As for their saying to the one who imitates Malik, for example, “We say to you ‘Allah says’ or ‘the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, says’ and you reply, ‘Malik says’, or ‘Ibn al-Qasim says’, or ‘Khalil says’, for example,” our response is that the follower who says, “Malik says . . . etc.,” means that, “Malik says based on his deep understanding of the Word of Allah, or of the words of 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 the word of the Messenger of Allah or took their example from the actions of His Messenger.” And the meaning of [a follower] saying “Ibn al-Qasim said . . .” is that he has [faithfully] transmitted what Malik said based on his understanding of the Word of Allah or of what Ibn al-Qasim himself understood from the word of Allah the Most Exalted. And the meaning of him saying, “Khalil said . . . .”, for example, is that he is transmitting only from those [Imams] aforementioned. As for Malik and Ibn al-Qasim, they are both Imams whose spiritual and judicial authority is agreed upon by unanimous consensus of this Umma; and they are both from the best of generations.
As for the one who leaves their leadership and says, “Allah said and His Messenger said . . . ,” he has relied solely on his own understanding despite the fact that he is incapable of having any precision in the verses and hadiths that he quotes since he is unable even to provide chains of transmission [with any authority], let alone that he lacks knowledge concerning the abrogated, the absolute and the conditional, the ambiguous and the clarifying, the apparent and the textual, the general and the specific, the dimensions of the Arabic and the cause for revelation, the various linguistic considerations, and other various ancillary sciences needed. So, consider for yourself which is preferable: the word of a follower who simply quotes the understanding of Malik, an Imam by consensus—or the word of this ignoramus who said “Allah said and His Messenger said . . . .” But it is not the sight that goes blind, but rather the hearts in our breasts.
Furthermore, know that the origin of this deviation is from the Dhahiriyya10 who appeared in Andalucia [Muslim Spain] and whose power waxed from a period until Allah obliterated all traces of them until this little band of men set about to revive their beliefs. Imam al-Barzuli said, “The first one ever to attack the Mudawwana11 was Sa’id bin al-Haddad .”
If you consider carefully the above-mentioned texts, 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 describe them only because the scholars [before me] have labelled this little band and their view (madhhab) as deviant. Moreover, you should know that those who condemn your adherence to the Imams have been fully refuted by Muhammad 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 who attack the following [taqlid] of the Imams of independent reasoning, and I used to have a copy but no longer do. So, my brother, I seriously warn you from following the madhhab of these people and even from sitting in their company, unless there is an absolute necessity, and certainly from listening to anything they have to say, because the scholars have declared their ideas deviant. Ibn al-Hajj says in his book, al-Madkhal,
“Umar ibn al-‘Aziz said, ‘Never give one whose heart is deviant access to your two ears, for surely you never know what may find fixity in you.’”
I ask Allah to make you and me from those who listen to matters and follow the best of them.
Footnotes
1.
Ahmad ibn Idris
Shihabudin as-Sanhaji al-Qarafi al-Maliki was born in Egypt in
the seventh Century, and died there in the year 684. He was one of the greatest
Maliki scholars who ever lived and is especially
known for his work in methodology and law (usul
al-fiqh). He was a master of the Arabic language
and has remarkable works in grammar. His book adh-Dhakhira
is a magisterial 14 volume work recently published in the Emirates,
that looks at Maliki fiqh
with proofs from usuli sources. He is buried
in Qarafi in Egypt near Imam as-Shafi’i.
May Allah have mercy on them both.
2.
Sidi Abdullah says in his
commentary
on this line that the faqih is synonymous with
mujtahid in the science of usul.
There are different types of faqih. A faqih according to the scholars of usul is anyone who has achieved the rank of ijtihad. According to the scholars of furu’u, a faqih is
anyone who has reached the level of knowledge in which he can give valid
juristic opinion. This latter definition is important considering endowments
that are given to fuqaha. See Nashur al-bunud `ala maraqi as-sa’ud, kitab al-ijtihad fi al-furu’u (1409 Hijrah. Beirut: Maktabat al-Kutub. p.309)
3.
The foundational condition is that a human being
is not asked by Allah to do anything other than those things which have a firm
proof through the transmission of the prophets, peace be
upon them, and that the human being is only accountable for those things in
which there is clear responsibility. All other matters are considered
permissible because of the lack of a proof indicating their impermissibility.
4.
The transmission (sanad) goes to the Prophet
(Allah bless him and give him peace) the hadith came
from the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace).
5.
A tabi’i related it from the Prophet
(Allah bless him and give him peace); a companion (sahabah)
is missing from the line of the transmission.
6.
The hadith comes from so many sources that
it is an absolute proof.
7.
A hadith, that at some point in the
line of transmission, has only one narrator.
8.
Two people in a row are missing in the chain of narrators.
9.
The narrator of the hadith is trustworthy, but
no one else related the hadith.
10.
The Dhahiriyya followed Daw’ud ad-Dhahiri’s madhhab.
11.
Mudawwana: Imam Malik’s work of fiqh.