulings? So that could be a possibility.
But a bigger reason, as the scholars say,
is because that it was not needed.
When the prophet said something,
because of the purity of the Arabic language
at that time, 1, 2, the closeness to
the source. When did the prophet die? How
about they remember him? They've seen him. That's
all I tell them. They learned directly from
him. So they didn't need
they didn't differ
as much
or they rarely different as, you know, as
as the later generations did
to the intent of what the prophet said
or what the ayah says or Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala says. In certain situations, when Allah
or the prophet commands something, they understood it
to mean,
you must do this, like fasting or prayer.
Then another situation, they understood that he
or Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala on the Quran
was giving a recommendation.
This is due again to their expert
Arabic,
their pure the purity of their language, the
closest to the source. Whenever they differed, who
do they ask? They ask the prophet or
the greatest haba.
So the need to write it down, especially
in a book, to codify it written, how
do we derive rulings from eith and hadith
was never needed. There was no need for
that. People understood it, and people taught it
readily
where it was almost, you know, especially when
the the common knowledge.
So
they didn't need to say the primary source
of ruling is the Quran. And then if
we don't find the Quran, we go to
the Hadith. And if we don't find the
Hadith, we look at these scholars. If they
haven't made a jama'a, and they all decided
they didn't need to do that. Right? They
didn't need to to to say it to
another and codify it in a book. They
all understood it, and it was already taught
and understood by the scholars and the Sahaba
and and those who came immediately after. But
then now, they need to write it, because
most people don't no longer know. The scholars
now, when they're teaching it, they need something
to present to the people because they no
longer pick it up as quickly. Their language
is not as pure, and and everything that
we mentioned is no does no longer apply.
So, writes to him a letter responding,
which literally means the letter. And when
gets it, he says, ever since he sent
me that letter and I read it, I
made dua for him every single day ever
since
then because of how well it was written
and it exists until today as well as
an And
the the scholars, you know, they don't end
in their praise
for,
and
they say these are the first works
first actual written works of the Surah al
Siq, how to derive rulings from the Quran
and Sunnah.
Some of the scholars said I've read it
over 50 times,
and each time I learned something new.
Each time I'm picking up new new benefits,
seeing new,
new points I have not noticed
before.
And, likewise, there's a lot of quotes here
of the the imam's praise of him. You
know, they're they're they're them attesting to his
knowledge and his eloquence and his language. I'll
go over just a couple because they get
a little bit repetitive.
Imam the son of Imam Ahmed says, that
I asked my father
oh, first, he says, Imam Shekha, he visited
my father when he was ill. My father,
Imam Ahmed, was ill, and he used to
always visit Imam Ahmed when he would when
Imam Sheikh would visit Baghdad, he would always
visit Imam Ahmed, and they were very,
close, and he was his main teacher as
well, as we'll see inshallah next week when
he speak about Imam Ahmed. So his son
says, Imam Sheikh, he visited my father when
he was ill. And when he came in,
he says, I saw my father act away.
I've never seen him act before. Right? This
is a grown man. So he says he
got he sat up. He was laying down
because of how ill he was, but he
sat up. And he sat Imam Shefey, and
when he came to stay, he kissed his
forehead, Imam Shefey.
And after he sat for some time and
he got up to leave,
my father, Imam Ahmed, got out with him,
helped him onto his mule, and walked by
him holding the stirrup. So it's not something
that people normally do. It's something like a
child would do or a slave, a servant.
But this is an imam. Right? Imam Shafi'i
now is maybe 56 years old, and he's
doing this. It's so inappropriate.
It's it's it's the equivalent of, you know,
putting the shoes down for someone to put
their feet in. You wouldn't do that for
a friend or someone, but this was the
reverence that Imam Ahmed gave
Imam al Shafi. So one of his contemporaries,
Yahem Mahind, he says, when he heard of
this, he asked Imam Ahmed, did you have
to stand by the mule too? All the
other stuff, fine. You're respecting him. It's in
his home. But you had to leave and
stand by the mule. Like, come on, man.
Have some have some self respect. Like, you
you you're bigger than that. Imam Ahmed is
a big scholar at this point as well.
Right? He's not a child. He's not a
young man. So he's saying you didn't have
to do that one. That one was the
one that was too much. Just stand by
the mule and walk him.
So Imam Ahmed responds to Yahem, and he
tells him, this is how to get firk.
