It
would be beneficial if we gave some of these here, for perhaps
this
will admonish or remind those who follow the opinion of the
Imams
- nay, of those far below the Imams in rank - blindly,
sticking
to their madhhabs or views as if these had descended from
the
heavens! But Allah, Mighty and Sublime, says:
"Follow
(O men!) the revelation given to you from your Lord, and
follow
not, as friends and protectors, other than Him. Little is it
you
remember of admonition."
(1)
Abu Haneefah (rahimahullaah)
The
first of them is Abu Haneefah Nu'maan ibn Thaabit, whose
companions
have narrated from him various sayings and diverse
warnings,
all of them leading to one thing: the obligation to accept
the
Hadeeth, and to give up following the opinions of the imams
which
contradict it:
1.
"When a hadeeth is found to be saheeh, then that is my madhhab."20
2.
"It is not permitted for anyone to accept our views if they do not
know
from where we got them."
In
one narration, "It is prohibited for someone who does not know my
evidence
to give verdicts on the basis of my words."
Another
narration adds, "... for we are mortals: we say one thing one
day,
and take it back the next day."
In
another narration, "Woe to you, O Ya'qub! Do not write down
everything
you hear from me, for it happens that I hold one opinion
today
and reject it tomorrow, or hold one opinion tomorrow and reject
it
the day after tomorrow."
3.
"When I say something contradicting the Book of Allah the Exalted
or
what is narrated from the Messenger (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa
salaam),
then ignore my saying."
(2)
Malik ibn Anas (rahimahullaah)
As
for Imam Malik ibn Anas, he said:
1.
"Truly I am only a mortal: I make mistakes (sometimes) and I am
correct
(sometimes). Therefore, look into my opinions: all that
agrees
with the Book and the Sunnah, accept it; and all that does not
agree
with the Book and the Sunnah, ignore it."
2.
"Everyone after the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa salaam) will
have
his sayings accepted and rejected - not so the Prophet
(sallallaahu
'alaihi wa salaam)."
3.
Ibn Wahb said: "I heard Malik being asked about cleaning between
the
toes during ablution. He said, 'The people do not have to do
that.'
I did not approach him until the crowd had lessened, when I
said
to him, 'We know of a sunnah about that.' He said, 'What is
that?'
I said, 'Laith ibn Sa'd, Ibn Lahee'ah and 'Amr ibn al-Haarith
narrated
to us from Yazeed ibn 'Amr al-Ma'aafiri from Abu 'Abdur-
Rahman
al-Hubuli from Mustawrid ibn Shaddaad al-Qurashi who said, 'I
saw
the Messenger of Allah (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa salaam) rubbing
between
his toes with his little finger.' He said, 'This hadeeth is
sound;
I had not heard of it at all until now.' Afterwards, I heard
him
being asked about the same thing, on which he ordered cleaning
between
the toes."
(3)
Shaafi'i (rahimahullaah)
As
for Imam Shaafi'i, the quotations from him are most numerous and
beautiful,
and his followers were the best in sticking to them:
1.
"The sunnahs of the Messenger of Allah (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa
salaam)
reach, as well as escape from, every one of us. So whenever I
voice
my opinion, or formulate a principle, where something contrary
to
my view exists on the authority of the Messenger of Allah
(sallallaahu
'alaihi wa salaam), then the correct view is what the
Messenger
of Allah (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa salaam) has said, and it
is
my view."
2.
"The Muslims are unanimously agreed that if a sunnah of the
Messenger
of Allah (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa salaam) is made clear to
someone,
it is not permitted for him to leave it for the saying of
anyone
else."
3.
"If you find in my writings something different to the Sunnah of
the
Messenger of Allah (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa salaam), then speak
on
the basis of the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah
(sallallaahu
'alaihi wa salaam), and leave what I have said." In one
narration:
"...then follow it (the Sunnah), and do not look sideways
at
anyone else's saying."
4.
"When a hadeeth is found to be saheeh, then that is my madhhab."
5.
