Massoud Vahedi

Muslim Neo-Traditionalists and Muslim Reformists when "Meta-Fiqh" enters the chat.

Muslim Traditionalist figures when talking about the Hanbali Madhhab in public classes: "We absolutely recognize the Hanbali madhhab as one of the four valid schools of thought, and you may follow it." Muslim Traditionalist figures when talking about the Hanbali Madhhab in private amongst themselves....

One of the hardest moments after burying your deceased parent is when it starts raining. You stand there, helpless, watching on as the water descends and wets the world around you, including the grave of your parent. You start to remember the days when you were younger, and how if the slightest bit of rain caught you outside, it was your parent who rushed towards you and insisting you to come inside the house, fearing that you would fall sick (even though you knew nothing would likely happen). If you had to go outside for school/university on a rainy day, it was your parent who insisted on driving you to your destination, while also giving you an umbrella if you had to walk. But now, after they are deceased, you watch on as the rain falls on their burial spot, knowing you will never be able to reciprocate for their moments of kindness. Now when it rains and you are caught outside, there is one less voice who will ask you to come indoors.

Some quick thoughts on this: this is a difficult claim to believe. There are some factors pointing to it being questionable, though it must be admitted that they do not conclusively disprove the claim either. Some of those reasons are: 1. It is already difficult to establish the attribution of works like this when the source is so much later than the author's demise, even though Ibn al-Nadim is quite reliable generally. Attribution aside, any claim or assumption regarding the contents of the work deduced from that title is even more questionable. 2. Titles are not always transmitted so meticulously. We see very often that some titles are confused for titles of works by other authors (though this does not seem to be the case here, to be fair); other titles are sometimes discovered to be paraphrased expressions or alternative wordings of the original title; sometimes a title gives the impression of the work being a standalone work despite it being a chapter of a larger work that is actually available to us, etc. It needs deeper reading than sufficing with a title mentioned in a work, even though it is a work that carries weight, like the Fihrist. 3. This claim can possible carry some anachronistic assumptions. Al-Shafi'i is commonly known to have authored "the first work in usul al-fiqh", but why is that? Al-Shafi'i's "usuli" books like al-Risalah, Ibtal al-Istihsan, Jima' al-'Ilm, Ikhtilaf al-Hadith, Ahkam al-Quran, were conceived in the face of heightened tensions between the Ahl al-Ra'y and the Ahl al-Hadith (as well as al-Shafi'i's personal issues with some elements of Hijazi fiqh). This backdrop was the impetus to codify a manifesto (at the behest of Ibn Mahdi, as narrated) of sorts that could lay the foundation for an objective hermeneutic criterion that could ground these various approaches in a controlled and delineated operating system, especially in a framework that would allow for the Ahl al-Hadith to engage with their interlocutors on equal footing. Agree with the details mentioned here or disagree, the fact is that the milieu of al-Shafi'i contained driving factors that made him feel that this was a need that he needed to fulfill. Compare that to our case: what would have been the scholarly and/or social pressures pushing Muhammad to write a book on usul? 4. We should be careful to avoid reading early language with terminologies that become cemented later on. "Usul" in early parlance can denote chapters of fiqh (purity, prayer, fasting, etc), and this may be one way to understand the quote from Ibn al-Nadim. Granted, this may be met with skepticism since Ibn al-Nadim starts his list of Muhammad's works with:

ولمحمد من الكتب في الأصول كتاب الصلاة كتاب الزكاة كتاب المناسك

He then enumerates the various works he is aware of on various chapters of fiqh, mentioning as part of that list "Usul al-Fiqh", juxtaposed with works like Hajj, Rahn, etc, as well as comprehensive works like the two Jami's and the Hujjah. One can argue that this suggests that the "Usul al-Fiqh" mentioned is different than these works in its content. In any case, the argument presented above was simple: this text bears various possibilities and is not conclusive enough to make any emphatic claims. This title could very well be a work on some usuli concepts, but we don't seem have anything that tips the scales. The possibilities are endless. To illustrate: part of that list is "Kitab al-Istihsan". One may assume that this is a work on the usuli concept of istihsan (as some contemporary researchers seem to have understood) but it is actually just the chapter of hadhr and ibahah from Muhammad's al-Asl/al-Mabsut, titled "Kitab al-Istihsan". Another work on the list is "Ijthad al-Ra'y". One may think this is on the idea of juristic reasoning, but it could just be a chapter on various cases in fiqh where one needs to use their discernment (taharri), many of which are in al-Asl; for example, see the "Bab al-Shahadah fi al-Din" in al-Asl, 2:243.

