Q540 :The Prophet is known to have said in his
farewell speech: “I have left with you two things which ensure that you
will never be in error if you hold fast to them: Allah’s revelations
and my Sunnah.” Is it not true that this statement means that we only
need to follow the Qur’an and Hadiths in order to ensure that we follow
the right path? If so, what need is there to follow a school of
thought? Some of my friends argue that a person who does not follow one
of the [four] schools of thought violates Islamic teaching. Please
explain.
A540 : You have quoted the statement by the Prophet
in his farewell speech correctly. Moreover, it is a basic principle of
Islam that every Muslim must follow the Qur’an and the Sunnah. This is
indeed the practical meaning of the declaration that one believes in
the Oneness of Allah and the message of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon
him). As you realize, it is this declaration that brings a person into
the fold of Islam. As such, every Muslim is required to follow the
Qur’an and the Sunnah. If he does not, he is bound to be in error and
he will go astray. Some people seem to think that if they are to
follow the Qur’an and the Sunnah correctly, they have to abandon
schools of thought and indeed all the work of scholars over the
centuries. This is a very mistaken notion. Indeed, the schools of
thought and the work of other scholars point for us the way to
following the Qur’an and the Sunnah. You may realize that in many
cases, the Qur’an and the Sunnah give us general principles without
explaining the practical way of following them. The Sunnah may provide
details of those principles, but then you need to know the ruling
concerning every point of detail. Take for example the case of prayer.
Allah has repeatedly said in the Qur’an that Muslims should attend
regularly to their prayers. There is nothing in the Qur’an to suggest
that we have to pray in a particular fashion or five times a day. We
rely on the Sunnah to provide these details. We know that the Prophet
has said: “Offer your prayers in the manner in which you have seen me
pray.” This Hadith gives us a practical example for the fulfillment of
Allah’s order to pray. However, it is important to know what is
obligatory in prayer and what is renetmended. Do we have, for example,
to read the Fatihah in every rak’ah or not? Do we have to do one bow or
two prostrations in every rak’ah? Or is it possible to have the
prostrations for all rak’ahs at the end of the prayer, rather than
standing up and prostrating oneself in every rak’ah? What happens if
one misses out a small part of prayer? What he should do if he cannot
remember how many rak’ahs he has already netpleted? To know the answers
to all these, we have Hadiths and reports by the Prophet’s netpanions.
Muslim scholars have studied all these details over the centuries and
have clarified what a person should do at every point in his prayer,
and indeed in all situations in life. They addressed the task of
relating Hadiths to practical situations and deducting from the Qur’an
and the Hadiths rulings concerning matters of detail. If one is to
abandon all schools of thought, he is simply abandoning the long
heritage of Islamic scholarship which has helped Muslims over the
centuries. He is like one who suffers from a particular illness. Rather
than going to a specialized doctor who has spent years pursuing his
studies and specialization, and who has treated a large number of
people, this sick person goes to a book shop and buys several books on
medicine and starts to read about diseases and illnesses. His aim is to
try to determine what illness he has and how to treat it. I need not go
into the details of what may happen to him as a result, but it is
obvious that he could easily be mistaken about his illness and take the
wrong medicine which aggravates his condition instead of curing it. If
a person does not want to follow a school of thought to the opinion of
any scholar, he is actually setting himself a task of determining the
Islamic ruling concerning every point of detail, by referring to the
Qur’an and the Hadith. He does not know the rules of deduction and he
does not have sufficient knowledge to relate different Hadiths which
touch on each particular condition. He cannot establish which Hadith is
authentic and which is doubtful. As a result, he leaves himself open to
netmitting grave errors. I have explained that to follow a particular
school of thought and adhere to it strictly is neither required nor
practical. Moreover, it is not done by almost all people. He who has
limited Islamic knowledge actually follows the school of thought of the
scholar he consults. A scholar normally does not follow a single school
of thought, but chooses opinions and verdicts from different schools of
thought on the basis of the supporting evidence of each ruling. If he
is convinced that the point of one school is more strongly supported,
he chooses that. The next minute he may choose an opinion from a
different school of thought. What I have tried to explain is that
schools of thought cannot be placed in a position of contrast with
following the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Indeed, they are methods of
following the Qur’an and the Sunnah. No one can claim that by following
them, he abandons Islamic teachings. Indeed, by following them he
actually follows Islamic teachings.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )