KR

رد الإمام الشاه ولي الله الدهلوي على هذا التصور

I wonder if some maulvis who advocate the mindset described above read the following verse about the Jews: ومنهم أميون لا يعلمون الكتاب إلا أماني وإن هم إلا يظنون "There are among them unlearned folk who have no knowledge of the Scripture but (hearing its) recitation and they only speculate" (Note: Another interpretation would render this verse "they have no knowledge of the Scripture but wishful thinking"... the general gist of the verse in either case is the same) Do they read this and think, "Hmm... sounds good... that's what we need for our laymen so they are safe from going astray" 🤣

قال الوزير ابن هبيرة: (من مكايد الشيطان تنفيره عباد الله من تدبر القرآن لعلمه أن الهدى واقع عند التدبر، فيقول: "هذه مخاطرة" حتى يقول الإنسان: لا أتكلم في القرآن تورعا) [ذيل طبقات الحنابلة 1/ 245] The Wazir and famous Hanbali jurist, ibn Hubayrah, states, "One of the plots of Satan is to scare Allah's slaves from contemplating on the Qur'an because he knows that guidance is attained when one reflects on the Qur'an. He will say, 'This is risky,' until a person says to himself, 'I will not speak about the meanings of the Qur'an out of caution.'" [Dhayl Tabaqat al-Hanabila 1/ 245] Anyone who has studied the Sirah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and the books of Hadith cannot fail to notice that the religious life of the Prophetic community revolved around the Qur'an. It was the fulcrum of their religious experience, the centerpiece, the focal point. Allah tells us that the Qur'an is the best source of guidance, and that He revealed it SO THAT WE MAY REFLECT ON ITS TEACHINGS. Therefore beware of anyone who discourages people from reading the Qur'an claiming that it may make you go astray. While there is legitimate reason to be concerned about the unlearned misusing texts they cannot understand, after the early centuries of Islam, the concerns about the learned abusing the unlearned are far greater. While some who promote these ideas may do so with good intentions, they are often promoted to create cult followings around religious leaders. Even where this may not be the intent, it is often the outcome - Salman Nasir

The Heart of Hadith Studies: Not-So-Hidden Defects ('Ilal) It's almost Ramadan, but a Hadith-related post I thought would be good to share: Ilal is the heart and soul of Ilm Al-Hadith. Ilal is commonly referred to as "the study of hidden defects", which is quite a vague and elusive way of describing a science that is quite comprehensible and delineable. Ilal is, essentially, the study of mistakes in narration. You may have a Hadith reported by reliable narrators that all have all met each other; ilal is the science that shows you whether they messed up or not, judged by circumstantial considerations like contradicting narrations, text-based considerations, etc. People usually think of this science as something that deals with the mistakes/awham of reliable narrators, but if we made its scope a bit broader, it is just the study of mistakes in transmission and how they happen. Why the "heart of Hadith studies"? Well, like I explained in the previous (pinned) posts, you can only tell how reliable anyone is (in both retention and trustworthiness) by taking a set of conclusive data that is proven true and using it as the benchmark to measure any new data that comes your way. If a new narrator, for example, consistently conforms in their narrations to the general precepts of Islam, the language conventions of the time of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), and other narrators that they haven't met and couldn't have colluded with, then you can be confident that they are a reliable witness. This confidence increases as more data is corroborated. The muhaddithun didn't just meet narrators and see how they carried themselves; for most of them, they sifted through their narrations and surveyed how often they got things right, and then gave them an aggregate grading (think of it as a GPA). That still means that each narration needs to be independently checked, regardless of how accurate the average grade is (everyone can mess up an essay here and there). Ilal is the beginning of Hadith studies; it is how we know whether someone is reliable or not. It is also the end, because even after one is deemed reliable, it shows us where they may have faltered. In this way, it is the Hadith equivalent to istihsan and maslahah in Fiqh (maybe this will need another post one day 😁)

A new three-storey mosque and education centre is being built by Al-Ihsan Trust in Batley, UK. It is at an advanced stage of construction but is still in need of a final push to enable Tarawih prayers there next year. Currently, the congregation fills out the temporary cabins on site. One of the unique features of this centre is the dedicated musalla for women, making it one of the very rare purpose-built facility for sisters in the entire Dewsbury-Batley area with its 50-odd mosques. For more information on this project, please visit the website. Gift aid available for UK taxpayers. Please donate however much you can to this noble project this Ramadan. https://www.alihsantrust.org.uk/donate.html

