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The western phoenix has taken to flight withit. “[taqlid] is necessary for other than the one who has achieved the rank of absolute ijtihad. Even if he is a limited [mujtahid] who is unable [to perform absolute ijtihad].”Commenting on this line, [Sidi Abdullah] said in Nashru al-bunud, “It means that taqlid is an obligation on anyone who is not an absolute mujtahid, even if he has achievedthe limited rank of ijtihad muqayyad . . . [until he says], ‘Andask the people of the reminder, if you yourselves do not know.’”By using the line of Muhammad an-Nabigha above, I am in no way claiming that all ijtihad has been severed in every land; how [could I say such a thing] when [Sidi Abdullah] says in Maraqias-sa’ud: “The earth will never be void of a mujtahidscholar until its very foundations shake.”He also said, “[Regarding] the necessity of binding to a specificmadhhab, the [scholars] have mentioned its obligation upon anyonefalling short [of the conditions of ijtihad].”He says in Nashru al-bunud, “It means that it is incumbent for whoever fallsshort of achieving the rank of absolute ijtihad to follow a particular madhhab.”Again, in Maraqi as-Sa’ud, Sidi Abdullah says, “The consensus today is on the four, and all haveprohibited following [any] others.”He says in Nashru al-bunud, “This means that the consensus of the scholarstoday is on the four schools of thought, and I mean by the schools of Malik,Abu Hanifa, Shafi’i and Ahmad. Indeed, all of the scholars have prohibitedfollowing any other school of an independent and absolute mujtahidsince the eighth century when the school of Dawud adh-Dhahiri died outand until the 12th Century and all subsequent ones.”In the chapter concerning inferential reasoning,from Maraqi as-sa’ud, [Sidi Abdullah] says, “As for the one who is not a mujtahid,then basing his actions on primary textual evidence [Qur’an and hadith]is not permissible.”He says in Nashru al-bunud, “It means that it is prohibited for other thana mujtahid to base his actions upon a direct text from either theBook or the Sunna even if its transmission was sound because of the sheerlikelihood of there being other considerations such as abrogation, limitations,specificity to certain situations, and other such matters that none butthe mujtahid fully comprehends with precision. Thus, nothing cansave him from Allah the Exalted excepted following a mujtahid.Imam al-Qarafi1 says,As for the conditions of the absolute and independentijtihad, they are mentioned in the Maraqi as-sa’ud in thefollowing line and what follows: “And that [word ‘faqih’2] is synonymous with the [word] ‘mujtahid’ coupled with those thingswhich bear upon [him] the burden of responsibility, Such as his being of extreme intelligence by nature,and there is some debate about one who is known to reject juristic analogy[qiyas] He knows the [juristic] responsibilities throughintellectual proofs unless a clear transmitted proof indicates otherwise. [Sidi Abdullah] says [in his commentary] Nashrual-bunud, “This means that among the conditions of ijtihadis that [the mujtahid] knows that he must adhere to the intellectual proof which is the foundational condition [al-bara’atual-asliyya3] until a transmitted proof from asacred law indicates otherwise.”He then goes on to mention the other conditionsof a mujtahid: [The sciences of] grammar, prosody, philology,combined with those of usul and rhetoric he must master. According to the people of precision, [he mustknow] where the judgements can be found without the condition of havingmemorized the actual texts. [All of the above must be known] according toa middle ranked mastery at least. He must also know those matters uponwhich there is consensus. [Moreover, he must know] things such as the conditionof single hadiths and what carries the authority of great numbers of transmissions;also [knowledge of] what is sound and what is weak is necessary. Furthermore, what has been abrogated and whatabrogates, as well as the conditions under which a verse was revealed ora hadith was transmitted is a condition that must be met. The states of the narrators and the companions[must also be known]. Therefore, you may follow anyone who fulfils theseconditions mentioned above according to the soundest opinion. So, consider all of the above-mentioned, and mayAllah have mercy upon you, and [may you] see for yourself whether yourcompanion is characterized by such qualities and fulfils these conditions—andI highly doubt it. More likely, he is just pointing people to himself inhis demands that the people of this age take their judgements directlyfrom the Book and Sunna. If, on the other hand, he does not possess thenecessary conditions, then further discussion is useless. In Muhammad ‘Illish’s, Fath al-‘Ali al-Malik,there are many strong rebukes for those who wish to force people to abandonthe study of the judicial branches and take directly from the Book andthe Sunna. The actual text of the question put to him is as follows: “What do you say about someone who was followingone of the four Imams, may Allah the Exalted be pleased with them, andthen left claiming that he could derive his judgements directly form theQur’an and the soundly transmitted hadiths, thus leaving the books of jurisprudenceand inclining towards the view of Ahmad bin Idris? Moreover, he says tothe one who clings to the speech of the Imams and their followers, “I sayto you ‘Allah and His Messenger say’, and you reply ‘Malik said’ and ‘Ibnal-Qasim said’ or ‘Khalil said.’”To this, Imam ‘Illish replies: “My answer to this all this is as follows: Praisebe to Allah, and Prayer and Safety be upon our Master Muhammad, the