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in the name of Allah the beneficent the
most merciful I'd like to welcome you
dear viewers to our series studies in
Islam May Allah's peace and blessings be
on each and every one of
you we shift uh our program now into the
field of Islamic law or
F we completed a section from our
studies in AA and now we enter into
studies in F now in our previous episode
epodes in our studies in F we looked at
the foundations of Islamic law the Quran
the Sunnah imma or the consensus of the
companions of the Prophet may God's
peace and blessing be upon him
and the deduction of laws by way of
analogy then we looked at the different
rulings which are placed on various
practices issues ETC the five
uh rules uh which govern basically all
aspects of life we had at the top the um
W or F which is the obligatory followed
by the must the recommended also
referred to as the
Sunnah uh after that we have the muah or
the neutral
category then the makru the disliked
category and finally we have the Haram
The Forbidden category we had a general
division between Halal and
Haram everything which isn't Haram then
becomes Halal but among those things
which are Halal there are there are
different grades there's some Halal
things which are obligatory some Halal
things which are recommended some Halal
things which are disliked and others
which are just merely neutral so this is
where we got our basic framework of the
laws and we looked at the rulings or the
principles behind them how did scholars
arrive at these various categories so
that we would understand that it is not
something arbitrary that there isn't
some principle you know uh logical and
reasonable principle behind it that once
one has understood the principle then
it's possible for them to apply these
laws in a similar way or these deduced
laws in in a similar way now having
looked at the categories we need to
address a problem which exists in the
Muslim world today and uh something
which people who newly come into Islam
or look into Islam they find a bit
strange and that is the
madhabs or the schools of Islamic
law these mhbs are they different
religions
or
sects or are they one on the same thing
and just having some minor differences
in interpretation in
interpretation well the reality is that
the schools of law the M or the MS are
not different sects or different
religions though
people sometimes reduce them to that
because of the way in which they handle
them they become like different
religions
almost and this is a result of a
degenerative historical
process one who understands the origins
and the evolution of these schools of
law quickly understands that they're
really one and the
same one who doesn't who has inherited
them along with their other inherited
practices often times finds it difficult
to distinguish between uh their sect and
other sects to to understand why there
is a difference all they know is that we
do things differently from you all you
know so uh in this session we're going
to look something at the history of the
development of these schools what once
we have to keep in mind in the very
beginning is that in the time of prophet
Muhammad alai wasallam there was only
one School of
Law it was the school based on the
interpretation of prophet Muhammad
sallallah alaihi wasallam and of course
his school his way was the infallible
way with regards to the law uh he as a
human being did have his own mistakes
but with regards to the law the law the
application implementation instruction
uh prohibitions of the
law he was infallible Allah protected
him from any error otherwise what is the
benefit of him being a messenger of
Allah if he's going to be messing things
up if he's going to be doing his own
thing uh making mistakes left and right
and you know so those of us who come
after we have to go and sift through to
determine was he right here was he wrong
here was what he was doing correct was
it not correct now what would be the
point of having sent this messenger we
could have just had the Quran it would
have been
simpler the point is that the messenger
was sent to demonstrate for us how to
implement the law Allah protected him
from mistake and what few mistakes that
he did make Allah used them as points of
guidance for his followers and those
mistakes that he made they were not when
which were related to legal issues they
were not mistakes of choosing what was
forbidden over what was permissible but
of choosing what was good over what was
in fact
better what was good over what was in
fact better this is what we're dealing
with when we look at the quote unquote
mistakes of prophet Muhammad may God's
peace and blessing be upon him with
regards to the law so in his lifetime
there was only one School of
Law his companions followed them
followed him in whatever he instructed
them to
do now sometimes there arose among them
differences of of
understanding uh where the Prophet may
God's peace and blessed be upon him
would give
rulings if their if their issues of
correct and incorrect he would make that
ruling for example in one case where
Omar he heard another companion reciting
the Quran in a way which she had never
heard it before he never heard the Quran
recite it like that and he thought the
companion was making some gross errors
so he took him to the prophet may God's
peace and blessing be upon him and and
explain to the prophet may God's peace
and blessing be upon him that this
individual was making these gross errors
in the Quran so the prophet sallallah
alaihi wasallam instructed the man to