SBB on reading from a Mushaf in Tarawih https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FUrf2tCSu/

Dr Yusuf Shabbir's other point about Jassas making light of scholarly difference is slightly off topic: Jassas there - as he does in his al-Fusul - is speaking about which sorts of narrations require mutawatir transmission (the core fara'id) and which do not (the non-core aspects of the practical faith). It isn't much to do with imams and muqtadis being of different schools. But his point overall is a valid one: the earliest generations upto the great jurists of Islam have never been on the record of refusing to pray behind one another based on Fiqhi differences in the evidence of the Shariah. In fact, to the contrary, there is evidence where the prayed behind each other in spite of the well pronounced differences and in spite of the traditional Hijazi-Iraqi, Ahl 'l-Hadith-Ahl 'l-Ra'y animosity. Had there been any evidence to support the refusal to pray behind each other, we would have known about it by now. In fact, what we have is conjecture by Nabulsi in his Khulasat 'l-Tahqiq, right after rejecting the Witr view attributed to Jassas. Remember, they lived in an era where the Madhahib had taken up a quasi-Shariah status, which is operating like a Shariah unto itself, with the Maharib system (in Makkah and elsewhere that lasted for centuries), the multi-court system (in the Mamluk period), and the Madhahib Awqaf (with many scholars, teachers, and students competing for the most financially rewarding private institutions). In fact, one of the worst books ever writted in the history of the Fiqh of Salah is Mulla Ali Qari's الاهتداء في مسألة الاقتداء (published in his Rasa'il), which he unfortunately penned because he could not envisage a unified system of Salah in the Haram Makki and based his entire model of Jama'ah based on the Maharib system. In conclusion, for such grossly weak opinions, the default must always be not to ascribe them to the scholar unless verified from a primary source, corrborated by multiple scholars, or suggested by the scholar's immediate students or contemporaries. On this issue, all three elements are missing. Therefore, the safer course of action is not to ascribe this view to Jassas with any certainty. This should precede any debate on whether this view ascribed to him ought to be accepted or rejected, both of which seem to have found an audience in the later Hanafi School. As the attribution is problematic, the position being promoted must be detached from any appeal to authority and should be viewed in light of its evidence, nothing more.

