Suhaib Webb – Usul alFiqh Reading #4
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AI: Transcript ©
We send peace and blessings upon
our beloved messenger, Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
on his family, his companions, and those who
follow them till the end of time.
So, this is our weekly gathering,
reading from a text. Actually, I have a
copy of it for you,
I see you,
here.
Called,
by one of the great, you know, great
contemporary thinkers and academics
in.
Doctor Shaban,
Al Azharie
Rahimullah,
was a professor in Umu Qurah
for a number of years and did, like,
a lot of work,
in the fields
of
and
also
to bless him and to raise his status.
I I mentioned to Sajjad that this text
is really preparing us and giving us, like,
a broader sort of literacy so that if
we read the classics,
the classical text,
it will
facilitate
our our engagement with those texts.
So we'll start who's ready to read.
We need someone to read for us to
do it. So
if someone is ready to read, they can
unmute themselves.
We can get started.
I'm just trying to the page.
No problem. Page 9.
And if someone's not able to read it,
it's okay. Like, it's not
but one of the reasons that Sajjad wanted
to have this class, and he's joining us
soon,
is to practice his reading and his application
of reading and also to
sort of get ready for other other text,
that we'll read in the future.
No.
Because sometimes you don't mention the well
to show that they are
as one part.
You understand?
Mhmm.
I don't know if you studied this in
South Africa.
For example,
As though
are are
Same thing sometimes if you wanna praise somebody,
you don't use well.
It's called.
Is so important in rhetoric. Yeah. Sheikh Omar
some
they
said What's sad now is if you ask
even people who stand what's
and what they're gonna tell you.
What do you think they're gonna say?
They they won't know. Yeah. Like, can I
have the
You know?
So sometimes you don't use the wow.
The well of conjunction
to show they're all parts, but it's like
they're all the same in one whole.
You understand?
Okay.
So Allah
says,
in
And not then what after that?
Why
Why
the opposite to show you that they perfected
each one of these qualities
individually
as though they're like they did each one
of them so well. It's like
like, it's 1, but they did each one
on its own.
You know, like, what do we learn? You
learn Nahu, you master Nahu, then Sarf, master
Sarf, then Balaga, master Balaga. Right? So here,
As though each one of those, they took
time to perfect them all.
The opposite without the wow
to show that all of those brought together
is like 1.
So here, when the sheikh, he only mentions
one well
and the rest he doesn't mention well, to
show all these parts are integral and essential
to make up the whole
of. You understand?
For example,
the or
Why?
This is called.
If you think about it, it's like a
run on sentence. Yeah. We're
doing well.
To give you the feeling of congruence,
and this is very important.
That's why he said, this is the this
is
That can have
It's it's a very important sign. So here,
this is what's happening. He is not mentioning
the just like
to show you that all of these different
things are
as one
foundation for.
No.
No.
No.
Is the master of What?
No. And as we see in the future,
actually, these go hand in hand. No problem
if your mic's not working. No problem. So
Okay? Like in
as we're gonna see in the future.
So this section,
he's going to cover these These are
from
to start.
So are those 10
what most gotta say 10 things you need
to know
before you start to study.
The purpose of the mabbetic
is to ease your
conceptualization
of a science.
So for example, if I say to you,
the knowledge
of the rule the now the knowledge
of the vowels
at the end of words
to indicate
the place of the word in a sentence.
What am I talking about?
If I say
What am I talking about right now?
Grammar?
Whenever I say
came out,
Iowa. Shuf Shufth, how you immediately you understood.
So this that's only one of the 10.
So now you see something. Even I I
didn't give even the correct definitions. Right? I'm
just going from the don't.
But the point is
I gave these 2 just the definition, and
immediately you knew what I was talking about.
So
from that, you can understand
that the fruit of the is
to know what is being talked about and
to conceptualize it, to see it in your
mind.
Those
still they teach it in middle school, in
the Azhar,
and in the beginning of high school.
In Azhar, the Adam program.
And Sheikh Saban
Rahim Hula, he wrote in a poem. He
said,
The are 10.
The first is his definition.
The second from the 10, is
what what does that
subject talk about?
So
what's the fruit? Like, what's the value
of studying
any subject?
What is?
What
faculty does it belong to?
