refutation of the evolution of fiqh of mr bilal phillips

8/7/2019 Refutation of the Evolution of Fiqh of Mr Bilal Phillips

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REFUTATION

TO THE EVOLUTION OFFIQH OF

MR BILAL PHILLIPS

Student of Shaykh-ul-Islam Muhammad Tahir al-

Qadri

Abu Maryam Ilyas Shareef



SIGNIFICANCE OF FIQH,

CLARITY OF CONCEPT

AND REFUTATION TO

ANTI-MADHAB

ACCUSATIONS



Dedications

All praises are for Allah and infinite blessings and peace upon

the beloved, final messenger who brought to humanity, for

humanity, guidance and Gnostics amongst other uncountableblessings and mercy. The bestower is Allah alone yet His ways

are numerous. He sent prophets and messengers to mankind

as teachers and guides who in turn perfected their

companions into guides for their times. This chain will

continue from teachers to students until the end of times.

I dedicate this book to such a teacher, who attained from the

teachers before him linking him to the prophet in various

continuous chains.Thus, becoming the beacon of lights for the

seekers of guidance.

The fountain of knowledge inherited by him is too numerous

to be sustained in any short book. I will be forever indebted to

him for all his spiritual favours upon me. Anything that I

learnt was due to him either directly or indirectly through his

glorious words, voluminious writings and detailed research on

each and every topic which he fathomed. This book is nothingbut a gist of a small portion of his entirety. If it becomes

valuable to anyone reading it, it is the blessing of Allah and

the prophet flowing through the honorable Shaykh and the

short-comings are entirely mine.

May Allah join me with Shaykh-ul-Islam Muhammed Tahir al-

Qadri and his lovers in the hereafter just has HE has favoured

us by joining him in this world. Ameen!

I would like to thank Imam Mustafa Sammour: BA Islamic

Studies, Jordon, for proofing the Arabic text of the Quranic

verses, hadith and the narrations of scholars. May Allah

reward him abundantly.



INTRODUCTION

In the glorified name of Allahu ta’ala, the Most Merciful , the

Most Compassionate. Abundant peace and salutation on the

most Beloved and Honored amongst the creation , Hazrat

Muhammed

ع ا ,the Messenger, his Household,

his Companions and those who remained knit in the blessed

group which was given the glad-tidings to be saved by the

immense protection of Allah.

Islam is the deen of Allah for the guidance of humanity. It has

a huge element of mercy and kindness in it which in its very

nature eliminates rigidity, narrowed-ness and dogmatism.

The internal flexibility within the nature of Islamic principles

is what will propel the Deen of Islam on to the final days thus

making it practical for all times.

Allahu ta’ala has taught us in the Quran (1:5)

زغا ؽاشا ا

Oh Allah! Guide us upon the straight path.

A little insight within this verse reveals a serious message. A

person who has already been given the straight path must also

make the same supplication. Why is it that if you are on the



straight path, it is incumbent for you to pray to be guided

upon the straight path? Walking on the straight path is one

thing and being firmly established upon the straight path

forever is another matter. Here the second thought isintended. You must ask for Allah’s enabling guidance to guide

you, at all times, even if you are on the straight path. If Allah

does not guide you for a moment, that very moment you will

be misguided by the devil and your ego.

Humility and humbleness in the presence of Allah is a virtue

that surpasses all forms of honor. We are required to have

good view of all people. This does not mean that we do not

speak against the evils and the falsehood. We do not hate

people but we hate the bad deeds, the bad attitudes and

immorality. The responsibility to save the religion from bigots

and propagandists is foremost.

The Quran and the Sunna are theoratical teachings of Islam.

Only for the companions, the Sunna was a practicaldemonstration by the prophet because they saw the prophet.

The other generations did not meet the prophet. For the later

generations up until the end of times each succeeding

generation will take the practical example of the Sunna from

the previous generation.

The concept that each generation teaches the next is thesuccess and superiority of Islam. Since no more revelations

are to be revealed Allah Ta’ala preserved the Quran and HE

guaranteed the companions of the Prophet His pleasure as a

sure sign of solid implementation of the prophetic discipline



and teachings. Through the Companions the Sunna was

protected. Then Allah ta’ala protected the Umma from going

astray. What purpose would be the preservation of the Quran

if the Umma as a whole goes astray? This is the point of utterimportance which feeble minds fail to appreciate. The

majority of the Muslims were always guided as a result of the

promise of Allah for the protection of the Quran. This is the

concept which the prophet taught to his Umma (nation). This

is explained by the hadith below.

Imam al-Tirmidhi reported in his Jami-us-Sahih,

hadith # 2167

ع ع شزا شجا شى ا ؤ ع ا ا: ا ج ا ا ش

ع ا ؤ ؤ ؤ ا ع

ػا ا ا

On the authority of Ibn Umar (Allah be pleased with him)

from the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), who

said: "Verily Allah will not gather my Ummah (or he said

the Ummah of Muhammad) upon misguidance and

Allah's hand is over the group and whoever dissents

from them departs to Hell."

The rest of the hadiths on this concept will be explained in

the sub-heading The Division of Muslims because of

Madhabs or anti-Madhabs!!!



Those who accuse this Umma of misguidance are simply

those who did not inherit from the generations before it.

Their absurd claim of directly following the three blessed

generations totally flattens the integrity of the Umma andactually proves the promise of protection of Allah’s Message

as ineffective. Guiding the people was the aim in preserving

the Quran. What is the purpose of the act when the aim is

lost?

Having explained the concept above I would like to explain

the reason for writing the book. I came across the book

“Evolution of Fiqh” by Mr Bilal Phillips. In it I saw a neat

compilation of historical facts yet I could not stop to venture

into the views of the author interjected at various sections

according to a pre-taste intellectually veiled. After going

through the book I saw the clever hands at work and decided

to write about the views being interjected so as to paint a

picture of comprehensive view rather than partial andselective one. This book will out-line a brief study of many

related concepts before going in to direct refutation of the

cover-up which will be unveiled by the help of Allah.

What is Shariah?

Shariah is the straight path which comprises of the practical

laws and commandments. The Quran mentions Shariah in

these words (Quran 42:13).

ا ى ش



Path for You from the Deen!

And also in these words (Quran 45:18)

ش

Then we put you on the path.

What is Fiqh?

Fiqh is the understanding of the shariah. The Quran mentions

fiqh in these words. (Quran 9:122)

زا ؿ ش و ش و اش ا و ا ا ا ا

It is not possible for all the Muslims to set out together. So,

why not a group from every section acquire the understanding

and insight of deen and warn their people when they return so

that they may guard themselves (against evil)?

The Quran mentions this deeper understanding in the verse

(4:83).



ااؤ ا ؤ إا شؤ اشع ا ء جزغ

ا شإا ؤ ى ا ؼ

ا زجر ز

When there comes to them any matter of peace or fear, they

spread it. Had they referred it to the Messenger or to those in

authority among them, those who can draw conclusion

would have known it. Were it not for the Grace and

Mercy of Allah unto you, all would have fallen into the

clutches of Satan except a few.

The Significance of Fiqh

In Sahih Bukhari , the book of Ilm

Chapter: اي ا ش ا

ج ذس: ع ا ا ذس:ش

ا اضر ، ا ع ؤ ،ا اي ا

ا شؤ تإ ، شؼ ،ا شؤ

The prophet said,” When Allah wants goodness for someone He gives that person fiqh of deen. Only I am the distributor and Allah gives to me. This Umma will keep on following Allah's



command and they will not be harmed by any one goingagainst them till Allah's order comes (Day of Judgment).

In the above hadith there are some important indications that

the goodness from Allah in kept in the Fiqh of Deen. (Thepeople of Fiqh are the Fuqaha who were always less in

number than the entire Muslim population). Even though the

Fuqaha are less, the entire Umma will benefit from them

because the prophet said that the Umma will stay upon the

command of Allah and due to the presence of this Fuqaha the

people who take the wrong path will never be able to harm

the Umma. The Prophet is the path through which Allah

grants favours upon this Umma because he is distributing the

favours (fazl and neymah) of Allah to all the people.

Sahih Muslim - Book – Qualities of the Hypocrites and

Commands concerning them - Hadith # 2775.

ؤ م ع ىا ش ؤ ؤ ش ش ذجا زا غ ا ش

ن يو ب ش

Ibn Masood said “there gathered near the House three personsamongst whom two were from Quraish and one was a Thaqafi

or two were Thaqafis and one was a Quraishi” then Ibn Masood

said “ Qaleelun Fiqh-hu qulubihim wa kaseerun sha-h-mu



butuni-him” Their hearts had little Fiqh and their

bellies had lots of fat.

*The sahabi of the prophet is describing the characteristics of

the Munafiqeen as having little Fiqh.

Tirmidhi – the book of Manaqib

– Chapter the Manaqib of Ali Bin Abi Talib Hadith # 3715.

ؤ ط ه ش ا ع ا وشاؤ ا ػ اؤ ااش اش ا ظع ا ى ل ئ

Non-believers came to the Holy Prophet and said “some of

our sons, brothers and slaves have run away from us with our

property and come to you and they don’t have Fiqh of Deen,

so return them to us.” The prophet replied , ‘fa il -lam yakun

fi-him fiqhun fid-deeni sa-nu-faqqihu-hum.’ If they don’t

have fiqh of deen soon we will make them Faqih.

Relationship between FIQH and the

Components of ISLAM

The deen of Islam is comprised of good advice and purity. It is

like a tree which Allahu Ta’ala has mentioned in the Quran.



(Quran 14:24, 25)

شو جؿ و ـا ة ؿج ؤ ذ شؤ رش و ػشءغا .

ئ و وؤ رر ط إا ـ ا ةشؼ شوز

A good word is like a good tree. Its root is firm and its

branches reach into sky. It gives fruit at all times by the

command of its Lord and Allah sets forth examples for the

people to take heed.

A seed is planted in the earth and the stem springs out of the

soil. The branches grow upon the stem and the fruits come onthe branch.



SEED STEM BRANCH FRUIT

Look at the sequence, if the sequence is changed in any way

the tree will not bear fruit. For example the branch cannot

come out of the seed or the fruit does not grow on the stem.

How does this tree relate to Islam?

The seed is the source from which the whole tree emerges.

The Quran and Sunna is the seed of Islam from which all the

teachings emerge. The stem is what is seen above the ground

and the DEEN emerges from the Quran and Sunna which is

the complete code of life and the total sum of Islamic

teaching. The shariah can be likened to the branches which

are numerous thus the shariah of each messenger was

different from the other. The Fiqh is the fruits of the Shariah

that is the interpretation of the Shariah.

QURAN & SUNNA DEEN SHARIAH FIQH

FIQH IS THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE ISLAM AND THE

FRUIT OF ITS TEACHING. IT IS THE SCIENCE WHICH

MAKES THE LAWS OF ISLAM PRACTICEABLE FOR THE

PEOPLE.



The Sources of FIQH

The Quran

- is the primary source of guidance for the extraction of Fiqh

Issues.

The final revelation revealed to the Holy Prophet Muhammed

( alaihi salam) the final prophet of Almighty Allah. The

speech of Allah in words and in meaning.

(Quran 2:2)

ةزىا ه ز

The Book in which there is no doubt. In it is guidance for the

one who is pious.

(Quran 2: 185)

ط آشا ضؤ ا ؼ ش

The month of Ramadhan in which the Quran was sent down

for the guidance of mankind.

The Sunna

The sunna is also a primary source of guidance for Fiqh issues.

The Sunna is the words, deeds and approval of the prophet.



The Quran says in ( 4:59)

ى شإا ؤ عشا اؿؤ ـا ا ؿؤ اآ ا ؤ

O believers, Obey Allah and obey the Messenger and the

authorities among you.

The Quran says in (4:80)

ـ ا ؿؤ عشا

Whoever obeys the Messenger indeed Obeys Allah.

The Companions

Can the companions of the prophet be a means of guidance

for the people?


زغا ؽاشا ا

ihdi-nas siratal mustaqeem) Oh Allah! Guide us upon the

straight path.

In the above verse, Allah is teaching us a prayer for

continuous guidance which we say in every rakah in our 5

daily prayers.




