Suhaib Webb – Usul al Fiqh Lesson One Introduction & Background
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AI: Transcript ©
A large number of people requested me to
put some longer sessions here on
YouTube as well as other mediums.
Alhamdulillah
and and you know we we have a
responsibility
to work together and assist one another. So
I decided Alhamdulillah
based
on some of the advice of many teachers,
years ago
to
teach an introductory
course on Usul Lafiq using the book Al
Waraqat
of Sayyidina Imam
Hujatul Islam, Wa Sheik Al Islam,
Imam al Juwani,
Rahim Oholaw Ta'ala. Imam al Haramain. He's known
as Imam al Haramain because he traveled between
Madin and Mecca for about 4 years and
he taught there. He's originally from Iran, Naysa
Abur
and,
Mashallah Mashallah. He is one of the Mujadids
of as mentioned by Sayna Imam Sayyuti, you
know, Imam Athaabi and others. And his work
especially on theology
and the science of Kalem,
was really at the forefront of repelling
atheism,
introduction of Greek philosophy,
Tezilites, and so on and so forth really,
Al Jabariya, Lokadria, Al Montaniya, so many different
groups.
He, his father, and then, of course, his
students. And one of his students was Sayna
Imam al Ghazari, Rahimullah.
Imam Imam al Haramain dies around 4 72.
If I remember correctly, Sayidna Ghazari,
dies around
any 505,
if I remember. But anyways,
the text that we're going to go through
is going to introduce,
3 important things. Number 1, what is an
evidence? What constitutes an evidence?
Number 2, how to use an evidence in
Islamic law? So the evidences of Islamic law,
what are some of the rules and and
principles and guidelines around using those evidences? And
then who is qualified
to use those evidences. And, of course, this
is the definition given by Al Qadi al
Baydawi,
in Al Minhaj when he said
that Right? Is to know the firki evidences
in a general way.
Wa kefir tistifaratiminha,
and how to use those evidences, wahel Mostafit.
And then who qualifies?
And the reason that this science is really
important is that it goes below the surface.
What we tend to see now,
in this age is Muslims are
educated when it comes to Dalil,
but uneducated
when it comes to the necessary principles and
rules for interpreting and understanding the evidences, the
Dalil.
And you know one of my teachers used
to say fatahijazi
shaykh mashAllah doctor Yani Idastakamat
alal,
almadna
thaharat
al ma'ana. Right? That the science of Usul
Lafiq
is a science really about laying your foundations
and making you a much more mature and
nuanced Muslim in your thoughts and your engagements
with others.
So the sheikh used to say
You know that if the foundations
are strong
then the sound meanings are going to, like,
flourish. You're going to see the meanings of
those foundations like fruits, like a very beautiful
expression. They're going to blossom.
They're going to oxygenate
a polluted Ummah. Allahu Akbar.
So ousolo fiqh really is the science of
the
what we say islah of the Ummah, reform
of the Ummah
intellectually
and then this is going to have an
impact on the unity of the Ummah, which
is one of the fruits of having a
correct understanding.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
You were enemies and we made you brothers.
Now we see
people study Islam and they were
they were brothers and sisters.
And then after they learned,
they became enemies.
And they actually are the opposite of the
verse
that the Muslims should be merciful to one
another. They're actually harsh
and
extremely
uncouth would be the word
in their engagements with one another
And that's why subhanAllah we say
that who understands also lofiq there's fruit.
They will bring good to the Ummah.
So most of the time what we see
is people arguing over evidences without understanding how
those evidences
were the conclusion on those evidences was reached.
And therefore, they are fighting over issues which
they shouldn't be fighting over, issues of fiqh
if presented by qualified scholarship,
should not lead us to divisions.
As Sayidna Imam Mashaafi'i said inna al messa'ilah
al ichdihadiya
latunqarubaliyat.
Right? That the issues of ichdihad should not
be refuted with their hand, meaning this is
not mukkar.
As the prophet said If someone sees an
evil let him change it with his hand.
Now we see people trying to change issues
of fiqh, issues of ichdihad,
which they don't have to,
but then we neglect the foundation. So
SubhanAllah.
So we ask Allah who Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and you sahil andahadalamrfahuamwajee
Sayna Imam Al Haramain,
he begins this text and he says, Habhihi
Warakaat.