What's the virtues in the hereafter
of studying
it? Who's the one who organized it
So that you can learn it, so that
you could study
it.
Its name. There's a difference between definition and
name.
Something may have the same name but a
different definition.
Everything is,
but the different definition of a human is
not the same as the definition of an
animal.
For him,
What are the prerequisites you need before you
study the subject?
What's the ruling?
So here, I gave you just a few
of them from the poem of
When he says,
you know, the the these starting points of
any science are
art in. Its definition.
Its contents. What does it address?
Its fruit.
It's
faculty,
its virtue in the hereafter,
and who is the first person to organize
it as a as a form of study.
Its name,
its prerequisites,
and its ruling. Is it is
it is it? Is
it
Is
it? What are the things it seeks to
address?
Then he said, you know, after that,
some of them said you can just learn
a few of those 10. Some of them
said you should learn you should learn all
of them if you really want to be,
like, strong. So what are the?
I'm gonna say them again easy easily so
you can remember
them. Number 1 is the definition.
Number 2 is its
subject matters.
Number number 3 is its fruit.
Number 4 is its
faculty. Number 5 is its virtues in the.
Number 6 is who organized the subject
to be taught?
Number 7, its name. Number 8, its prerequisites.
Number 9, it's.
Number 10, what are the questions
that it addresses?
Yes.
Then he said,
he
says has 2 type of definitions.
The first is in regards to it being
a possessive word made of 2 nouns.
And the second is with regards to it
being a title, an official title of the
actual subject.
You see early scholars, they taught it using
both. You find Imam Masukki in Jema'at Joanna.
He restricts it, sorry, Al Bairawi and Al
Minhaj.
He only uses this.
Most scholars still do this part, introducing it
as a possessive word
just so they can help the student understand
better.
Some scholars, they just use this definition only
to make it easy for people. So it
depends on who you're teaching.
So the first is regards to it being
a possessive
So what he's saying is each one of
those words
they have their own meaning.
They have their own independent
being. For you
to appreciate and understand,
this, you have to understand each word.
So the word
is the plural of
while And the word
in the language is applied to a number
of meanings, and they're gonna go through some
of them.
That which other things are built on.
What is others needed?
In order for something to exist, it has
to it has to rely on it. It
has to rest on it. And this is
the definition of
the
All these are super close, by the way.
If you wanna spend a lot of time
in some of that larger books, they're gonna
go through all this and dissect it. It's
not our our goal here.
Where something else comes from.
Very similar to this one.
This is what's important for you. The word
in in the scholars
of Islamic law is applied to the following.
Number 1,
in
Evan
The sec the second meaning is what's preferred.
And he that the default of speech is
is literal, not figurative.
A was preferred
in the
will.
3rd definition of according to the language,
not in our science.
Right? According to the sorry. According to the
the scientific meaning within the broader Sharia
subjects. Excuse me.
Is a an axiom.
That it's permissible for someone who's
or someone who is forced
to eat
it, something that's died of itself
is permissible, although that goes against the. The
is what is haram?
Is part of
The. Says
just like before.
So here, we wanna review quickly the word.
According to language, don't worry about all this
1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Just take this
one.
If I'm teaching this, I'm not gonna teach
you all this stuff to to
even, like, 1st year students.
This you should mention
because this is, of course, related to
and evidence.
The third,
something which is the default preference.
A foundational axiom.
The foundation of a PS.
Now we're gonna move on to
So in language, it is applied to 3
meanings.
Number 1 again,
just pay attention to the one I tend
to pay attention to, but this is like,
you know,
sometimes these discussions, they'll they'll they'll help you
later on.
This is the definition of al Razi.
Al Razi says
is to understand the meaning of the speaker.
This is according to Imam Sharazi.
He said that the word means to understand
something
subtle.
And here you're going to appreciate something that
we'll get to later on. Sometimes, the scholars
of
took the science of language even farther than
the than the linguistic scholars.
In their context, the context of law, the
context of.
Sometimes they uncover things that those other people
didn't uncover.
The last, and this is the definition you
need to pay attention to,
That is understanding anything, whether it's
the speaker, whether it's something subtle, whether it's
something clear.
And this is the
correct opinion.
