Suhaib Webb – Usul al Fiqh Lesson Sixteen The Meanings of Commands & Introducing alBaydawi’s Text, alMinhaj
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Don't laugh at my glasses. I have a
3 year old
who and
I hope all of you are well. I
woke up one morning and she said, baba,
I hid your glasses from you.
I said, really? And then she said, and
then I I I I pulled out the
shiny thing.
So my prescription readers actually are,
challas.
So I had to buy some of these
from the the local
drugstore, and this is all they had that
would,
allow me to read and see.
So
I'm not trying to make a fashion statement
here at Welcome back to our readings on.
May Allah bless you and increase you.
Obviously, if you've if you've made it this
far, you have the resiliency needed to really
study this incredible subject. And for this section
talking about commands, we're actually gonna be reading
from a different text because
Imam al Haramain alludes to this, but this
text actually expands on it. This is, of
course, a sort of intermediary text,
written by al al Qadi al Berdawi, which
we know as al Minhaj al Wasul ila
Enmi al Usul.
And this this actually is the the the
curriculum in Al Azhar is taught to the
Hanafis, the Madakis, and the shayafis. This is
the book in usool
that we study in the head to Surah
of Sayyidina Imam al Isawi.
And also I believe that this is part
of the curriculum at Qura University,
great academic institution, of course, in Mecca.
And the reason that we're reading from this
is now he's going to talk about
the different meanings of
commands.
And
one of the reasons I wanna read this
text with you, my my goal in life
is to actually teach this in English,
and and to do so in a way
that it facilitates those who are studying in
universities
like Al Azhar and in, Umuqara.
Because I remember when I first
laid eyes on this text, man,
I was like a deer in the headlights.
I was terrified. I was so bad. I
was so bad at that time. It was
very difficult. But
with patience
and perseverance and having
a healthy sense of self confidence, not arrogance,
and having great teachers
and reading texts to different teachers.
That's really one of the keys to to
to mastering
for those who have mastered it and people
like myself
who are just
of this ilm, servants of this knowledge,
to be able to be in that position.
When I went to study overseas,
my goal was first to improve my worship
and then secondly to be of service to
people in my community, specifically here in the
United States.
So make dua for me.
Imam is is from an area called Beibla.
It was called Beibla because
it's white because it was on the map
in Shiraz in Iran
coming out of this incredible,
profound
Sha'afi experience. The Shafi myth had blossomed
in this part of the world for centuries,
which is not part of Shiraz,
but he was from an area called Beidlah,
Beza, I believe in Persian,
if my Persian serves me well, because the
tips of the mountains were white. So
it
was
called
and this is a very important section because
he's gonna touch on something that Imam alluded
to.
Literal and the figurative.
We talked about what those mean. I heard
from Sheikh,
doctor who
I read
rhetoric to some years ago.
You know, we know that there were some
great imams and scholars and thinkers who said
there is no majaz,
like Imam, Al Baqidani, Al Mariki, Al Ashari,
Rahimullah,
Imam Ibnotamia,
Rahimullah.
They said there's no Mejaz.
Why specifically
imam Ibnotamia
said because majaz is a form of of
kadib, of lying and this
is like Allah is not gonna lie and
there's no lies in the Quran but
the response of the majority of Sunnis and
the majority of the is that in in
the definition
of majaz, right, we saw
Right? That's the only time you can use
figurative
is when there is a strong supporting evidence
for it because we know
Right? That,
ideally, we we wanna stick to the literal
meanings when possible, but there are times when
interpretation is obligatory, and I I talk about
that in my readings of Imam Razi's Taqdis,
Assesu Taqdis.
So imam imam
Al Baydawi is gonna talk about the different
meanings
of commands
and this is very important for you. And
he says,
he says,
He's talking about the different meanings and forms
of
commands. Maybe somebody who's listening, you speak Arabic,
You
say why doesn't he use a plural?
Why is he using a singular? Because in
Arabic
that oftentimes
a singular,
and
implies
plurality.
So the singular
modafon ilay
implies plurality. So like when you
say
Allah. So excuse me. So the singular
Mudaf.
So
means
with
the names of Allah
Allah. So here the sheikh
and and maybe someone asked why for Ijaz,
to save time.
It sounds better. Right? There's a lot that
comes with this.
He says in this there are some
He says that the first is that the
form of the order
comes with 16 meanings.
16,
and we're gonna talk about those now.
This is the first
is that it means an obligation.
Example of this,
Allah says
in verse number 43,
is you must establish prayer. That's why the
translation shouldn't be established prayer. It should be
you must establish prayer. I believe sometimes the
translation
you can tell if a translator has a
background in in
rhetoric
by how they translate the Quran. And, of
course, it's not easy. May Allah bless Allah
bless everyone who's out there working and trying
their best
from
so
So
So he says here
the first meaning is
ijab,
and it's important to note, as ima,
the writer of maraqis sur'ud, he mentions
that only when it comes to ijab
obligation
is the
This is the literal meaning of
The rest are majez.
The rest are figurative. So only 1 out
of 15
is
hakiqah.