These
Warakaat is what's called Jamu Alukillah.
Jamru Alokilla. And and Jamru Alokilla is used
when you want to show,
that something, you know, is is consisting of,
you know just a few things
Jamru the plural
the small plural like if you literally wanted
to translate it Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala uses
this in the Quran in Surat Baqarah after
prescribed for you as it was those before
you, so you will become the people of
Taqwa. What is fasting?
Just a few days.
Just a few days, just a few days.
So for Wasafa Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala describes this this month
as just a few days. Why? Because the
Sahaba and here we learn something very important
about looking after the emotional and psychological needs
of people who we are calling to good
and forbidding evil
from,
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala understands the
What's siem?
You know, I remember when I first converted
and the brother told me you have to
fast for 30 days. I was like, oh
my gosh. You know, it's it it can
be a little,
intimidating. So Allah says,
just a few days. This is called Jammahokeelah.
So the Sheikh also, he says,
This could be out of his humility.
You know,
you know, I didn't really do anything except
just these few pages
and also
And here we learn the philosophy of Islamic
studies and teaching people that the sheikh begins
this way to facilitate for the student
the entry because
they say Right? Entering into any knowledge is
difficult.
And you know exiting it, Alhamdulillah is easy
but the initial entry point that's why we'll
talk about Abweb
the different doors we enter,
can always come with a little trepidation. So
here we see Masha'allah,
a number of adab and this is the
beauty of the Islamic
tradition. Like the Western Academy for the most
part and other academies and even now unfortunately
in in some of the Muslim
institutions
where you do not divorce
academic
qualifications
from Adam and Erekhan.
So masha'Allah, Sheikh We
say
That he he he joins together in one
word, warakat, humility,
concern for the student
with also your audition and knowledge, mashallah.
The word tashtemel means to contain,
right, encapsulate.
Right? Tashtemelu
from Shamul.
Right? To be comprehensive. So the idea here
is that is has captured.
That this this this
these small
pieces of paper
are going to address
specific chapters
related to the science of.
Then he continues and he says,
and he uses
The word darik in the middle of it
is it's actually dak,
but the lem is brought here to show
something is far away from you.
So
as mentioned by Sayidna Imam ibn Marik. So
here he says
the lam to feedalbuad came Alqaddasayna imam al
Razi and as I heard from my teacher,
hamdulillah who I was able to really in
my life alhamdulillah
to study,
alhamdulillah
this this subject with some some really really
incredible
wonderful people mashallah
in knowledge and in character,
Sheikh Salahuddin Zaydan,
Sheikh Salah Sultan,
Alhamdulillah,
Sheikh and doctor Mahmoud,
doctor Abdus Salam,
some of the
the scholars,
Sheikh
Hilali and others doctor Muhammad Wissam,
Alhamdulillah.
But great teachers don't make great students. Right?
So, alhamdulillah,
we are I'm with you as we struggle
together to learn and and study but
I hope I'm able to
share their notes and represent what I heard
from them
correctly
insha'Allah.
But subhanAllah,
he says
so like when you hold the Quran, right?
It's in front of
you but the feeling is this is something
amazing.
You could not have achieved this with yourself.
You would not have been able to achieve
this unless Allah had blessed you.
So here also is a reminder
that this is a great knowledge, man.
And I'll be honest with you in my
history studying
almost now over 20 years, I could find
people to teach me a Quran, qira'at, tajweed,
hadith,
language, fiqh, tasawof,
khat.
But to find a person to teach us
all fiqh
was the most difficult.
I'm going to try to make this as
easy as I can
because in in in
I plan to teach this to you in
multiple texts.
So right now, I just wanna give you
the scaffolding of the science and then slowly
we'll build on it insha Allahu Ta'ala.
But when he says
this is related also to the study of
mountical logic and language,
Mufrad.
But I'm gonna make it easy for you,
but I want you to remember this that
this the style Mu'alafmin
Juzayn Juzayn
This style is related to logic and related
to the science of language
because all solofilk is made up of these
different sciences, Masha'Allah.
But what he's trying to say is that
the term is made up of 2 words.
It's a compound word.
Right? 2 separate words
that each are a part of a broader
whole. So here you can see the idea
of particulars,
the idea of language,
and the idea of bringing these particulars together
into concert.