You want firk? That's what I want. If
you want firk as well, he's asking Yahem,
you want firk? Go on the other stirrup.
You hold the other side. But me, I'm
holding this one to learn. If you wanna
learn, the other one's available as well, and
this is the way to do it. You
gotta humble yourself.
And a Imam Ahmed, his son asked him,
why do you always make dua for Shefai?
I'm always hearing you constantly saying, oh, love
mercy on Shefai and bless him and so
on and so forth. Imam Ahmed says,
if you wanna know why I like him
so much,
the he's like the sun to the earth,
or he's like health for the body.
If either one of these things go,
is there a replacement?
Are these things just replaceable? Like, are they
whatever? Like, you know, who cares what happens
to them? No. The health of the body
and the sun to the earth, they're they're
vital. So he's saying that's what Imam Shefei
is like. That's why I'm always saying God
for him because he's so vital.
And, you know, it was it was narrated
that when he would he was debating in
Egypt and he had gotten to a lot
of debates in Egypt. I know it's a
big surprise that there's a lot of debates
in Egypt at all places, but
you learn something new every day. Right?
So he's he's debating easy to remember, but
this reason, it wasn't political. It was about
the people
blindly adhering to a chef to Amalek and
Abba Hanifa and getting into issues about it.
So he did get into a lot of
debate, and it was narrated. And on the
end of the debates, when he was talking
to one of the students of Amalek,
he told them at the end of the
day, and he got a little heated. He
told them
Isn't it more upright? Doesn't it make more
sense that we remain brothers even if we
differ in one issue?
Could be Allah. Could be Allah. Like, are
we different? But let's remain brothers. Why does
that differ, that that differing that difference we
have? Why does it demand that we no
longer be friends or that we hate each
other's guts? Where is that written?
The opposite. Right? And Islam teaches us that
no matter what, that brotherhood
is
irreplaceable. Right? And it trumps all else. He
had a lot of wise sayings. He was
known for them. Some of them in his
were taken from his poetry, and some of
them he would just,
you know, in his teachings. For example, you
know, some of them that stuck out to
me. I will share a couple with you.
He said,
The smart, this clever,
intellectual
is the one who,
who is smart
and purposely
purposefully
overlooks things.
Is heedlessness.
You're heedless when you're sleeping. Right? That's considered
because you're heedless. Someone makes a noise, tells
something you don't pick it up. But when
you say that means purposefully heedless. I'm being
heedless on purpose. Someone says, hey, moron, and
I just walk keep walking. I heard it,
but I'll just
I'll I'll ignore it. I'll be the bigger
man. So he's saying the the clever intellectual
is the one who is
heedless at times on purpose.
Remember, he's saying this in after all these
debates, he's going to Egypt. People are people
are staunch supporters of Imam Malik al Hanifa.
They don't like a sheikh when he goes
to Egypt. Some of them would even their
scholars as well. They have their own hadith
circle they teach. There's writing of them that
survived till today. Some of them
really disliked him. They thought that he was
coming making a ruckus. And a lot of
it was born from their sincere love of
the imam, which is a good thing, but,
it shouldn't get to this point.
What point am I talking about? Some of
them, like, they this is recorded of them
that they wish that he would die, and
they said, you know, I I prayed the
Imam Shefriah died because of the ruckus he's
causing and, you know, the disrespect that he's
showing the imam. They misunderstood. They're human beings
at the end of the day, guys. That's
something we have to realize.
Like, me and you, we might get in
a fight. You cussed me. I cussed you.
At the end, they were brothers, and we
fell short. We made a mistake. And sometimes
we boycott each other for years or for
a lifetime.
So we're human beings like likewise, they were
as well. Some of them made similar mistakes,
as as we do nowadays in in their
interactions.
So he says it's smart. You're a genius.
You're intellectual if
you pay no mind to these things
when you hear them. You should purposefully ignore
a lot of what you hear. That's what
he's saying. Another one he said,
If you were to be totally closed from
people,
this will breed animosity.
They'll say, well, he never wants to sit
with us. He doesn't like us. He's arrogant.
Right? That's what people say if you never
sit with them. You say, salaam, and you
leave right away. For example. There's a community
gathering, you're not there. Someone invites you, you
decline. They're gonna start thinking what? This guy
doesn't like us. We don't like him. So
he says, if you're too close on people,
you hold back, meaning your friendship,
then that will breed animosity.
And then if you're completely open, though, this
is going to bring about evil friends.
