Gifts of Knowledge

Previous post here. The Shaikh said in closing:

Conclusion

And so this is what I have deemed appropriate to record here from the statements of the people of knowledge to demonstrate the importance of this issue. It is, as you can see, an extremely serious matter since the majority of the Muslims today have preoccupied themselves with those opinions, leaving the texts of the Quraan and Sunnah behind them, abandoned.

And it is as if I can already hear someone saying, ‘The Muslims have not abandoned the Book of their Lord, nor have they neglected it. In fact, in recent times the broadcasting of the Noble Quraan has spread throughout the capitals of the Muslim world, and Quraan memorisation madrasahs have likewise spread throughout most cities. Indeed, the Islamic University of Madinah has even established a college dedicated to the Quraan and its various sciences. How, then, can it be said that the Muslims have abandoned the Quraan under such circumstances?!’

The answer is that what has been mentioned is indeed a reality, and it is a great and beneficial undertaking, inshā Allaah. However, this is not everything that the Muslims are required to do with regard to the Quraan. 

Rather, all that was mentioned is merely the means.

And one should not stop at the means before reaching the goal, because the purpose of broadcasting the Quraan, memorising it, and studying its sciences is to preserve it as the constitution of the Ummah, which must be upheld, just as it must be referred back to in every area of life.

It is not sufficient at all merely to memorise and broadcast it, without it being sought for judgment in anything. Rather, it must be the ruling authority in everything. Believing otherwise is a mistake or a fallacy, because failing to judge by the Quraan and judging by other than what Allaah has revealed is considered a form of disbelief in the Quraan and an abandonment of it.

The abandonment of the Quraan takes many forms and is of varying degrees.

Ibn al-Qayyim says, “Abandoning the Qur’an is of five types:

The first: abandoning listening to it, believing in it, and paying attention to it.

The second: abandoning acting upon it and abiding by what it declares lawful and unlawful, even if one reads and believes in it.

The third: abandoning referring to it for judgment and making it the basis of judgment in the fundamental and subsidiary matters of religion, and believing that it does not provide certain knowledge and that its evidences are merely verbal and do not yield knowledge.

The fourth: abandoning pondering over it, understanding it, and knowing what the One who spoke it intended.

The fifth: abandoning seeking healing and treatment through it for all the diseases and ailments of the heart, and instead seeking the cure for one’s illness from something else and abandoning treatment through it.

All of this falls under the Most High’s statement, “The Messenger has cried, ‘O my Lord! My people have indeed received this Quraan with neglect,’” [25:30] even though some forms of abandonment are lighter than others.”

This is what I mean when I speak about the Muslims abandoning the Book of their Lord and neglecting it. The words of Ibn al-Qayyim are clear and comprehensive and there is no doubt that the most dangerous form of abandoning the Quraan is abandoning its authority as a basis for judgment, replacing it with something else, and believing that it is unsuitable for resolving the problems of the modern age. This also includes the atheistic expressions uttered by some atheists today, which indicate a lack of faith in the Quraan and a failure to regard it as anything more than verses recited on certain occasions.

To confirm what I have mentioned, I shall quote what an Arab official holding the rank of ‘minister’ [wazīr] said about Islamic law when he was asked the following question, “What is the stance of the Baʿath Party regarding the logic which had the Islamic spirit running through it and which was presented by some conservative Arab states as their view of Arab problems today?! Does the party still maintain its secular perspective toward them?!”

That was the wording of the question.

The official answered, “We disagree with those who think that salvation from the predicaments in which the Arab ummah finds itself lies in Islam. As for those who work to revive Islamic movements and Quranic law, they hold an outlook that is incompatible with ours. We do not believe in these things, and we are certainly a secular party.” He continued, “And at this historical stage in which we are living, we believe we must find scientific and practical methods to implement more than religions.”

So this is what the leadership of the Islamic Ummah has come to in many countries. This makes it incumbent upon students of knowledge to devote themselves to studying the Quraan and Sunnah, so that they may equip themselves with the weapons of knowledge and understanding and thereby prepare themselves for leadership after completing their studies, with the aim of rectifying what has become corrupt in the affairs of this pitiful Ummah, which has fallen prey to atheistic communism that has begun to encircle it from every direction, seeking to corrupt its religion and distance it from its Islaam, its Quraan, and the Sunnah of its Prophet.

They must also aim to change the prevailing notion in many circles that studying the Quranic Sharīʾah does not qualify a person for leadership, reform, and solving the problems of the modern age, and that anyone who assumes leadership must necessarily have ‘Washingtonian’ thinking, be ‘Londonian’ in outlook, have ‘Parisian’ or ‘Roman’ morals, and finally possess ‘Moscowite’ or ‘Beijingese’ beliefs.

Students of religious knowledge must change this atheistic conception in order to show the people that someone who studies Islaam and the Quranic Sharīʾah is indeed fit for leadership. Rather, it should be a condition for anyone who assumes leadership of the Islamic Ummah that he be far removed from the aforementioned characteristics. He must believe in Allaah as his Lord and the only One worthy of worship, in Islaam as his religion and methodology, in the Quraan as his constitution and in Muhammad as his Messenger, leader, and example ﷺ. And he must possess insight and understanding of the religion, and have Muhammad-like character, conduct, and creed.

