“Authenticity of Salah” Page 10 - “Following one Imam only”

May 17 2012 , Written by Karim ben Amor Published on #Articles de Karim ben Amor, #Réfutations

REFUTATION OF THE BOOKLET: “Authenticity of Salah”

Page 10 of the booklet: “Authenticity of Salah”, in the chapter named: “Following one Imam only”

The author (Muhammad Ilyas Faisal) said: “Why is it necessary to follow one Imaam only? Why can one not follow a certain Imaam in one aspect and another Imaam in another aspect? The simple answer to this is: On what basis will one pick and choose, especially since one does not have the knowledge to derive the laws. Thus one will not be in a position to evaluate deductions of each Imaam. Hence it will obviously be on the basis of what suits one. This is nothing but following one’s desires-regarding which Allah Ta’ala has issued severe warning in the Qur’an. Following one’s desires sometimes even leads a person to kufr. Thus great jurists of latter times, among them Shah Waliullah (R.A.), have reaffirmed that it is wajib for the masses to follow one Imaam only.” [End quote “Authenticity of Salah” - page 11]

I will reply to this statement inshaAllah with what Sheikh Muhammad Sultan Al-Ma’soomi Al-Khajnadee said in his book “Should a Muslim follow a particular Madhhab? ”

“These so-called scholars made it incumbent on people to follow one of the four Imams and prohibited them from following another at the same time. In other words they raised up the Imams to the level of the Prophets-to whom scriptures were revealed-and made it obligatory to obey every word of the Imam. Most of them only know the name of their Imam and nothing more than that. Even more strange is that a few of the later scholars contrived some issues and attributed these issues to one of the Imams, and succeeding generations too took the concoted issues as Imams’ verdicts and started following them without any verification, whereas there is no revelancy between Imams’ viewpoints and these innovated issues. So, Imams are free from such precepts. For example, many of the Hanafites (followers of Imam Abu Hanifah) argue that raising the forefinger of the right hand at Tashahhud is forbidden…”( Sheikh Muhammad Sultan Al-Ma’soomi Al-Khajnadee - page 20)

[…]“Imam Tirmidhi has quoted a Hadith in his Sunan on the authority of Irbad Bin Sariyah, and this hadith should be enough for your guidance and warning:

“One day Allah’s Messenger (salla Allah aleyhi we sallem) gave us a lengthy exhortation after the Fajr prayer which brought tears to the eye terror to the heart. A man said: “O Allah’s Messenger (salla Allah aleyhi we sallem)! It seems as if it was a farewell exhortation, then what injunction do you give us? He then said: “I enjoin you to fear Allah, and to hear and obey even if it be an Abysinian slave, for those of you who live after me will see great disagreement. You must then follow my Sunnah and that of the rightly guided Caliphs. Hold fast to it. Avoid novelties (in religion), for they are error.”” (Imam Tirmidhi grades this hadith Sahih. This Hadith is also present in the Sunan of Abu Dawud.

If this is the reality which has been mentioned above, in that case it is our foremost duty to avoid stubbornly following one particular Imam and his Madhhab. Concerning various religious matters, if anyone follows strictly one particular Madhhab, sect or person, surely he will not act upon many Hadith, rather there is possibility of going against many of the hadith of the Prophet (salla Allah aleyhi we sallem). Going against Hadith is infidelity and faithlessness. That is why many Hanafi scholars have made it clear that it is not necessary to follow one particular sect. Kamal bin Hamam wrote in his book entitled At-Tahreer and Ibn ‘Abdeen Ash-Shami wrote in his book‘Awa’il Raad Al-Mukhtar that the authenticity of the statement concerning the “following” of one special sect or Madhhab is doubtful.” (Sheikh Muhammad Sultan Al-Ma’soomi Al-Khajnadee - page 26).

“Imam Abu Hanifah, Imam Malik and no other Imam, has ever urged the people to go along with his idea or to act upon his verdict or saying. None of them ever compelled anybody to adopt their way. They always clarified their position by saying: “If a Sahih Hadith is found, our opinion is nullified at once and our faith is according to Hadith.”

The first two Caliphs of Islam Abu Bakr and ‘Umar (radhee Allah ‘anhuma) never asked the people to act upon their word or saying; on the other hand, they always expressed that if they uttered any word or tried to act contrary to the Qur’an and Sunnah, people were allowed to take them to task. In fact they discarded everything which was not in agreement with the Qur’an and Sunnah. If this is the fact of the situation, then how did these various sects come into being? What were the factors which gave rise to them? What were the reasons which restrained the people from logical thinking? Who put the fetters of Madhahib in the face of Muslim Ummah?” (Sheikh Muhammad Sultan Al-Ma’soomi Al-Khajnadee - page 27-28)

On the page 11 of the book “Authenticity of Salah” the author mentioned: “Thus great jurists of latter times, among them Shah Waliullah (R.A.), have reaffirmed that it is wajib for the masses to follow one Imaam only.” (“Authenticity of Salah” – page 11)

Let see what really said Shah Waliullah Dahlawee:

Shah Waliullah Dahlawee has written in Insaf fi Bayan Asbab Al-Ikhtilaf :

“For the first two centuries of the Hijra era people were not aware of any madhhab, as fact of the matter, no Madhhab existed at all during that time. For that reason nobody knew any Madhhab and did not follow anyone except Allah’s Messenger (salla Allah aleyhi we sallem). Venerable Companions of Allah’s Messenger (salla Allah aleyhi we sallem), the Tabe’in (those who immediately followed the Companions) and the succeeding generation of the Tabe’in followed their consensus and did not follow any individual. So anybody who ignores this consensus and opts all the sayings, verdicts and views of any one Imam and does not try to search and confirm it from the two basic sources i.e., the Qur’an and the Sunnah, is acting against the tenets of faith. Such a person has gone astray from the right path of Islam.” (see Insaf fi Bayan Asbab Al-Ikhtilaf).

So we realise that the author (Sheikh Muhammad Ilyas Faisal) misquoted here the saying of Shah Waliulllah. Indeed he (Shah Waliullah) never said it is wajib (compulsory) for the masses to follow one Imam as the author of the book “Authenticity of Salah” pretended but Shah Waliullah confirmed in his book, that can be checked inshaAllah, that “anybody who ignores this consensus and opts all the sayings, verdicts and views of any one Imam and does not try to search and confirm it from the two basic sources i.e., the Qur’an and the Sunnah, is acting against the tenets of faith. Such a person has gone astray from the right path of Islam.”

And the word used by Shah Waliullah is “anybody” which includes the masses and the other…

Moreover, Imam ‘Izzudin bin Abdus Salam in his book Qawa’id Al-Ahkam Fi Masaleh al-Anam and Shaikh Salah Fulani also in his book Iqaz Human Ulul-Absar have mentioned the same view.

Sopahan Allah, misquoting the saying of the people of knowledge is dangerous and dishonest because this leads to astray the masses, and then the ignorant one will believe that Shah Waliullah said that it is compulsory for the masses to follow one Imam only. While we just showed (wa lellah al hamd) that Shah Waliullah said the opposite of what the author Muhammad Ilyas Faisal pretended.

“Concerning various religious matters, if anyone follows strictly one particular Madhhab, sect or person, surely he will not act upon many Hadith, rather there is possibility of going against many of the hadith of the Prophet (salla Allah aleyhi we sallem)…” (Sheikh Muhammad Sultan Al-Ma’soomi Al-Khajnadee)

Refutation of page 15 - “Masah (passing wet fingers) over the nape”

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