ذؤ ا ؽاش

siratal lazina anamta alayhim) The path of those upon

whom You bestowed your favours.

In verse 6, Allahu ta’ala explains the path of guidance as the

path of those who earned the favor of Allah. In other wordsthe path of guidance is no doubt the path of Quran and Sunna

but this is a theoretical path. Allahu ta’ala is showing us a

practical path of guidance and that path is the path of the

ones who have been already guided by Allahu ta’ala.

Who are these people who got the favor of Allah?


ؤ ا ه ـإ عشا ـ ا جا ـا

ا ه ا ااء ـؤ غ

anam Allahu alayhim min an-Nabiyeena wa-s

Siddiqeena wa-s Shuhadai wa-s Saleheena). Those who

obeyed Allah and the Messenger are with those who upon

whom is the favors of Allah. They are : the Prophets and the

Truthful and the Martyrs and the Pious.



According to this verse the favored are 4 distinct groups: the

prophets, the truthful, the martyrs and the pious. We are told

to walk in the path of these 4 groups as indicated in verse 6 of

Surah Fateha. An interesting point which must be understoodis that Allahu ta’ala is relating the path of guidance to the

personalities of Islam and not to abstract values- a concept

which misguided sects fail to comprehend.


ػ غئ جرا ا إا اش إا غا ؤ اػ ـ ا إا زر شر د

ه اص ا ؤا

radi-Allahu anhum wa radu anhu) The first of those who

emigrated and the supporters and those who follow them in

goodness, Allah is pleased with them and they are pleased with Him. He has prepared for them paradise beneath which

rivers flow, wherein they will abide forever. That is the great

success.

In this verse, Allahu ta’ala is not only announcing His

pleasure for the companions of the Prophet but also to those

who follow the companions. It is a clear text that companions

of the prophet is a source of guidance for the people

Through the import of the above verses it is understood that

the companions are the first and foremost group of people

who must be followed as a source of guidance. And whatever



they agreed upon is called the Ijma of the Companions. It

must be noted however that the scholars of Islam preferred

the decision of a single companion, therefore the significance

of Ijma is much more.

Qiyaas (deductive analogy)

To deduce ruling from similar situations through the analysis

of operative causes (illah).

While Qiyaas has been employed in Fiqh as a method of

deducing a legal decision, comparison of two things, in

general , has been a method employed by the Quran to impart

lessons for people of understanding. Comparing situations to

derive at a conclusion is one of the ways of Allah for guiding

humanity.

A Comparison to warn People of their Misguidance!


ـ ا ذػؤ ا زعا ا و شج د وشر

The example {of misguidance} is like a person who lit a fire

and when it brightened the environment, Allah took away

their light and left them in total darkness so they cannot see.)

The hypocrites – dressed as Muslims were enjoying the

wordly benefits of Islam but as soon as they will die they will

be removed from all benefits of the next life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analogy






اآ ؤ قش د ءغا و ؤ

دا كاا ؾ ىش ـا

Or the example, is like the rain pouring from the sky where-in are layers of darkness, thunder and lightening! They put

their fingers in their ears against the thunderclaps in dread of

death. But Allah has encompassed the disbelievers.

The “pouring rain” means the verses of the Quran which

has stories of history, warning of punishment and rays of

guidance. The dis-belivers do not want to hear the message

and do not pay heed to the warning.


ةشؼ ؤ زغ ا ػ اآ ا إ

كا ؤ ا اؤ ا اشو ا ؤ

اـ ايو ايو ؼ عا ؼ

Indeed Allah is not reluctant to give examples, whether of a

mosquito or something more insignificant. The believers take

the example from their Lord while the non-believers mock



them through questions. Allah holds many astray and guides

many with these examples.

To pay heed to comparison and derive lesson from it is the

qualities of the guided ones while to treat the comparison as

useless and mockery is the qualities of the misguided.

A comparison for explaining multiplication of rewards

The Quran says in (2:261).

ع جع ذزجؤ ج و ا جع اؤ ا

ج جع و ء ؼ ا عا ا

The example of those who spend their wealth in the path of

Allah is the grain from which seven ears shoot forth. Each ear

bears a hundred grains. And Allah multiplies for whom He

likes. Allah is Infinite and All-knowing.

There are numerous examples given by Allah in the Quran.

Through the comparison of the example to the real situation

and with insight a wise believer will derive guidance.



The Mujtahideen within the Companions.

The Muhaddith Sahaba

Khatib Baghdadi in Al-Jami Al-Akhlaq, , Shaykh al-Islam Muhammed Tahir al Qadri in Imam Abu Hanifa –Imam al-

Aimmah fil-Hadith pg 140. Ibn Salah in Muqadima Ibn Salah

on pg 305, 306.

Words of Ibn Salah is below.

ص ؤ-ؼؤ- ؤ: ظؤ:ؤ ا آ؟:ؤ ا ا ؟ ،ضا ا

ؤ ش ؤ ؤ ا ع ج ا ع س ،ا

It was said to Abu Zara’ ,” Is it not that the prophet had

40 000 hadiths?” Abu Zara’ said,”One who said this may Allah

destroy him. This saying is from Zindiqs, Who can encompass

all the hadiths of the prophet, for when the prophet passed

away there were 114,000 companions who had narrated

hadiths from him and heard from him.

The Mufti Sahaba



Imam Jalaluddin Suyuti in Tadreeb Ar-Rawii in chapter 39,

Marifat As-sahaba Pg 678, 679 wrote quoting Ibn Hazm……

“Seven companions were specially appointed for Fatawa( legal

Rulings).” Umar, Ali, Ibn Masood, Ibn Umar, Ibn Abbas, Zaid

bin Thabit and Ayesha.

After giving their names Ibn Hazm said,’

It is possible that if each of their fatawas were collected it

would make up huge folder.” It means that these 7

companions gave most fatwa.

“There were 20 companions who followed them (the above 7

companions).” Then he gave their names.”



These gave fatawa less than the 7 companions above.

Then Ibn Hazm said, “

It is possible to collect each of their fatawa in small booklets.”

Ibn Hazm said, “

120 companions were those who gave very little fatwa.”

The Mujtahid Sahaba

Imam Dhahabi in his book Tazkirah al-Huffaz pg 24

narrates that Imam Shabii - a great Tabii says “knowledge was

taken from six companions: Umar, Ali, Ubay bin Kaab, Ibn

Masood, Zaid and Abi Musa.”



The companions which were Mujtahid were less in number

reaching up to 10 as mentioned by Shaykh-ul-Islam

Muhammed Tahir al-Qadri in his book Imam Abu Hanifa

Imam-ul-Aimmah fil hadith pg 145.

114 000 Muhaditheen 147 Mufti 6-10 Mujtahid

From the above, it can be very clearly known that to do

Ijtihaad directly from the Quran and Hadith is a highly

qualified task which everyone is not capable of doing, not

even the majority of companions.

Benefit

Those with keen insight can easily understand that the

companions of the prophet were divided into 3 categories: the

Muhaddithin, the Mufti and the Mujtahid. Within the

Muhaddithin there were 3 further categories: numerous

narrations, average narrations and few narrations. If a

companion narrates lots of hadith it does not mean that thecompanion is also the most knowledgeable scholar. Take for

example Hazrat Abu Huraira. He narrated the most hadith

(5374 according to Baqi b. Makhalad- reported by M.M.Azami

in Studies in Hadith Methodology and Literature) but he was

not among the companions who were Mujtahids. This fact

must open the eyes of those Muslims who say that based on

the narrations that is available today, they think that they canact as Mujtahid and can derive all the legal rulings directly

from the Quran and Hadith. This mentality was more

appropriate in the case of Abu Huraira who was a direct

student of the prophet. Having more hadith at your disposal



does not guarantee you that you have the most knowledge of

religion. If such is the case in regards to Abu Huraira than

where do the so-called scholars of today stand – those who

claim that there is no need to follow the mujtahid Imams.Having the proper understanding about the actual meanings

and the application of the hadith together with all the

qualifications listed below can only equip a person with the

title and the right to being an absolute Mujtahid. All those

companions who did not possess such qualification among

the companions sought the help of the Mujtahid among the

companions to understand and follow the religion.

The Qualification of a Mujtahid

Strong Iman, Good Character and God-Fear.

Knowledge of the highest branches of Arabic.

Ilm of Quran and Ilm of Hadith.

The Zahir (apparent) meanings and the Khafi (hidden)

meanings.

Muhkamaat (clear, foundational) and Mutashabihaat

(figurative).

The Asbab al-Nuzul (the reasons and circumstances of

the revelation.)

Aam and Khaas (Universal application and Specific

application.)

Nasikh and Mansookh (laws of abrogation).

Muqayyad and Mutlaq (conditional and unconditional).

Meanings of Qiraat Sab’a (seven recitation) and Qiraat

Shaz (Isolated recitation).



The Three Generations

In Sahih Bukhari – Book Virtues of Companions

In Sahih Muslim- Book Virtues of Sahaba.

The prophet said,” Best amongst my Umma are those in my

period then those follow them then those who follow them.”

The Sahaba were with the prophet, then the taba-een were

with the companions and then the at-ba at-taba-een were

with the taba-een.

The knowledge that was available in these 3 generations laid

down the foundation of all the religious sciences that

emerged as a result of classification, documentation andcodification. The Umma owes a great deal to the work and

effort of these generations and the ones who inherited from

them in all the others generations.

Transmission of knowledge is of 2 kinds. The interpreted

knowledge of the Quran and Sunna and the original text of

the Quran and Sunna. As far as the Quran is concerned itstext is unaltered and will remain intact until the end of time.

As for the hadith of the prophet the Imams took great pains

in compiling the hadith from different places and preserving



the chain of transmission and verifying through these chains

what was authentic and what was not!

There wasn’t a single book compiled by any scholar who

claimed to include all the hadith of the prophet.

Imam Bukhari

The Jami-us-sahih of Imam Bukhari contains 9082 hadith

but without repetition it goes down to 2602. This number

does not include ahadith mauqufah and sayings of successorsas per Muhammad Mustafa Azami in his book -Studies in

Hadith Methodology and Literature ed. 1977.

Ibn al-Salah said in his Muqaddimah:

جا ؤ: ا زو ذؤ ا ا ذوشر .

"We narrated from Bukhari that he said, 'I have not

included in the book al- Jami’ other than what is sahih

and I did not include other sahih hadiths for the fear

of making it too lengthy.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_al-Salah





Al-Dhahabi in Tadhkirat al-huffaz pg 556 said,

"Bukhari was heard saying,'I have memorized100 000

authentic hadith and 200 000 which are less than

authentic.”

It compels one to think whether all the hadith that Imam

Bukhari knew had reached us. Naturally it cannot be thought

so.

Imam Ahmad bin Hambal

Ibn al-Jawzi reports in al-Hass `ala hifz al-`ilm pg 53that Abu Zura said that Imam Ahmad had memorised1,000,000 hadiths.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Dhahabi


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadhkirat_al-huffaz



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith





About 40 000 hadiths are written in his musnad. Can we

assume to have inherited all the hadith of the Imam Ahmad

bin Hambal? It would be foolish.

M.M.Azami, a brief handbook in the science of hadith

“studies in hadith methodology and literature” mentions the

list of books written by Imam Malik bin Anas, Imam Ahmad

bin Hambal, Imam Bukhari, Imam Muslim, Imam Abu Abdur

Rahman Ahmad An-Nasai, Imam Abu Dawood As-Sajistani,

Imam Muhammed bin Isa at-Tirmidhi, Imam Abu Abdullah

Muhammed Ibn Majah, Imam Abul Qasim al-Tabarani, Imam

al-Athir al-Jazari and others. He also mentions the books

which has been lost.

Some people greatly err in the understanding the difference

between the increased number of books in our times verses

the decrease in the original hadith which existed in the time

of 1st three generations.

Even if it is believed that all the hadith of our beloved prophet

was indeed recorded by the 1st three generations, can it be also

thought that we have received all those hadiths that existed in

those times?