You're friends with everybody. Go over everyone's house.
You're really close with everyone.
That will breed that's going to invite bad
friendship. You're gonna get in with the wrong
crowd, and that will affect you. That will
affect your dean. So he says it's the
the the true path is in between both.
Shouldn't be overly closed, and you shouldn't be
overly open. You should be moderate in your
friendship and in your interaction with others. So
it's good advice. You know? It's stuff that
is very useful,
especially a lot of times, people ask you,
like, seek knowledge or
hang out with the brothers. There's there's moderation.
At times, hang out. The brothers at times,
seek knowledge. Right? There's there's no nothing I
didn't tell to close the door on yourself
and seek knowledge 247,
or anything like that. We're we're encouraged
through many ayaat and a hadith to take
the moderate path in everything.
There's many he's mentioned in some a hadith,
not directly. The scholars all many scholars or
most scholars, they they they say that he's
being referenced referenced in a couple of hadith
that mentioned later times, and they say that
the prophet was reported to have said that
the people will seek knowledge and they will
find it with,
the scholar of Quraish. There's also a hadith
that are,
supposedly referencing Abu Hanifa and Imam Malik that
is the, you know, some scholars narrated, and
they're they're they're all in general. But the
scholars later said they're referring to this or
that. And, all 3 of them, including this
one that we just mentioned and the ones
that mentioned Alim Quraish, their authenticity is debatable.
So the some scholars said they're not authentic.
Whether these people were referenced or not, they
were recognized universally after. So it doesn't really
matter.
There's one authentic hadith though for sure what
the prophet said.
He said that Allah
indeed he will send at the head of
every 100 years
a scholar or someone
who will renew for it the affairs of
its religion. He will bring about religious revival,
revival of knowledge or revival of a hadith.
So he said, every 100 years, we'll have
at least one of these guys. A man
who will stand up and revive the affairs
of the religion, whether it's teaching or hadith.
And,
it's something that only Allah knows.
Because he said, Allah will choose a man
that will revive the deen of Islam every
100 years.
So that's every century.
The scholars the scholars spoke a lot about
this hadith,
but the bottom line is you can never
know for sure who it is. You can
never say it was imam so and so.
How do you know that? How did you
send him? Allah swaddlers the one who chose
him. There's indications. Right? Like, what? That he
actually revives the deen. Right? That he leads
the revival of religious learning. If he doesn't
do anything of the sort, he can't be
this.
But the the scholars are generally
fully agreed that in the 1st century after
the Hawa, this was Umar ibn Abdulaziz.
Umar ibn Abd Laziz, the great grandson or
great great grandson of Umar ibn Khattab. During
his time, the Umayyads had strayed from the
teachings of the hawa. They are leading the
Ummah in very frivolous and luxurious ways like
the leaders of today do. But when he
became the caliph, and he was on the
caliph, I believe, for 2 years, he returned
it to the style of the the haba
and their their method of ruling and the
simplicity, the humbleness, the justice between the people.
To the extent that some of the other
Umayyads said, this was our fault for letting
our sister or our niece or, oh, his
mother. That's this is our fault for letting
her marry into the family of Omar Khattan.
They were they were upset that he brought
about all these changes and he he limited
their ability to be as extravagant as they
were in the previous Khalifa. So they said
this is what we get for letting our
sister marry to the family of Omar. Someone
like she produced someone like Omar. They were
upset about it because they they, you know,
it it it lessened their their,
their opportunities to be as luxurious as they
wanted to.
But anyway, they they generally agreed that in
the 1st century century, it was Muhammad Al
Aziz, and in the 2nd century, it was
Imam al Shafi.
So you'll find, almost unanimous agreement amongst his
cause that Imam al Shafi was. Of course,
bottom line is no one knows except Allah
for sure.
But judging by what he had he had
done,
it's possible. He's a very strong candidate, of
course, along with the other scholars. And something
interesting that some of the scholars mentioned, if
you look at the most popular candidates
for the merjendis of every century,
every century, especially by the end of the
century, scholars, they look back and they say
who could have been.