And with Allaah lies success.

If we study the Quraan and Sunnah with this determination, and Allaah sees that we are sincere and truthful in doing so, Allaah will grant us success and crown our efforts with success by His permission. For the entire affair belongs to Him: whatever He wills comes to pass, and whatever He does not will does not come to pass.

This type of study is a form of striving. So let Allaah see sincerity and truthfulness from you in your striving, “As for those who struggle in Our cause, We will surely guide them along Our Way. And Allaah is certainly with the good-doers.” [29:69]

What I ultimately wish to convey to you is that you should understand that the foremost objective of studying this curriculum taught at the Islamic University of Madinah is to produce genuine scholars for the world after they have completed their studies, so that they may contribute to the movement of building and reform and help establish an Islamic society, a society built on firm foundations derived from the study of the great religion of Islaam. These foundations are:

1. Being content and pleased with Allaah as the sole Lord and the One worthy of worship, He who alone possesses authority, judgement is His, the command is His and creation belongs to Him.

2. Being content with Islaam as one’s religion, methodology, and path to honour and dignity. It is Islaam that contains the solution to all contemporary problems, despite those who claim that it offers no solution to these problems and no way out of predicaments, “What a terrible claim that comes out of their mouths! They say nothing but lies.” [18:5]

3. Being content with the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ as the Messenger, exemplar, model, and leader of those mindful ˹of Allaah˺, and they are those who follow him.

4. Being content with the Noble Quraan as the constitution and methodology for a dignified life, a life of honour and nobility.

5. Being content with the Prophetic Sunnah as the second source of Islamic legislation, upon whose explanation the first depends in many of its texts and rulings.

The society which has this as its foundation is the Islamic society. Any society in whose structure one of these foundations is absent is a society of ignorance, whether it likes it or not.

And Allaah alone is the Guide and Allaah is the One who grants success.”

END.

May Allaah have mercy on Shaikh Muḥammad Amān al-Jāmī.

Previous post here.

Glorifying People’s Opinions Led to the Neglect of the Sunnah

If what drove the Rāfiḍah and those deceived by them to adopt that hostile stance was the hatred concealed within their corrupt souls toward the Companions of the Messenger ﷺ, their evil opinion of the Messenger ﷺ, their failure to truly believe in him, their belief that the angels are not infallible, and, finally, their failure to esteem the Lord of the Worlds as He deserves to be esteemed—if these were the things that drove them to such a position, then what, one may ask, drove some of these other people who are engaged in religious scholarship to adopt such harshness and turn away from the Sunnah, treating it as though they had no need of it?!

The answer which appears to me to be what drove these people to this was their excessive veneration and sanctification of the opinions of men and their regarding those opinions as a religion through which one worships the Lord of the Worlds. This extremism led to them harbouring poor assumptions about the texts of the Quraan and Sunnah. They claimed that these texts are read and listened to merely to attain blessing from their words, rather than for guidance by implementing the rulings contained in them!

It is certainly true that these are blessed texts. The Book of Allaah is a blessed Book, “And this is a blessed Book which We have sent down.” [6:155]

And if Muslims were to learn their Lord’s Book and their Prophet’s Sunnah and act upon them: making ḥalāl what they make ḥalāl, and forbidding what they make ḥarām, and applying their rulings to their public and private lives they would attain a blessing beyond their expectations, just as their predecessors attained it by truly believing in them. 

Indeed, if the Muslims today were to do this, their present life of ignorance would be transformed into a blessed Islamic life: a life of security and prosperity, a life of mercy, in which they would enjoy dignity, strength, protection, and honour. They would recover everything that had been taken from them, both material and non-material. Their unity would be restored, and they would attain victory and triumph. This is the blessing that one should expect from believing in the Book and the Sunnah.

As for the ‘blessing’ which assumes a house will receive abundant provision simply because the Noble Quraan or Ṣaḥīḥ Al-Bukhārī is read inside it, and that this house will be saved from fires, or from becoming overcome by an enemy, sudden snake bites, and other daily accidents, we say to them: the Quraan was not revealed for this purpose, nor was the Sunnah inspired to the Prophet ﷺ for this purpose. Not so fast, O people!

According to these people—the ‘barakah people [al-barakatiyyūn]’—the texts are detached from the public and private lives of Muslims, and the sources of rulings are the opinions of men, and it is these opinions that one goes back to. The followers of every school of thought [madhhab] must refer only to the opinions of the scholars of their madhhab if they want to know a certain ruling. They believe that the entire religion is what is found in those books, which are essentially collections of men’s opinions, their independent reasoning [ijtihād], personal preferences, and analogies [qiyās]. You might read some of these books which some of them consider to be ‘encyclopaedias’ from cover to cover and hardly come across a single ḥadīth or āyah quoted by the author to support a ruling.