Anyone of knowledge would easily understand that to

preserve knowledge from one generation to the next is not an

easy task. If it was that easy why would Allahu ta’ala take it

upon Himself to preserve the Quran? This point itself clarifies

the statement above. Some people are confused by availability

of Islamic literature today thinking that we have more

original information than the previous generations. This is



among the basic problems of not grasping the right attitude

and proper concept of the madhabs.

Differences in the Ummah!

The statement that only one madhab existed at the time of

Khulafa ar-Rashideen is inflated! The Muslims were under a

state leader and the public affairs were decided by the shura

consisting of eminent companions which was then enforced.

Does this mean that in the matters of personal affairs all were

following a particular method also?

Some superficial observers misquote the incident between

Ubayy ibn Ka`b and Ibn Mas`ud on the question of praying in

a single cloth: Mr Bilal Phillips writes on page 141.

Quote “‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab, the second Righteous Caliph,got angry because of a dispute between the Sahaabee, ubayy ibn Ka’b, and another Sahaabee, Ibn Mas’ood, over theperformance of Salaah in a single piece of cloth. Ubayy considered in quite alright while Ibn Mas’ood felt that was soonly when cloth was scarce. ‘Umar angrily left his residenceand declared, “Have two of Allaah’s messenger’s companionsdisagreed and they are among those whom the masses watch closely and imitate? Ubayy is correct and IbnMas’ood should desist! If I hear of anyone disputing aboutthis matter after this point, I will deal with him.” Unquote.

From the above example the intended message is that

difference of opinion is against the spirit of Islam. While

putting too much emphasis on justifying his own rigidity on



the topic the author unknowingly proved that even among

the companions of the prophet there were some companions

whom the rest of the companions watched closely and

imitated them. Recognizing someone’s authority in Islamand following him is intact the essence of Taqleed.

In fact the explanation of the same incident by Hafiz Ibn

Hajar Asqalani in Fath al-Bari on vol 2 page 77 in the

explanation of the hadith of ……

Sahih Bukhari –Kitab as-salat hadith number 365 that

“Imam Àbd al-Razzaq in his musannaf said the man who

asked Ùmar, was Àbd Allah ibn Masùd. He mentions that

Ibn Masùd approached Ùmar due to his difference with

Ubayy who permitted prayer in a single garment in the sense

that it is not offensive (makruh), while Ibn Masùd held that

this was the case only at the time there was scarcity inclothing, whereupon Ùmar went up to the pulpit and said:

"What is right is what Ubayy said, and Ibn Masùd certainly

did not fall short". Hazrat Umar’s decision did not declare

that Ubayy was right and Ibn Masood was wrong because he



is himself declaring that Ibn Masood was not wrong. But as a

Mujtahid amongst the sahaba himself he settled the matter

according to his own ijtihad.

This proves that the presence of two or more opinions on a

matter does not mean that one is true and the others are

wrong but that one opinion can be more weighty in evidence

while others can be less, comparably.

Another example of the acceptability of varied opinion is the

hadith of …..

Abu Dawood in his Sunan, the book of Taharah, hadith

#338.

Once two Companions could not find water in the desert todo wudu’ before the prescribed prayer and did the ritualablution with sand (tayammum). However, when they cameacross some water some while later within the time of thesame prayer, one of them did wudu’ and re-did the prayer



while the other did not. When they referred the matter toGod’s Messenger later, the Messenger responded to the one

who had not repeated the prayer: You acted in accordance with the Sunna. Then, he turned to the other and said: For you, there is double reward.

This hadith is very clear in meaning that the prophet himself clarified that the two actions were contradictory yet both

were acceptable.

Imam Bukhari in his Sahih

Book of War-Expedition, hadith #4119.

Ibn Umar said, the prophet said on the day of Ahzaab: “No

one among you prays `Asr except at Banu Quraida” . They encountered the time for Asr salat on the way, some said we

will not pray until we reach there (Banu Quraida) while somesaid but we will pray Asr as it wasn’t meant from us that way

(it wasn’t prohibited). The matter was mentioned to theprophet and he did not scold any of them.

This hadith again proves the concept that one group of companions had the idea in mind that the asr salat can only be prayed at Banu Quraida while the other group had the



opinion that the prophet meant to rush to Banu Quraida andpray Asr there but there was no prohibition to pray if the salat

was at risk. The prophet approved the contradictory opinionsas neither of it was wrong.

The Emergence of Fiqh Madhahib

The mujtahids of absolute capacity were present in the time

of Companions and also in the later generations who could

derive the rulings directly from the Quran and Sunna. Today

we don’t have the complete documentation of all the rulings

of a particular Mujtahid among numerous mujtahids exceptfor the 4 Imams namely Imam Abu Hanifa Numan Bin Thabit,

Imam Malik bin Anas, Imam Muhammed Idris shafii and

Imam Ahmad bin Hambal.

There are different levels of Ijtihad performed by the scholars

according to their academic levels.

1. Mujtahid Mutlaq

They had numerous students who would learn from them and

there were those who themselves had reached the grade of

Ijtahid so that there were scholary discussions amongst them

to arrive at a ruling.

2. Mujtahid fil-Madhab

These were Mujtahids who used the usul (principles) of the

Mujtahid Mutlaq. They did not separate themselves from the

circle of their Imams and made their own Ijtihads but their

Ijtihads were included within the madhab of their Imams.

These students then classified and codified and further



explained the rulings so that scholar of lesser degree can

benefit from them.

3. Mujtahid fil-Masala

They did Ijtihad in novel situations according to the usul of

their Imams.

4. Ashab al-Takhrij

Those who would explain, unclear rules derived by mujtahids.

5. Arbab at-Tarjih

Those who preferred one of the several riwayas coming from

mujtahids. (narrations or opinions of the mujtahids as

narrated).

6. Muqallids

The common Muslim who were incapable of distinguishing

weak riwayas from genuine ones.

The Door of Ijtihad is Closed/Open.

The common muslim have been misled many a times by

people misquoting statements without explaining the full

application of the concept because of the notion that the

common muslims will blind follow anyways because they

don’t have access to the source of information. Such is the

technique employed by the separatist (those who deviated

from the main body of Muslims) and at the same time they



accuse the umma of blind-following the trusted authorities of

Islam, how ironic!

Anyone looking at the six grades mentioned above can easily

understand that the tool of ijtihad had always been employed

by the different grades of scholars at the time of need and the

umma will continue to employ ijtihad in future until the end

of time. What these scholars did not do was to claim absolute

Ijtihad independent from the 4 Mujtahid Imams? The are 2

main reasons for it.

1st reason

- For not claiming absolute ijtihad is of precaution, that if

the room was opened up for absolute ijtihad then

instead of 4 there would be infinite madhabs in

existence. And if Taqlid (being a Muqallid of Imams) is

thought to be haram (as some feeble minds claim) then

every common muslim is entitled to ijtihad which isabsurd and ignorance. The issue of Taqlid will be dealt at

a later stage.

2nd reason

- for not claiming absolute ijtihad is the fact that the

previous generations had the privilege of a rich content

of prophetic sayings from which they derived the rulings while the later generations did not receive all but

reduced portions of it in the natural process of transfer.

Read the Paragragh on Imam Bukhari and

Imam Ahmad bin Hambal for full explanation.



The absolute Ijtihad was done by the contemporaries of the 4

Imams of Fiqh but as the time elapsed their fatwas which

were not documented became forgotten. The requirement of

absolute ijtihad was too strict which was not met by the many later scholars. Not everyone became hafiz of hadith, let alone

the other rigorous conditions mentioned earlier for the

absolute ijtihad. The later scholars did not claim absolute

ijtihad due to the above 2 reasons because of the 4 sets of

usuls employed by the 4 imams were sufficient. The Ijtihad

where the scholars used the principles of their own madhabs

in novel situations was always practiced. This is the unbiasedexplanation of the allegation that Ijtihad was abandoned by

the umma because it is an absolute lie - the accusers never

explained to their audience the different types of Ijtihad and

its requirements and the foolishness of their position is that

they expect every layman among the muslim to be a mujtahid.

Those who follow these types of so-called scholars must think

a million times as to whether these are even fit to be leaders

of the Muslims.



Taqlid

It is so unfortunate that Taqlid had been made to appear asthe opposite to Ijtihad. The truth of the matter is that thereare different levels of Taqlid and different level of Ijtihaddepending on the knowledge of the person concerned. Allthose who did Ijtihad within the framework of the Madhab of their Imam were also Muqallids in Usul (Principle) at thesame time. Those persons who are not capable of absoluteIjtihad cannot in reality understand all the evidences of the

Absolute Mujtahid therefore it is naïve and ignorance to deny the statements of the Imam. The deniers claim that it isHaram to follow Imams without understanding theirevidences. What about those who reject the Imams withoutunderstanding their (Imam’s) evidences. Isn’t this haram also?Even if the evidences are placed in front of a common muslimhow is it possible that every person will understand theevidence. For the deniers they claim that to mention thestatement that such and such proof is from the Quran and

Sunna is sufficient and this will not be called Taqlid. Thesestatements are meant to confuse the muslims only. Themuslims already have the trust, that the Imams have derievedtheir rulings from the Quran and Sunna. Therefore I propose

with full responsibility that the rampant meaning of Taqlid which are being flared to confuse the Muslims must beremoved. The definition that Taqlid is blind-following

an Imam is a conspiracy and a mis-statement ……

for the real meaning of Taqlid is to follow the trust of an Authority (with or) without understanding their proof.



Imam Shafii was not a common Muslim but a scholar of the highest caliber but he used to say as reported by:

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzi reported in ilaam ul

Muwaqqi'een 'an Rabb il 'Aalameen pg 482.

Imam Shafii said: such matters( relating to camels ) I say in Taqlid of Umar, such matters (relating to sale of animals) I say in Taqleed of Usman, such matters(relating to inheritance) I say in Taqleed of Zaid andfrom him we accepted many matters of faraid and inanother of his book he said: I say in Taqleed of Ata’a.

The deniers have used the word blind-following as ithas a highly negative implication while the thrust of theissue is the trust in the caliber and scholarship of theImam.



Quranic Proof of Taqlid

It must be borne in the mind that Taqlid is not blind-

following any Tom and Harry but Taqlid is to trust the

authority of the Imam and then to follow him.


ر زو شوا عإا ؤ

Ask the people of remembrance if you do not know.

The people were denying the validity of the Prophets becausethe y were human beings therefore Allahu ta’ala directed them

towards the people who had evidence from their previous

revelations. The people of remembrance had the revelation as

proof but Allah did not say that ask for the proof and then

follow them if it is presented to you otherwise don’t. The fact

that the people of remembrance have the proof is enough

authority to be trusted. The verse is affirming the recognition

of the authority’s validity rather than the proof because

understanding the proof is not of e veryone’s lot.


ااؤ ا ؤ إا شؤ اشع ا ء

جزغ ا شإا ؤ ـ ا ؼ

ا زجر ى ز



When there comes to them any matter of peace or fear, they

spread it. Had they referred it to the Messenger or to those in

authority among them, those who can draw conclusion would

have known it. Were it not for the Grace and Mercy of Allahunto you, all would have fallen into the clutches of Satan

except a few.

Referring your matters to the messenger and the ones in

authority is supported by the verse. They would draw

judgement from the same information from which you could

not. This shows that there is a level of scholarship required to

make legal judgements which everyone is not capable of.

Allahu ta’ala did not impose the presentation of evidence as a

requirement of accepting their judgements because of the

inability of every common Muslim in grasping the evidence.

Referring your issues to authorities is in fact being saved from

the attack of devil (the external devil and the internal devil –

the ego.)The other important point that is revealed in the above verse

is that all those who received the news or information cannot

deduce the correct judgement, only the authorities bestowed

with the faculty of Investigation, analysis, wisdom and

scholarship will deduce the judgement from the same

information from which the common muslim could not.

Those who do not resort to the trusted authorities will only be

led to the clutches of devil because they refused the

authorities and made their ego and whimps the authority to

be followed. One who is under the influence of ones ego will

naturally be entrapped by the devil. May Allah forbid!