Still, this constitutes a gap of around 400 years since the passing of Jassas in 370 AH. The question then is: Where did they take this view from? Perhaps the answer lies in the symbol from Jawahir, which writes قن. This means he took it from Qunyat 'l-Fatawa by Zahidi (d. 658 AH). Zahidi, it must be noted, is unreliable in citation and must be cross-checked. On this issue, he states: "صج" قال الرازي في شرحه اقتدى الحنفي في الوتر بمن سلم عند الركعتين لا يسلم معه ويصلي معه بقية الوتر لأن إمامه لم يخرج بالسلام عن صلاته لأنه مجتهد فيه كما لو اقتدى بإمام قد رعف ويرى الإمام أنه لا ينقض الوضوء صح الاقتداء لأنه مجتهد فيه وطهارته صحيحة في حقه So this confirms what is in al-Jawahir. Still, that leaves a 300 year gap. Zahidi offers the symbol صج, which means صلاة الجلابي. In some online source and manuscripts, this is written as صلاة الجلالي, which is an error. So what is صلاة الجلابي and who wrote it? It is a book on Taharah and Salah by Abu Tahir Muhammad ibn 'l-Jallabi. I don't have his DoD yet to position his proximity to Jassas. Haji Khalifah expressed no knowledge of when he passed away. It might be worth should be pointed out that this book was edited as part of a student's MA thesis in Jordan, supervised by Dr Salah Abu 'l-Haj (see https://www.facebook.com/feqehhanafi/posts/691456819692666), so perhaps the researcher puts a date on this scholar. I don't believe it is yet published. Manuscripts of this book are fortunately available online as well. In the manuscript in front of me, Jallabi said: وأما السلام فلا يقع فيه متابعة أيضا لأنه ليس من الصلاة وإنما هو الخروج منها بمنزلة الكلام. قال الرازي في شرح الاختلاف إذا صلى الوتر ثلاثا وسلم في الثانية والمأموم يرى أن الوتر ثلاث لا يسلم إلا في آخرهن أنه إن سلم حين سلم إمامه فسدت صلاته وإن كان لم يسلم فله اتباع إمامه في بقية الصلاة لأن الإمام لم يخرج بالسلام عن صلاته عند المأموم لأنه أمر يسوغ فيه الاجتهاد وكما لو اقتدى بإمام قد رعف ويرى الإمام أن ذلك لا ينقض وضوءه أنه صح الاقتداء به لأن ذلك أمر يسوغ فيه الاجتهاد وطهارته صحيحة في حقه ولهذا لو استفتانا أفتينا بصحة صلاته على ما يعتقده ويراه A few points to make on here: - Firstly, the analogy is on nosebleed, whereby such a salah for a Hanafi muqtadi is justified because the Imam does not view it to be a nullifier in his school. This is of course a faulty analogy as the nosebleed situation does not render the Imam's prayer invalid in his view, whereas saying salam does - Secondly, the attribution offered is a book called شرح الاختلاف. I am unaware of any such book written by Jassas. I have checked both his شرح مختصر الطحاوي and مختصر اختلاف العلماء (a summary of Tahawi's اختلاف العلماء) and I did not find anything. Zahidi simply said "it is in his commentary." Whether there is another, undocumented commentary by Jassas by the title شرح الاختلاف I do not know. - Thirdly, Jallabi, like Zahidi, is unreliable in his citations from previous scholars. Ibn Nujaym mention more than once than Jallabi is prone to gharabah, stating on one occasion that وَهُوَ مِنْ جُمْلَةِ غَرَائِبِهِ. Therefore, as his solitary citation from Jassas seems to be uncorroborated, it must be maintained that this view cannot be ascribed to Jassas. Later Hanafi scholars are ultimately relying on Jallabi in their agreement or refutation of Jassas. It is a nice discussion to have, but ultimately, I think it might be a bit of a waste of time if this position attributed to Jassas by him cannot be corroborated. It is certainly not found in the early school as it is; in fact, it would be very much against the spirit of the very early Hanafi School to find any such view (that he should not say salam but stand up and rejoin the imam when he says the takbirat 'l-ihram). This is why Dr Yusuf Shabbir's reliance on later scholars ascribing this uncorroborated view to Jassas, I feel, is not a strong one.

A follow up to this from a concerned questioner on the passage in which I wrote:

There was no mention of the Hanafi continuing prayer while the Imam exits prayer and restarts to perform the solitary rak'ah. This was a gross misapprehension by the Mufti providing this answer. The questioner asks (question paraphrased): https://daruliftaa.us/fatwa/431/ This view is also attributed to Imam al-Jaṣṣāṣ (may Allah ﷻ have mercy on him), who states that if a Ḥanafī prays behind an imam who performs salām after two rakʿas of Witr, the prayer remains valid; the follower should not make salām and continue following the imam for the remaining rak‘ah. Similarly, if a Ḥanafī prays behind an imam who does not consider a nosebleed to nullify wuḍūʾ, the prayer remains valid for the congregant.[61] However, it should be noted that this opinion is not found in any of Imam al-Jaṣṣāṣ’s surviving works, nor is it cited in the earlier sources of the madhhab. وذكر أبو بكر الرازي اقتداء الحنفي بمن يسلم على رأس الركعتين في الوتر يجوز ولا يسلم ويصلي معه بقية الوتر لأن إمامه لم يخرج بسلامه عنده، لأنه مجتهد فيه كما لو اقتدى بإمام قد رعف فعلى هذا يجوز الاقتداء إذا صحت على زعم الإمام وإن لم تصح على زعم المقتدي وقيل: إذا سلم الإمام على رأس الركعتين قام المقتدي وأتم الوتر وحده (تبيين الحقائق، كتاب الصلاة، باب الوتر والنوافل: ١/٤٢٧-٤٢٨؛ العلمية) It seems this darul ifta is giving the same fatwa you talked about. Footnote 61 has the quotations where others have quoted jassas, but not found in his own books, as they said above. It seems many Hanafis did attribute it to him, Ml Yusuf Shabbir also says that it’s hard to negate it in that witr answer footnotes and provides a potential reason why it could be accepted (from https://islamicportal.co.uk/witr-salah-in-makkah-and-madinah/): [4] Fatḥ al-Qadīr (1: 437); Tabyīn al-Ḥaqāʾiq (1: 171); al-Baḥr al-Rāʾiq (2: 42); Radd al-Muḥtār (2: 8); al-Qawl al-Sadīd (p. 65). Some colleagues suggest that the attribution to Imam Jaṣṣāṣ is questionable because it is not found in his published books or earlier works of other scholars. However, many of his books and the books of earlier scholars are not published, and some are not available. Therefore, to negate an attribution made by subsequent scholars requires evidence and cannot be dismissed just because of the above. Further, there is an indicator in Aḥkām al-Qurān (1:253) which makes it likely that Imam Jaṣṣāṣ held this view. He opines therein that Rafʿ al-Yadayn, the method of Adhān and Iqāmah, and the Takbīrāt Tashrīq are from the issues wherein the difference of opinion is merely in what is preferred and that they are all permissible. This is in sharp contrast to the view of the majority of ḥanafī jurists who have deemed Rafʿ al-Yadayn makrūḥ whilst some have gone as far as to invalidate the Ṣalāh because of it. This passage in Aḥkām al-Qurān reflects Imam Jaṣṣāṣ’s approach to issues wherein there is a mainstream jurisprudential difference of opinion.