I would not be exaggerating if I said that this fanaticism toward the madhhabs is what has prevented many Muslims from understanding the Sunnah as they should. It is also one of the causes of the Muslims’ division and fragmentation, and consequently one of the causes of their having fallen behind and of their enemies gaining power over them. For they have contradicted the Book of their Lord, which is their source of honour and strength, and which calls out to them, “… hold firmly together to the rope of Allaah and do not be divided.” [3:103] They reached a point where the one Ummah has become like people belonging to different religions, each party rejoicing in what it has.

This religious division, if we may call it that, has had a harmful effect on the social and political life of the Ummah. What our Ummah is experiencing today, this unprecedented fragmentation, this failure to stand firm before its enemies, these successive defeats, and its inability to establish an Islamic unity that can bring together its scattered parts—all of this is among the evil consequences of reprehensible fanaticism, which tears the Ummah apart. And Allaah is the One whose help is sought.

More than one of the great scholars of Islaam has discussed the harms of fanaticism towards a madhhab and how, because of it, many people have turned away from the Quraan and Sunnah, considering themselves independent of them by relying on opinions instead. For this discussion, I have selected a passage from the words of Imam Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, and I shall then, if Allaah wills, follow it with the words of his teacher, the Shaikh of Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allaah have mercy on them both.

Imam Ibn al-Qayyim said in one of his books, “When people turned away from judging by the Book and the Sunnah and referring disputes back to them, and believed that they were not sufficient for them, turning instead to opinions, qiyās, personal preference, and the sayings of shaikhs, corruption entered their natural disposition/innate nature [fiṭrah], darkness entered their hearts and confusion their understanding, and their intellects became diminished. These things became widespread among them and prevailed over them, such that the young were raised on it and the elders grew old with it, no longer seeing it as something reprehensible.

An entirely different state emerged, where innovations replaced the Sunnah, one’s nafs replaced intellect, desires replaced guidance, misguidance replaced guidance, wrong replaced right, ignorance replaced knowledge, showing off replaced sincerity, falsehood replaced truth, lying replaced honesty, flattery replaced sincere advice, and oppression replaced justice. So power and dominance came to belong to these things, and the people doing this were the ones who rose to prominence, whereas before, it had belonged to their exact opposites.”

He then said, may Allaah have mercy on him, “If you see the State [dawlah] of these people approaching, you see it has become established and its armies mounted—then the belly of the earth, by Allaah, is better than its surface, the peaks of mountains are better than the plains, and mixing with wild beasts is safer than mixing with people.”

Then, advising those caught up in this, he said, “Buy yourself today, for the market is open, the means are available, and goods are cheap. A day will come upon that market and those goods when you will not be able to obtain a little or a lot, that will be the Day of mutual loss and gain [yawmut-Taghābun], “And ˹beware of˺ the Day the wrongdoer will bite his nails ˹in regret˺ and say, ‘Oh! I wish I had followed the Way along with the Messenger!’” [25:27]

He further added, “The one who acts without sincerity or by emulating [the Prophet ﷺ] is like a traveler who fills his pouch with sand, it weighs him down and does not benefit him.”

Then, describing the fanatical blind-followers, he said, “Most of what they have is mere talk, opinions, and guesswork. Knowledge lies beyond mere talk, as Hammād bin Zaid said, ‘I asked Ayyūb, ‘Is knowledge greater today or in the past?’ He replied, ‘Talk is greater today, but knowledge was greater in the past.’’ So this firmly grounded scholar distinguished between knowledge and talk. 

Books are extremely numerous, talk, debate, and intellectual exercises are abundant, yet true knowledge is not a part of most of it—[true] knowledge is what the Messenger brought from Allaah. Allaah, the Most High, said, ‘Now, whoever disputes with you ˹O Prophet˺ concerning Jesus after full knowledge has come to you,’ [3:61] and He said, ‘And if you were to follow their desires after ˹all˺ the knowledge that has come to you,’ [2:145] and He said in the Quraan, ‘He has sent it down with His knowledge,’ [4:166] meaning from His knowledge.”

The Imām continued his words, saying, “Then when people became distant from this knowledge, the situation devolved for many to the point where they took their inner thoughts, passing reflections, and opinions as knowledge. They wrote books about them, expending efforts on them, and wasted time on them.

They filled pages with ink and hearts with blackness.

Such that it reached the point where many of them explicitly declared that there is no knowledge in the Quraan and Sunnah, and that their evidences are merely verbal or linguistic and do not yield certainty or knowledge!

And the Devil screamed out this statement among them and announced it in their midst until those near and far heard it. And thus hearts were stripped of knowledge and faith, just as a snake sheds its skin, or a person takes off his garment.”

He went on to say, “One of the leaders of these people told me, ‘We only listen to ḥadīth for the sake of blessing. We do not derive knowledge from it, because others have already spared us this effort. Our reliance is on what they understood and decided.’ There is no doubt that anyone whose level of knowledge is like this is just as the poet said: 

‘They camped in Makkah among the tribes of Hāshim,
while I camped in Al-Baṭḥā in the furthest dwelling.’” 