ى شإا ؤ عشا اؿؤ ـا ا ؿؤ اآ ا ؤ ئ

ا ـ ر زو عشا ـا ش ء زصرشأا إر ه ش ؤغ

O ye who believe! Obey Allah, and obey the Messenger, and

those with authority among you. If ye differ in anything

among yourselves, refer it to Allah and His Messenger, if ye

do believe in Allah and the Last Day: That is best and mostsuitable for end result.

There are many subtle meanings inside this verse yet many

superficial scholars use this same verse to deny the concept of

the authority of the ulul-amr (the ones in authority). The

obedience to Allah is unconditional and the obedience to the

prophet is also unconditional but the obedience to the ulil-amr is not unconditional. Their obedience is conditional.

Using this partial meaning they deny the concept of following

the authorities. They say that the obedience of the ulil-amr

depends on the following of the correct interpretation of the

Quran and Sunna. This statement might look pleasant on the

outset but it is unfounded during deeper analysis.

The obedience to Allah is to follow the Quran and the

obedience to the prophet is to follow the Sunna. These 2 are

the criteria to the one who can deduce the meanings directly

from these 2 sources and these are the Mujtahideen Mutlaq as

we have mentioned before. If these were the only 2 sources



for every Muslim to follow then there was no need to mention

the ulul-amr. Why did Allah mention the ulul-amr? This

shows that the ulul-amr is another source of guidance. Their

separate mentioning shows that they have an authority in thedeen and their authority will be subjected to their

scholastic understanding of the 2 sources. They will

judge according to their interpretation of the Quran and

Sunna which everyone is not entitled to.

In the above verse Allahu ta’ala mentions the “conflict” in

which case the matter will be returned to Allah and His

Messenger. The question is who is the Quran talking about

that will contradict or have conlict with the ulul-amr? Can

they be common Muslims? Of-course not, how can they

contradict when they don’t have the scholarship to deduce

directly from the Quran and Sunna in the first place? The

ones who can contradict the ulul-amr will only be those who

themselves belong to the group of ulul-amr. From thisunderstanding the scholars of Islam deduced that a

Mujtahid Mutlaq must not do taqlid to another

Mujtahid Mutlaq since they themselves have the ability to

deduce directly from Quran and Sunna. The deniers have

wrongly interpreted this statement to ban taqlid of ulil-amr

by the common Muslims. This is ignorance on their part and a

proof of their inability to understand the proper concept andapplication of Taqlid. To recap, the verse is positively

supporting taqlid of the ulil-amr by mentioning them

separately from obedience to Allah and Messenger. This

application is for the common Muslim. When the verse is



mentioning contradiction to ulul-amr it is prohibiting taqlid

to the ulul-amr by other ulil-amr who can derieve directly

from the Quran and Sunna. Allah is great! HE has included

wiseful application of His verses in different situations andthis is itself the miracle of the Quran.

The verses which the deniers were using to deny taqlid

actually supported the concept of taqlid in its proper

application and perspective.

Imam Abu Hanifa an-Numan Bin Thabit

Out of the 4 Imams, Imam Abu Hanifa is the only Imam who

is a Tabii, that is, he saw the sahaba of the prophet. The

companions that he met range from 4 to 22 according to the

research of different scholars as mentioned by Shaykh ul-

Islam Muhammed Tahir al-Qadri in his famous and historical

research called Imam Abu Hanifa Imam ul-Aimmah fil-Hadith pg 286 to 293.

Because of his (Imam Abu Hanifa’s) contribution in the

classification of Fiqh he is considered to be the father of the

Fuqaha. Imam Shafii is considered to be the one who

classified the usul of fiqh.



Imam Dhahabi in Tazirah al-Huffaz pg 167

mentioned the saying of Imam Shafii.

ا : ؤ ا طا

Imam Shafii said, “All the people in Fiqh are the

children of Imam Abu Hanifa .”

Because of his defence of the correct Islamic ideology against

the deviant groups of his time they launched enormous

propaganda against Imam Abu Hanifa and history books are

sufficient proofs of this. Their slanders could havedisintegrated mountains yet Allah saved the Imam and his

fame grew more as a result.The adherents to his madhab grew

more and more against all forms of propaganda.

According to the hadith of Sahih Bukhari – Book of

Tafseer and Sahih Muslim – Book of excellence of

Companion.



Abu Huraira narrates “We were sitting with the Prophet

when the surah of Juma (verse number 3) was

revealed. “ And among the later ones who have not yet

met them (present ones). A companion asked, “ who are

these later ones?” The prophet did not answer until we had asked 3 times. He put his hands on Salmaan the

Persian and said, “ even if the faith was in the farthest

star, a man of Persia or He said the sons of Persia will

get it.” the words belong to sahih muslim.

In this hadith the person being mentioned and honored

cannot be a companion, like some might think that it is

talking about Salman Al-farsi. That person is one who is not

present in the gathering but will meet the companions later-

on, therefore he would be considered a Tabii. The reason why

the prophet put his blessed hands on Salman Al-farsi is that

the person in question has a link with Salman Al-farsi because



Hazrat Salman is from Persia. The prophet himself clarified

this point when he said “a man of Persia / sons of Persia

meaning the person would be from Persia or would be the

sons of Persian descent. Among the famous scholars of Hadith and Fiqh only Imam al-Azam Abu Hanifa was from

Persia.

Imam Ibn Hajar Haythami‟s research in Al-khairaat

Al-Hisaan pg 12.

ؿغا ا كا ا :جا ف ز ؤ ا ا ح إ زا ؼ

Imam Ibn Hajar Haythami after mentioning the hadith

from sahih Muslim, Shirazi, Abu Nuaym and Tabrani

wrote that Al-Hafiz al-Muhaqiq Imam Jalaluddin Suyuti

said ,”this is actually the glad tidings about Abu Hanifa

and in complete superiority for him .”

Some unfounded Objections on the Imam and their

refutation

Ahlul Ray (People of Opinion)Those who could not understand the ijtihad of Imam Abu

Hanifa and those who had personal vendetta against him

called him by the name – ‘Ahlur- RaI” (those of opinion) This



name was also used by some other neutral scholars about the

Imam without the negative implication.

Ijtihad is the result of the Mujtahid’s understanding of the

proofs which is actually the educated opinion of the Mujtahid.

Aren’t all ijtihads opinions of the mujtahids? Such is the

baselessness of the objection.

This hadeeth has been reported in…

Sunan Tirmidhi – Kitab al-Ahkaam, hadith number1327, Sunan Abu Dawood, Kitab al-Aqziyatu,hadith number 3592.

The Prophet (sallallaahu àlayhi wa sallam) sent Muàadh(radiyallaahu ànhu) to Yemen and asked him: "How will you

judge the cases?" He replied: "I will judge according to theBook of Allaah". "But if you do not get anything there, what



will you do?” the Prophet (sallallaahu àlayhi wa sallam)asked. He said: "I will refer to the sunnah of the Prophet(sallallaahu àlayhi wa sallam)". "But if you do not get it eventhere, what will you do?", the Prophet (sallallaahu àlayhi wasallam) asked again. He replied: " Ajtahidu RaYii - I willexercise my judgment." Hearing this, the Prophet (sallallaahuàlayhi wa sallam) patted Muàadh (radiyallaahu ànhu) onthe chest and said: "Praise is for Allaah who has made theMessenger of Allah’s Messenger agree with what pleases

Allah’s Messenger."

According to this hadith, Hazrat Mu’aadh mentioned “RaYii”

– (my opinion) and this was approved by the prophet.Therefore how can the opinion of a Mujtahid be a thing of negative impact?

Hazrat Mu’aadh would judge from Quran, Hadith and thenhis Opinion. Isn’t the same method used by Imam AbuHanifa? See pg 74 of Evolution of Fiqh by Bilal Phillips. Hementioned that Imam Abu Hanifa used Ijitihad (Opinion) as

the 5th source of deduction of Islamic Matters. How can only Imam Abu Hanifa be labelled as ‘Ahlul RaYi’ in the negativesense? This shows the propaganda of the enemies of theImam to defame him.

The hadith below is narrated by Imam Nasai in his Sunan in

the Book Kitab’u A’daab -il Qadaati in the chapter Al-

hukm ’ u bi ttifaaqi ahlil ilmi. Imam Nasai has graded this

hadith as sahih (good good).

ا ج ؼ ا ةزو ظ ؤش ء ئع ا ج ؼ ا ةزو ظ شؤ ء ئ ع



ا ؼ ؼ ا ةزو ظ شؤ ء ئ ؤ ز ا ؼ ع ا ج

ا ا ئ ؤ ؤدجز ؤ ه اش هجش هجش . ا ا شا ج ؤ

In the above hadith The Mujtahid Companion Abdullah bin

Masud said: If a thing (issue) is not in the Quran then one judges with whatever has been decided in the Sunna. If a

thing is not in the Quran and in the sunna then one judges by

what has been decided by the pious (companions). If a thing is

not in the Quran, Sunna and the decisions of the pious then

one does Ijtihad with his Rai (opinion).

Note: according to the wrongly named salafis, the hadith of

Tirmidhi is not authentic because Imam Tirmidhi said that the

chain is not complete. I would like to point out that the hadith

in the Sunan of Imam Nasai which is Sahih is mentioning the

same subject of how to make a Jugement. According to the

science of Hadith a weak chain can be accepted if supported

by another chain which is stronger and they both deal with

the same subject matter. Such is the case above. Therefore

both the hadiths can be taken as evidence for the validity of

Opinion (Rai) in judgement (by a Mujtahid) in the absence of

evidence from Quran, Sunna and Ijma of the companions.



Rai (Opinion) is not necessarily opposite of Quran and Sunna

but it is the result of the deduction from Quran and Sunna by

the method of Qiyas. Those who did propaganda against the

Imam called themselves “ahlul hadith” or ones who base their

opinion on hadith. So they invented ahlul- ray for the Imam

as an opposite of ahlul-hadith. If they are intending that

Imam Abu Hanifa gave his opinion without the basis of Quran

and hadith then this is another lie. The extract below will

prove this point.

In Manaqib al-Imam al-A‟zam by Muwaffaq bin

Ahmad al-Makki al-Khawarzimi on page 168, Imam

Abu Zohra in Abu Hanifa on page 80 reports…



The incident when Imam Abu Hanifa met Imam Muhammed

Baqir when he said, ‘Are you that person who oppose the

religion and hadith of my grandfather (the prophet) with your

opinion.’ Imam Abu Hanifa said, ‘May Allah forbid’. Then

Imam Abu Hanifa asked Imam Baqir three questions to clarify

his position.

Imam Abu Hanifa asked, ‘Men are fragile (emotionally) or

women?’ Imam Baqir said, ‘women.’ How many share is for

women. Imam Baqir said, ‘for men is 2 shares and for womenis 1 share. Imam Abu Hanifa said,’ According to qiyas, women

who are fragile must be given two shares and men only one

but I ruled according to the sa ying of the prophet.’ Imam Abu

Hanifa asked,’ Is salat superior or fasting? Imam Baqir said,

‘Salat’. Imam Abu Hanifa said, ‘this is the saying of your

grandfather, if I changed the religion with my opinion then I

would rule that women complete their missed salat afterpurification from menstruation and not complete their

missed obligatory fast since salat is superior.’ Imam Abu

Hanifa then asked, ‘Is urine more impure or sperm?’ Imam

Baqir said, ‘urine.’ Imam Abu Hanifa said, ‘if I used qiyas and

not the hadith I would rule that ghusl (shower) is needed

after urination and wudhu after ejaculation since urine is

more filthy, but I ruled that Ghusl is needed after ejaculation

and wudhoo (ablution) after urination.’ After hearing this

Imam Baqir stood up, embraced Imam Abu Hanifa, kissed his

face and treated him with respect and nobility.



This incident shows that the propaganda against Imam Abu

Hanifa (that he gave his opinion against hadith) was so

intensely spread by his enemies that even the most beloved

scholar of the time Imam Muhammed Baqir was influencedby it until Imam Abu Hanifa himself clarified the matter.

Weak in hadith

The enemies of Imam Abu Hanifa spread lies about him that

he did not have enough knowledge of hadith so that the next

attack of them would be directed on his ijtihad. They did in-

fact accused him of basing most of his ijtihad on opinion.

