Madhab and Islam
Alhamdulillah!
Wassalatu wassalamu ala nabiyil kareem wa ala aalihi wa sallim
Amma ba’d.
Bismillah ala sunnati Habeebullah.
Assalamu Alaikum Dear Brothers and Sisters in Islam!
Are you Shafi or You are Hanafi, you can’t pray this way?
I am Hanafi, so I ‘ll not pray separately?
That is a Shafi mosque?
He is Maliki?
These are all the common things which we can hear in the Muslim world. Madhabs are becoming like a great divisions in the Muslim Ummah because of the lack of understanding of Islam among Muslims. Muslims have become very bias to particular madhab which they follow. Many of us think that madhab are something which we can?t switch as it is hereditary!
You can choose any madhab which is easy and convenient for you. It does not mean when you follow Imam Shafi, you can?t follow other Imams. A lot of people have this kind of mindset. Once you say you are following another madhab, they think you are different type of Muslim. Islam is an easy way of life. Prophet (sa.w) said:
Yassiroo Wala To Assiroo
Make (things) easy (for people and) do not make it difficult
Islam tolerates the Muslims to follow all the opinions of Imams of all Madhabs as long as they are valid in Shariah.Why are Muslims so fanatic over the Madahab that they follow? There is no such thing in Islam that if you follow Imam Shafi’s madhab you become Shafi. It is difficult for any one to follow one madhab completely in all acts of worship. It is because of the misunderstanding of madhab, many Alims are making Islam appear as a difficult for Muslims mass to follow.
What is Islam? Islam is that we believe in Allah, follow what Quran commands and obey Prophet (s.a.w). Madhabs helped for the development of Islam. But it is fardh, obligatory for Muslims to follow Quran and Hadith. We must always remember that we are not Following Imam Shafi or Imam Malik, but rather the following the Prophet Muhammad(s.a.w), to whom we should be loyal to.
After the demise of Prophet (s.a.w) and the Sahaba came the 4 Great Imams. Islam does not limit the Imams into 4, there many thousand of them. But we now restrict the Imams into only 4. Imam Malik(R.A), was a great Mujtahid, after his time people needed many answers which were given to them by Imam Abu Hanifa. After the time of both these Imams, people used to learn from Imam Shafi, who had had great respect for his pioneers. Then came Imam Ahmad who was in fact a student of Imam Shafi.
We must love all of these great Imams; they carried the great message of Islam to all corners of the world. They bear the message of Prophet Hood which was passed down to them through the Sahabas and Tabi’een. They did great Dawah and did Jihad in the path of Allah. They were not only Mujtahids but also, Sufis, Mujahid and Mufassiroon.
They were masters of all Islamic Sciences They hate divisions and sect in Islam, but look at us today we are fighting in their names called Madhab! They came from the time which has been prophesized by Prophet(s.a.w) as the blessed period of Islam. They were all high in terms of piety. We should never compare one Imam with another in terms of piety or knowledge. Who are we to compare them or to judge them?
How are you going to choose that one Imam is right and the other is not? We should accept, respect and love all of them. If you were to have special love for someone, and that should be for one and the only Rasoolullah(s.a.w). He is the Best of all creation, and protected from sins and mistakes. He is the one next to Allah. We must follow him. We can be bias to him; we can be fanatic to him, not to these Imams. We must love him more than anything in the world, if we are true Muslims.
Madhabs should not be taken so seriously like as if they are revelation. They are all opinions of Imams, which even among themselves, used to follow the opinion of others. For example, Imam Shafi was learning from a student of Imam Abu Hanifa for many years. Does it make him hanafi? They followed each other in opinion and were all united. They also at times, changed their opinions because of situations and other reasons. We should follow all the Imams. That is how we respect all of them. Not stick with only one Imam’s opinion, like what is happening in the Muslim world.