recite actually asked Omar to recite
first and then he asked the man to
recite after and he confirmed that both
were way ways in which he recited the
Quran meaning that the Quran was taught
by the prophet to his companions in
seven different ways one who hadn't
heard some of the other recitations
might find it a bit strange
however the reality is that in fact he
taught it in seven different ways seven
different readings so whichever one a
person follows there are all
legitimate now the differences may have
may arise or may have Arisen among the
companions over interpretational
differences where it comes into their
own realm where how do you understand
what the prophet Sall wasallam is
instructed here as in the case of uh the
after the battle of
khandak and uh the prophet was
instructed by Allah subhana wa tala the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was
instructed to go and punish a particular
tribe of Jews known as
Banu because they had sided with the
pagans and and offered them support
against the Muslims even though they had
a pact with the Muslims that they would
not side with the pagans against them
so after that treachery Allah instructed
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
to go and punish them now he set out
from Medina for
the S the uh the region where bani were
in camped they had a particular Fortress
in a particular area outside on the
outskirts of Medina so he sent an
advance
party uh and told
them do not pray except in the Fortress
or at the Fortress or near the Fortress
of
Buu so they set out and they set out
after
Asser
now no actually set out before
Asser on the way Asser came
in
and when they had reached a good portion
of the way the time for AER was nearing
to the end the time for M was coming in
the sun had started to go lower and
lower in the sky indicating that maybe
after not too long it was going to set
so at this point and they hadn't reached
the Fortress of Banu at this point the
sahabah stopped and to discuss this
point some said let us
pray and to set up and make the Salah
here now others said the prophet said we
pray there others said well yes the
prophet said that but he meant we should
hurry up and get
there others said we know he said pray
there and the discussion went back and
forth you know the others brought
evidence to say that well Allah in the
Quran
said that Salah is prescribed for the
Believers at set times so if it's
prescribed at the Bel for set times then
that's when we have to pray it he must
have meant hurry up and get there and so
on and so forth they what they ended up
doing is that the group that felt that
the prophet may God's peace and blessing
be upon Him meant hurry up they went on
ahead without praying whereas the others
who assume that what he meant here
sorry uh those who felt that what he
meant by pray the auor in ban was that
he meant to um literally to pray there
those are the ones who went ahead those
who thought that he meant hurry up they
uh decided to pray on the spot so they
prayed and later on joined the other
party at the Citadel of Banu now when
the prophet joined them later and they
see besieged the The Citadel and uh
defeated the inhabitants Etc after the
struggle then they asked the prophet
Muhammad wasallam about this what
happened among them and when he heard
what they had understood and what they
did he did not um reprove or or uh scold
either one of them he accepted both of
their
choices and this is of course in a
circumstance where a
person uh doesn't have supportive
evidence from the prophet Muhammad
wasallam clear supportive evidence to
confirm that the intended meaning was
this or it was that and now it's left up
to the individual to use his or her own
reasoning powers to make this decision
where this is this happens then the
capability of error is there
unintentional and as such Prophet
Muhammad may God's peace and blessing be
upon him had informed his companions
that if a ruler or a judge makes a
ruling based on his efforts to find what
the truth actually is you know good
efforts to find that and this is what is
referred to
as then if they are wrong they get one
reward and if they're right they get
double this is the principle a person
trying to find the
truth comes up on what he thinks or she
thinks is the truth and follows that
then Allah will reward them for having
tried to find the
truth he will reward them for it they
will not be
blamed however if they know what the
truth is but they're going to insist
well this could be understood in this
other way because they want to do
something else then of course that type
of
understanding is not acceptable to Allah
subhana wa ta'ala
so these were interpretational
differences there were also variational
differences where the Prophet Sall
wasallam did one or more things where he
did more than one a particular thing
more than one way then we have what is
called variational Differences meaning
for example in his prayer you know
sometimes he raised his hands to this
shoulder height sometimes he raised this
hands to air lobe height these are
variations he sat in different
ways
now those kind of differences we have to
accept that if the prophet may God's
peace and blessing be upon him did
things in more than one way then we have
the option to do them in whichever way
we
desire however those rulings which
become contradictory contradictory you
know where if you take one you cannot
take both you cannot accept both to
coexist because they're they're clashing
and conflicting with each other in this
case we're dealing with things which are