Below are some facts which will shed light on this baseless

accusation.

Shaykh al-Islam Muhammed Tahir al-Qadri in Imam AbuHanifa Imam al- Aimmah fil hadith pg 572 writes ….

Imam Ibn Hajar Makki in Al-Khairaat Al-Hisaan fi

Manaqib An-Naomaan pg26

ؤ ي آ ؤ يجىا ؤ ا شو

را آ



Imam Abu Hafs al-Kabeer has mentioned 4000 teachers of

Imam Abu Hanifa and he said apart from it (the 1st statement)

he (Imam Abu Hanifa) had 4000 teachers from the Taba-een.

The important point to be noted is that Imam Abu Hanifa was

the first person who classified the fiqh under separate

headings. From this it is understood that he must not have

studied Fiqh as a subject under these teachers because fiqh

was not compiled at the time. All the teachings of Islam were

in its original form of hadith of the prophet. Even if he

studied fiqh it was in the form of hadith therefore no matter

how anyone puts it Imam Abu Hanifa studied hadith from

these teachers.

Shaykh al-Islam Muhammed Tahir al-Qadri in Imam

Abu Hanifa Imam al-Aimmah fil hadith pg 578

writes…..Out of all the Teachers of Imam Abu Hanifa

125 were the narrators of kutub-e sitta.( 6 famous

books of hadith).

Shaykh al-Islam Muhammed Tahir al-Qadri in his

book called “Imam Al- Azam’s Students – Top Notch

Scholars of hadith (urdu) ” pg 32…out of all the

narrators of kutub-e sitta (6 famous books) 125

narrators were the students of Abu Hanifa. Of these 69

narrators are Shuyuk (Teachers) of Imam Bukhari and

81 are Shuyuk of Imam Muslim. Imam Abu Hanifa

had 800 students who were masters of hadith.



The facts above reject the baseless accusations on the Imam

that he was weak in hadith. Infact he was the master of Fiqh

and Hadith.

Imam Al-Azam

The greatest Imam! Why do the objectors have to put the

meaning against the intended usage? In denial the objectors

use another technique to misuse correct statements in their

propaganda and they say that the greatest Imam is our

Prophet - who is the Imam of all the Prophets. While this is

true, the application has bad intention against the Imam (Abu

Hanifa).

Allahu ta’ala said in the Quran (9:128)

ع وء ى ش ز ضض ىغؤ ء

There had come to you a messenger from among you, it

grieves him that you are in pain, yearning for your benefit, to

the believers he is most kind and most merciful.

Allah said in the Quran (2:143)

ءش ط ـ ا

Surely Allah is most merciful to all people.



In both these verses Allahu ta’ala has used the word

“Raheem”. The first verse tells that the prophet is “Raheem”

and the other verse tells us that Allah is “Raheem”.

Is there a contradiction? No, because Allah is the Raheem in

absolute capacity, as no one made HIM Raheem while the

prophet is Raheem because of the bestowal of Allah. Prophet

is dependent on Allah for his attributes while Allah is

independent from all. This is the correct understanding of the

two verses.

The word Raheem is used in the Quran without theexplanation that I have given above but the Muslims are

expected to understand the meaning in the light of the

interpretation.

Why can’t we understand the word Imam al-Azam like-wise?

When used for Imam Abu Hanifa it means the Greatest Imam

of Islam who codified Fiqh for the umma while for the

prophet, it means the absolute Imam greater than all Imams

in every sense (leader of the entire creation).

Even Imam Dhahabi in Tazkirah al-Huffaz pg 167

mentions Imam Abu Hanifa as Imam Al-Azam.



The accusation unveils another attack to defame the greatest

Faqih of the Umma whose madhab Allahu ta’ala has kept

intact against all forms of propaganda.

The Division of Muslims because of Madhabs

or Anti-Madhabs!!

On Page 144 of Evolution of Fiqh ‘Disagreements among theSahaabah never led to disunity and division amongst them,

whereas, among later scholars of the Madh-hab, differences

evolved into disharmony among Muslims.”

The writer is accusing the madhabs for creating division.I do not deny that there may be people who use religiousconcepts to misuse or abuse religion to their personal benefitbut does that mean that the concept is wrong. Where is thelogic? Wrong concepts must be proven wrong from the Quranand Hadith, not by the use or abuse of the people. Firstly,they are accusing the Imams of making religious deductionsbased on opinions then to prove that madhabs create divisionthey quote the stories of some fanatics. They must never useanything apart from Quran and Hadith to prove their pointsince it would be against their own philosophy.

The real cause of divisions in the umma is mentioned below,

not a mere accusation but, as related by the hadith of the

blessed Messenger.



Imam Ibn Maja, Book of Fitn, chapter 17, hadith #3992, 3993.

The prophet said, “The Jews divided into 71 groups, one is inparadise and 70 are in hell. The Christians divided into 72groups, 71 are in hell and 1 is in paradise. By Allah in whose



hands is the soul of Muhammed, my nation will divide into 73groups, one is in paradise and 72 are in hell. They asked him

who are they?”(those in the group that is saved). It is the“Jama’at” (the group).”

Imam Abu Dawood in Sunan, Book of Sunna, hadith #4597.

Muawiya stood amongst us and said the prophet

stood amongst us and said, “ verily, before you from the people of the Book, divided into 72 groups and verily,this nation will divide into 73, 72 are in hell and one is in paradise and It is the “Jama’at” ( the group).”

Imam Ibn Majah, Kitab al-fitan, Chapter – As Sawad

Al-Aazam, Hadith # 3950



Hazrat Anas bin Malik reports that he heard the

prophet Say “ My umma will not agree on error, when

you see contradiction (it is) necessary for you to be with

Sawaadil Azam” . (The biggest group).

Imam Tirmidhi, Kitab al-Iman, hadith # 2641.

Abdullah ibn Umar reports that the prophet said…

“ Verily, Bani Israil divided into 72 groups and my

nation will divide into 73. All of them will be in the fire

except one group. They asked, “who is it Oh Messenger

of Allah. He said, “ What I am and My Companions are upon (sunna) .” The Sunna of the Prophet and the

Jama’at of the Sahaba = Ahlus Sunna wa Jama’ah.

Imam al-Tirmidhi reported in his Jami-us-Sahih

hadith # 2167

- on the authority of Ibn Umar (Allah be pleased with him)

from the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), whosaid:



"Verily Allah will not gather my Ummah (or he said the

Ummah of Muhammad) upon error and Allah's hand is

over the group and whoever dissents from them departs

to Hell."

Imam Tirmidhi reports in Jami – us-Sunan, hadith #2166.

Ibn Abbas reports tha t the messenger of Allah said,” the

hand of Allah is with the group.”

Imam al-Tirmidhi reported in his Jami-us-Sahih

hadith # 2165”

ىا اا ا ئ شا و ا ه زع زع غ رشع ض ا ج اؤ ؤ

To remain with the group is compulsory for you and beware

of separation (from the group) for devil is with the one and he



(devil) is away from the two. One who wishes for more share

of paradise it is obligatory (for to be in the Jamaat – the saved

group). One for whom good deed is pleasing and bad deed is

displeasing: is a Mumin (faithful).

This hadith explains the concept of Jama’at. Two is better

than one and devil is away from the more in number. The

saved group will be always more in number than the sects

which break away from the main group of Muslims.

Imam al-Tirmidhi in Sunan al-Tirmidhi: hadith # 2167

said:

"The explanation of al-Jama'ah according to the people of knowledge: They are the people of fiqh, knowledge and

Hadith."

Imam Tirmidhi who is an Imam of Hadith says that the Jama’at consists of the people of Fiqh and ilm and hadith.Here he separated the fiqh as a science separate from ilm(which is Quran) because he wants to explain that the fiqh isinclusive of Quran and Hadith and is not something foreign.The Jama’at must have all the three to be considered thegroup being mentioned in the hadith above.

To accuse the madhabs for the division of the Muslim umma

is utter lie and a complete covering of suspicious agenda. The

division as foretold in the numerous hadith of the prophet isnot due to the matters of fiqh but the matters pertaining to

the belief (aqeeda) of the Muslims. According to the classical

authorities of Islam the first group that falls in this division is

the Khawarij. The Khawarij was not a division of fiqh but they



deviated from the companions on the bases of belief (aqeeda)

and they even accused Hazrat Ali of shirk. According to them

the 4th righteous caliph became a non-muslim and they even

fought against him. This is the real cause of division amongthe umma. Even though the companions of the prophet were

divided on the issues of fiqh as in the case of Hazrat Ali and

Hazrat Ameer Muwawiya after the murder of Hazrat Usman,

the real cause of the misconception and instigations leading

to the clash of the Muslim armies were the conspiracies of the

Khawarij. They plotted in dividing the companions and

instilled misleading information on both sides.

In the entire history of the Islamic era there was no incident

of the Muslims fighting on issues of fiqh which led to the

bloodshed of the Muslims. On the other hand there were

numerous such groups which isolated from the majority,

main body of the umma. These groups accused the ‘sawad al-

azam’ of either shirk, bidah and haram just like the mentality of the khawarij. They also thought it was permissible to shed

the Muslim blood based on this accusation. This was the real

reason for the division of the umma and not fiqh madhabs.

The madhabs always thought that each madhab of fiqh was

right in their deduction of the fiqh matters and the 4

prevaling madhabs were on the path of truth. If you consider

the other madhabs to be correct according to their usool(principles) how would that create division? The evidence of

this leniency and acceptability among madhabs is also

established by the very question put forward by Mr.Bilal

Phillips and others deniers of madhabs that: how can a thing



be permissible and prohibited at the same time and both

these deductions to be correct? I will entertain this question

at the proper place later on, at present I am only making the

readers aware of the false propaganda that the madhabscreated division in the umma. There could be cases when the

fanatics of madhabs would have made unacceptable

statements about other madhabs due to the presence of

fanatics in each and every area of knowledge. But these were

insignificant and got brushed aside by the scholars of the

same madhabs whom they were fanatically favoring.

Imam Dhahabi in Tazirah al-Huffaz pg 167

mentioned the saying of Imam Shafii.

Isn’t this proof enough that the shafii scholars praised Imam Abu Hanifa and Imam Shafii himself declared that all scholars

of fiqh were children of Imam Abu Hanifa?

Imam Ibn Hajar Makki in Khairaat al-Hisaan pg 5

says….

ةؤ ذؤ و ه ذغا هو ذؤز ج ؤ



Imam Shafii said, ‘I asked Imam Malik about Imam Abu

Hanifa. Imam Malik declared the caliber of Imam Abu Hanifa

to Imam Shafii that if he claimed a pillar to be of gold he will

establish undeniable proof for it.’

This is the quality and superiority of his Ijtihad.

Why are these facts ignored and those who really created the

division and accused the whole Muslim umma of shirk and

bidah have become the claimants of the right path? The

Muslims must wake up in the face of these facts and realize

the innocence behind the masked face of neo-khawarij!!!

The Refutation of Wrong Allegations

1st Objection

Those who follow the Imams of Madhab in Fiqh are

accused of following the Imams without

understanding the evidence and the Quran ( surah

17: verse 36 is quoted as a proof).

The Quran says (17:36)

ه ظ ر و اا شجا غا

غ و ه ـؤ

Do not follow that of which you have no knowledge.



If you pay attention to the verses before and after verse 36 you

will come to know that Allahu ta’ala is mentioning the evils in

the society.

Verse 31 – ق وؤ ازر و صش

ز و وجيا

And do not kill your children for fear of poverty. We providefor them and for you. Indeed, their killing is ever a great sin.

Verse 32 – ضا اشر جع ءع و

Do not go near adultery. Indeed, it is ever an immorality and

is evil as a way.

Verse 33 – ك ـا ش زا ظا ازر ز

زا شغ ع ا و

Do not kill unjustly which Allah has forbidden, except by

right. And whoever is killed unjustly - We have given his heir

authority, but let him not exceed limits in [the matter of]

taking life. Indeed, he has been supported [by the law].