Right? So,
you know, some people say in our times,
it could have been, for example, Imam al
Bani for what he did for the science
of hadith specifically,
And it's a possibility. Right? Now that we
we they come they came to the end
of 1900,
it was possible that he, you know, did
very significant work in 1900 that's not that
no one else reached. We don't know. That's
the bottom line. But either way, they're generally
fully agreed that is Amun al Adaziz in
the 1st century and Imam al Shaikh in
the 2nd century. And then the strongest candidates
from the 2nd,
2nd century is Imam al Shaikh, from the
3rd century to 12th century, something just interesting
that the
the most popular figure that you'll find a
lot of books that they say, we think
he was the magenta of the century. So
from the 3rd century to 12th century. So
2nd century is a Saifed. Now we have
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
11, 12. So the next 11 centuries,
the strongest candidate for each century was a
Shefri scholar.
That is something that's interesting. Right? That the
the though again, no one knows. I have
to emphasize that. But the scholars, when they
write, we think the majority of the 4th
century was so and so, this scholar.
For the next 11th centuries, they're all Shaifa
scholars. They follow his methab. They follow his
methodology.
Just an interesting, you know, tidbit.
A Muslim, he was a student in Egypt.
He says, I spent 80 nights in the
house of a,
and I noticed that he would pray the
1st 3rd of the night, then he would
write for the the 2nd 3rd of the
night writing books, and then he would sleep
the next 3rd, and that was his practice.
And he would pray each rakah
with no less than 50 verses or no
more than 50 verses, and at each
ayah were something,
where there's something to ask Allah for, he
would stop and ask Allah for himself
and all Muslims. And if there's anything to
seek refuge
with Allah from, like punishment or anger, he
would stop and seek refuge for himself and
the entire Muslim Ummah.
So you see the the again, these snapshots
are what show you that what these imams
had that no one else had. It was
the sincerity,
the strength of of worship, and the strength
of the connection they had with Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. And he would finish the entire
Quran daily in his salah
and the day and the night, and except
in Ramadan where he'd finish it twice. Once
in his salah and then once during the
day just reciting. And when Ramadan would come
in, he would put everything on the side
and only read Quran. He would devote himself
entirely to the words of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala in this special season.
His method primarily focused on
five sources.
These are this is what we're talking about
when we speak about. The first source, of
course, is the Quran. The second is the
sunnah. The third is the jama'ah, and this
is the same with all form of the.
This is the 4th first three sources
in into which they look for ruling. The
book of Allah, of course, the teachings of
his messengers of and if there's not if
they don't find the answer in either one,
they look in the consensus of Muslim scholars.
Did they ever agree on something
that can give us help in this ruling?
After that, he favored the view of the,
and then finally,
which is,
analytic,
deductive analogy, whatever you wanna translate that as.
So now we we come to the end
of his life. And like we said, due
to the extreme level of zeal and love
and adherence to the imam, specifically, imam Malik
and Ab Hanifa,
The the the situation in Egypt was a
hostile dulidus.
So so many people
became his students
and,
gravitate towards his teachings, and they loved him,
and he was very beloved in Egypt. But
also, some of the stronger, staunchest supporters of
the madame did not like him. Remember we
said already how they some of them it's
recorded that they said, I wish he would
die. And, some of them
even insulted him directly, which is not appropriate,
but they they are too zealous in their
support of the madame.
So they believe that he drove the people
from the sunnah. He drove the people from
the madhayb. He he's causing more division. This
was the the reasoning behind how they acted
even though it doesn't it doesn't justify it.
And his reasoning was why why did he
see
his teachings as justified? Because he said he
said, as he said himself, he saw that
they are too attached to these demands. This
is not appropriate. It's going too far. It's
coming to the point of blind following, right,
which is never acceptable.
The deen is not at at,
the deen is not specific to one individual
or one masjid. It can be taught from
any person regardless of race, regardless of background,
regardless of med type, regardless of language. Right?
Whoever comes with the truth, it doesn't matter.
The truth is the truth. And it's to
be accepted even if it goes against your
sheikh or your father, right, or your masjid.
This is something that we all accept as
Muslims, and we all acknowledge, and we all
adhere to.
But, sadly, it did reach the point that
he,
he got into a debate with several of
them.
And some of them ended amicably. As we
mentioned, some of them didn't. So when he
and he was a strong debater. So when
he
when he was able to prove his point
with some followers,
they insulted him. You know, they they they
they accused him in his honor. And, you
know, said they they accused him in his
Islam said he's not a good person, and
he's dividing the people, and he's a person
shahua, things like that.
And,
when they did that because, again, remember, he
his lineage he has noble lineage. He's from
Quraish, and now the Abbasids are the ones
who are in charge, and they're also from
Quraish. So when when the ruler hears of
the insults and now he's a huge scholar
right at the end of his life, 54
years old in the year 204. When the
ruler hears of this, the mayor of or
the the governor,
he has these people publicly humiliated.