The second is
something encouraged, a mandub ilay.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
Then make the contract with him, marry them
and find this mashal Surat Amur verse 33.
Why? Because we know there's times the prophet
he did certain business
engagements or
things like marriages and other things without a
written contract. So, therefore, we understand
that this is
Women who
and
and and linked to a is something called
means encouraging someone to do a specific act.
The prophet said to the young man,
eat what's closest to you.
Maybe somebody asked what's the difference between a
nadab and teddib. They both follow under this
idea of mandubile nadab,
but specifically the nadab tends to be related
to a general thing
and teddib relate tends to be related to
a specific
act
of of goodness. So, like, writing contracts, that's
general.
Eating what's in front of you is specific.
We'll talk about this in the future
Inshallah. So we say in tahdig, there's like
a not Tarsis as you understand it in
Oso, but Tarsis
Al Mokif. It's like more of a specific
kind of situation.
A third is,
the third is is, like, you know, encouragement
and guidance.
Something's better if you do it, but it's
not wajib.
2nd is not wajib.
Only the first Egypt.
Allah
said then, you know, seek 2 witnesses or
seek,
2 witnesses.
This is Irshad because we know that, again,
there were certain, not marriage contracts, but other
type of contracts at times that didn't have
2 witnesses.
The 4th
Permissibility.
Allah
says
eat what's on the earth if if we
said this meant
But you understand what I'm trying to say
here?
Eat what's in the earth.
This means it's permissible. What is it what
does permissible mean? And I haven't explained this
before.
Permissible means
That it is allowed to benefit from something.
You need to remember this
for the future.
Allah says in again verse number 168
here in front of me.
This is permissible.
Kind of like a warning.
Do whatever you want.
Here, it it can't mean,
like,
You must do whatever you want so peep
people can do haram. They can do fasad.
So here, this is a form of, like,
a threat.
Okay? Just keep doing what you're doing. You're
gonna see one day the punishment of Allah.
That's
why the Qari of Quran
who has a a background in Balaga and
even
they
will read the Quran differently. You can tell.
You can tell by how they read.
They're gonna be making it like beautiful.
So the sort of to verse number 40.
It's
a warning.
Say to them, enjoy.
Enjoy yourself.
Enjoy what you want.
Verse, number 30 from Surzi Ibrahim. So here
we see and then under, this is the
idea of
a warning. So a threat and then more
specifically a warning.
And this is close to
but here,
this is a slight difference. It has the
meaning of
but also it means to recognize the blessing
Allah has given you. So
seek nourishment and eat from what Allah
has provided you.
Again, this is going to be Surat An'am
verse number
142.
The 7th,
generosity
Allah has honored you with something. Allah mentions
in the
enter
you know submerged
with peace and tranquility.
This is
an honor.
The 8th to shame.
I said to those
disobedient followers of Musa,
be kunu.
You must be
pterrada,
pigs.
This is a form of
insult.
Is from Ajaas,
which means
weakness.
Says
in
Surah Say to them, then bring a Surah.
The meaning here
is you can't you can't do that.
You don't have the
ability
to
do
that.
So the meaning here is
verse number 23.
To the one in hellfire
tasty
tasty This is a form again like insult.
It's not
this is talking about in the hereafter.
There's no in the hereafter.
This is a form of
with the
You can find this, verse in,
sort Duhan verse 49.
Means equality.
This is the 11th.
Be patient
or don't
be patient.
Or don't be resilient. Doesn't
matter. Verse 16.
The meaning of dua.
O Allah, please forgive me.
Me.
Means
that you want something that can't happen.
So like a false hope. And he mentions
here the the line of
Oh, you long night. Will you not, like,
you know, be illuminated?
The knight doesn't have the ability to do
that
So he's he's lamenting his situation.
You
know? And this is.
You you know, in his drunken state, he's
in his drunken stupor hoping that, you know,
even now he's asking the night itself
to bring on the
dawn.
Sayidamus alaihi salatu salam,
when those magicians and sayidamus alaihi salatu salam,
when those magicians and sayidamus alaihi salatu salam
were going back and forth,
He
told him, throw your stats.
Again, this is kind of like a form
of, like, he's shaming them because he knows
they have no power to do anything. You
find this in sort of,
verse 33
43.
The last 2
he says
and he gives an example here
of the statement
of If you have no shyness, you're gonna
do whatever you wanna do.
The form here,
is like he's informing you of something. You
can say, no, that's not true.
That's called
but the meaning is the meaning
is
like if you don't have any shyness
you can do whatever you're gonna do, but
you're gonna get in trouble.
Also the opposite,
For example,
It looks like
it's Al Khabr but actually it's called I
haven't taught you about talked to you about
this or taught you this because it's later
on down the line. Its meaning is meaning
a command.
What is?
Is a phrase which you can accept or
deny.
In Arabic
is a phrase in law and rhetoric that
you can't affirm it or deny it. For
example, if I say, Suhaib is in
New York City,
you can say, no. No, he's not.
Yes, he is.
But if I say, yeah, Suhaib,
you can't say that's false or that's true.