For example, Imam Abu Hanifa’s fatwa is that when there is blood coming out of your body, the wudhu is invalid. But Imam Shafi does not agree with this opinion. So if we are in a situation, when there is water to take wudhu, we follow Imam Abu Hanifa’s opinion and take wudhu. But if we are in a situation, when there is no water, we can just pray even though, there is blood coming out of our body, following Imam Shafi’s opinion. This is how we should follow madhab. Not in a fanatic way where we can see during the month of Ramadan, where Muslims from Hanafi and Shafi madhab form different jamah to pray their WITR prayers.
Imam Shafi’s fatwa for example, when you touch opposite sex, your wudhu is invalid, and you have to take wudhu again, even if it is accidentally. Imam Abu Hanifa’s opinion is that your wudhu is still valid; it does not matter whether you touch accidentally or not. Now you can choose whichever opinion based on your situations. It is not fardh upon you to follow one’s opinion throughout your life in all your situations. Follow which is easy for you considering the situation you are in. Some people will raise Madhab like Quran’s status and some people even will raise Madhab above Quran,. This is silly and ridiculous; we can find all these types of people around us. It is our duty to explain to them now.
During the battle of Badr, the Muslims encampment had not even a well or spring, and the place was so sandy that the feet of the camels sank deep into it. Hubab Ibn Mundhir asked the Prophet (s.a.w) whether the choice of camp had been made in obedience to a divine directive or Its Prophet(s.a.w)’s choice. The Prophet (s.a.w) told him that it was not because of a command from Allah.
Then Hubab suggested that it would be far better to move forward, and take possession of the spring and render the surrounding wells useless for the enemy. The Prophet (s.a.w) liked this suggestion and acted accordingly. By the grace of Allah they were lucky enough to have a good rain, which caused the dust to settle down. Rain water was also collected in tanks at various places, so as to be serviceable for ablution and bath.
So we have to understand that as long as it is not from Quran and Sunnah, it is alright to differ, if that is wrong Rasoolullah will never listened to Hubab (r.a). Rasoolullah(s.a.w) did not say to Hubab that I am a Prophet, so you must listen, in fact he followed the opinion his companion. After the era of 4 Imams, came Imam Ghazzali, who was in fact the sea of knowledge and we are supposed to follow him too. We can’t say we follow Shafi and can’t accept the opinion of Haafi. They are all equally right as the source they taken their evidences is all from rasoolullah(s.a.w). We must love all, why? Because all take their knowledge from Rasoolullah(s.a.w).
Imam Busairi(r.a) in his famous Burdha Shareef, praised about Prophet(s.a.w):
Wa kulluhum Min Rasulillahi Multamisun
Gharfan Min al-Bahri wa Rashfan min al-Diyami
All of them come and take from Allah’s Messenger
A handful of his ocean or a sip of his continuous rains.
Rasoolullah(s.a.w) is like an ocean. And the knowledge of all Imams is like handful of water from it. All from Rasoolullah(s.a.w), all opinion, fatwa from Rasoolullah(s.a.w).All the Imam’s madhab is from Rasolullah(s.a.w). Not from Another Prophet or Wali. So to whom we should be loyal to? To whom we should be grateful to? Of course we must love the Imams because they wert great Mujtahid and follow the foot steps of Rasoolullah(s.a.w). But we must direct our love to Rasoolullah(s.a.w). That is very important.
If we support one alim and boycott other opinion of other Imams that is not Islam. Islam is like a ocean fill with thousand of opinions from Imams. We have to see in any situation which madhab can help us in that particular situation and try to follow opinion of all Imams and should abstain from restricting completely to one madhab.
We are all Muslims and we should feel that we are all same and equal despite whichever madhab we follow. It does not means if you follow Madhab Shafi, yor are better than others or if you follow Hanafi you are better than other, or close to Allah. If you think that way, it is pride; pride is from Shaitan that will prevent from you entering the Paradise.
And today it is important for us to understand Quran and the concept of Dawah. We must bring back the Amaantullah. We must give all in fee sabilillah. W must help the poor and needy Muslims. May Allah give victory to Islam and Muslims
Wassalam
Unite-Muslims
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