[Trans. Note: namely, the Companions and whoever follows them etc., settled in the heart of Makkah, among the Banū Hāshim while the misguided went far away and settled in a place called Al-Baṭḥā, worlds apart.]

The Shaikh of Islaam, Ibn Taymiyyah, Allaah have mercy on him, said in describing these people, “They circled the doors of the Madhhabs and came away with the most worthless of objectives. Sufficient proof for you [to be able to recognise] that what they possess is not from Allaah are the contradictions, the differences, and how it all clashes among itself. The Most High said, ‘Do they not then reflect on the Quraan? Had it been from anyone other than Allaah, they would have certainly found in it many inconsistencies.’ [4:82] This shows that what is from Him, Exalted is He, does not contradict itself, and that whatever does differ and contradict itself is not from Him.

How can opinions, things imagined, and passing thoughts become a religion that is practiced and used to pass judgment on Allaah and His Messenger ﷺ—Glory be to You ˹O Lord˺! This is a heinous slander!

The knowledge that the Companions used to discuss among themselves was completely different from the sciences of these backward liars, as Al-Ḥākim narrated in the biography of Abu Abdullah Al-Bukhārī, ‘When the Companions of the Messenger of Allaah ﷺ gathered, they would only discuss the Book of their Lord and the Sunnah of their Prophet. There was no opinion [raʾy] or analogy [qiyās] between them.’” End of Ibn Taymiyyah’s words.

This does not mean rejecting analogy entirely, for things like causal analogy (Qiyāsul-ʿIllah) are indispensable, and the discussion on this is well-known in its proper place.

See previous post here.

Who Are the Enemies of the Sunnah?!

Despite all that has been mentioned, and all that has not been mentioned, of the definitive proofs found in clear Quranic verses, authentic hadiths, and reports from the Companions and those who came after them among the scholars, despite all these proofs that cry out with the loudest voice that the Sunnah is the counterpart of the Book, that the Sunnah is the wisdom mentioned in the Quraan in numerous verses, and that it is from the revelation of Allaah, and that our religion is derived from the Book and the Sunnah together, not from the Book alone—despite all of this, the Sunnah has not been spared the attacks of ignorant pretenders to religious knowledge, nor the hostility of extremist Rāfiḍah and heretics.

The Rāfiḍah claimed that it was obligatory to dispense with the Sunnah and rely on the Quraan alone in matters of the fundamentals and branches of religion and in the rulings of Islamic law, because, according to their claim, the ḥadīths were transmitted by a people who were disbelievers. This was because they believed that prophethood was actually intended for ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, Allaah be pleased with him, but that Jibrīl, alaihis-salām, made a mistake and brought it down to Muhammad ﷺ instead of ʿAlī.

This claim means that the matter of revelation was in a state of disorder and did not proceed according to the precise planning of an All-Wise Lord, exalted is He. Rather, that the angel of revelation, Jibrīl, was stumbling in his task, and that he was not infallible. Exalted is Allaah far above such a notion!

Among them are some who acknowledge the prophethood of the Prophet ﷺ but say that the caliphate rightfully belonged to ʿAlī, Allaah be pleased with him. When the Companions transferred it to Abū Bakr, according to them they thereby became disbelievers, because they had, again according to them, acted unjustly and wrongfully by transferring the rightful claim away from its rightful possessor. On this basis, they rejected all ḥadīths, because in their view and according to their claim, they were transmitted by a people who were disbelievers, as mentioned above.

This principle, both baseless and disbelief-ridden at the same time, is their foundation for rejecting the ḥadīths of the Messenger of Allaah ﷺ.

Recently, the later followers of these groups have called themselves ‘Quranists’ [Al-Qurʾāniyyūn]—meaning those who act upon the Quraan and do away with the Sunnah. This is the interpretation of the word ‘Quranists’ according to their own desires. However, the interpretation that matches their reality is that they are opponents of the Quraan and followers of desires. This is similar to applying the term Qadariyyah to those who actually deny divine decree [while thinking they believe it]. In reality, they are contradicting the Quraan and rebelling against it, just as they rebelled against the Sunnah. This is because the Quraan calls people to adopt the Sunnah, both in its commands and prohibitions, as Allaah the Almighty says “Whatever the Messenger gives you, take it. And whatever he forbids you from, leave it.” [5:97]

Belief in the Quraan is incomplete without sincere belief in the one to whom it was revealed, and believing in him means affirming his reports and following his commands and prohibitions ﷺ.

Imam as-Suyūṭī mentioned this principle of theirs in his valuable treatise Miftāḥul-Jannah fīl-Iḥtijāj bis-Sunnah, and then expressing his disapproval and abhorrence of it, he said, “I would not have considered it permissible to [even] relate it were it not for the necessity of having to explaining the basis of this corrupt doctrine, which people had been free of for ages …” until he said, “People holding this view were present in large numbers during the time of the four [Imāms], and the Imāms and their students undertook to refute them in their lessons, debates, and writings.”