"You are more knowledgeable about Hadeeth than I, so when a
hadeeth
is saheeh, inform me of it, whether it is from Kufah, Basrah
or
Syria, so that I may take the view of the hadeeth, as long as it
is
saheeh."
6.
"In every issue where the people of narration find a report from
the
Messenger of Allah (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa salaam) to be saheeh
which
is contrary to what I have said, then I take my saying back,
whether
during my life or after my death."
7.
"If you see me saying something, and contrary to it is
authentically-reported
from the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa
salaam),
then know that my intelligence has departed."
8.
"For everything I say, if there is something authentic from the
Prophet
(sallallaahu 'alaihi wa salaam) contrary to my saying, then
the
hadeeth of the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa salaam) comes
first,
so do not follow my opinion."
9.
"Every statement on the authority of the Prophet
(sallallaahu
'alaihi wa salaam) is also my view, even if you do not
hear
it from me."
(4)
Ahmad ibn Hanbal (rahimahullaah)
Imam
Ahmad was the foremost among the Imams in collecting the
Sunnah
and sticking to it, so much so that he even "disliked that a
book
consisting of deductions and opinions be written." Because of
this
he said:
1.
"Do not follow my opinion; neither follow the opinion of Malik,
nor
Shaafi'i, nor Awzaa'i, nor Thawri, but take from where they took."
In
one narration: "Do not copy your Deen from anyone of these, but
whatever
comes from the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa salaam) and
his
Companions, take it; next are their Successors, where a man has a
choice."
Once
he said: "Following means that a man follows what comes from the
Prophet
(sallallaahu 'alaihi wa salaam) and his Companions; after the
Successors,
he has a choice."
2.
"The opinion of Awzaa'i, the opinion of Malik, the opinion of Abu
Haneefah:
all of it is opinion, and it is all equal in my eyes.
However,
the proof is in the narrations (from the Prophet
(sallallaahu
'alaihi wa salaam) and his Companions)."
3.
"Whoever rejects a statement of the Messenger of Allah
(sallallaahu
'alaihi wa salaam) is on the brink of destruction."
These
are the clear, lucid sayings of the Imams (Allah Exalted be
pleased
with them) about sticking to the Hadeeth and forbidding the
following
of their opinion without clearly- visible evidence, such
that
mere opinion and interpretation is not acceptable.
Hence,
whoever adhered to whatever of the Sunnah that was proved
authentic,
even if it opposed some of the Imams' sayings, he would
not
be conflicting with their madhhab, nor straying from their path;
rather,
such a person would be following all of them and would be
grasping
the most trustworthy hand-hold, which never breaks. However,
this
would not be the case with the one who abandoned any of the
authentic
Sunnah simply because it contradicted their views; nay,
such
a person would be being disobedient to them and opposing their
above
mentioned sayings, while Allah says:
"But
no, by Your Lord, they can have no (real) faith, until they make
you
judge in all disputes between them, and find in their souls no
resistance
against your decisions, but accept them with the fullest
conviction.".
He also says:
"Then
let those beware who withstand the Messenger's order, lest some
trial
befall them or a grievous penalty be inflicted on them."
Haafiz
Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali (rahimahullaah) says:
"Therefore
it is obligatory on anyone who hears of a command of the
Messenger
of Allah (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa salaam) or knows it, to
explain
it to the Ummah, advise them sincerely, and order them to
follow
his command, even if it contradicts the opinion of someone
great.
This is because the authority of the Messenger of Allah
(sallallaahu
'alaihi wa salaam) has the most right to be respected
and
followed, over and above the opinion of anyone great who has
unknowingly
contradicted the Messenger's command in any matter. This
is
why the Companions and those after would refute anyone who
contradicted
the authentic Sunnah, sometimes being very stern in
their
refutation, not out of hatred for that person, for they loved
and
respected him, but because the Messenger of Allah was more
beloved
to them, and his command was superior to the command of any
other
created being. Hence, when the order of the Messenger and that
of
someone else conflicted, the order of the Messenger would be more
fitting
to be enforced and followed. None of this would stop them
respecting
the person they had opposed because they knew that he
would
be forgiven52; in fact, the latter would not mind his
instruction
being opposed when the command of the Messenger of Allah
(sallallaahu
'alaihi wa salaam) was clearly shown to be opposite."