It just say that it has the same
meaning whether to understand something great, small, doesn't
matter.
Whether use it in a form, a form,
as a.
We find in the Quran here that usage.
What's wrong with them? They don't understand,
you know, this very clear conversation that's being
communicated to them.
Also, they said, like, we don't understand a
lot of what you're saying.
But then here, when it talks about something
subtle,
like you don't understand
They're the of the creation. So here, these
are things that are easily understood.
Here's something that's difficult to understand, but in
all of them, the word
is used. So that's why Johari go into
the Quran. He says, you know,
Allah
bless you guys for this, but the word
means
Maybe the response of a razi or a
Shirazi, if they were alive, would be, no.
They're talking about specifically within the science.
But
it appears that they were saying it in
the context of language,
And this is where we stopped.
Well, not
almost.
Well, according to
The is for someone to know what is
for them or against them. His
definition is so nice, man. Because it centers
on responsibility.
Person knows what's against them or
or in favor of them.
However, find here
the others they say
is the knowledge
of Sharia
rulings
related to actions
which are achieved
in from its detailed evidences. And we went
through this last time. No need to go
through it again,
Khalas.
And you can go back and read it.
We talked about this definition, and we went
through
some of the subtleties of that definition. But
this is where we stopped, and this is
where we want to pick up. And then
we'll stop today
is the definition of as
a science.
Where are we now? We're talking about the,
those ten things needed to understand the subject.
We're at the first.
He he defined
as
a scientific definition.
Doesn't care about it being possessive. What does
each word mean? No. No. What does
we say?
Okay.
Was taught to us in the in the
college in El Azhar and also
is to generally know the evidence is
and how to benefit from those evidences. What
is
the conditions? What are the prerequisites
needed for a person who's going to be
a or
Mufti
or Faqid
and so on and so forth.
This definition he gave is not the definition
of the majority.
The definition of the majority
of the Malekis, the the
Hanbalis, and even the Hanafis is
He had to pay attention to this for
a sec.
The majority of the
they define
as
evidences and principles.
Used to arrive.
To extracting rulings.
Sharia rulings.
Al
Mustambata,
which are extracted
from al Adelatiha
at Taw Syria, from its detailed evidence.
If you pay attention, you notice something different.
But it always says,
but Arazi
and others
like Al Qarafi,
And others, they define
as
but as
Sheikh Zachary Al Ansari and also says
Imam Al Razi says,
It's a long discussion why some said,
because some people said means those things that
lead to,
but all of is not based on.
Yaqeen. Is also based on a guess, the
guess of the the guess of the scholar.
Right? The presumption of the scholar or the
adding.
So that's why Al Razi, he says
because
includes
We can talk about that in the future.
But
those scholars,
when they say
or
Because they're they're they're noting something very important,
brothers.
And that is that the
exists whether they're known or not.
One of my teachers used to say,
That,
foundations of
and its principles are the staff of a
blind person. Meaning, that blind person will use
that staff
for, like, in infinite usages. Meaning,
you're always going to discover always scholars are
going to undiscover
new
new principles, not new evidences,
but new axioms,
new ways to understand those evidences.
So
here, why? Because it's
it's not
is
not
is something that exist.
But when you say
now it became the definitions
of the science of.
Here you can appreciate
the the care of scholars of.
Why they would argue?
Maybe someone says, man, this is too much.
Why? Because they understood this to be a
a manna. They weren't lazy in their studies.
They weren't lazy in their studies.
A few weeks ago,
I was reading the
from I was reviewing it in my mind.
And one brother, he asked me, how did
you memorize it? I said, I spent a
lot of time with it. Hey. How do
you think I memorized it?
You think it just happened?
Yeah. You're just lazy, and you're gonna learn?
You don't work hard. You're gonna learn?
I remember one time I I stopped Sheikh.
He
was killed in the Arab Spring
in Egypt. He taught us
And I ran into him in the.
I was memorizing the at that time. I
hadn't finished it.
And I said to him, Sheikh,
what's the secret to memorize
alfiatim?
He looked at me like I was an
idiot.
What kind of question is this?
Most people want to dream,
but very few people want to work.
Even amongst the
very few people want to work.