Answer: It is correct that this view cannot be found in any extant book by Jassas. On current electronic libraries like Shamela, the earliest this attribution of this view to Jassas can be traced to Fakhr Zayla'i (d. 743 AH) in Tabyin 'l-Haqa'iq (citation provided by the questioner), Tahir al-Khawarizmi (d. post-771 AH) in al-Jawahir, and Ibn Abi 'l-Izz (d. 792 AH), who said, respectively: "قن" اقتدى الحنفيُّ في الوِترِ لمن سلَّمَ عند الركعتين: لا يُسلِّمُ معَه ويُصلِّي معه بقيَّةَ الوِترِ؛ لأنَّ إمامَه لم يخرُجْ بالسلام عن صلاته؛ لأَنَّهُ مُجتَهَدٌ فيه. وقال أبو بكر الرازي: اقتدى الحنفي بمن يسلم على الركعتين، يجوز في الوتر، ويصلي معه بقية الوتر؛ لأن إمامة لم يخرج بسلامة عنده، لأنه مجتهد فيه، كما لو اقتدى بإمام قد رعف وهو يعتقد أن طهارته باقية؛ لأنه مجتهد فيه، فطهارته باقية في حقه.

A follow up to this from a concerned questioner on the passage in which I wrote:

There was no mention of the Hanafi continuing prayer while the Imam exits prayer and restarts to perform the solitary rak'ah. This was a gross misapprehension by the Mufti providing this answer. The questioner asks (question paraphrased): https://daruliftaa.us/fatwa/431/ This view is also attributed to Imam al-Jaṣṣāṣ (may Allah ﷻ have mercy on him), who states that if a Ḥanafī prays behind an imam who performs salām after two rakʿas of Witr, the prayer remains valid; the follower should not make salām and continue following the imam for the remaining rak‘ah. Similarly, if a Ḥanafī prays behind an imam who does not consider a nosebleed to nullify wuḍūʾ, the prayer remains valid for the congregant.[61] However, it should be noted that this opinion is not found in any of Imam al-Jaṣṣāṣ’s surviving works, nor is it cited in the earlier sources of the madhhab. وذكر أبو بكر الرازي اقتداء الحنفي بمن يسلم على رأس الركعتين في الوتر يجوز ولا يسلم ويصلي معه بقية الوتر لأن إمامه لم يخرج بسلامه عنده، لأنه مجتهد فيه كما لو اقتدى بإمام قد رعف فعلى هذا يجوز الاقتداء إذا صحت على زعم الإمام وإن لم تصح على زعم المقتدي وقيل: إذا سلم الإمام على رأس الركعتين قام المقتدي وأتم الوتر وحده (تبيين الحقائق، كتاب الصلاة، باب الوتر والنوافل: ١/٤٢٧-٤٢٨؛ العلمية) It seems this darul ifta is giving the same fatwa you talked about. Footnote 61 has the quotations where others have quoted jassas, but not found in his own books, as they said above. It seems many Hanafis did attribute it to him, Ml Yusuf Shabbir also says that it’s hard to negate it in that witr answer footnotes and provides a potential reason why it could be accepted (from https://islamicportal.co.uk/witr-salah-in-makkah-and-madinah/): [4] Fatḥ al-Qadīr (1: 437); Tabyīn al-Ḥaqāʾiq (1: 171); al-Baḥr al-Rāʾiq (2: 42); Radd al-Muḥtār (2: 8); al-Qawl al-Sadīd (p. 65). Some colleagues suggest that the attribution to Imam Jaṣṣāṣ is questionable because it is not found in his published books or earlier works of other scholars. However, many of his books and the books of earlier scholars are not published, and some are not available. Therefore, to negate an attribution made by subsequent scholars requires evidence and cannot be dismissed just because of the above. Further, there is an indicator in Aḥkām al-Qurān (1:253) which makes it likely that Imam Jaṣṣāṣ held this view. He opines therein that Rafʿ al-Yadayn, the method of Adhān and Iqāmah, and the Takbīrāt Tashrīq are from the issues wherein the difference of opinion is merely in what is preferred and that they are all permissible. This is in sharp contrast to the view of the majority of ḥanafī jurists who have deemed Rafʿ al-Yadayn makrūḥ whilst some have gone as far as to invalidate the Ṣalāh because of it. This passage in Aḥkām al-Qurān reflects Imam Jaṣṣāṣ’s approach to issues wherein there is a mainstream jurisprudential difference of opinion.

