Letters to the Editor

Q. You are much more learned in the knowledge of Islam than any layman like me. As I am a layman, I have to turn to the Scholars for knowledge and do taqleed of them until I become a scholar myself.

YMD

This is the primary error that leaves you in limbo. Unless someone is in a “long-distance away in a village,” with little or no access to a town, that she has little option but to follow the most learned and pious person of the village – even if he is a non-scholar.

In contrast, in a town, no one should oppose Islam by following a local or a TV or Net scholar. For townsmen, taqleed of a scholar is disallowed, assuming that he is truly a scholar.

Q. I come across a scholarly individual and follow him. Then along comes a friend who shows some ahadith and some fiqh and advises that what I am following is wrong and what his scholar says is correct. I see his point is, indeed, valid and so I change my scholar. Then this entire process gets repeated again and again until I am back with the first scholar. Now I am very insecure. And I am totally confused – confused by the accusations and counter accusations of all the groups of “Muslim scholars” at each other.

YMD

How could you become a mujtahid, a specialist in religious affairs, and an authority in fiqh matters – to decide by yourself, about who is a religious authority that you could follow? What were the parameters that you used? Did you have any parameters, except for your senses, feelings, and sentiments?

If you used your faculty of decision, and chose from a list of builders, for the construction of your house, then, anyone you chose would turn out to be a dupe, because, all of them are dupes, or unqualified, or inexpert, but for a pin in a bundle of hay.

So, if the house begins to fall in six months, wasn’t it a straw that you had picked up?

Q. Are they all correct? Are they all misguided?

YMD

If all of them guided you to themselves, then they are all incorrect, and, misguided too.

Q. Are the Wahhabis purely politically motivated and, hence, not to be trusted?

YMD

A question that was to be asked before the choice fell on them.

Q. Are the Barelvis more unreliable?

YMD

Most.

Q. Where do the Hanafis, the Malikis, Hanbalis, the Sufis, the, the Ahle Hadees, the Ahle Qur’an, the Munkir of Hadeeth, etc. etc. ad nauseam go wrong and where do they go right?

YMD

Categories first, second, and third of the above, do not, as school, go wrong, when they issue opinions of their madh-hub, and go wrong when they issue their personal opinions.

Category four does not exist today except in pseudo form.

Category five is trustworthy as a madh-hub in matters of doctrines and rituals alone. Their Fiqh involving interactions awaits compilation and codification that will, perhaps, not happen. Mujtahids alone of this madh-hub might be followed. Lower order scholars of this madh-hub may be ignored.

As for the last two categories, they are Firaq (sects) – two of the seventy-three.

Q. How can one ever be really sure? They have access to all the books that I can never hope to even see, much less appreciate and judge the fine technical nuances of the points of argument put forth.

YMD

Answers to the above are in points as follows:

1. You can be sure if you followed one of the four madh-hubs.
2. The so-called scholars that you refer to, themselves do not have access to the source books.
3. As for seeing the books, you could do that in a good library, and we advise you do that because seeing the huge volumes of the madhaahib against the booklets and pamphlets of the non-madhaahib with your own eyes will increase your confidence in them, and re-direct your criticism against the lower order scholars and street preachers.
4. With regard to judging the finesse of renowned scholars of the past, you may not be able to do so, so why worry? After all, given the equations of astronomical constants, you (or we) will not be able to discover the rough points, let alone the finer, so, why attempt, if worry is the outcome?

Q. I am at a loss to know where I stand. What is the Truth?

YMD

What you stand on, is the Truth. Now, remain on the madh-hub prevalent in your society.

Q. And where is it? Is the Qur’an really all that one needs? Or is it the Qur’an together with the Hadith? Or is it the Qur’an together with the Sahih Hadith and not the da’eef ones? Or do two da’eef Hadith make themselves as strong as one Sahih?

YMD

Those who judged that a hadith is saheeh or da`eef, or whatever of the dozens of kinds, followed one of the four madh-hubs. If you accepted their classification, you will be a muqallid. But if you did not accept their classification, you would be at a complete loss. So, what will you do, if you decide to be a ghayr muqallid?

Q. Or is it the Qur’an, the Hadith, the fiqh, and taqleed of any one scholar? Then which scholar?

YmD

No scholar, but a whole madh-hub, one of the four in all matters.

Q. What does Allah T’aala expect from the likes of me?

YMD

Study the Qur’an in its language; take help of the Hadith, but stay a muqallid in all legal matters – until you have become a mujtahid yourself, which you are strongly invited to become.