either right or wrong if we don't have
enough information we need to get more
information to clarify which one in fact
is actually right and which one is
actually
wrong so those are the natural
differences which would occur from those
days now after the time of prophet
Muhammad may God's peace and blessing be
upon him we had what are known as the
four righteous calips Abu Bakr Omar
Usman and Ali
and during each of their periods they
were the leading um you could say
reference point for understanding and
interpreting Islamic law now they used
to call on those around them to give
them information which would help them
in making their choices but the final
decision really was in their hand as to
what was intended here shall we accept
this or shall we not accept
it and uh we should note that after
their time so so you could say in during
their time there was really still only
one M the maab of Theif though people
might have had other differences Etc
which we said are natural differences or
uh differences of
interpretation so now if we go uh after
the time of the sahabah where the
righteous caliphate ends and we shift
now into monarchy and as time passes the
rulers of the umad dynasty they stray
farther and farther away from Islam and
they take on more and more of the tra
rappings of the non-muslim empires so at
that time Scholars found it um not very
pleasant to be in their company they
chose to move away from those areas
those centers of Islamic uh Rule and
shift to other centers where so you know
how it rising in different parts of the
umah centers of Islamic knowledge we had
Center of Islamic rule before now we
shifted to center of Islamic knowledge
so people would gravitate towards these
Scholars who would give their rulings
and help them in making decisions Etc so
in this way a variety of other schools
arose we had the aaii school besides the
well-known Shafi
hanafi uh Maliki and hamali these are
the four that we know now there was also
the
aai the Ley the thi
the ETC many other schools in existence
however after the fall of Bagdad in the
14th
century uh this issue of the different
schools uh became uh a major issue where
rulings were made about switching from
one school to another school and
everybody is required to follow a school
this is what uh took place place and uh
a certain rigidity grew in about each
school and people started to take
attitudes towards others some of them
stopped praying behind others they
wouldn't allow their daughters to marry
those from other schools and so on and
so forth it got from bad to worse
however all during this period there
were Scholars who spoke spoke out
against this trend they could see that
this is something harmful and they
advise people against it in fact the
very imams themselves the leaders of
these same schools they instructed their
followers not to blindly follow
them there are many statements from them
like the well-known statement from both
Abu and
IM if you find an authentic Hadith On
Any Given topics topic among the topics
that they spoke on the FI issues ETC if
you find an authentic Hadith on the
subject then that must be given preced
Ence over all else
enough enough you found the authentic
evidence you don't need to look at
opinions after that as a general
principle however if one's knowledge is
limited even though you might have have
found what you thought to be the
evidence you still now must rely on
Scholars who came before you those who
are more reliable than you who have a
better understanding because perhaps
you've got a misunderstanding of a
particular piece of evidence anyway as I
said there was a proliferation of
schools uh during the uh abased era
which followed the numbers began to
dwindle a number of the schools that
were well known before in the fir
earlier Generations were now
disappearing and uh they became reduced
to the four well-known schools that we
mentioned earlier the hanafi school the
Shafi School the h
school and the Maliki school
now if we consider that these schools
then were looked at as being one and
that really this rigidity and the
differences which occurred really don't
have a true basis in the teachings of
those imams themselves then where did
these come from well they came from
Scholars from among the schools who in
their rigid look at the schools they OB
they objected to and and uh rejected all
of the other opinions of the other
schools in general though some Scholars
would not take that such a rigid
position they would accept certain kind
of uh variations there
now the reality of these
schools is that they have become a part
of what we could call cultural Islam
so people use them as justifications for
virtually anything they're doing if they
do something wrong they say well that's
because I'm a Shafi they do something
right they say that's because I'm a
hanafi you know if it's wrong then it's
because uh if I do something wrong then
I mean according to the evidence but
it's not according to my school then I I
you know I defend it by saying I come
from this school you know this to the
way of my school since you don't belong
to my school that's why you have a
different
interpretation so we had to look at the
roots of these schools you know before
actually going in to look at the reasons
for the differences if we try to
understand the roots where did it come
from why did it come about you know how
can we resolve it how can we improve the
situation well with that dear viewers
we' like to thank you for being with us
in this segment of our program study in
Islam
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