He has them stand, like, in the public
square, and they have to, like, have,
signs or whatever that they were being punished
for insulting someone who's honorable, someone who's had
a debate, and so on and so forth.
So when that happened to them,
now they're supporters. Now they have students as
well who are even more zealous about supporting
them than they are about supporting Malik and
Abba Hanifa. So their students now are even
less in knowledge, even further from the great
imams in terms of, like, you know, time
period and and teachings.
They hear about this or they see this,
and they go and they attack Imam Shafa.
So So they physically attacked him. Remember, what
was the first fitna that he went through?
The first difficulty that he encountered?
He was accused of supporting Yemen, rebels in
Yemen, and he lost his position as the
governor there, and he was arrested. So now
the 2nd fit in an hour, these blind
supporters, they actually physically attack him, and they
beat him up pretty bad. And he was
also already ill. He was ill for a
majority of his life. He had some intestinal
problem, which would cause him a lot of
intestinal discomfort and pain. He was not able
to sit normally.
So whenever he'd teach, they'd have a special
seating for him and and things of that
nature. And he whenever he would ride an
animal, he would bleed because he was unable
to to sit comfortably, and he had to
you know, it could have been something similar
to hemorrhoids or something of that nature, but
it was chronic and, of course, at that
time, didn't have treatment. So he would breathe
bleed regularly just from sitting.
And so some say that's the the the
primary factor in his death, that this illness,
you know, in in conjunction with this beating.
And some say, no. It's purely the beating,
that they injured him so badly that he
did not recover. It's possible. And then this
shows you how far it can go, blind
support of a teacher or a sheikh or
away.
Even if you're a 100% convinced it's correct,
why would you ever take it to the
point of attacking a Muslim brother? Forget physically,
but just in words. Why doesn't does that
need to happen? Right? He do take the
example of Imam Shaffer. He said, it doesn't
make any sense.
That means you differ over 1 issue and
cease to be brothers. That's not Islam. He
just remember, Khalifa told them when he saw
them each answering one another hadith, he said,
hadith was not revealed for this, for you
to answer, and he answers back. And then
you prove him wrong in the hadith. That's
not why it's there. And then even Malik
already said, when you see people doing that,
you'd even you wouldn't even let them say
the masjid.
So where now do we come 1200 years
later,
pretending to follow these people and using them
as they choose to fight one another, to
debate one another, to boycott one another, when
this is their teaching, it makes no sense.
Right?
So al al Muzani, again, is one of
his main students in Egypt,
he says, I visit him in his death
illness as he's on his deathbed.
And he asked in case
how are you today, my teacher? And he
said, Imam Shafi responds to him,
He says, how am I today? And remember,
we said he was a poet, and he
was very well known for his poetry and
his eloquence.
He said, I how am I today this
morning? I have awoken,
and I'm in the process of leaving this
dunya. I'm on my way out.
And I am going to be separate from
my brothers. I'm leaving them, saying goodbye to
them.
And I'm drinking from this very bitter cup.
I'm I'm tasting that. Right? This is I'm
I'm having to go through this very bitter
experience.
And I'm going to be now presented before
Allah
and I'm going to meet my evil actions.
So he's saying I'm I'm this what I'm
what's happening to me, he knows that he's
dying. Right? That's basically what he's saying. I'm
leaving this dunya. I'm leaving the Muslim brothers.
I'm going through this difficult experience that everyone
has to go through. I'm going to be
presented before Allah
and I will see the results of my
evil deeds.
But then he continued thereafter,
and, you know, I encourage you to to
look up the poetry that he said at
his death. It starts off with,
To you, oh, true god, I raise my
hopes.
I'm looking in hope towards you. And it's
very beautiful poetry, all about hope in Allah
expecting mercy from Allah, hoping in him to
forgive him. And then after he finished that,
he he passed away shortly thereafter. So the
poetry, it's quite long, but I encourage you
to look it up, because he didn't pass
away saying I'm going to see the results
of my evil actions and, you know, in
despair. No. No. He ended it in hope,
in Allah's mercy, expecting it, praying for it,
asking Allah
for it, and
and then and, you know, praising Allah
for it. So this was Imam Al Shafi'i.
