Suhaib Webb – Summer Nights (Session Two) Assumptions Against Shari’ah & Its Sources
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The program at Swiss church is a free series on contemporary issues related to Islamic law and belief, and participants will receive learning materials and resources to assist them. The definition of Sharia versus Sharia is different, and the importance of research on the topic is discussed. The conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative conservative
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Welcome back. Alhamdulillah to our
program here at Swiss. Alhamdulillah over the next
few weeks, summer nights, here's some free courses.
Alhamdulillah for the community.
We're looking forward to, learning and growing with
everyone. Tomorrow night, actually, we will not have
class
and then we will pick it up next
week. I am going to be travelling tomorrow.
Alhamdulillah.
So last night we began our summer night
series here at Swiss atsuahibab.com
and why go Assalamu alaikum Allah. And last
night we started reading from a very nice
text called Aqidat Tawhidyah of Sheikh Ahmed Adirdir,
which really helps us relocate and re center
the purpose of our faith
to be focused on Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and
to avoid some of the polemics that have
grappled the Muslim community and weakened the Muslim
community,
but to present a text which which really
focuses on our relationship with Allah.
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala wa'alaikum Salam, Oraha Wa Ta'alaikum
Wa Barakatuh.
Tonight, alhamdulillah, we want to start a series
on contemporary issues,
specifically related to Islamic law and Islamic belief.
And there'll be a short, I think 2
sessions sort of an intro,
and then we will jump in the 3rd
week taking on actual, like, questions that are
on certain issues. For example,
Muslim women marrying nuns of men,
will take on the issue of music. I
think in the future, we'll take on
some issues related to direct actions.
We may take on the issues of adoption.
People ask that question a lot. Take an
issue on suicide, people ask that question a
lot, what happens to someone who commits suicide.
I will take,
one of the topics we will discuss is
making du'a and asking for forgiveness
of disbelievers who have died.
Myself and others who have non Muslim family,
that's something that comes up. And then finally,
I think we'll finish the 5th or 6th
week talking about,
the filq, of direct action.
So what I wanted to do for the
first two sessions is to introduce,
sort of the
the idea of Filq and Sharia,
and how one is much more flexible than
the other.
And then to address one of the assumptions,
which is out there about
the sources of Sharia, particularly the Quran.
And then an assumption about
the scholars of Sharia. And then we will
finish up tonight,
actually a question that someone sent me on
my YouTube page,
that I'll address about Hafs ibn Soleiman,
the narrator of, of course, everyone probably here
reads Hafs * Sim,
the great qari and reciter and some of
the attacks
that,
have been, you know, leveled at him
specifically by some uninformed people,
as well as some of the, you know,
like orientalist,
Islamophobic type people. So I think that this
program, I ask Allah to give us to
feel, and I ask Allah to put blessings
in Alhamdulillah.
And I ask you to share it with
others because I am I am extremely shadowbanned,
Alhamdulillah,
in ways that you cannot imagine
And it's a Fadduh from Allah. It's a
blessing from Allah. It's an honor. But still
we need people to spread the word. So
every Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday,
we'll be having these sessions together free for
the community. In the next week or so,
we'll have a registration page. If you want
to register, we can send you the actual
learning materials and resources that I'm using,
to assist you, bi'idnila.
So tonight we're going to talk about contemporary
issues. The word Masa'il
is the plural of Mas'allah.
And it's very important within the classical tradition
of like the Islamic academic canon. When you
read the word
or
that means that that is an issue of
fiqh,
not an issue of Sharia.
This is very important.
When you read the word
Masala or Masa'il,
it implies that this is not an issue
of Sharia,
it is an issue of fiqh. And that
immediately now is going to bring up the
question, well what is the difference between
Sharia and fiqh? Imam Al Qarafi gives a
great example. He says for example the 5
daily prayers.
No one should say that the 5 daily
prayers are fiqh.