Telegram is an amazing repository of knowledge, and if you are not actively using it, you are wasting your time and missing out. There are thousands of books (in PDF), lecture series and explanations of mutun, audios, and pages full of resources you can't find with a simple Google search. You need to use its search bar just like how you search for stuff on Google, and by using the right keywords you will be able to find many interesting pages and channels that will help you in your journey for knowledge. The searching process requires some time to get a hang of it, but it is definitely worth the time.

Important: When Imam al-Haythami says that "the narrators of the hadith are trustworthy" (رجاله ثقات), this does *NOT* mean he considers the hadith authentic. Dr. Nur al-Din 'Itr said: "[Al-Haythami's] expression must be held to mean *less than* their [i.e. the hadith scholars'] statement 'Sahih al-isnad,' because it adds to the missing conditions of the lack of shudhudh and 'illah any ruling that the chain is connected ...." Dr. Maher al-Fahl said: “It is well-known that one does not infer the authenticity of the matn (text) of a hadith from this statement of al-Haythami. This is because the conditions of authenticity are: trustworthiness (‘adalah) of the narrators, their reliability (dhabt), and the absence of any break or hidden defect. And oftentimes some imposters who feign knowledge of this field are mislead by statements like al-Haythami’s, with this having adverse consequences.”

X/Twitter: You know who likes your post, and who shares it. Facebook: You know who likes your post, but don't know who shares it. Telegram: You don't know who likes your post, and you don't know who shares it.

✵ قال شيخ الحنابلة عبد الله العقيل أنَّ المسائل التي يعرف بها فقه الإمام في الصَّلاة ستٌّ: ١- تقصير تكبيرة الإحرام؛ والنُّطق بها وعدم مدِّها؛ لأنَّه إن سبق أو وافق المأمومُ الإمامَ بالتَّكبير = لم تنعقد صلاتُه. ٢- حذف السَّلام، وعدم مدِّه؛ لئلَّا يُسلِّم المأمومُ العجل قبل تمام سلام إمامِه. ٣- تقصير جلسة التَّشهُّد الأوَّل؛ فقد ورد في الحديث كأنَّه على الرَّضف؛ وهو الحجارة المحماة. ٤- عدم صلاته داخل المِحراب، بحيث يحتجب عن نظر المأمومين. ٥- قُربه من الصَّف الأوَّل؛ وألَّا يترك مسافة بينه وبين الصَّفِّ الأوَّل إلَّا بمقدار الحاجة -وهي ألَّا تمس رجلاه رؤوس مَن خلفه؛ وكذلك قرب الصفوف فيما بينهما. ٦- قراءة الفاتحة في الجهرية؛ بأن يقفَ على رؤوس الآي؛ لا يجمع الآيتين والثَّلاث في وقفةٍ واحدة. ✵ قلتُ: وكذا يُعرف فقهُه من سكتاتِه في الصَّلاة؛ فإنَّ الفقيه له ثلاث سكتات؛ إحداها بعد تكبيرة الإحرام، والثانية بعد قراءة الفاتحة، والثالثة قبل الركوع.

The great Azhari scholar Muhammad 'Abdullah Draz said: "The one important consideration which dominated the compilation of the Qur'anic text by the Companions of the Prophet was the rigorous literal accordance of each passage with the document drawn up at the dictation of the Master, which was then read over again in his presence, and which finally received his definite approval. And it is this absolute objectivity which resounds eternally to his honour..."

Yes Akhi, those were the dark days of al-Mihnah al-Matrixiyyah (المحنة الماتريكسية), when our beloved brother Andrew ibn Emoral refused to say that bitcoin is 'created' by the globalist system. He persevered, regained his 46 Bugattis, defeated the Rationalist Fiatists, and founded the 'Daddy' School. May the eyes of the Fiatists never sleep.

A picture of the house of the great Hanbali scholar Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Saffārīnī (d. 1188/1775) in the village of Saffārīn, near Nablus.

Shaykh Hamad al-Hamad here talks about the two main ways that legal opinions in the Hanbali school are formed and articulated. They are 1) Riwayat and 2) Wujuh. 1. Riwayat (sing. Riwayah): these refer to narrations from Imam Ahmad on a legal issue, where he articulates his position (usually in response to a question raised by his students). These riwayat can be: a. Explicit: the Imam gives a clear and unequivocal response to the legal issue; b. Implicit: the derived ruling from the Imam's response is inferred from his words (Sometimes such inferences are strong, but in other cases they are questionable). 2. Wujuh (sing. Wajh): these refer to legal opinions formulated by later scholars of the Hanbali school via the process of takhrij (legal extrapolation), usually for issues where Imam Ahmad had no expressed opinion. But in order for an opinion of a later Hanbali scholar to count as a wajih, it * must * be formulated in accordance with the hermeneutical rules and principles of the Hanbali school.