Verse 34 – ز ؤغ ج ؤ رشا از ز

اؤ غ و ا



Do not misuse orphan’s property except in the way that is

best, until he reaches maturity. And fulfill [every]

commitment. Indeed, the commitment is ever [that about

which one will be] questioned.

Verse 35 – زغا طغ اص زو ا ىا اؤ ش هإر

ؤغ

Be honest in measure when you measure, and weigh with aneven balance. That is the best [way] and best in result.

Verse 36 - See the verse quoted above. Do not follow that of

which you have no knowledge; for every act of hearing, or of

seeing or of (feeling in) the heart will be enquired into (on the

Day of Reckoning).

Verse 37 – إا ر ش جر إا قشر هؿ جا

Do not walk arrogantly.Indeed, you will never tear the earth

[apart], and you will never reach the mountains in height.

Now consider verse 36 again and see that Allahu ta’ala is

telling the people not to follow. Follow whom? In the

footsteps of those who perpetrate these evils because

everyone does not understand the result of their actions.



Then Allahu ta’ala mentions that following these evils will

only get you in trouble because your ear, eyes and heart will

have to answer for the evils done.

Where in the verse does it say that you must not follow the

trusted authorities of Islam in their Ijtihad? They are mis-

quoting parts of the verses with wrong application to confuse

the Muslims.

2nd Objection

On page 57 Mr. Bilal Phillips writes….” because thenumber of Sahaabah who settled there (Iraq) wassmall, Hadeeths were not nearly as available thereas in Hijaaz.”

This statement is supposed to create the background for the

next attack that Imam Abu Hanifa did ijtihad in the absence

of hadith.

Shaykh ul-Islam Muhammed Tahir al-Qadri writes in

“ Imam Abu Hanifa – Imam ul Aimmah fil- hadith ” - pg

333, Imam IBn Nujaym in Al-Bahru Al-Raiq in vol 1 Pg

126 writes….

ؤ ىا ضزع غش ض ا غخ

One thousand and five hundred of the Companions stayed in

Kufah and stayed six hundred in Qerqaysa.



Imam Asqalani in Hadi as-Sari (Muqaddima fath ul-

Bari Pg 479)

Shaykh al-Islam Muhammed Tahir al-Qadri in “Imam

Abu Hanifa Imam al-Aimmah fil hadith” - pg 349

writes…

ؤ شجا رش شضا ش ا ذ جا ىا ذ و ؤ اؤ زع ص ذؤ داش

ا اجا

”Imam Bukhari said,’ I went to Sham, Misr and Jazirah

2 times, to Basra 4 times, stayed in Hijaz for 6 years

and went to Kufa and Baghdad uncountable times with

the Muhadditheen.”

Imam Bukhari was collecting hadith for compilation. He wasnot compiling Fiqh. Why was he going to Kufa if there were

few hadith only? The statement of Imam Bukhari proves that

Kufa had the most hadith than most parts of the Islamic

world. Those who twist facts to suite their whimps – can they

ever be trusted as a scholar in Islam and what weight will

their writings carry?

3rd Objection



The Muslims believe that the madhabs are divinelyordained. Mr Bilal Phillips writes on page 7”. At thesame time he may be informed that there are threeother canonical schools, and that all four schools

are divinely ordained and infallible.”

There isn’t a Muslim on the face of this planet who ever

claimed such a thing. The fact that the direct students of

the Imam contradicted their Imams on various matters

in arriving at a legal decision proves that they never

supposed it to be divine.

The Muslims follow the madhabs on the trust of the

scholarship of the Imam. Trusting someone isn’t

divinity. All the later scholars who came later in the

generations of Islamic history followed the Principles of

their Madhabs and belonged to one of the 6 grades of

people that follow the madhabs. Those who had attained

the level of Ijtihad, in fact did ijtihad according to thesame principles and those who could not, merely

followed the fatwa of their madhabs. The Imams of

hadith followed the madhabs like Imam Nasai, Imam

Abu Dawood, Imam Tirmidhi, Imam Ibn Hajar Asqalani,

Imam Nawawi, Imam Gazali, Imam Suyuti, Imam

Fakhrud-deen Razi, and the whole Muslim umma

walked according to the decisions of their madhabs.Those who opposed the following of the madhabs (these

were always few in number) emerged at different times

in history and finally deviated into gross error. Just like

the hadiths of the prophet which has been mentioned in



the section “division in the umma” in which the prophet

said, ‘The biggest group’ is the saved group. Now those

who oppose and accuse the majority of the Muslims at

present and in the previous centuries are themselvesproving to be among the deviated sects. This is the real

meaning of the statement that if one does not adhere to

the madhabs then certainly that person is among the

cursed sects because the majority of the muslims had

always been in the madhabs except for the very early

generations who had numerous Mujtahids and the 4

madhabs had not been documented then. The 73 sects were told by the prophet, so it is in the fate of this

umma. Naturally so, the saved group is an ordainment

from the blessings of Allah which has continuous link to

every generation of Islam leading to the prophet, while

the sects themselves are cut-off and the evidence is in

their own claim that they are following the Quran and

the Sunna directly or that they are directly following the

first 3 generations. A person of understanding will never

accept these slogans at face value which is only meant to

confuse the people because they are hiding the fact that

they are minority sects and does not have the roots in

every generation of Islam.

They accuse the Muslims that they think the madhabs aredivinely ordained when the reality is that the muslims

believe as per the hadith that the saved group is a

promise of Allah through the urgency of the prophet’s



hadith and in reality an extension to the promise that

the Quran will be preserved by Allah himself.

4th Objection

“Madhabs are hard to explain to new converts,

therefore it is not practical.”

This is not the criteria for anything to be right or wrong.

Suppose a concept is hard to explain to a group of

people, does it mean that the concept must be trashed

like some groups think? No, the hard to explain excuse is

only existant from the perspective of the beholder. It

might not be as hard if the opposite view is also

explained. It must be borne in the minds of the muslims

(and anyone who is interested in learning Islam) that the

presence of 4 different madhabs have made the practice

of Islam easy for the people. A person is not expected to

practice on the legal deductions of all the madhabs at

the same time but he can choose any one madhab which

is easy for him and practice on it. How can this be hard?

Actually it is easier than practicing on something where

there is no option.5th Objection

Mr Phillips writes on page 7, “However, some of thedifferences from one school to another are



perplexing for the new Muslim convert. Forexample, common sense tells him that one cannot

be in a state of Wudoo while being out of it at thesame time. But according to one Madh-hab , certain

acts break Wudoo , while according to anotherMadh-hab those same acts do not. How can a givenact be both allowable (Halaal) and forbidden(Haraam) at the same time.”

The deductions of Islamic law was take from various sources,

namely, the Quran, the Sunna, The Ijmaa of sahaba, The

individual Opinion of sahaba, The companions of Madina and

Qiyas. In all these sources there are different kinds of

evidences in the form of explicit, implicit, clear , vague,

general, specific, absolute, restricted, abrogated and so forth.

Then there are various strengths of narrations together with

all the cases listed above. All of these were compressed by the

mujtahids in setting up the usul of their Ijtihads. Let us study

a situation to understand the principle of application. Thereare people so naïve to think that laws must be applied as a

blanket application.

A jurist looks at a situation and arrives at a judgement after

going through a number of evidences and principles. If the set

of principles employed by a jurist is different from the other

jurist then obviously the rulings will be different. Having

understood that if a person expects all the jurists to arrive at

the same ruling in all Islamic matters is very naïve and

unrealistic. It must be understood that the differences are in

matters which are known through Zanniyaat (sometimes

with multiple meanings and sometimes unclear, figurative



texts). There are no differences in the basic, foundational

commandments. The obligation to pray 5 times daily, the

declaration of shahada (witnessing of faith), the fasting in the

month of Ramdhan, the pilgrimage and the zakat are someexamples.

In cases of differences a person is supposed to follow the

rulings of a particular Mujtahid for the very reason that if he

decides to pick and choose from the different rulings what

will the criteria for his choice. The natural tendency is for the

person to pick the rulings which are the easiest and in doing

so the person has allowed his ego to decide for him the

matters of deen. If on the other hand he thinks that the

Mujtahids made a mistake then the person is claiming

capacity to do absolute Ijtihad which is complete non-sense.

If the jurists rule a matter and they arrive at different rulings

it is perfectly understood in the light of the above

information. To shed more light on the matter we will look atthe hadith of the prophet.

We say that 2 or more mujtahids can differ yet all can be

correct based on the hadith of Sahih Bukhari.

Imam Bukhari in his Sahih, Book of War-

Expedition, Chapter 32, 3rd hadith of the chapter

reports….



Ibn Umar said, the prophet said on the day of Ahzaab: “Noone among you prays `Asr except at Banu Quraida” . They encountered the time for Asr salat on the way, some said we

will not pray until we reach there (Banu Quraida) while somesaid but we will pray Asr as it wasn’t meant from us that way (it wasn’t prohibited). The matter was mentioned to theprophet and he did not scold any of them.

On the same issue one group of companions thought it was

permissible to pray before reaching Banu Quraida and the

other group who did not pray thought that they were

prohibited from praying until reaching Banu Quraida. The

same situation and the companions had 2 different ruling. To

one it was permissible but to the other it was prohibited. The

matter was mentioned to the prophet and he did not scold

any of them. Why can’t the rulings of two Mujtahid’s be

different and yet both accepted?

Another evident example to clarify that there can be more

than one method of doing the same act is the people praying



salat in masjid al-Haraam. They are standing on the 4 sides of

the Kaba opposite to each other. Can they say to each other

than your salat is not accepted because you are standing

opposite to me? Absolutely no, even though there are 4 waysof standing, their salat is accepted because they are all

following the command to “turn your face in the direction of

the Qibla”. Mr Phillips is putting 2 acts against each other to

prove his inability to understand the beauty of Islamic

principles and wisdom, here Allahu ta’ala has given 4 acts

contradicting each other yet all fully acceptable. The 4

madhabs are a synonymous of this example.

6th Objection

How can you follow the ijtihad of the Mujtahid who

has erred?

Imam Bukhari in his sahih, Book of holding on to theQuran and Sunna, chapter 21, brings the hadith.

ى ا ع ا ا ع س ؤ ا ش ز واشؤ إؤ ث ز ى ا اشؤ ةؤ ث

The prophet said, “Iza hakamal hakimu fa-(i) jtahada

summa asaba falahu ajrani wa iza hakama fa- jtahada

summa akhta-a fa lahu ajrun.” When a Mujtahid deduces a

legal ruling (hukm) and hits (the correct ruling) for him is 2



rewards and when he deduces and misses (the correct ruling)

for him is 1 reward.

Both the Mujtahid’s are rewarded but to decide who is right

and who is wrong is the decision of Allah and not on the ones

who are less than the caliber of Mujtahid themselves.

We say that the mujtahids can make mistakes in their

deductions but according to the prophet the mistakes (in this

case) is also the mercy of Allah.

The question is that why does Allahu ta’ala give reward on the

wrong ruling? The mujtahid who passed the judgement did it

in good trust and good intention. He did not think that the

ruling was wrong because if he knew that it was wrong why

would he rule like that in the first place? The decision of

whose deduction is right and whose is wrong is in the

knowledge of Allah and not on the people to decide. The

people trust the mujtahid and act on the ruling and Allahu

ta’ala will give reward according to your intention just like HE

rewarded both the mujtahids; the one who was right in the

sight of Allah and also to the one who erred in the sight of

Allah. The main focus in this matter is that Allahu ta’ala will

decide on the day of Judgement who was right and who was

not and it is not the matter to be decided by the non-

mujtahids like so many rampant today.

7th Objection



Pg 57 „Evolution of Fiqh‟ states “The few Hadeethswhich these Iraqi scholars considered accuratewere only accepted after the fulfillment of verystrict conditions. The natural result of this

development was that the Iraqi school of thoughtand its scholars depended more on reason andlogic than on the narrated Sunnah of the Prophet.”

On page 74 Mr Bilal Phillips writes…. “That is,Ijmaa‟ of the Sahaabah was given precedence overthe personal opinions of Abu Haneefah and hisstudents in their deduction of Islamic law.”