The 5 daily prayers are shari'a. This is
what Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has revealed
in his book
and through the beloved Messenger, may Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala his peace and blessings be upon
him. So
are 2 different things.
Is something which is unassailable,
immutable,
from Allah and his Messenger, like the 5
daily prayers,
like Hajj, like fasting in the month of
Ramadan,
any of those kind of things that you
can think about, that is going to fall
under what's called Sharia.
Fiqh are those areas where either
there is some disagreements over the authenticity of
a Sharia text,
There is differences
over the meaning, the implications of a Sharia
text.
There are
differences of opinion
over
the chronological
order of the Sharia text, does one abrogate
another or not,
or there is no Sharia text.
So fiqh involves, that's why the word fiqh
means to understand,
the efforts of scholars to understand what is
the ruling
of a given
action. That's why Imam Abu Hanifa,
Rahimullah, when he was asked what is fiqh,
he said ma'rifatun nafsma laha wa ma'ariha.
Right? That a person understands what is for
them and what is against them. This is
Fiqh. So
in the in the,
as we talk about this now, I say
that because often times we find people
extremely rigid on issues of and extremely loose
on issues of Sharia.
Whereas
fiqh is where we have some leeway,
Sharia is where we are.
We are in obedience to Allah and His
Messenger. So why I say that is the
messayil that we're going to talk about in
this session that we have together over the
next few weeks.
Their messayil,
the issues of fiqh, which means there's going
to be differences of opinion, which means that
scholars
have variant opinions on these topics. So therefore,
we we we
understand
from issues of that we don't make takfir
of one another,
that we don't say a person is a
bad Muslim,
that we don't say a person is engaged
in something wrong because they're following fiqh, they're
following scholars of fiqh who are not going
to agree with other scholars.
Issues of Sharia, that's a different discussion.
That's a different discussion. So what did I
say now quickly as we move
on, is that the
Wednesday night program that we have together is
going to be dedicated to contemporary issues.
Things like women,
Muslim women marrying alums and men, things like
music in Islam,
things like we said, adoption,
things related to seeking forgiveness, for example, for
non Muslims who've died.
We're going to be looking at the fiqh
of of direct actions
as it relates to activism, especially as we
pull into the fall here in the United
States, we know people are going back to
school.
These are going to fall under issues of
fear, which means there's going to be differences
of opinion.
And that means that there needs to be
a high level of emotional maturity. I like
to tell people all the time, like
a
a practitioner of Islamic law, a practitioner of
Islamic Sciences,
has to have a high EQ,
has to be, you know, very much emotionally
settled.
Tonight, what we're going to talk about are
some of the assumptions that are cast
at the sources of Sharia,
as well as
the scholars, the early scholars of Sharia, and
I'm going to deal with 2 assumptions.
Number 1 is the assumption
that the Kira act,
the different variant readings of the Quran
are not something which goes back to the
prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Salam but
the came from the opinions of the Imams
of that
Kira.
So let me say it again, and this
is the opinion of the Mu'tazilites,
this is not the opinion of the majority
of Ahri Sunna
And that is that the there is a
notion
that
the are from the of
the
their fiqh
and in that taqiraat are not something that
go back to the messenger of Allah
salallahu alaihi wa sallam. So I'll address this
in 2 ways, number 1 is by presenting
to you some academic research on this, And
then number 2, addressing why, like why do
we have variant qira'at?
Like what's the reason for that?
And then we'll talk about an assumption that
is cast at the early scholars of Islam,
and that is the assumption that they were
co opted
by political power. That the early
fokaha,
the those who were responsible for, you know,
leaving the legacy of the 4 Medhabs,
there is
an attack by some
that said these people were co opted specifically
by the Umayy state.
So we'll address that, and then we'll finish
this evening talking about
an accusation
which is thrown at Imam Hafs, and it's
unfortunate that
the information that I'm sharing with you is
directly going to impact your hereafter.
It's not entertainment.
It's not jokes. It's not
something like that. But unfortunately,
we're in a time for some reason where
the broader
population of of English speaking Muslims
does not really have an interest in learning,
but Imam
Al Bukhari says
that knowledge comes before any action.
And when we die,
you know, we'll be asked about what we
knew.
So we should unfortunately,
sort of lament this moment,
As you know one of the great scholars
said that
the study and learning of Islam has become
like orphaned.
Especially amongst
English speaking Muslims within
the United States.
So I can't emphasize the information that I'm
about to share with you,
although it may be technical,
is very crucial, very important, and it allows
you to equip yourself, not only maybe in
your own personal growth, but as you engage
others.
So the first sort of contention is about
Taqirat. We know there are 7 major Imams
of Taqirat,
actually there are 10,
but most of you have heard of 7
as mentioned by Imam Ashaltavi,
Rahim Muhallahu Ta'ala
who says you know,
saba'atun
tanawarat,
you know,
that there are these,
the 7 Imams,
who preserved
these 7 authentic ways of reciting the Quran.
And the concern by some people is that,
this was not something that goes back to
the Messenger of
Allah. So,
was seen
There is a concern by some people. This
comes in the last, say, few
decades, but it started with the Ma'at Tazilites,
in early times because the Ma'at Tazilites wanted
to position
the kiraat as Ijtihad so that they could
argue for their problematic beliefs. Okay? So there
was a reason why they did this.
How do we respond to this is is
what I I see many people doing is,
like, logical arguments.
But there is a great research,
that was done by a number of scholars
that really was spearheaded by Al Hafiz ad
Dahabi,
who lives in, like, 8th century, who is
a brilliant historian,
a brilliant
scholar of prophetic tradition,
a polymath
who actually died in the plague.
Died a shaheed insha'Allah.
And
he wrote a book called Ma'alifatul Qurra.
Some people call
it there's different names but the name that
I know is
is is he collected,
listen to how intelligent he was.
He collected
he researched and collected a book
where he notes all of the Quran, all
of the recitals of the Quran
from the time of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam
till the time of
Imam Abu Dahabi himself,
and he collects the chains
of the tin, but for you the 7,
that start from
the time of the Sahaba
to himself,
and he divides them into 18 tiers. So
I think one of the things you can
appreciate from from from our time together is
being exposed to a different level of scholarship
that's much more intense and allows you to
gain confidence in your tradition.
You know, this idea
of colonality
wants to impart in the Muslim mind that
the Muslim academic tradition is one which is
disorganized,
discombobulated,
isn't well done, is partial,
right? Remember that the people who lied to
you about your religion's academic tradition are the
same people now who are voting not to
allow the
number of people murdered and killed in Gaza
to be reported.
Like,
this is the same head on the same
beast.
So whenever you hear them disparaging
or creating doubt within the Islamic tradition, understand
that this is just an extension of this
broader
sort of goal of colonality
to destroy and weaken the Muslim Ummah. Like
it is what it is. So, you shouldn't
trust him, you should take from your ulama,
from your scholars.
And so, Imam Ad Dahabi and his book
Ma'arifatul Qurah,
he divides these
historical epics into 18 tiers,
and this is very very important.
So from the time of Sayna Muhammad salallahu
alaihi wasallam
to ad Zahavi, there are 18 sort of
like historical tiers that he divides.
These different scholars of the Qira'at
who are in these asanid
chains of narration,
all the way to Imam ad Dahabi, Raheem
Oholahu Ta'ala. It's very important.
What makes his text
interesting is the criterion that he employed and
that he created for himself.
So in many ways, creating this criterion for
research
shows you the integrity of adhabi.
That not only am I going to collect
the Quran,
the reciters of the Quran from the time
of Sayed Muhammad to his time, but also
he creates a sort of a compliancy system
that make sure and ensures that his research
is sound.
And so that that's that's not something easy
to do. Now we go, we write PhD
papers, and we we we have them stringently
edited, we
have long discussions about wording, long discussions about
phrases, long discussions about research because it's very
difficult for a person to be that critical
on themselves. So Imam al Daghabi creates not
only the idea of a text, but as
a historian,
he lays out certain criterion for anyone that
he will allow
into his research, which is remarkable, and a
testimony
to his genius.