Messengerof Allah. It is not permissible for a common person to abandon followingthe four Imams and take directly from the textual sources of the Qur’anand the hadiths for the simple reason that this entails a great many conditionsthat have been clarified in the books of usul. Moreover, these conditionsare rarely met by the great scholars, especially in these last days inwhich Islam has become a stranger just as it began a stranger.”Ibn ‘Uyyana, may Allah be pleased with him, has said, “The hadiths are a source of error except for the jurists.” What he means is that people, other than the scholars,might interpret a tradition based on an apparent meaning, and yet [thehadith may] have another interpretation based on some other hadith thatclarifies the meaning or some proof that remains hidden [to the commonpeople]. After a long discussion, he remarks, “That as for their saying, ‘How can you leaveclear Qur’anic verses and sound hadiths and follow the Imams in their ijtihads,which have a clear probability of error,’” His answer to them is as follows: “Surely the following of our [rightly guided]Imams is not abandoning the Qur’anic verses or the sound hadiths; it isthe very essence of adhering to them and taking our judgements from them.This is because the Qur’an has not come down to us except by means of thesevery Imams [who are more worthy of following] by virtue of being more knowledgeablethan us in [the sciences of] the abrogating and abrogated, the absoluteand the conditional, the equivocal and the clarifying, the probabilisticand the plain, the circumstances surrounding revelation and their variousmeanings, as well as their possible interpretations and various linguisticand philological considerations, [not to mention] the various other ancillarysciences [involved in understanding the Qur’an] needed.As for their saying to the one who imitates Malik,for example, “We say to you ‘Allah says’ or ‘the Messenger of Allah, mayAllah bless him and grant him peace, says’ and you reply, ‘Malik says’,or ‘Ibn al-Qasim says’, or ‘Khalil says’, for example,” our response isthat the follower who says, “Malik says . . . etc.,” means that, “Maliksays based on his deep understanding of the Word of Allah, or of the wordsof the Messenger, or of those firmly adhering to the actions of the companions,or of the tabi’in who understood clearly the Word of Allah and theword of the Messenger of Allah or took their example from the actions ofHis Messenger.” And the meaning of [a follower] saying “Ibn al-Qasim said. . .” is that he has [faithfully] transmitted what Malik said based onhis understanding of the Word of Allah or of what Ibn al-Qasim himselfunderstood from the word of Allah the Most Exalted. And the meaning ofhim saying, “Khalil said . . . .”, for example, is that he is transmittingonly from those [Imams] aforementioned. As for Malik and Ibn al-Qasim,they are both Imams whose spiritual and judicial authority is agreed uponby unanimous consensus of this Umma; and they are both from the best ofgenerations. As for the one who leaves their leadership andsays, “Allah said and His Messenger said . . . ,” he has relied solelyon his own understanding despite the fact that he is incapable of havingany precision in the verses and hadiths that he quotes since he is unableeven to provide chains of transmission [with any authority], let alonethat he lacks knowledge concerning the abrogated, the absolute and theconditional, the ambiguous and the clarifying, the apparent and the textual,the general and the specific, the dimensions of the Arabic and the causefor revelation, the various linguistic considerations, and other variousancillary sciences needed. So, consider for yourself which is preferable:the word of a follower who simply quotes the understanding of Malik, anImam by consensus—or the word of this ignoramus who said “Allah said andHis Messenger said . . . .” But it is not the sight that goes blind, butrather the hearts in our breasts. Furthermore, know that the origin of this deviationis from the Dhahiriyya10who appeared in Andalucia [Muslim Spain] and whose power waxed from a period until Allah obliterated all traces of them until this little band of menset about to revive their beliefs. Imam al-Barzuli said, “The first oneever to attack the Mudawwana11 was Sa’id bin al-Haddad .” If you consider carefully the above-mentionedtexts, you will realize that the one who censures you from following [the Imams] is truly a deviant. And I am using the word “deviant” to describethem only because the scholars [before me] have labelled this little bandand their view (madhhab) as deviant. Moreover, you should know thatthose who condemn your adherence to the Imams have been fully refuted byMuhammad al-Khadir bin Mayyaba with the most piercing of refutations,and he himself called them, in his book, “the people of deviation and heterodoxy.”He called his book, Refuting the people of deviation of heterodoxy whoattack the following [taqlid] of the Imams of independent reasoning,and I used to have a copy but no longer do. So, my brother, I seriouslywarn you from following the madhhab of these people and even from sittingin their company, unless there is an absolute necessity, and certainlyfrom listening to anything they have to say, because the scholars havedeclared their ideas deviant. Ibn al-Hajj says in his book, al-Madkhal, “Hazrat Umar ibn al-‘Aziz said, ‘Never give one whoseheart is deviant access to your two ears, for surely you never know whatmay find fixity in you.’” I ask Allah to make you and me from those wholisten to matters and follow the best of them. Murabtal Haaj, Mauritania
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