It must be clear to the readers that the hadith of the prophet(in its technical sense) and the ijmaa are two technical termsbut they exist in the same form as hadith. How is it possiblethat Imam Abu Hanifa did not have authentic hadiths and yetthe ijma of the sahaba was available to him? Don’t both of these reports reach through the same type of transmission? If he mostly used his opinion then it means that most of the

hadith did not reach him and also the ijma of sahaba mustnot reach him, likewise. But it looks as if the ijmaa reachedhim and not the hadith – pretty absurd logic.

Then the next point is that if he preferred ijma over opinionthan why is the accusation that his madhab is based onopinion? He must not be called ‘Ahlur- Rayi’ but ‘AhlulIjmaa”.

Thirdly, how can the hadith reaching the Kufans were mostly unauthentic and the ijma reports that reached them wereauthentic? Since both these reports reach through the same

way of transmission, both must be mostly sound or both must



be mostly unsound. The defamers of madhabs have dividedthe hadith and ijma reports making one unauthentic and theother authentic.

The fact of the matter is that Imam Abu Hanifa followed a

principle for deducing the legal ruling. Imam Abu Hanifa

chose the Quran over Hadith (based on the clarity of the

subject discussed) then he chose the hadith over the ijma and

finally he chose the ijma over opinion. If any matter was

settled at a higher source than he did not resort to a lesser

source. This is a sound principle based on the hadith of Muaz

bin Jabal below.

This hadeeth has been reported in Sunan Tirmidhi – Kitab al-Ahkaam , hadith number 1327 andSunan Abu Dawood, Kitab al-Aqziyatu , hadithnumber 3592.

The Prophet (sallallaahu àlayhi wa sallam) sent Muàadh

(radiyallaahu ànhu) to Yemen and asked him: "How will you judge the cases?" He replied: "I will judge according to theBook of Allaah". "But if you do not get anything there, what

will you do?" the Prophet (sallallaahu àlayhi wa sallam)asked. He said: "I will refer to the sunnah of the Prophet(sallallaahu àlayhi wa sallam)". "But if you do not get it eventhere, what will you do?" the Prophet (sallallaahu àlayhi wasallam) asked again. He replied: " Ajtahidu RaYii- I willexercise my judgment." Hearing this, the Prophet (sallallaahuàlayhi wa sallam) patted Muàadh (radiyallaahu ànhu) onthe shoulder and said: "Praise be to Allaah who has guided theMessenger of His Messenger to what pleases His Messenger."



8th Objection

Pg 127 “Evolution of Fiqh “….In fact, when the„Abbaasid Caliph Abu Ja‟far al- Mansoor (reign 759-755 CE) and Haroon ar-Rasheed (reign 786-809CE) requested that Maalik allow them to make thiscollection of Hadeeths, called al-Muwatta‟, theofficial authority in the state on the Sunnah, herefused on both occasions, pointing out that theSahaabah had scattered throughout the land and

had left behind many Hadeeths not found in hiscollection. Thus, Maalik turned down theopportunity to have his Madh-hab made the officialMadhhab of the Islamic state and in so doing, heset an example that others might have been wiseto follow.

Imam Malik did not want his books to be enforced on the

whole of Arabia since Imam Malik knew that one madhabcannot be binding upon the people due to the unavailability

of all the hadith in one place. This was the situation of hadith

availability 1200 years ago. Later in the book the author is

proposing that there should be a single madhab since now

they have all the hadith available in their hands. Do they

know how many hadith existed at that time and how many we

have available now? We will address this question later on,separately. Look at 11th Objection for full explanation. At

present the concept (single madhab) which Mr Bilal Phillips is

nullifying, he goes on to enforce the same in the form of

unifying the madhabs based on flawed logic.



9th Objection

Pg 126 „Evolution of Fiqh‟…. The Imaam (AbuHanifa) was reported by his student Zufar to havesaid, “It is forbidden for anyone who does not knowmy proofs to make a ruling according to mystatements, for verily we are only humans we maysay something‟s today and reject it tomorrow.”

Pg 127 „Evolution of Fiqh‟…… Ibn „Abdul-Barr

reported that Maalik once said, “Verily I am only aman, I err and am at times correct; so thoroughlyinvestigate my opinions, them take whateveragrees with the Book and the Sunnah, and rejectwhatever contradicts them.”

Pg 128 „Evolution of Fiqh‟ …The Imaam (Shafii)also stressed a very important point concerningpersonal opinion versus the Sunnah. He said, “TheMuslims (of my time) were of a unanimous opinionthat one who comes across an authentic Sunnah of Allaah‟s messenger (s.w.) is not allowed todisregard it in favor of someone else‟s opinion.”

The truth of the matter is that no one denies the sayings of

the blessed Imams but the problem is that of understanding.

To whom were these Imams addressing? To common

Muslims like us who don’t even know the fundamentals of

Faith or to their students who were also mujtahids in their

own rights. It is a duty of a mujtahid to follow the sources

directly. These statements are not applicable for the one who



has not reached the grade of ijtihad. A mujtahid is higher in

caliber than several Phd professors who had had done thesis

on every concept of Islam. How can this be compared to a

common Muslim? This would be sheer ignorance. Again thestatements are misquoted by the deniers of madhabs to

confuse the simple Muslims.

10th Objection

Mr Bilal Phillips writes on pg 70 “The Sunnah in its

entirety was also collected and recorded in books of Hadeeth by the end of this stage.”

This statement is meant to indicate that the scholars of today

can do ijtihad in all matters themselves because all the Sunna

is recorded.

Even if it is believed that the Sunna was recorded in its

entirety which is highly unlikely due to the hadith of sahihBukhari mentioned below.

Sahih Bukhari – Beginning of Creation

ا ػ ش :ع آ ا ج ا ،ا ؤ ص ا ؤ ز كا ء شجإ

غ غ ک ،ص. The companion Umar said: “the prophet stood amongst us and

told us everything from the beginning of creation up until the



time when the people of paradise will enter paradise and the

people of hell will enter hell. Whoever memorized it (that

much) was saved and whoever forgot it that (much) was

forgotten.”

Sahih Muslim - Kitab Al-Fitan wa Ashrat As-Sa`ah

ا ػ ؤ ش :ا ع ا شا ع آ .ض ،ش ا دشؼ ز ج شجا

شجا .دشؼ ز ج ض ،شا شجا. ش ج ز شذ اظ ،إج :

ؤ إ

Amr b. Akhtab reported: Allah's Messenger led us in the dawnprayer and then mounted the pulpit and addressed us until it

was (time for the) noon prayer. He then came down the pulpitand observed prayer and then again mounted the pulpit andagain addressed us until it was time for the 'Asr prayer. Hethen again came down and observed the prayer and againmounted the pulpit and addressed us until the sun was set.He informed us about everything that had happened in thepast and what will happen in the future. The most learned of us is the one who saved the most information.”

Is it humanely possible that whatever the prophet said fromDawn until dusk was memorized by the companions?

Just for the sake of argument if we believe that all Sunna were

recorded then the next question is that: did all of those



recording reach us? It is a natural phenomenon that the

original writings will decrease as they get destroyed but the

new writings will emerge. It is clearly explained by this

example ,that suppose 1000 years from today there were 1000books on Islamic subjects. What are the chances that those

same 1000 books are available today? Maybe 100 will survive

the onslaught of time. But it is very much possible that today

there are 1 000 000 books on Islamic subjects. What would

you call that? An increase of knowledge or the decrease of

knowledge! The contemporary knowledge increased but the

original knowledge was not transmitted fully to thesucceeding generations.

Where are all the hadith that were recorded? Even Imam

Bukhari’s entire knowledge of hadith is not available today let

alone all the hadith of the prophet. How can a person do

absolute ijtihad in such a case?

11th Objection

On pg 74 Mr Bilal Phillips writes,” In Hanafi

madhab a sahih hadith is not enough to be taken

as a legal proof because the sahih hadith has to be

mashoor hadith in order to be taken as proof.”

On the same page Mr Bilal Phillips again writes

that “Imam Abu Hanifa took ijma as proof over his

own opinion.”



How is it possible that Imam Abu Hanifa is rejecting sahih

hadith as proof and at the same time he is taking ijma over his

opinion as proof? Is Sahih hadith of the prophet greater than

ijma or is ijma greater than sahih hadith? Mr Phillips istwisting things around to degrade the principles adopted by

the Imams. Imam Abu Hanifa never rejected any sahih hadith

of the prophet. How can he when he is taking even the ijma or

a single statement of a sahabi in the absence of ijma? The

mutawatir hadiths were given the same legal status as the

verse of the Quran in terms of its reliability called Qati-yaat.

All it means is that whatever ruling can be derived by the verse of the Quran if it is clear in evidence (Suboot) the same

ruling will be derived by the mutawatir hadith if it is clear in

evidence (suboot). The sahih hadith which is less than

mutawatir called ahad will not carry the same legal position.

Why is Mr Phillips twisting the principles of Hanafi Fiqh to

prove is agenda?

12th Objection

On page 74 , Mr Phillips writes , “ Imam Abu Hanifa

chose one opinion of the sahaba if there were many

opinions on the subject and in the absence of Ijma

of sahaba on the subject.” On page 51 of the book he writes…”Only one Madh-hab existed during the period of the RighreousCaliphs.



On page 80, Mr Phillips again writes,” ImaamMaalik gave full weight to the opinions of theSahaabha, whether they were conflicting or inagreement, and included them in his book of

Hadeeth, al-Muwatta‟.

Then on page 141 Mr Bilal Phillips says that “Ibnal-Qaasim, who was among the main students of Imaam Maalik, said, “I heard Maalik and al-Layth

both say the following concerning the differencesamong the Sahaabah: „People say there is leewayfor them in it, but it is not so; it was a case of

wrong and right rulings.”

If Mr Phillips is correct that all the companions followed a

single madhab then how is it possible that there were many

opinions of the companions for Imam Abu Hanifa to choose

from? Where did Imam Malik get the conflicting opinions of

the companions since according to Mr Bilal Phillips there was

one madhab at the time of the 4 Khulafa Rashideen?

And why did Imam Malik gather all the conflicting opinions

of the sahaba in his al-Muwatta and gave them full weight if it

was a matter of right and wrong? He should have gathered

only the right opinions and given them full weight. Why did

he also give full weight to wrong opinions of the companions

as per page 141 of Mr Bilal Phillip’s book? According to MrBilal Phillips disagreement is not mercy and is wrong.

When people start to make their ideologies from isolated

statements they deviate grossly from the truth. All these



contradictions in the meaning is due to selective statements

by Mr Bilal Phillips trying to prove that different opinions are

division which is totally incorrect according to the evidences I

have presented (by the grace of Allah).

This proves that there were many opinions of the companions

available on the same subject as Imam Abu Hanifa and all

other Imams had the knowledge of them.

13th Objection

On page 72 Mr Phillips writes, Imam Abu Hanifa

studied for 18 years under his teacher Hammad bin

zayd who was the greatest scholar of hadith of his

time.”

On page 75 Mr Phillips writes,” Iraqi scholars hadfew hadith due to less number of sahaba in Iraq.”

First of all Imam Abu Hanifa was not the student of Hammad

bin Zayd but he was the student of Hammad bin Abu

Sulemaan. Imam Hammad Bin Zayd was the student of Imam

Abu Hanifa and was among the trusted Hafiz of Hadith of histime.

Secondly Imam Abu Hanifa himself is the one who for the

first time codified the knowledge of fiqh so he must have



learn fiqh from Hammad bin Abu Sulemaan in the form of

hadith of the prophet.

Imam Abu Hanifa studied under Imam Hammad bin Abu

Sulemann, he studied hadith from him. If there were few

hadith in Iraq then how come it took Imam Hammad 18 years

to teach him only a few hadith? It shows that there was a

huge compilation of hadith with the Iraqi scholars and Mr

Phillips is contradicting himself.

14th Objection

On page 103 Mr Phillips writes, „the hadith were

complied after the 4 madhabs.‟

Here Mr Phillips is implying that since the hadith were

compiled later the madhabs did not have access to all the

hadith.