And
to begin with, he starts with the Sahaba,
and he says that for me to consider
a Sahabi
as a a complete Qadhi,
there has to be,
three conditions.
3 conditions.
The first condition is that he refused to
mention any Sahabi
who had not read the entire Quran
to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallamah
at least twice.
SubhanAllah.
He refused. So, you're not gonna find Abu
Bakr RadiAllahu Anhu. You're not gonna find Saydna
Amar RadiAllahu Anhu, Saydna Uthman ibn Affan
Because they didn't read the Quran to the
prophet twice that he knew of in person.
So that in itself is profound.
And so that's the first condition that that
Sahabi recited the Quran
to the prophet alaihi salatu salam
twice or learned it from the prophet twice.
The second condition
is that that Sahabi
taught people.
So not only did that Sahabi recite the
Quran or learned the Quran from their Prophet
twice, let me be more precise here,
but also he had to have
taught people.
The third condition that the habih uses in
Ma'rifatul Qurra
is that that chain of narration
of that Sahabi
has to go to one of the 7
scholars of Quran
or the 10 Imams of the Quran. So
that that of
that Sahabi
has to go from the prophet salallahu alaihi
wa sallam from that Sahabi to the to
the
to their students to their students
all the way
up to one of the Imams like Imam
Nafi' who is very early, right? He's very
early, he's, you know, he's born before 100
Hijri.
Imam
Abu Amr al Basri who actually read the
Quran to Sahabi,
right?
That chain has to go to them
and then to Imam of Dahabi.
So
three conditions that he laid out
for him to
allow one of those Imams,
one of the Sahabi to be introduced in
the very beginning. Number 1 is, they learned
the Quran twice with the Messenger of Allah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallamah. Number 2, they were teachers
of the Quran themselves.
Number 3, that the chain, the or
of that Sahabi
go to one of the Imams of the
Quran that we know now. So now you
can see how he is positioning
the sunad
as an argument
that the reading of Nafir,
the reading
of 'Alsim, the reading of Ibn Kathir, the
reading
of Abu Amr, the reading of Hamza of
Kisayi,
the reading of Sayna Imam,
ibn Amir
is not istihad,
it's a sanit,
It's a chain.
And within that chain is the preservation of
the Kira.
Imam Adahabi in his first tier
has only 7
people. According to Imam Adahabi radhiallahu anhu,
the criterion that he laid out,
learn the prophet,
the Quran from the prophet twice.
Number 2 is they were teachers. Number 3,
the sunad goes to one of the 7
imams of Quran
that we all know that mentions and
also he
mentions them.
So he only found 7 Sahabi who met
this criterion. It's
remarkable,
his honesty, his integrity.
Doctor.
Mohammad Hassan Jabal, who was an Esari scholar,
a linguistic genius, he died in 2015,
he was there when I was there in
the Azar.
He actually
he's a scholar scholar scholar.
Okay. He he did this research. He took
the heaviest criterion, then he went back and
he went through,
you know, he had access to a huge
amount of research
information,
and he actually differs with the Imam al
Dahabi.
He says, no, that in the first tier
there are actually 13 Sahabi
who met this criterion. So he adds now,
right,
6 people,
whereas Zahabi had 7, and we know 13
as mentioned by Doctor.
Zaynab Atuntawi,
is tawatur.
Now, it reaches the level of tawatur. So
13 Sahabi he list them
who met the criterion of Imam Adhaabi
The second tier, this is where we're gonna
stop soon, we're not gonna go through all
18 now.
But in the 2nd tier, you have the
students of the Sahaba
and Sayyidina Mahdahhabi again applies the same except
this time he's saying they had to learn
the Quran from the Sahabi twice.
They had to be teachers of the Quran
and then their chain has to go to
1 of the 7
10
Imams of the Quran.