Look at Sheikh Zechariah Al Ansari, Sheikh Islam,
who we just mentioned. He's buried next to
Imam al Shafi. You know, he went blind
from reading.
He went blind from
so
you have to work hard.
And look at these scholars. They understood hard
work, so they debated. They said, wait. Wait.
Wait. Wait. If you say,
that changes everything.
Had the. Like an also the fact who
was that?
Who
was Sheikh?
So here we see something amazing.
That until the end of time, the
meaning the axioms and the principles, not the
foundational evidence that's agreed upon. That's not gonna
change.
They will be continued to reveal, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala to those he chooses.
That's why Imam
Rahimullah,
there's a great statement. He says somebody can
read a verse, they took one lesson.
Somebody can read the same verse and take
1,000 lessons.
That one Allah gave.
So here,
Imam al Baydawi
is defining
as the science of Usulufir.
Imam al Razi, al Sarhasi,
those Malekis,
those Hanabira, those like
and,
Sheikh Zakir al Ansari,
they're defining
all as something that exist,
not as the knowledge of it.
So
When Al Qarafi and others say
They're def they're defining
as it is.
And that's why you have to be careful.
When you read books of,
you may get confused.
Man, this guy, he said this guy
says this guy says
this guy says
now you can appreciate what I just told
you
because they're coming from 2 different perspectives,
2 different thoughts, 2 different ways of thinking.
So the definition in front of us is
the definition as
as a term for studying that science,
not for the actual science.
So in reality, it's not really a big
difference
here. Each one of them has their own
context.
He took this definition from Taj Al Amuri,
who was a student of
Al
Razi
from his book, Al Masul.
Except there's a slight difference in the definition
of and,
Teljudeen, he says,
without aliphtham.
Here also,
this is a very important point
that will save you some trouble
in the future.
And that is Muhammed Mustafi.
He's talking about the.
But is the
from
The is not the evidences.
So why is it mentioned to you?
Why would it be mentioned to you?
I'm asking you guys.
Because because not everyone is a, so
one would have to
know who the is.
What do you mean by that?
So it's a a part of
is to
to.
Well,
Explain it more. Yeah.
So part of Be be confident in yourself,
man. Part of the
said it's
No. Because I'm thinking about it since you
you you pointed it out.
So part of the would be to know
who is and
who is not.
So he but is that
a?
He said what?
The for? The book, the sunnah,
consensus,
and analogy.
He didn't say the.
He didn't say the.
So Back of waste.
Don't be scared to share,
an answer
because, honey,
we're we're here as brothers. You know? And
it's important to be confident.
Yeah. I'm sure. I just I don't understand
really, like,
how did it most defeat? So it
so he's saying over here that
that that that's part of the the
the evidence for
pic.
No.
He's saying that's that's part of the what
makes up film. Yeah. And you don't forget
as well.
So he's saying
Like in what you said, I understand what
you mean because I didn't explain it correctly
to you. That's my fault.
Not your fault.
My question is,
is
from the from
Okay. Even
why why is it here?
Why would it be here? Like, why would
they add it
if it's not from the whole soul? That's
the question. That's how you wanna be constructive
and critical when you read.
This is mentioned
by many scholars,
but specifically by Imam Masuki, Tajudina
and. You know, after you
and he brought together
the of the Hanafis
and the in one book,
he was
deeply criticized for it.
So he wrote a book called
to respond to that criticism.
Okay?
And listen to what he says, bro.
He says,
What does that mean,
man?
What does that mean?
The discussions of each the ad are, like,
followers.
But think about it, like, not not literally.
Like, how would you explain it figuratively?
Like,
the the discussions of.
They their endpoint is the.
That the discussions of in Istihad, I'm gonna
read another statement of you also. K?
Hopefully, it will make it clear for you.
How do you understand that?
And and the translation would be like, it
it
it completes the objective of the?
Allahu Akbar. Man, good.
But just because something completes it doesn't mean
it's from it.
Okay.
Like your clothes, they complete you. But are
they you?
No.
So here, what Scott will say is that
the
addition of
into
is to help complete the entire
study of,
but it's actually not the evidence. It goes
back to the same discussion we had earlier.
And the is not an evident.
And this is where some students get confused.
When they study,
they think,
No.
Like
in You understand that?
Yes.
Let's hope so.