His mad hub is predominantly
followed in Egypt
and Palestine
and in Yemen
and many areas in the Shem,
Indonesia, Malaysia. I believe the entirety of them
is is,
Sheikh,
the majority of them.
For the for the majority of of Islamic
history, his was predominant in Hejaz, Saudi modern
day Saudi Arabia and surrounding nations until recent
years. The last couple of 100 years were
switched over to Hambali.
And
his most notable student was
who? Who's the most famous student of Imam
Shefai?
Imam Ahmed. Right? And his teachers were most
famous of them was Imam Malik and Hamid
al Hassan amongst others. And this was the
Sheikh Ahmed Heb, this this brief of Imam
Shafai.
If they were gonna take one quality like
we're doing with every Imam, what would it
be? What do you guys think? I didn't
think of 1, so the floor is yours.
Remember remember, chef remember, any of us said
the one quality is his sharp intellect and
his studious nature. How he as soon as
he decides to seek knowledge, he jumped right
in, and he didn't,
didn't settle ever. And then for Imam Malik,
what was the main quality about him?
What was the main quality about Imam Malik?
What do you remember? Even if it's not
the one I did, who cares about it?
Something you remember.
His His reverence to the prophet Muhammad, remember
he he he had a certain attitude when
it comes to learning and saying a hadith
and and teaching it or just speaking about
the process in general. And then so what
would what would you take from him, Sheikh?
Floor is yours. What do you think?
What?
His open mindedness?
K. Not raising the scholars beyond their rank.
So there's reverence for them. There's love of
them, but there's also
knowing their place and
not blindly following them or raising them beyond
their rank.
Yeah.
Right. So the the journey of seeking knowledge
never ends.
So he he's reaching a age now. He's
very proficient. He's given the the permission to
give fatwa.
He's a governor of a land, but he
still seeks knowledge after. So that's a very
good point. The,
the journey for seeking knowledge never ends. I
we consist we consistently and constantly are are
hungry for that knowledge because there's no one
who will encompass all of it. There's no
one
who will, finish it. He's open minded. I
think that was also some scholars have said
that dude is travel.
You know, Memelek was in Medina a 100%
of the time. Memelek Hanifa was in Kufa
a 100% of the time besides, you know,
Hajj and Amra. But
for Shamir, he traveled to all these different
lands. He went from Mecca to Medina to
Al Yemen
to Egypt. So this shows, you know, he
began to see different viewpoints, and I'm glad
that you mentioned that because when you study
if you were to study Sheikh
you you will see that there's sometimes a
lot of times, there's 2 different fatawa in
the madhab itself,
and that's that's not,
abnormal.
But Shafi'i's madhab has it more than others
because they have something called and.
The new Madhab and the old Madhab. The
old Madhab was pre Egypt, and the new
Madhab was post Egypt. It's not a completely
different Madhab and a completely different salah. No.
Not at all. But some rulings changed.
When he came and saw how people interacted,
how they conducted business, how the woman dressed,
he changed some of his ruling
because he felt that it changed with the
time and place. So this is very interesting
as well.
If you look at anything in the method,
Sheikh Ahmedabad, you'll see that it's very common
that they have that, that the new method
says this, the old method says that. So
I appreciate
the the feedback.
Who knows? Maybe in a couple of weeks,
I'll just stay in New York, and you
guys just say, you know, send me the
live stream link. You know? Say, Asman got
it. You know? Because I'm gonna get just
he's he's attentive. Right?
I hope you guys benefited.
And I hope,
as we go through each imam, that we,
as you know, some people said before that
it's very repetitive, but that's good.
That's because when you come into a situation
where someone's giving you
the, position to get settled here,
you can say, wait.
This, and this. I do not wanna be
in this position. Right? Or if you come
across someone forcing you to take a bribe
or to, you know, act less than ethically,
you will have several stories to fuel you,
not to do this or to do that,
to take this stance. You know, a lot
of people, they say that as well that
I'm not strong enough to take a stance
in certain situations. This is what will give
you strength. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said that.
Right?
That all the stories of the prophets are
giving you. Why? And they said to
keep your heart firm. You need the stories
of and
Adam so that when you come to a
similar situation, and you will, you're able to
say no.
Draw on previous
experiences. If you don't have them, the experience
of others. So this is what Allah
wants us to do. I ask Allah to
grant us the strength of will and heart
and body to adhere to his teachings, to
please him in our lives and in our
depths, and to meet him in a manner
most pleasing to him.
In in modern day,
it's