He then cited a great deal of passages from their statements and we have already quoted enough from the words of the scholars, from the Companions and those who came after them, to make clear the position of Ahlus-Sunnah toward the ḥadīths of the Messenger of Allaah ﷺ and how that inherently includes the falsification of the words of the people of innovation and those who follow their desires. Whoever wants more should consult the aforementioned treatise, as well as the well-known treatise of Imām ash-Shāfiʿī that preceded it, along with other reliable references on this subject.

If we were to review the chapters of fiqh that organise people’s daily lives and livelihoods, such as the chapters on sales, which we passed over quickly by mentioning a few examples, [or we were to review fiqh issues such as] bankruptcy, boycotting, reconciliation, transfer of debt, guarantees, partnerships, people acting as agents on [behalf of others], the right of pre-emption, loans, sharecropping, leasing, gifting, borrowing, and other chapters of fiqh—if we were to review the Prophetic sunnah upon which these chapters and issues are built, we would find that it is the Sunnah that organises people’s daily lives, because all the fiqh issues that people deal with in their daily lives and which they recourse to in their courts are based on both the Book and the Sunnah together.

No ruling or judgment is valid without a basis from them.

As for the Book, then most of the rulings mentioned in it regarding the aforementioned chapters are mentioned in general terms, and the Sunnah then mentioned them in detail. Furthermore, most of those rulings may not even have a text in the Book, but rather the Sunnah alone addressed them, as we clarified previously.

So how can anyone, after all this, claim that the Sunnah can be done away with?!

The claim that the Sunnah can be dispensed with is, in reality, an attempt to dispense with Islaam through a twisted and indirect manner. This is confirmed by what we mentioned earlier, that the origin of this attempt lies with the heretics [zanādiqah] and extremist Rāfiḍah, who explicitly declared the Companions to be disbelievers—[the Companions who are] the pillars of this religion and are the ones who the Quraan mentions and praises from among the Muhājirūn and Anṣār.

To declare these masters to be disbelievers essentially means to accuse Allaah of falsehood in His statement where He said that He was pleased with them and they were pleased with Him, and that they followed His unlettered Prophet at a time of hardship. It also entails rejecting the report of the Messenger ﷺ concerning his praise of them and his testimony that a large group of them are among the people of Paradise.

Whoever dares to undertake such an act and reaches such a level must reconsider Islam anew, because by this action of his he has severed his relationship with Islaam which considers such an act to be apostasy from Islam.

And Allaah alone is the One whose help is sought.

These heretics [zindīqs] attempted, if they could, to eradicate or eliminate the Sunnah from existence and destroy it, or at least reduce its existence to a mere formality devoid of value, except that they were unable to harm it in the slightest. Instead, it was they who ended up as losers and defeated.

Their example is like that of someone who tries to uproot Mount Uḥud. He hovers around it and walks at its base, carrying away its stones one by one, imagining that by doing so he will eventually be able to uproot the mountain and remove it from its place.

Or like someone who repeatedly scoops water from the sea with his hand or with a bucket, attempting thereby to empty the sea or diminish it. There is no doubt that this poor man’s time will eventually come to an end and his appointed term will arrive, while the mountain remains a mountain and the sea remains a sea.

In fact, the sea will remain firmly in its place. Divers who are experts in this field will plunge into its depths and bring pearls and precious gems of beneficial scholarly matters to the people. Likewise, the mountain will remain firm and towering. Those with expertise will climb it and move among its ravines, discovering what may be hidden from others within those various passes, paths traversed only by specialists, emerging with subtle and precise matters that others fail to perceive. For every field has its men.

This, then, is the end result of the attempt of the Rāfiḍah and those who resemble them and follow in their footsteps.

And based on the aforementioned disbelief-ridden principle [i.e., doing away with the Sunnah], those who rejected the reports of the Messenger ﷺ wanted to find something upon which they could rely on in arguing against their opponents from Ahlus-Sunnah. So they began searching for reports and ḥadīths that might, directly or indirectly, support their position.

During their search, they came across a false statement, one as false as their doctrine itself, which says, “Whatever comes to you from me, then present it to the Book. Whatever agrees with it, I said it and whatever contradicts it, I did not.”

They flew with it, rejoicing. But they could not escape from the hands of the guards of the Sunnah by using this ḥadīth and nor did those watchful eyes, guarding the Sunnah, sleep on them. Instead, they found that ḥadīth of theirs and declared it to be among their falsehoods and fabrications until the people recognised that. 

They recorded it in their books, subjected it to their own critical examination, refuted it, discredited it, and stripped it bare until its true nature was exposed. And so all Praise and Thanks belong to Allaah.

In his valuable treatise, Miftāḥul-Jannah, as-Suyūṭī said, “Then al-Bayhaqī said: ‘A Chapter on Explaining the Falsity of What Some of Those who Reject the Sunnah use as Evidence, Namely Reports Narrated by Some Weak Narrators Concerning Judging the Sunnah by the Quraan.’ Ash-Shāfiʿī, Allaah have mercy on him, said, ‘One of those who rejected reports, used as evidence against me what has been narrated from the Prophet ﷺ that he said, “Whatever comes to you from me, then present it to the Book. Whatever agrees with it, I said it and whatever contradicts it, I did not.”