Then he says,
well,
everyone every scholar says this.
No no no scholar from
the
Sunnah says something different. Yeah. That's why we
say,
So you have, like, these 2 extremes. And
that's why I I have my,
problems with people quoting them and not saying
that they're not Sunni. Like, with respect.
Just say that they're not so people don't
get confused.
What are those evidence is a scholars differ
over in in the,
use for the
He says, so based on the definition of,
we escape three things. Number 1,
So anything that's not related to knowing the
is not
also like.
So know the evidences for different subject like
or.
It's not gonna fall under the definition.
Yeah.
Knowing some of the evidences also, it's not
gonna be when he said
So he brings his evidences, then he brings
an Acxiom or.
So we're gonna stop here because it's a
lot of information,
but you have to be patient.
Needs patience, and it needs
a lot of
like, you have to visit it. You have
to you can't just, like, take a class
and not study.
And you can't get frustrated. Oh, I don't
understand this.
If everybody gave up who didn't understand,
nobody will nobody will study.
Everybody has to encounter that frustration.
When they start, they feel frustrated. Man, this
is hard, man. Right? Yeah. It's hard. What
you thought? Like, what we thought. Sharia is
for dummies.
That's the problem, unfortunately, with our people. They
don't study in a way that's systematic and
organized and pushes them. So they think it's
yeah. You know? Everybody can study. Everybody can
know, and it's easy.
It's It's not. It's not easy.
So be patient, and I'm gonna help you
and and
we ask.
Are there any questions? You can type them
in the chat box or you can ask
them now. If not,
Sheikh, I was reading I was just going
through the book on my own, just like
the history of the same book.
Just,
like, the history of the
the the different schools of Medina and
of, and all of that.
Mhmm. Okay. So what's your question?
No. I'm like, yeah. That's that's fine, like,
to just, you know, on my own.
The book that we're doing now?
Yeah.
Yeah. Of course, man. You should read read
ahead.
Yeah. Yeah. Read ahead, Meadow.
Read ahead. And that's gonna help you also.
And then, also, what I used to do
is read ahead and then write down questions
I have.
You know? So that way, like, when I
go to the class, I have my questions
ready.
And I noticed when I
when I did that,
I learned better.
Yeah.
I'll I'll try doing that to writing questions.
And don't don't get frustrated, man.
Don't don't get frustrated because I'm pushing you.
I'm doing something else. I'm pushing you guys.
Look.
Because, you know, when you teach sometimes, you
wanna make sure that
You know? You just wanna make sure you're
doing right.
And this knowledge, it has to be preserved.
I can find
anyone
whenever I traveled to know someone about to
study.
17 years, man.
I could find someone to teach me
teach me
teach me language,
but I could not find people that can
teach.
It's very hard.
At that level where they're,
you know, they have that
ability to these books that you see here,
they know those books.
I can count them on my hand.
How many peep but now on YouTube,
you have a lot of great teachers in
Arabic, man.
And Urdu also.
A lot of amazing teachers.
But in my time, you know, there was
no YouTube, man. YouTube was for, like, comedy
and
stuff.
You said in Urdu in, in?
I'm sure.
I'm sure they're teaching.
You know your system better than me.
You, Sheikh, you mentioned,
mom Mamma Shashi's book,
not Ofudu Shashi. You mentioned, another book?
None.
It was,
or
was it Khamsin. Khamsin.
Khamsin. Okay.
It's printed. The one I have by.
Anna, you know, even though I'm Maliki,
I love the Hanafit
Musso names.
Like,
it's unbelievable.
I'll show you the print I have. It's
so good, man. Like, it's it's actually like
a as one of my teachers used to
say, if the notes at the bottom are
more than the book, usually, it means the
person did a good job. If they're like
you know, there's someone who's recognized as a
person of knowledge.
So this one, like, the the notes at
the bottom, because I'm not Hanafi. I'm not
trained in Hanafi.
Like, they're very helpful to me.
So I'll I'll I'll send you a picture
of it.
Okay.
Do you do you have any recommendations
for, like, reading on my own,
for?
Just focus on this book.
Okay.
Focus on this
book, and then I'm gonna send you 2
books that will give you the comparative Hanafi
also so you can stay up on your
own.