In his research,
Imam Ad Dahabi
reaches I think around 13,
11 to 13 if I remember correctly.
Doctor Mohammed Hassan Jabal,
Radi Rahim Muhullah who died in 2015.
Brilliant, brilliant scholar from the Islam, brilliant academic.
You know, his books in Arabic are, his
books in defense of the Quran
are hard to understand,
but
incredibly incredibly profound. Like an incredibly profound person,
who no one really knows. Like only only
people of knowledge would know him, you know,
Rahimullah.
He he does the same thing,
and he actually shows that there are around
23,
Tabi'in, who met the criterion
of Imam Addahabi. So he adds 10
to the work of Imam Ad Dahabi, and
he published this, by the way. This was
published, this was criticized,
you know, it passed peer review, if you
will. It wasn't just something he concocted on
his own, came on YouTube and started talking.
No. No. This was the research of doctor
Mohammed
Hassan Jabal.
What do we take to save time?
The 18 tiers
of the Imam that he uses to show
that the Quran, the of
the Quran have been passed down through not
through
The total number of people that we have
who met the criterion that they studied with
someone the Quran twice, that they themselves were
teachers, that they are in the chain to
one of the Imams of the Quran,
the total number of people
that that reaches
is 494
people.
That is.
Right? And and and, you know, there there
is something to be said also,
about a different type of which we don't
have time talk about. Now, tawaturushundu word
means to follow like salatawatur.
But tawatur also
the tawatur Amali. So not only do we
have the chains of narration are abundant, that
go to these 7 or 10
but then also the amal of the people,
like the people
read
with
these
up until this day you can find people
who read with Hafs and
perfectly they never studied Hafs and Asim, they
heard it. Tawat Sur Ma'anaawi.
It takes me now to the so in
conclusion, Imam Adahabi in Ma'arifatul Qurra, he
lays out a stellar defense historically
for
the preservation of the qira'at
is related to asaneed
not ichdihad.
And he does this by presenting
his research, his criterion,
he encourages people to be critical, he's very
honest, he starts with 7 Sahabi, doctor Mohammed
Hassan Jabal says no, there's
13. Saydna Imam Badhaabi says around 11, I
think. Ta'abi'een who met the criteria,
doctor Mohammed Hassan says, no there's 23,
and and this research
is is is incredible.
Up until the 18th tier, right, which is
the time of Imam Al Dahaibi, he reaches
around 500
people
who reach,
this level of criterion that he mentioned,
to prove that the qira'ats
are preserved
through asaneed,
not through Ijihad.
This is the opinion of Al Asunna. We
said the idea that the Qira'ats
are coming from personal opinion is opinion
specifically,
Zamaqshari attacked Abu Amr al Basri,
who of course Dori and Susi read from
him. It's a beautiful
Masha'Allah, who actually read to the Sahabi.
But he criticized him because Abu Amr al
Basri his riwaya,
you know,
when you're reading it, it does not permit
really any of the atizari kind of opinions.
So Zamakhshari comes after him because Imam Zamaqshari
was to preserve
his sort of deviant
theology
of his school.
The next, maybe, very
easy,
point that could be made is that there
is an important reason
for the variant
Qira'at. Maybe somebody says, like, why?
Why can't it just be, like, you know,
just like one? Why do we have these
different readings? We know Sayna Ambar, he read
a certain way and other Sahabi read a
certain way and, you know, we are aware
of this. This this existed in the time
of the companions. There is multiple narrations that
show this.
But let me let me explain it to
you from a legal theory, right, as someone
who studied Islamic law.
That,
in the academy, in the Eastern academy, in
the Muslim academy.
And that is that the Kira'at
actually perform a very important the variant Qira'at
a very important important function and that is
that
they allow people to have entry points into
Islam
And that the different qira'at allow for leeway
in situations where if there was only one
wording,
it would be very difficult
for us to say that the Quran is
an everlasting miracle.