This is completely incorrect. Imam Malik who is the founder

of Maliki madhab himself compiled the book of hadith called

“al - Muwatta”, Musannaf Abdur -Razzaq, Ibn Shaiba

(d. 319) , Ibn al-Mundir (d.319), Musnad Ahmad bin

Hanbal, over 80 Musnads have been mentioned by

Kattani in his book ar-Risalah al-Mustatrafah. Pg

86 M.M.Azami in Studies in hadith methodology and Literature.

Secondly, the Imams who compiled the hadith did not hear

them directly from the prophet. It was transmitted to them

through chains. The scholars who were the narrators of these



hadith were the taba-een and the atba-taba-een and they were

present at the time of the Imams of Fiqh also. Therefore the

hadith itself was present in the time of the 4 Imams of Fiqh

but it was compiled later. How does compilation of hadith ata later time affect the usage of those same hadith before the

compilation? In fact, the Imams of Fiqh had the same hadith

through a shorter chain than the Imams who compiled the

hadith because the Imams of hadith came at a later

generation. Therefore the rulings of the Imams of fiqh carry

more weight due to their nearness to the companions.

15th Objection

On page 104 Mr Phillips writes,”The Imams of Fiqh

based some of their rulings on weak hadith. For

example Imam Ahmad bin Hambal ruled that

vomiting breaks wudoo and the hadith of Ibn Majahon this subject is daif.”

This is like matching apples to oranges. Did Imam Ahmad Bin

Hanbal say that he used the hadith of Ibn Majah to derieve

the ruling? Imam Ibn Majah came after Imam Ahmad bin

Hambal. Why does Imam Ahmad need the hadith of Ibn

Majah? Even if Imam Ahmad used the same text of hadith for

his ruling, he did not have the chain of Ibn Majah. Imam Ahmad will have his own chain because he is before Ibn

Majah. Why does the weak chain of Ibn Majah even affect

Imam Ahmad’s ruling?



Secondly, does the weak chain of any narration means that

there is no other chain available? Who arrived at this

conclusion? Weak chain means the weakness of that specific

chain only, not the weakness of Matn (text) so another chain which is stronger will remove the weakness from the weak

narration.

16th Objection

Mr Bilal Phillips writes on page 73,” Because of their leaning towards hypothetical Fiqh whichoften introduced an issue with the question, “whatif so and so happened?”, they became known asthe what-iffers or Ahl ar-Ra‟I (the opinion people).”

It must be clearly understood that the ahl ar-Rai technically

means the people of opinion but the practical meaning of theterm means the mujtahids who used their opinions inobtaining Qiyas as a means in deriving ruling in the absenceof a specific textual proof. But the “what-iffers” is notsynonymous to ahlul Rai and this proves an internalopposition towards the subject in question.

Allahu ta’ala says in the Quran (49:11)

ةإ اضر

And do not call (others) by (offensive) nick-names.



In the same verse (49:11) Allah says …

شغ

Do not ridicule (mock) another group.

According to Collins English Dictionary – Complete andUnabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998,

2000, 2003….Mockery means“a derisive action or comment”. According to thesaurus -

mockery - a composition that imitates or misrepresents

somebody's style, usually in a humorous way.

Does Allahu ta’ala use hypothetical questions to guide us?

The Quran in (67:20). Is there anyone that can muster an

army to help you against the Kind Lord?

The Quran in (67:21). Is there anyone that can provide

sustenance if Allah hold it back?

The answer to both these questions is “no”. These are

situations which have not happened, yet Allahu ta’ala is

mentioning them to provide a serious thought upon the

consequenses of such thoughts. The warning is supposed to

guide us. Here the hypothetical situations are used as a tool of

guidance.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/_/misc/HarperCollinsProducts.aspx?English








Likewise, the hypothetical situations created by Fiqh scholars

are meant to provide us with ready-solution in the event of

such incident. This is the greatness of the in-sight of such

great scholars. You go to a doctor who treats your sickness with medication, a new sickness appears for which he does

not have a medicine. Suppose a doctor who has prepared

medication for all sickness before the advent of it. Will you

criticize his knowledge or recognize his efforts and

contribution? We have to clear our minds off hostile thoughts

against our well-wishers.

17th Objection

On page 115 Mr Phillips writes „The schools of Fiqhwere completely formed and the minutest of details worked out. The laws for what hadoccurred, as well as what might occur, were already

deduced and recorded due to the extensivedevelopment of speculative Fiqh. This left littleroom for Ijtihaad and originality. As a result,they‟re developed and over dependence on theworks of earlier scholars of the Madhhabs”.

It must be understood that even though the scholars of laterperiod depended greatly on the work of the earlier scholars it

does not mean that there was no work left for them. If someone thinks like that, his thinking must not be used as apretext to nullify the contribution of the ingenious scholars.The truth of the matter is that “the lame” use this argumentfor their idle mentality and the deniers use it to break the link



of the umma with their past rich-understanding of Islam. Thepro-active, dynamic scholars of Islam who understoodmatters in all its perspectives and comprehensiveness neverdenied the madhabs and never set idle. There are and will benumerous issues faced by the umma at present and in timesto come. They are ready to pounce on the matter and presentsolution to the suffering Muslims. They don’t start cuttingtheir own roots but get all their water, minerals and energy from it.They did ijtihad at the level of mujtahid fil mas’ala using

the usul and methods of their Imams in novel situations.

18th Objection

Mr Phillips writes on page 115,”Some unqualifiedindividuals began to claim the right to makeijtihaad in order to twist the religion to suit theirwishes. Consequently, many incompetent scholars

began making rulings, which misguided the masseson a number of issues. In the ensuring confusion,the reputable scholars of the day tried to closethe door of Ijtihaad in order to protect theSharee‟ah from being tampered with.”

Phillips then mentions names like Jamal ad-Deen Aghani,

Muhammed Abduh and Rasid Rida who opposed taqleed and

favoured independent ijtihad.

The point is that, those who opposed Taqleed at any time in

history used the slogan of ‘return to sunna.’ The slogan was



apparently true but the motives behind were misleading.

These people despite the apparent slogan misguided the

masses as proven by Mr Phillips own quotation. My concern is

that Mr Phillips and Party also call for the ‘return to sunna’and ijtihad and unification of madhab: what is the difference

between them and him? Who will draw the line and where

will the line be drawn? How do the masses know that Mr

Phillips is not misguiding them also? According to Mr Phillips

and Party’s own definition of taqleed, if we accept Mr Phillips

writings (with all the contradiction and misleading

information which I have already proven by Allah’s Help) onthe face value we are also doing his taqleed. And if we dig the

matter we will see that all groups who never belonged to the

majority of muslims, whom the prophet gave glad-tidings of

Allah’s Protection against misguidance, they flew the flag

against madhabs always caused fitna and disturbance in the

umma. At this juncture Mr Phillips would want us to do his

taqleed and just accept his writing with all the ideological

contradiction that it contains.

Those who claimed full ijtihad with the slogan of Quran and

Sunna without the qualification of the Mujtahid as outlined in

the earlier pages and with Bukhari and Muslim Slogan had to

end up following their whimps and desires. Naturally enough

the exponents of Taqleed did not do taqleed of the Mujtahidsbut ended up doing taqleed of their ego in the absence of

above qualifications.



19th Objection

On page 118 Mr Phillips writes that ImamShawkani said that Taqleed is haram.

The blanket statement means that Ijtihad is fard for everyone.

Is it possible that every Muslim can do ijtihad having all the

required qualifications? What would that do to Mr Phillips

one madhab ideology because the number of madhabs would

be same as the number of people doing ijtihad? Not 4, but

millions.

The mujtahid al-Mutlaq does ijtihad because he is capable

and he cannot do taqleed to another. Those who are not

capable it is necessary to do taqleed of the Mujtahid and this

cannot be haram as proven throughout this booklet. Their

understanding of taqleed is false and their cover-up is foolish.

For example: a witness in front of Judge giving his statement.The witness is himself the proof for the case at hand but what

is the proof that the witness is a true witness. The witness

takes an oath and the Judge accepts it. The acceptance of

witness upon oath is not a true evidence but a trust only.

Anti-Madhabs does not include this under taqleed even

though the fits the exact definition and description. Why is

the cover-up in case of following the Imams when the people

follow the Imam based on the trust of the Imam’s

Scholarship? If trust was the base of acceptability in the case

of witness why not in the case of those who uphold the trust

of Islam in the form of understanding Quran and Sunna?



This is the correct explanation of the matter free from all

biasness.

20th Objection

On page 122 Mr Phillips writes, „The four Madh-habs became totally incompatible and the MuslimUmmah was virtually split into four religioussects.‟

This is another cover-up. The adherents of the 4 madhabsnever considered each other to be from different sects butconsidered themselves to be from Ahlus Sunna wal

Jama‟a. The prophet mentioned 73 divisions in the umma asmentioned from the hadith in the earlier pages. If Fiqh wasthe reason for division and there are 4 surviving fiqh madhabsthen the hadith will become misleading. There has to 73madhabs for the sects to be formed, all told.The sects are not the madhabs of fiqh but the sects are(deviated) off-shoots of the umma who have aqeeda (belief)different from the biggest group (Al Sawad al Azam). And

these are the Rafizi-shia, Mutazila, Qadriyya, Khawarij, Wahabis or pseudo-salafis just to name a few. They alldeclared the biggest group of Muslims to be non-muslims.

21st Objection



On page 125 Mr Phillips writes , „ Little do theyrealize that their preference of their Imaam‟sopinion over the Prophet‟s (s.w.) statement is itself in total opposition to the stand taken by their own

Imaam, and is in fact bordering on a form of Shirkknown as “Shirk fee Tawheed al-Ittibaa.‟

Mr Bilal Phillips and his party are in the habit of flashingstriking statements to prove their inability to understand timeand again. Here he accuses the majority of the Muslims, thescholars included, to indulge in shirk since 1100 years. Thisfact is enough to raise a flag upon his concept of shirk and his

meek understanding of Islam.The presence of a hadith is the only criteria for ijtihad or theprecedence of Quran over hadith or the application of nasikand mansuk, the muqqad and mutaq, khass and Aam , Asbabal-Nuzul and so on. Why is he not mentioning these things inits proper perspective? If the previous scholars did not havethe hadith and we do now, the anti-madhabs must not evenconsider that hadith to be a hadith since the isnaad (chain)

would have to be from the previous generation who is beinglabelled as mushrik by the anti-madhabs ( due to theirtaqleed to Imams).



22nd Objection

The unification of the Madhabs!

The clarification of the above statement is synonymous to theclaim that we now know more than Imam Abu Hanifa, ImamMalik, Imam Shafii and Imam Ahmad bin Hambal combined.Based on what grounds?? Based on the fact that now we have

with us some 5635(*) sahih hadith of Bukhari and Muslim!This claim was better suited for Imam Bukhari himself whoknew 100,000 sahih hadith while the 4 madhabs had been

formed in his time also. He never spoke of unifying madhabs.I think that madhabs must really unite their efforts to crushthe fitna caused by the small sects today and tomorrow.

(*) According to M.M.Azami in Studies in Hadith Methodologyand Literature… “The number of hadith in his book (bukhari)is 9082 but without repetition it goes down to 2602. Thisnumber does not include ahadith mauqufah and the sayings

of successors - Pg 89. According to the numbering of Muhammad Fuwad Abdul Baqi of Sahih Muslim, it contains3033 ahadith. His method of numbering is not based on isnad system -Pg 96.

Allahu ta’ala in his ultimate wisdom has protected Islam in

the form of preserving the Quran. The majority of the

Muslims being misguided at any time in history would be thedenial of Allah ta’ala’s promise. The scholars of previous have

contributed at such expanse that the denial will only raise the

curtains of the conspirators. Such is the value of their work in

the sight of Allah.



May Allah keep their honor in our hearts just as their work

had been honored by the pages of Islamic History! They

were the great followers of the greatest prophet. May

Allah unite us with them in His presence just as HE has

united the umma upon their teachings! May Allah bless

us through the light of the Prophet, forever! Ameen!

Abu-Maryam Ilyas Shareef in Shawwal 27 , 1431 (2010)

refutation of the evolution of fiqh of mr bilal phillips

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