Tormenting Ownself, Victory through Patience, Ijtihad
Issue 311 » January 28, 2005 - Zul-Hijja 17, 1425
General
| Living the Quran |
Al-Maidah
(The Table)
The Prophet (peace be upon him) discouraged people from being over-inquisitive and unnecessarily curious about every question. We find in the Hadith the following saying from the Prophet: 'The worst criminal among the Muslims is the one who inquired about something which had not been made unlawful, and then it was declared so, because of his inquiry.' [Bukhari] According to another tradition the Prophet said: 'God has imposed upon you certain obligations, do not neglect them; He has imposed certain prohibitions, do not violate them; He has imposed certain limits, do not even approach them; and He has remained silent about certain matters - and has not done so out of forgetfulness - do not pursue them.' [Ali b. Umar al-Dara Qutni] In matters where the Law-giver has chosen to lay down certain injunctions only broadly, without any elaborate details, or quantitative specifications, He has done so not because of neglect or forgetfulness. Such seeming omissions are deliberate, and the reason thereof is that He does not desire to place limitations upon people, but prefers to allow them latitude and ease in following His commandments. Now there are some people who make unnecessary inquiries, cause elaborately prescribed, inflexibly determined and restrictive regulations to be added to the Law. Some others, in cases where such details are in no way deductible from the text, resort to analogical reasoning, thereby turning a broad general rule into an elaborate law full of restrictive details, and an unspecified into a specified rule. Both sorts of people put Muslims in great danger. For, in the area of belief, the more detailed the doctrines to which people are required to subscribe, the more problematic it becomes to do so. Likewise, in legal matters, the greater the restriction, the greater the likelihood of violation. Source: |
| Understanding the Prophet's Life |
| Victory comes with perseverance Perseverance or patience is one of the most important characteristics one can possess for the path to victory and success. If someone is faced with a challenge, he has two choices: he can surrender and give up in the face of the challenge or he can persevere and be patient to overcome the obstacles in his way, by the help of Allah. There are different "types" of patience that a person needs to be completely successful. These include the following:
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| Cool Concepts |
Ijtihad: Between the Absoluteness of Sources and the Relativity of History On the eve of Muadh ibn Jabal's departure to the Yemen to assume the office of Judge the Prophet (peace be upon him) asked him: "According to what are you going to judge?" "According to the Book of Allah", answered Muadh. "And if you don't find the ruling therein." "According to the tradition (Sunna) of the Prophet of God." "And if you don't find the ruling therein." "Then I will exert my effort to formulate my own ruling." Upon hearing Muadh's answer, the Prophet concluded: "Praise be to Allah Who has guided the messenger of the Prophet to what is acceptable to the Prophet." Islamic law, which is so much talked about today, is in the first place all the general rules stipulated by the Quran and the Sunna. Within a short space of time, as many complex issues and challenges emerged, jurists developed a method and established principles of research in the subject of law. Just as in the example of Muadh, they put "all their energies into formulating their own rulings". This duty of reflection is known in Islamic law by the name of ijtihad, an Arabic term whose literal meaning is "exerting all one's energy", "making an effort". In the absence of textual references, it is for the jurist to rationally harness a regulation in tune with the time and place but one which does not betray the teachings and spirit of the two fundamental sources. In other words, the answers were adapted to the context. They were themselves, by the force of things, diverse and plural but always "Islamic" when they did not contradict those general principles which are unanimously accepted. Jurists ought to respond to the questions of their time by taking into account the social, economic, and political realities then pertaining. Just as did Imam al-Shafii when he modified the content of his jurisprudence (fiqh), following a journey which led him from Baghdad to Cairo. When he was asked about the reason for such modification when Islam is but one, his reply was such that the realities of Baghdad were different to those of Cairo, and that laws which were valid in one place were not necessarily so in the other. In other words, he conveyed the fact that if the letter of the Quran and the Sunna are one, their concrete application is plural and supposes and adaptation. The job of adaptation, which is the work of jurists and is known by the name fiqh, regroups the whole of Islamic jurisprudence, as much for that which deals with aspects of worship as for that dealing with social affairs. If the rules which codify worship are never modified, it is not so when it comes to the treatment of social affairs. In the case of the latter, realities fluctuate and fiqh, when well understood, is a given answer made in a given moment of history, by a jurist who has "made and effort" to formulate an Islamic legislation. We should salute such a job, but we do not have to sanctify the jurist's decisions or propositions. The issue of resolving the problems of modern life is one of the major problems facing Muslims today. Often they either mistake the spirit of the Quranic injunctions with the sense that such or such a jurist had given to them in the first period of Islam, or find it very hard to think out a legislation which is drawn from the fundamental sources but which is at the same time really in tune with our time. Source: |