Indeed,
how could they mind that, when they had ordered their
followers
to do so, as we have seen, and had enjoined on them to
abandon
any of their views which contradicted the Sunnah. In fact,
Imam
Shaafi'i (rahimahullaah) told his companions to attribute the
authentic
Sunnah to him also, even if he had not adopted it or had
adopted
something contradictory to it. Hence, when the analyst Ibn
Daqeeq
al-'Eid (rahimahullaah) collected together, in a bulky volume,
the
issues in which one or more of the four Imams' madhhabs had
contradicted
the authentic hadeeth, he wrote at the beginning of
it,
"It is prohibited to attribute these answers to the Mujtahid
Imams,
and obligatory on the jurists who follow their opinions to
know
of these so that they do not quote them regarding these and thus
lie
against them."
The
Imams' Followers Leaving their Views if these Contradicted the
Sunnah
Due
to all that we have mentioned, the disciples of the Imams, a
number
of people from those of old, and a few from those of later
time,
would not accept all of their Imam's views; they actually
ignored
many when they found them to be clearly against the Sunnah.
Even
the two Imams, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan and Abu Yoosuf
(rahimahullaah)
differed from their shaikh Abu Haneefah "in about a
third
of the Madhhab", as the books of masaa'il prove. Similarly is
said
about Imam al- Muzani and other followers of Shaafi'i and other
Imams;
were we to start giving examples, the discussion would become
exceedingly,
long, and we would digress from what we set out to do in
this
Introduction, so we shall limit ourselves to two instances:
1)
Imam Muhammad says in his Muwatta'(p. 158), "As for Abu Haneefah,
he
did not regard there being a prayer to ask for rain, but we hold
that
the imam prays two rak'ahs and then supplicates and holds out
his
wrapping garment..."
2)
We have 'Isaam ibn Yoosuf al-Balkhi, one of the companions of
Imam
Muhammad and a servant of Imam Abu Yoosuf, who "would give
verdicts
contrary to Imam Abu Haneefah because he did not know the
latter's
evidence, and other evidence would present itself to him, so
he
would give verdicts using that." Hence, he would raise his hands on
bowing
(in prayer) and on rising from it", as is the mutawaatir
sunnah
of the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa salaam); the fact that
his
three Imams (i.e. Abu Haneefah, Abu Yoosuf and Muhammad) said
otherwise
did not prevent him from practicing this sunnah. This is
the
approach which every Muslim is obliged to have, as we have
already
seen from the testimony of the Four Imams, and others.
To
sum up: I sincerely hope that no follower of an Imam will race to
condemn
the principles of this book and abandon benefiting from the
sunnahs
of the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa salaam) which it
contains,
with the argument that they are contrary to his Madhhab. I
hope
that such a person will instead consider what we have given of
the
exhortations of the Imams towards the obligation to act on the
Sunnah
and ignore their sayings contradictory to it. I hope also that
he
will realize that to condemn the attitude of this book is to
condemn
whichever Imam he is following, for we have taken these
principles
from those Imams, as we have explained. Therefore,
whoever
refuses to be guided by them on this path is in great danger,
for
such refusal necessitates turning away from the Sunnah, the
Sunnah
to which we have been ordered to refer in cases of difference
of
opinion and on which we have been commanded to depend.
I
ask Allah to make us among those about whom He says,
"The
answer of the believers, when summoned to Allah and His
Messenger,
in order that he may judge between them, is no other than
this:
they say, "We hear and we obey" - it is such as these that will
attain
Success. It is those who obey Allah and His Messenger, and
fear
Allah, and keep their duty to Him, who will triumph."63
- "The prophets prayer" - By Sheik Muhammad Naasir-ud-Deen Al Albani.