I said to him: No one whose ḥadīths are established has narrated this, whether in something minor or major. In fact, it is a disconnected [munqaṭīʾ] narration from an unknown [majhūl] man, and we do not accept such narrations for anything.’”

Al-Bayhaqī said, “Imām ash-Shāfiʿī was referring to what Khālid ibn Abī Karīmah narrated from Abū Jaʿfar, from the Prophet ﷺ, that he summoned the Jews and questioned them. They spoke to him until they lied about ʿĪsā, alaihis-salām. So the Prophet ﷺ ascended the minbar and addressed the people, saying, ‘Reports will become widespread from me. So whatever comes to you that agrees with the Quraan is from me, and whatever comes to you that contradicts the Quraan is not from me.’” Al-Bayhaqī said, “Khālid is unknown, and Abū Jaʿfar was not a Companion, so the ḥadīth is disconnected. Ash-Shāfiʿī said, ‘A ḥadīth does not contradict the Quraan. But the ḥadīths of the Messenger of Allaah ﷺ explain what is intended by it, whether things in particular or something general, the abrogating or the abrogated. People are obligated to follow what he established as Sunnah by the command of Allaah. So whoever accepts something from the Messenger of Allaah ﷺ has accepted it from Allaah.’”

Then as-Suyūṭī mentioned the remainder of al-Bayhaqī’s discussion concerning this ḥadīth. And Allaah knows best.

The previous post can be found here.

Zakāh

The command for Zakāh was mentioned in the Noble Quraan in general terms, without providing details, just as was the case with the prayer. The Most High, says, “Establish the prayer and give the zakāh,” and, “and pay the dues at harvest.” [6:141]

The Sunnah therefore undertook to explain the types of wealth upon which zakāh is due, to specify the minimum thresholds [niṣāb], and to determine the amount taken from each niṣāb, along with all the other comprehensive details pertaining to this great pillar.

The Sunnah also explained a type of zakāh known as Zakātul-Fiṭr, or Ṣadaqatul-Fiṭr, which is given to those entitled to it at the end of Ramaḍān. It consists of one ṣāʿ of dates, or one ṣāʿ of barley or food, or one ṣāʿ of iqiṭ (dried curd), and so forth.

Fasting

The Noble Quraan addresses this pillar with a certain degree of detail in the Most High’s statement, “O believers! Fasting is prescribed for you, as it was for those before you, so perhaps you will become mindful ˹of Allaah˺. Fast a˺ prescribed number of days. But whoever of you is ill or on a journey, then ˹let them fast˺ an equal number of days ˹after Ramaḍān˺,” [2:183-184] Then He says, “˹You may˺ eat and drink until you see the light of dawn breaking the darkness of night, then complete the fast until nightfall. Do not be intimate with your spouses while you are meditating in the mosques. These are the limits set by Allaah, so do not exceed them. This is how Allaah makes His revelations clear to people, so they may become mindful ˹of Him˺.” [2:187]

After this Quranic detail that you have heard, there still remain rulings that came through the Sunnah and which the Sunnah alone established!

Among them the ruling regarding one who has sexual relations with his wife during the day in Ramaḍān while fasting, what is incumbent on him to do? Also, one who eats or drinks forgetfully during the day of Ramaḍān, what should he do? And the ruling on someone who does not abandon falsehood and acting upon it while fasting, what is the magnitude of his sin and transgression? Is his fast valid or void?

The Sunnah clarified the expiation (kaffārah) for the one who has marital relations with his wife in Ramaḍān. It also clarified that the one who eats or drinks forgetfully in Ramaḍān must complete his fast [i.e., his fast is not broken], for it is Allaah who fed him and gave him drink, as an act of charity that does not harm his fast! The Sunnah also warns the one who does not abandon false speech and acting upon it, declaring that Allaah has no need for him to leave his food and drink. A considerable group of scholars have stated that lying and similar actions invalidate the fast based on the apparent meaning of the referenced hadith, which is agreed upon as authentic, even though the majority of scholars disagreed with them. The details of this are known in their respective places in the books of fiqh.

All we wish to say here is that the Sunnah contributed to explaining rulings even in this topic that the Quraan detailed so thoroughly. This is clarified by the Prophet’s ﷺ  saying, “I was given the Quraan and something similar to it along with it,” which is the purified Sunnah, and his saying, “Indeed, what the Messenger of Allaah has forbidden is just like what Allaah has forbidden, and what the Messenger of Allaah has permitted is just like what Allaah has permitted,” or as he  said ﷺ.

Ḥajj

If we leave the subject of fasting and move on to Ḥajj, we find that the Noble Quraan declares the obligation of Ḥajj in the words of the Most High, “Pilgrimage to this House is an obligation by Allaah upon whoever is able among the people.” [3:97] This is the verse in which the obligation of Ḥajj was revealed, according to the correct position among the scholars.