So now if you think about that, especially
if you're a lawyer,
Masha'Allah you're gonna be like, oh, yeah, I
know what this is talking about. So what
he's going to do now is introduce us
Olofirk,
in 2 ways.
The first way is what's called Tarif Ildafi.
Tarif Ildafi means that he's gonna take each
mufrad,
each word and define it and then he's
going to bring them together into one meeting.
So what's the mufrad? The first is Usul,
the second is fiqh. So foundations,
fiqh.
So he's gonna bring them both together,
define each of them separately,
and then bring them back together again to
give you what's called tareefilbafi.
Nobody does this actually in this age now
for the most part. This is something that
was done by the scholars of old.
So he says
And is something which other things are based
on.
So we say, for example, the
that the foundations
are the the foundations of the home are
the usul of the house, the usul of
the dar, the usul of the beit because
everything
is constructed,
from it.
It's like a very simple example.
This
this definition, although there's like some disagreement about
it,
you know, what brings out other things and
so on and so forth. This doesn't
concern us now. So just remember this.
Is the plural. Remember that. It's not aslofiq,
it's aslofiq.
And I heard this Masha'Allah from one of
the great great teachers of aslofiq years ago
when I was studying
Some said
You know, the Aslou is what things come
from. Yeah. These kind of disagreements right now
are not really going to,
animate the discussion except one thing that you'll
appreciate from also lafukh is the degree
of your addition and focus of the scholars.
For example,
is what other things need.
So there is a challenge in a post
colonial community that is still trying to emancipate
itself from the shackles of
colonialism and and and white supremacy and Eurocentricism
is this accepted notion that Islamic scholarship is
sloppy and stupid.
This is one of the great fitness of
this era.
Whereas as you study this with me, you're
going to be like, wow. For example, so
when I was in Al Azhar, we spent
2 weeks on the word
is a class that we took 4 times
a week,
2 texts, an old and new text for
4 years.
So
that, Ika, this is something awesome, and you're
gonna need to be patient. If people can
take notes in the comments box, it's gonna
help me. Things that need to be translated.
If you can help, work with me in
the comments box. It's going to be super
beneficial. And then I will also engage you
and we have other scholars that we can
invite also to correct me and guide me
and guide you also insha'Allah. So al Aslou
what something else needs.
Because in order for there to be a
fruit, you need,
right, the shajara.
So that's why I said earlier about the
fruit of the Ummah. His sign is
Right. One of the signs that we're where
we are is we don't have foundational knowledge.
We have shallow knowledge
which leads to shallow arguments
which leads to ratchet disagreements
in great destruction.
Then he says, as we finished his first
lesson,
So after defining uso,
the foundation, now he's gonna define the branch.
This is very important in our epistemology as
you'll see as we move in this subject
and Aqid and other, subjects as well.
So the branch or the secondary issue is
what's built on something else. So the is
what the is built on. So the the
branch or the secondary issue is the fruit,
the
is the tree.
Okay.
So Alhamdulillah, today we started a brief introduction
into Usul Alhamdulillah
and that's going to be animated more.
We begin by talking briefly about Sayna Imam
Al Haramil Juwani Al Mujadidil Alama Sheikhul Islam.
And then we went into talking about his
introduction.
And then we talked about
how
classical scholars would introduce a topic using 2
means. Number 1 is tarif lakabiosul
firk.
And that's where we are now. We are
breaking down the word osul,
Asl is a singular
and fiqh
insha'Allah. And we haven't got to fiqh yet
because after defining Asl he went into what's
called farah.
So he defined the foundation because they say,
you know, in Islamic studies knowing the opposite
of something helps you know it.
SubhanAllah. So knowing its opposite helps you understand
it at the so word and this again
touches on one of the important ethos of
Islamic
education and the philosophy of Islamic instruction
is to help the student fully conceptualize the
test subject. So Imam Al Haramain defines Al
Asul then he defines its its opposite. So
that you see it like in a 360
where you see it in 3 d.
And next time insha'Allah
we're going to pick up his definition
of fiqh
and then we'll bring them together
and then in our 3rd class we'll move
on to the other methodology of introducing and
defining a subject which is called tareef lakabi