If I say to you,
don't pray. You can't say, no, that's a
lie, or if I say to you,
you can't say that's a lie or truthful.
That's called.
So,
Doctor,
Mahmoud used to tell me he preferred to
say
talk about it in the future.
Same thing here.
So
the is a
inform informative
statement
that you can deny or reject. Tells
is
a order, a question,
a command,
even a dua. Calling someone. We'll talk about
all of those in the future
especially in rhetoric.
For example,
verse number
233. Allah says that the mothers should breastfeed
mothers
mothers
breastfeeding
their kids. That's but the meaning is
that women mothers must breastfeed their children.
Another example, the statement of saying
that a a woman
doesn't marry another woman. You could say, no.
No. Women do,
but the meaning is.
It's not allowed for women to marry other
women.
There's a debate among some scholars about the
verse, laikhora
hafiddeen.
Is it chabr or inshaah?
If it's insha, it means you are not
allowed to impose Islam on anyone.
If it's haber, it means that in the
religion of Islam, there's no compulsion,
so you can see the differences here.
The differences here. So
let's quickly go through the 16
that we went through.
If you're smart, you're gonna memorize these, and
only the first one
is really
important to us in the context of what
is,
but, also, it's important
It's important that we know something so we
can affirm it or also recognize no that's
not correct.
So both there's duality
meaning the second issue related to,
the form
and meanings of the commands. Whenever you hear
the word
in in the classical system,
this means that there are evidences that are
being disputed.
That's why people make a mistake when they
say in this masala
according to this madhab but they have no
evidences, then they wouldn't call it masala.
So this shows the person has a problem
with understanding
understanding terminology.
This is one of the biggest problems we
find, especially for those restricted,
to,
not just
non Arabic languages,
but as you've seen here, not understanding specific
terminology of the science.
That
the order
and the other forms of the order that
we talked about
We talked about some of those different
Most said they're 4.
Four things can equate to a command, although
some
said 7. We'll talk about that in the
future.
Inshallah.
He says that
in the first
that we talked about other
16. We name
and the rest the other 15
we ask Allah to increase us in.
Actually, I think it's good if we read
this just so you can see.
It's really beautiful, man.
You feed a nadeb.
He said no, that it's hakeqa fin nadeb,
that the command is literal when it's coming
to the recommended and and everything else even
the obligatory.
The word the form is what's called
which means
that this the one who said it is
is
unknown
or it's it's weak.
That's why I have to be careful sometimes
as you're reading books in Arabic and you
just come across
and you tell people or people would tell
you, man, this is an opinion.
A weak form, a sick form, meaning no
no don't rely on it. We have a
very important axiom.
We should know about weak opinions, but we
don't use them in that way.
It it is said
that it means permissibility and the rest are
Majes.
When I talk about in the future inshallah
we talk about
but here what it means is that there's
a shared
between nadab
and wujub
and everything else is
What is
between
and what
he means by
is that there is a shared
portion between the 2, between
and.
What is the shared portion here?
The request
So they're saying that is
and everything else is
Someone said this. We don't know who
or they're not worth mentioning.
And
And what that means?
I said earlier, then he gets to the
statement of Imam Abuhamad
and he says
right? That there is a
shared
one of them is
and one of them isn't.
We don't know which one it is. So,
Imam Abu Hamadi did
of course this goes against the majority.
And it is said also that it is
shared
between 3
and Al Ibaaha.
Said that it's shared between all of the
5 major rulings of Islam.
Then watch what he does here, and this
is the old style of these writers. He
says,
In in support of what what we say
is that it's only
literal when it comes to
the command of an obligation. Everything else is
in majes. This is the opinion of the
majority of
Allah test Judah and Murtuk. Look how they
use the Quran.
He quotes a sort of a
rough yeah. Sort of Araf here. Verse number
12.
Allah is talking to Shaitan. He said, what
prohibited you?
Judah from prostrating
when I commanded you.
So here is the word
I commanded you
and here the meaning is
you didn't obey the command.
Obviously, then the command
is
an obligation, obligatory.
And this is the
literal meaning of the word.
Verse number 48 now. The very bottom.
And
when it is said to them
prostrate,
when it is said to them
bow, make
they didn't do
do
it.
That's why they're going to *.
Said the imam
says
that, you know, it's very clear that the
issue here is that they left the command
of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. So just a few examples. I
don't wanna read all of this because it
goes on and on and on and on,
but it's very interesting
But what I wanted you to take from
this lesson, number 1 is to to see
kinda what's in front of us
and how great our scholarship is. How we
should be confident
in our scholarship.
Oftentimes, the doubts of the Muslims are related
to what they are told about their scholarship
instead of having firsthand experience and engagement and
the level of thinking about faith, man, and
the practice of law.
I mean, this runs counter and current to
the, you know, current streams of today. It's
incredible,
and it will teach us
how to be much more refined in our
thinking and respectful of the text. So we
went through these 16 different meanings
of commands and we said the only one
which is
is the
first and this can we're gonna stop here
our discussions on commands but we'll pick up
in the future especially as we get into
these kind of texts which I hope Allah
will give us