So these different Uqira'at
actually
are an embodiment
of the promise of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
that the Quran
will be applicable
until the end of time and I'll give
you an example. One example.
In Surat Al Baqarah,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says they ask you
about their administrating spouses.
Then Allah says
you know, do not have a physical relationship
with them, don't have sexual relationships with your
spouse
Until she
means until they just wash their hands.
Right? Clean themselves. Doesn't mean
that's that's the narration of the majority.
They read this way. Back to the prophet
But Sayyidina Imam Sharba from Alsim,
he
reads is different than
Same verb,
same root, but there is an intensity in
Sha'ba's reading which is not found in Hafs
reading
or the reading of or the reading of
Abi Amr, or or
or Hamza.
But the question is, why?
Why is that the case?
Because if you think about it, if you
say
that means that a a man and his
wife, when she completes her menstrual cycle,
would not be able to have physical relations
until she has a,
the ritual bath.
But especially in that time, water was a
rarity,
and not everybody had access
to
sufficient amount of water.
So the 2 hira'ah now
come so that one in the situation where
a woman might not have enough water,
she can just wash herself because the water
is essential for the preservation of her family
or tribe's life.
Right? Or maybe her children. But also Islam
wants to see marital relations,
stay healthy, stay happy, stay active. So there
is this reading,
they can just wash. If however, she has
sufficient amount of water,
then she should make. So here we see
the 2
do something remarkable.
They address 2 very real situations
that are
now addressed by this beautiful
wording,
which allows both parties to be not only
invested in their religious practices,
an entry point into religion, but also their
family, their marriage, looking after the well-being of
others. SubhanAllah.
It's actually very beautiful.
To give another example,
in the Quran Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala talks
about
the people afflicted by the existential pain of
battle.
And he says
this is
means that they were afflicted with an external
pain. It's natural for all of us when
we see somebody physically harmed,
the the human empathy that we carry is
going to kick in. So if we see
some someone impacted by a Qar, which is
like an injury,
a physical injury,
we will pay attention to that. But there
is another Qira'ah, again sha'a'a an 'asim, Al
Sava
home.
Al
Korah.
Korah
is external, an external injury.
Hor is an internal injury.
An emotional injury. A psychological injury. And now
we see in the last, you know,
few years, at least in the west in
the east, this was forever.
There's this concern with people's emotional health, psychological
health,
trauma,
scars,
childhood trauma. Here we see the Quran when
it talks about pain. There are 2 that
encompass
physical
pain, psychological pain,
bodily harm, and emotional harm. So therefore, to
be really a a a person in prophetic
care, is not only to care about the
physical pain of people, but to think about
also emotional pain, to think about
psychological pain, to think about trauma, and this
is coming from 2
in one word.
SubhanAllah.
So,
this is something that we will talk about
in the future. Alhamdulillah, I teach these different
Kira at Swiss, some of them.
But I hope that gives you sort of
number 1, like a historical
kind of defense, if you will,
of the variant readings of the Quran in
a brief way.
My friend doctor Yousef Waheb has done a
great job writing and talking about this brilliantly.
And then the
has done also an incredible job. And
then the last point I made for you
is sort of the
the the the the wisdom of this qiraat
and the beauty in how it allows us
to really push in. And you know what
I like to tell people, the variant qira'at
allow us to have a holistic approach.
A holistic approach, the inner, the outer,
not enough, enough
sufficiency, not having sufficiency,
all those very nukira'at
address these different moments
that will require religious guidance. SubhanAllah, it's actually
a very beautiful thing.
The second assumption
that I wanted to address briefly, and I
think we're running out of time, so forgive
me.
The second assumption, and I'll address the third
assumption next week about Sayyidina Hafs ibn Soleiman
just because I don't want to take a
lot of your time,
is around the early formulations
of Islamic scholarship.
And in particular
the idea that early
Muslim scholars were co opted by the Umayy
state
to sort of create a theology
of silence,
to craft a theology,
which is not
politically
active,
to to create a a theology and a
fiqh which is, like, subservient
to, like, dictators.