Q. If it is taqleed then where I am better than a Hindu (as I would be akin to if I do taqleed of the Shia Imams or Sheikul Islam Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri Sahab)? Or a Christian? They all have flaws and they all have convincing points of argument.

YMD

How could you call someone a Sheikhul Islam, and yet add, “they all have flaws?” At all events, taqleed of a madh-hub in fiqh matters is the answer; the rest do not matter whatever they say or do. Along with Qur’an and Hadith, add to your list of study, life of the Prophet and those of the first three generations of Islam (the Salaf). Your list of flaws that you see now in the people who cast their nets, will increase monumentally.

Q. Does not all this make my religion very dicey? Heads – I go to Jannah. Tails – hell. I find it all extremely terrifying. I completely and from the bottom of my heart believe in La ialaha illalah Muhammadar rasoolallah. I believe the Qur’an is the word of Allah t’aala. Then I am stumped. And I don’t know where to go from there. I am not certain if I have been able to convey my distress unambiguously enough.

YMD

When a man refuses to accept authorities, despite knowing them, in religion or other affairs, and takes things in his own, he is bound to be stumped and distressed.

Q. I thank you with utmost humility and from my heart for your kind perusal. I pray that Allah T’aala reward you handsomely for your kindness.

YMD

There is no need to thank us for our kindness because we are yet to demonstrate it.

Synopsis:

For you and for those of the young men on whom nets are cast.

Abu Dharr arrived at Mina during the caliphate of `Uthman (ra). He was told that `Uthman did four rak`ah of Prayers. He responded angrily. He said, “I did two rak`ah with the Prophet, with Abu Bakr and with `Umar (ra). How could `Uthman do four?” Then he got up and did his prayers: four rak`ah. He was asked, “How come you criticized but didhat you criticized?” He answered that he did not like divisions.

Whatever other lessons, and whatever the reason why `Uthman did four, one lesson is: taqleed. It is allowed. Most Companions did taqleed of other Companions. Whoever said “taqleed” is haram, is speaking against 99.99% of the Ummah and is condemning 99.99999999 percent of the Ummah from the time of the Companions, until now.

To answer the question, “Whose taqleed,” we have said, “Of the four madh-hubs,” and not of individual scholars of any madh-hub, even if they are known in the public as mujtahids. Why are the mujtahids now excluded? It is because many claimed ijtihad in our times, but were not mujtahids. So, to avoid the people resorting to an un-recognized mujtahid, we might say, “Follow your madh-hub, and not mujtahids of that madh-hub, or of any other madh-hub, or of no madh-hub.”

As for true scholars, the Ummah has, in its race to “earn more and more,” outrun them; outsmarted them, and out-populated them. It will be years before one can search out a needle in a haystack. In contrast, the opinions and fatwas of the schools (madh-hubs) are available in print. Most are in Arabic (e.g. the magus corpus: “Fatawa `Alamgiriyyah” with the addendum of “Qazi Khan;” but a few are now available in Urdu, e.g. (with reference to the Hanafiyy madh-hub is considered, “Fatawa Deobandia,” “Fatawa Imdadiyyah,” “Fatawa Rahimiyyah,” and a few other smaller ones. The largest yet in Urdu, “Fatawa Rahimiyyah” is also available in electronic format. Other madhahib have not been beyond the Ahnaf, but most of their works are in Arabic only because they are prevalent in the Arab world. Follow the instructions there.

The above is for Fiqh matters involving arkan, fara’id and wajibat. As for general matters, such as spiritual, moral, and intellectual, the advice is: get serious. Do not make Islam a plaything; a pastime, a leisure-pursuit. He who did that will pay the price. Having got serious, keep the Qur’an under your armpit, the Hadith books spread on your table, lives of the Salaf your pastime, and the mosque your resort for any free time.

Avoid being influenced by those you think are scholars. Get serious. If you have a very disturbing question, let you travel to Deoband, Nadwa, Saharanpur (if you follow one of the four madh-hubs), or, if you are of the fifth, travel to Omarabad, or Jami`atu al-Salafiyyah jn Banaras, and meet there only top-order scholars, such as Sheikh al-Tafsir or Sheikh al-Hadith, always those above sixty years of age.

Plug off your TV, avoid self-proclaiming sheikhs and street preachers. Change your friends, cut down heavily on gossip (even if it is religious) steal time out of every worldly affair, and kick off net-habits.

Get serious.

Q. I have been a regular subscriber of your most informative magazine since the early 1990s.

Mohammed Zaid ,
On Email

YMD

If, despite your readership of almost two decades, you are still in confusion about where to seek guidance from, then this does not speak well of YmD’s educational objectives.