And the Quraan was not content merely with announcing the obligation of Ḥajj, rather, it mentioned several rulings pertaining to Ḥajj in Sūrah al-Baqarah, such as departing from ʿArafah, remembering Allaah at al-Mashʿaril-Ḥarām, the ruling concerning someone who hastens to depart after two days and one who remains until the third day, ṭawāf of the Ancient House, and other matters.

The Sunnah then undertook to explain the remaining rulings that are not mentioned in the Quraan, and these are exceedingly numerous and are found in authentic ḥadīths. Foremost among them is the well-known ḥadīth of Jābir ibn ʿAbdullāh, familiar to students of knowledge. This ḥadīth clearly describes the manner in which the Prophet ﷺ performed Hajj. Many scholars have composed treatises and writings on the rites of Ḥajj in light of this ḥadīth [it being so major a ḥadīth], after supplementing it with other ḥadīth that contain essential rulings. This is one of those areas in which the Sunnah has provided extensive explanation and clarification, both through the Prophet’s words and through his actions, as is well known to students of knowledge.

So it is through the Sunnah that we learned how to enter into iḥrām and what becomes prohibited for us by entering into it. Through it, we learned how to perform ṭawāf, how to do saʿī, where we begin it and where we end. We learned where to stand on the Day of ʿArafah, and how and when to perform the various rites of Ḥajj, and so on.

I do not know how the ‘people of whims’ [hawāʾīyūn]—who have called themselves the ‘Quraanists’ [Quraaniyūn]—perform Hajj!?

How far astray they are! How far removed they are from what is correct! We will discuss them later, if Allaah so wills.

Sales and Transactions

The Sunnahs that were transmitted to explain the general rulings in the Quraan, or which independently established rulings not mentioned in the Qur’an, are not limited to the chapters dealing with acts of worship alone. Rather, the Sunnah has its well-known role throughout all areas of fiqh, including transactions, criminal law, and prescribed punishments.

In the matter of sales, we find the noble aayah saying, “Allaah has permitted trade and forbidden usury,” and when we refer to the authentic Sunnah we find the types of sales that are prohibited by it [which are not mentioned in the Quraan]:

1. Selling over the sale of one’s brother and outbidding the bid of one’s Muslim brother.

2. Najash [artificially inflating prices by bidding without the intention to buy].

3. The Mulāmasah sale [where simply touching a garment finalises its sale without inspection].

4. The Munābadhah sale [where throwing the goods to the buyer finalizes the sale]. [Narrated Abu Saʿīd, “Allaah’s Messenger ﷺ forbade the selling by Munābadha, i.e., to sell one’s garment by casting it to the buyer not allowing him to examine or see it. Similarly he forbade the selling by Mulāmasa. Mulāmasa is to buy a garment, for example, by merely touching it, not looking at it. [Muslim]]

5. The Ḥaṣāh sale [a sale determined by the throwing of a pebble, in Bukhari, “And the meaning of the Ḥaṣāh sale is when the seller says to the buyer, ‘When I toss the pebble at you, then the sale between you and I is final.’ This resembles the sale of Munābadhah and this is one of the selling practices of the people of Jāhiliyyah.”]

6. The Muzābanah sale [exchanging fresh fruit on the tree for dry fruit of the same kind], as in the ḥadīth of Anas found in Al-Bukhārī.

7. The ruling on selling a Muṣarrāh sheep [a sheep left unmilked for days to deceive the buyer into thinking it produces abundant milk] and its consequences.

8. Intercepting riders [meeting traders on their way to the market to buy their goods cheaply before they know the market price].

9. A town dweller selling on behalf of a desert dweller acting as a broker to keep prices high for locals.

There are many others well-known in their respective places in the books of Sunnah and Fiqh, such as sales involving Gharar (uncertainty/deceit) and ignorance regarding the item, all of which are prohibited by the Sunnah. The Sunnah also contains many other rulings in this area, such as khiyāral-majlis [the option of cancelling the sale while the contracting parties remain in the same session], khiyārash-sharṭ [the contractual option stipulated by the parties], and other rulings.

The Prescribed Punishments [Ḥudūd]

As for these areas, one may speak without reservation or constraint about Sunnahs that established rulings independently before those rulings were even mentioned in the Quraan. Let us take just one example which will suffice: the prescribed punishment for theft.

The Most High says in explanation of this punishment in His Noble Book, “As for male and female thieves, cut off their hands for what they have done—a deterrent from Allaah. And Allaah is Almighty, All-Wise.” [5:38]

In order to carry out this punishment which we have been commanded to implement, we need to know two things:

(a) What is the amount that, if taken by the thief, makes his hand liable to be cut off? In other words, what is the niṣāb [minimum threshold] for theft? The Sunnah clarified this, as the Noble Messenger ﷺ said, “There is no cutting off [of the hand] except for a quarter of a dīnār or more.”

(b) What part of the hand is meant here? Is it to be cut from the shoulder? From the elbow? Or from the wrist joint? It is the practical Sunnah that answers these questions, as they would cut the hand at the wrist joint.