In this talk, Sh. Fahd ibn Salih al-'Ajlan gently but surgically critiques the arguments of Jasser Auda, whose work aims to justify secularism and Western notions of freedom. It took less than a century for the whole 'Maqasid' discourse to become a defender of the dominant liberal discourse of the West. This is an important video, and it is worth watching until the end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UoFLZ-72mQ&t=78s

Citations bring barakah Imam Al-Nawawi said:

"Religion is nasihah: and part of that advice is to attribute a unique point to the one who first said it. Whoever does so will find blessing in their knowledge and their state. But whoever creates the false impression by taking the words of others, that those words are their own, is worthy of not benefiting from their knowledge and having no blessing in their state. People of knowledge and virtue have never ceased attributing benefits to those who uttered them. We ask Allah the Almighty for the constant success to do the same."

For his monumental book Nasb al-Rayah, Imam al-Zayla'i relied on the works of three great giants.

Be wary of Hanbali Institutes and Madrasahs where the instructor says that he and his own Shaykh are the only true Hanbalis in the entire world, and they dismiss any questions going against their narrative as "stupid". All while in the same breath claiming that they are on the true path of Tasawwuf.

Moonfighting, Islamic Judiciary, and Why Fiqh Needs to be Thorough The above is an important discussion from al-Taqrib of al-Quduri (d. 428) on which type of legal judgement pronounced by one judge is binding on another judge to uphold (imdha') when there is a difference of opinion on the matter. He says that this is only the case when the difference of opinion is tolerable. If the view of the judge is conclusively contradicting a definitive legal proof, it does not hold and the judgement is rendered void. In the former case, naturally, the fiqh maxim "the judge's ruling neutralizes any contention (qada' al-qadi yarfa' al-khilaf)" will apply and, despite the existence of parallel views, the view in whose favour the judge ruled will be what comes to pass. There is a very strange application of this fiqh circulated in some circles during Ramadan and Eid sightings: that the government-approved moonsightings from various Muslim countries (like Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia) are judgements of an Islamic government, and therefore the judgements they pass must be upheld due to the aforementioned rule: "the qadi's judgement removes any contention". Some stretch this idea to argue that these rulings are binding even if calculations prove that sightings are impossible, as the judgement has independently effected the beginning of the month (Ramadan or Shawwal), and any objections would be considered "contention that was voided by the qadi's judgement". The first absurdity in this reasoning is that the binding nature of qada' is a result of its connection to governance. It is the governmental jurisdiction that gives the judiciary the ability to effect rulings (tanfidh al-hukm) and create a new legal reality as opposed to simply "informing" a questioner of the law as a mufti does. Therefore, this ruling and its resulting effects are only binding as far as that jurisdiction reaches, and that judgement does not affect any area out of that legal jurisdiction. Even if that issue were not present, the second problem is what we quoted above from al-Quduri: the judge's jurisdiction is effective where the difference of opinion is acceptable. Where that judgement is conclusively disproven, it does not retain the same strength. Every madhhab has examples of differences of opinion that they consider unacceptable, and as such, intolerable even if a judge passes it as a legal pronouncement. The example mentioned in the screenshot above (al-qada' bi al-yamin ma' al-shahid) is actually a difference between the four schools, yet Muhammad and Abu Yusuf differed regarding how tolerable it was as a valid difference of opinion in court; Abu Yusuf tolerated it as a valid difference, but Muhammad would annul it and refuse to uphold it. This is all assuming that people accept the nomic impossibility (istihalah 'adiyyah) of the sighting(s). If this is contested then that is a different issue altogether. In any case, this is not to argue whether or not the sightings in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia were acceptable or not. It is just to point out the importance of researching different elements of fiqh extensively before using broad maxims like the one quoted above. Part of the reason these awful takes spread is that these chapters (adab al-qadi, shahadat, etc) are not taught or studied well as they are not as "practical" (especially in the West) but the reality of fiqh is that it is one language, and that one needs to understand the breadth of that fiqh to be able to apply it with a degree of rigour and meticulousness. I'd also add to this that Hanafi ifta' courses are not a replacement for foundational fiqh study. The common objections against ifta' courses are often lazy and unconvincing; the utility of those courses cannot be easily denied by one who understands how they work. However, this can only be the case when the student has actually worked hard before the course (or during the course, as a stopgap solution) in trying to understand the fiqh and ijtihad behind the various chapters that they are trying to apply during the ifta' process.

المراد بمذهب الإمام أحمد -رحمه الله- الشيخ حمد الحمد -حفظه الله ونفع به- رابط اليوتيوب 👇🏻 https://youtube.com/shorts/zVQts79GKac?si=sT11TNC70dLUz87i