And this is something we see now
perhaps rightfully so. There are scholars
rightfully accused of this in this age, but
the majority of Imams, the majority of Shuh,
the majority of people who are truly invested
in education within Islamic spaces are not sellouts.
Right? They're not scholars for dollars. Right? This
is an accusation that's there. But but this
accusation is important.
And sometimes it comes from some of the
extreme,
Shia
brothers and sisters.
Not the mainstream but the Hujatiya or the
Sharaziah school.
They try to inflame,
they want to inflame divisions
amongst Muslims. So they will say things like
this to kind of I saw just a
few weeks ago someone attacking Imam Malik and
saying that Imam Malik was subservient to the
Ummoys.
So,
how do we respond to this kind of,
I think important question, right, if people have
it. It's important that we respond in a
way that's not emotional.
We have to respond in a way that's
informed. Allah says in the Quran,
You know, bring your proof of what you
say is the truth. So we'll take a
few of these scholars,
the early scholars
and
lump them into one designation and then we'll
go through a few of them in particular
just to kind of address some of the
claims. So the idea that the Umayy state
in particular,
with within Sunni scholarship,
exercise tremendous,
interpretive power
and enforced
scholars
of Ahlus Sunnah
to,
weld and forge
an aqidah, a fiqh,
and a tasawaf
that was
bent on
subservance to the state is
problematic
for one very serious reason, and that is
that the bulwark
of Sunni scholarship
happens after 132
Hijri.
And in fact, well,
few decades after that.
Why is 132
after Hijri important? Because 132
is the year in which the Umayy State
fell.
So it
collapsed.
So we see like, Imam Shafi'i,
Imam Ahmad,
Right? We'll talk about Madik in a minute.
Imam Madik, Imam Abu Hanifa,
and Imam al Tabari.
Most of the major scholars that have influenced
the Sunni
sort of academic canon
did not live
at a time when the Ummavis were in
power.
So that is thrown out the window. Most
of them lived in the Abbasi period.
Number 2 is most of those scholars
are held
for being in direct opposition
to the state
or refusing
to work
for the state.
Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal, we all know was
imprisoned
by the state
for taking positions that the state
didn't want him to take.
Saydidi Imam al Shaafi'i radiAllahu anhu is accused
by the state and supporters of the state
of things which are unacceptable.
Imam
al Tabari, you know, he can't even be
buried
publicly. He's buried in his home. Imam Bukhari
researched how he died.
The list can go on and on and
on. Sufyan athuri.
We don't have his meh hab because he
was wanted by the state so he was
on the run constantly.
Al Hasan al Basri
radiAllahu anhu is known
to have numerous
statements critical
of political power to the point that it
impacted his scholarship. You look at the early
scholars of Islam, and you see that the
bulwark of these great scholars were people who
stood in opposition
against unchecked
criminal
state power.
Imam Malik is beaten, right,
for refusing to give a fatwa. There was
a time in his life where he couldn't
even go to the masjid. I mean, he
was under tremendous pressure from the state,
Radiallahu Anhu. And I've heard people say,
and I've seen this attack that Imam Malik,
he wrote the Muwata
at the demands of the Ummoist but this
is incorrect because Imam Malik starts the Muwata
in 147 after Hijri and he finishes it
at 156
after Hijri. Again, well after the Umayyad,
Empire.
So
this second,
assumption, which is used to weaken our commitment
and resolve
and dedication to our tradition,
is dangerous because it undermines our faith in
our sheroes and our heroes.
But it's very important to know that the
majority
of of early,
especially formulators
of what we know now to be the
Sunni academic canon,
were
certainly
not in favor of working with the State,
they warned people about it, they stayed away
from State power unless they needed to advise
people,
and in many situations, as I mentioned now,
they were punished. You know, Imam ibn al
Razi is poisoned,
ibn al Roshj is put under house arrest,
Imam Anhas has drowned. I mean, you can
go on. Imam Jazuli,
right, the writer of Dala Al Khairat comes
later on. He's poisoned by the state. I
mean, these scholars
are are not,
co opted by State power, and it is
unfortunate that sometimes the Muslim mind,
especially in the west,
because of its lack of familiarity with its
own history
and its own scholarship,
sort of takes the Christian attitude,
and the Western attitude
towards Ulema,
towards religious figures, and then just kind of
haphazardly
stamps that on scholars
within the Muslim world.
And one of the things that's come out
of this is this question about early Muslim
scholarship,
and that early Muslim scholars were co opted
by power. But if you were to actually
go and read the biographies of these people,
like Abu Hanifa, he dies in prison, it's
poisoned, right? When you read the biographies of
these people,
you see
that the opposite holds true. They were punished,
They were, persecuted in many instances. It impacted
their scholarship,
impacted their legacy to leave knowledge. They lived
frugal lives.
They actually suffered
because of their refusal
to capitulate to state.
So tonight Alhamdulillah,
we wanted to begin this session
by addressing some of the assumptions, the problematic
assumptions that are thrown
at the Sharia
within the minds of Muslims.
And one of them dealt with the source,
the Quran itself, the preservation of the Quran,
the qira'at, we mentioned that Dehabi's research, we
mentioned Dhaka'a
Muhammad Hassan Jabal, al Azharih or Rahim Muhullah
to help us locate the asaneed.
And that's what you should ask people when
people are critical of the qira'at or they
think the Kira'at are coming from Istihad,
ask them. What about the asaneed of the
Kira'at?
And they may say, oh, all those asaneed
are false. Okay fine. Did you research those
asani?
Did you actually
do the research in each narrator,
in each isnad
that goes to one of those Imams. If
not, then you
yourself are,
it's like you're calling the kettle black, right?
You yourself
are doing what you accused him of doing.
You didn't do proper research.
2nd assumption that we addressed today was the
assumption about Islamic Law, the formulations of Islamic
law, and the future we'll address another one
that is that the early Muslim scholars were
anti women,
that they were pushed by patriarchy to craft
a religious discourse,
which weaponizes and militarizes
the place of women. That, of course, is
an assumption that comes from the left.
We plan to address that as well in
the future. But tonight, what we talked about
was the notion that they were usurped by
power,
and that their scholarly office
was brought into suspect
by the Ummuz. And we noted that number
1, the Umo'is passed in 132, most of
these scholars are coming away after 132. The
body of work of their scholarship
comes after 132 Hijri, so this accusation
doesn't hold up. And then the Abbasis,
you know, in the case of many of
them, oppressed them like Imam Ahmed, Imam Malik.
Right?
And enacted incredible pain
upon those scholars. So the idea
that these scholars were sellouts, Scholars for Dollars,
the 'ulama'ulsultaan,
for the majority,
doesn't hold historically, doesn't doesn't stand the test
of the historical record. So I hope, Alhamdulillah,
I know this may be a little bit
more
academic than what people
sort of want,
and where people are, but I worry
about the state of religious education amongst
especially younger Muslims,
older Muslims, you know, they can handle their
own business.
I worry that we are a community now
that is lent to educate to entertainment,
and and leisure, and have pulled away from
the discipline
necessary to learn, and to worship, and to
change and heal the fractured world.
Jazakamalohairan
Barakalohafikum.
If there's any questions, we can take them.
Kamal Aminah will be healed. Ulamnorahu salallahu. So
next week, sha Allah, we'll start again on
Tuesday with our class on faith and then
next Wednesday we'll actually start the first
contemporary issue is,
Muslim women
marrying
non Muslim men.
Why we consider that forbidden?
Why is that the position that we find
unanimity upon among the jurists and one that
I agree with?
We will push into that next week Insha'Allah.
Please keep us in your Duas, Jazakum Wallahu
Khairan,
WasalAllahu Assalamualaasaynu
Muhammad,