Furthermore, if we were to enumerate all the rulings that are stated in general terms in the Quraan and explained by the Sunnah, or the rulings that were established independently by the Sunnah across all the various areas of Islamic jurisprudence, we would need an entire volume to do so. So let us suffice with this brief indication, which is enough to demonstrate the status and position of the Sunnah in Islamic legislation which is what we intended.

And Allaah is the One who grants success.

After this brief introduction, we delve into the core of the subject, seeking help from Allaah Alone, so I say:

[The word] al-Manzilah means position and rank, and what is meant by it here is the rank that the Prophetic Sunnah occupies in the field of legislation [tashrī], as you cannot do without it in any way whatsoever, it is either independent [i.e., a Sunnah standing on its own] or it explains and clarifies the Quraan. Since lots of the aayahs that have rulings have to be referred to the Sunnah so that it may explain the ambiguous, restrict the absolute, and specify the general, among other purposes fulfilled by the Sunnah and the role it plays.

The Sunnah in the linguistic sense

Linguistically the Sunnah means a way or method, whether that way be praiseworthy or blameworthy. This meaning is attested to by the hadith of Jarīr ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Bajalī, “Whoever establishes a good sunnah will have its reward and the reward of those who act upon it until the Day of Resurrection. And whoever establishes a bad sunnah will bear its sin and the sin of those who act upon it until the Day of Resurrection,” reported by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ.

The meaning of the hadith is that whoever introduces a good practice will have its reward as well as the reward of everyone who follows his example and does likewise, because he has opened the door to goodness and directed others toward it through his actions. The same applies to a bad sunnah: whoever introduces a bad practice and is followed by others will bear its sin, as well as the sin of everyone who follows his example thereafter, because he has opened the door to evil and called others to evil through his actions and initiative.

And the scholars of language say, “The Sunnah [linguistically] is the way or course of life [sīrah], whether good or bad.”

Previous post here.

To proceed:

So you see that Imaam Ibn al-Qayyim, rahimahullaah, makes the absolute following of the Messenger ﷺ the path [leading] to the true reality of faith, and there is nothing strange about that, rather, it is entirely logical as you will see. [For] if you claimed that you loved and appreciated a certain scholar, and that you had the utmost appreciation and respect for him, yet at the same time you did not value his words and paid no attention to them, it would be entirely natural for someone to confront you, and say, “Why do I see you claiming to love that scholar, even claiming absolute devotion to him, yet you do not give the slightest attention to his words or speech and his knowledge?” This is a question that reason and logic necessarily demand [be answered]. And I do not know what your answer could be!

Would you say in response, “In reality, I do not harbour any love for him. It is merely a claim I have made because of certain circumstances, and I do not mean anything more than that by love?” Or would you say, “I truly do love and esteem him, but my desires and Satan … but my friends … but the hardness that has afflicted my heart, all of this has prevented me from paying attention to his words, benefiting from his statements, and taking him as an example?”

You must give one of these two answers. So which one will you put forward and choose? And whichever you do choose, the sweeter of the two answers is still bitter [i.e., both answers are bad]. And Allaah is the One whose help is sought.

And this scenario applied to the Messenger ﷺ and his Sunnah is even greater and more serious. And how could it not be? We only came to know Allaah, believe in Him, and worship Him Alone through the call that he ﷺ conveyed to us within the Sunnah that was transmitted to us by the trustworthy scholars of the Muslims, from among the Companions and those who came after them, those whom Allaah appointed for this task and honoured by allowing them to serve it. It was through the Sunnah that they explained the Quraan and interpreted it and in its light that they established the rulings of the Sharīʿah one by one, formulated its principles, and laid down its governing rules, to which we refer back whenever a new matter arises, an incident occurs, or circumstances develop.

Anyone who claims to believe in Allaah and His Messenger ﷺ and then has the audacity to deny the Sunnah of the Messenger ﷺ or to deny its authority, or to deny that it yields certain [unequivocal] knowledge—then he is blatantly contradicting himself, is severely confused in his speech and floundering blindly in his conduct.

Let him read, if he so wishes, the saying of al-Hasan al-Basri, rahimahullah, “Eemaan is not [attained] by mere wishing or by outward adornment, but rather it is what becomes firmly settled in the heart and is verified by action.” And no deed is accepted without conforming to the Sunnah, “Whoever performs a deed not in accordance with our way then it will be rejected.” [Muslim]

And the true reality of things will become clear on the Day when secrets will be laid bare, and Allaah is the One whose help is sought.

سَوْفَ تَرَى إِذَا انْجَلِي الغُبَارُ … أَفَرَسٌ تَحْتَكَ أَمْ حِمَارُ
“You will see, when the dust clears, whether there is a horse beneath you or a donkey.”

[A proverb used for someone who rushes matters, disregards advice, and stubbornly insists on having their own way. It points out to them that the outcome of their action and the reality of their stance will become fully apparent once the ambiguity clears and the results are unveiled. Only then will they know whether they were in the right, a noble horseman, or in the wrong and ignorant, a donkey.]