Answer: It is correct that this view cannot be found in any extant book by Jassas. On current electronic libraries like Shamela, the earliest this attribution of this view to Jassas can be traced to Fakhr Zayla'i (d. 743 AH) in Tabyin 'l-Haqa'iq (citation provided by the questioner), Tahir al-Khawarizmi (d. post-771 AH) in al-Jawahir, and Ibn Abi 'l-Izz (d. 792 AH), who said, respectively: "قن" اقتدى الحنفيُّ في الوِترِ لمن سلَّمَ عند الركعتين: لا يُسلِّمُ معَه ويُصلِّي معه بقيَّةَ الوِترِ؛ لأنَّ إمامَه لم يخرُجْ بالسلام عن صلاته؛ لأَنَّهُ مُجتَهَدٌ فيه. وقال أبو بكر الرازي: اقتدى الحنفي بمن يسلم على الركعتين، يجوز في الوتر، ويصلي معه بقية الوتر؛ لأن إمامة لم يخرج بسلامة عنده، لأنه مجتهد فيه، كما لو اقتدى بإمام قد رعف وهو يعتقد أن طهارته باقية؛ لأنه مجتهد فيه، فطهارته باقية في حقه.

Tafsir for Charity Ibn ‘Abbas, the cousin of the Prophet (ﷺ) says, “Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) was the most generous of the people, and the most generous that he would be was in Ramadan when Jibril met him. Jibril would meet him every night of Ramadan, where he would revise the Qur'an with him, and Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) would be even more generous than a strong wind.” (Sahih al-Bukhari) From this Hadith (and others), we see that Rasul Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلّم) increased two good actions in Ramadan: engagement with the Quran, and charity. For this, I thought of an idea: a tafsir course with all the proceeds going to charity (primarily Gaza, but other places as well). Here is what I mean: a course on the tafsir of Surah Yusuf with only one fee: you pay an amount (a few cents, a few hundred dollars, anything). A list of charities that will be provided to you. There is no registration process: join the telegram group with the link below and I will confirm the timings for the live classes, and the charity list. Recordings will be shared in the group. You can pay whatever you want to whichever charity (or not pay at all, that's up to you). Here is the link: https://t.me/+6x5ze1fvRP8xMjJh May Allah make us a means of benefit for His creation. Waleed

خاطرة عابرة رزقنا الله حب كلامه والقيام به بين يديه معنى عظيم لاحظته، وهو أن الذي تقوم في الصلاة والقيام هي القلوب لا الأبدان وحدها فلذلك نرى الشاب المعافى بدنه يتثاقل عن الدقائق، ونرى الشيبة المصاب ببعض أمراض البدن نشطا وقائما لساعات.