Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Is every ruling of a Mujtahid Scholar correct?


Is every Mujtahid Scholar correct or can some of them be incorrect in their rulings in the branches of Islamic law? 

Imam Abd Al-Mu’min Al-Hanbali (658-739)(رحمه الله) says:[1]

الحق في قول واحد, و المخطئ في الفروع – ولا قاطع- معذور, مأجور على اجتهاده

“The truth is (only) in one statement (ruling).  And as for the scholar who makes a mistake in issues related to the branches of the religion (not in issues that have definitive proofs), he is excused, rewarded for his Ijtihaad (deductive ruling)”

Sheikh Abd Allah bin Saalih Al-Fawzaan Says:

“This issue is concerning the correctness of a Mujtahid Scholar[2], and regarding it there are two opinions:

The first: That only one opinion can be correct, and anything besides that is wrong, this is because the truth can only be one and not more than one. And this is what the large part of scholars (Jamhoor) are upon from the Shafi’I, Maaliki, and Hanbali Madhabs, and it is one opinion from the Hanafis.

As for the one who is incorrect, he has made a mistake in an issue from the among the issues of the branches of Islamic Jurisprudence (Furoo in Fiqh) in which the proofs are “supposed (ظنية)” and not “definitive (قاطع”)-which come from the texts of Quran and Sunnah or Ijma’a (Majority ruling), then he (the one who made the mistake) is excused, and there is no sin upon him, because of the correctness of his intention, and because he made a mistake without intending to do so.

Rather he is rewarded because of the hadeeth where the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم) said “If a ruler rules by his Ijtihaad (deductive ruling) and he makes a mistake (in the ruling) he has one reward.” And this reward is the reward to him for doing the Ijtihaad (deductive ruling).

Imam Abd Al-Mu’min continues by saying:

"و قال بعض المتكلمين: كل مجتهد مصيب, و ليس على الحق دليل مطلوب. و قال بعضهم: اختلف فيه عن أبي حنيفة و أصحابه..."

And some Islamic Scholars of Rhetoric have said that every Mujtahid scholar is correct, and it is not a requisite for the truth (In an Islamic issue: i.e.: مسالة) that there come along with it a (definitive) proof (directly and clearly from the text: i.e.:  نصيor قطعي: i.e.: definitive), and some of them said Abu Haneefa (رحمه الله) and his companions had a difference of opinion about which one of these was correct.”

Shiekh Abd Allah says:

The second opinion concerning the correctness of the Mujtahid scholar and his mistakes when he does Ijtihaad (deductive ruling), is that every Mujtahid scholar is correct, and that it is not a requisite for the truth to be true that it come along with definitive proof (قطعي), rather whomsoever struggles in trying to find the correct answer from among the various possibilities he is correct, because of the lack of definitive proof for that answer to be completely clear that it is in fact the only correct way from among the other opinions that differ from that scholars selection.

As for the first position it is the most correct in this issue, because of the hadeeth that was previously mentioned of Aamir bin Al-‘Aaas where he heard the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم) say “If the ruler rules with his deductive ruling (Ijtihaad) and he is correct, he will get two rewards, and if the ruler rules with deductive ruling (Ijtihaad) and makes a mistake, he will get one reward.”[3]

Sheikh  Sa’ad  bin Naasir Ash-Shatari mentions in his book “Al-Usool wa al-Furoo’” the following concerning this specific issue.

“The People of Knowledge differ concerning the rulings related to the branches (furoo) of Islamic law when the people of Ijtihaad (deductive ruling) have differed in their rulings: The issue is, “Is the truth in only one of their rulings, or can the truth be in multiple rulings for any specific issue?”

 In which case the scholars have two statements:

That the truth is in only one of the rulings (and the rest of the rulings in the same issue are wrong), and the Majority (Jamhoor) had this opinion, it is an opinion of Abu Haneefa (رحمه الله), and most of his companions took it as well, and it is a statement of Imam Malik (رحمه الله)  and most of the Madhab, and it is a statement of Shafi’I (رحمه الله)  and most of the Madhab as well, and it is a statement of Imam Ahmad (رحمه الله)  it is what those who follow him follow.  Likewise there is a group from the Mu’tazilites who take it and a saying of Abu Al-Hasan Al-Asha’ri (رحمه الله) and some of the Ashaa’irah have followed it. 

They derived this ruling from many proofs, and from the most prominent of those proofs are:

1)      The Statement of Allah in the English translation:

“And [mention] David and Solomon, when they judged concerning the field - when the sheep of a people overran it [at night], and We were witness to their judgment. And We gave understanding of the case to Solomon, and to each [of them] We gave judgment and knowledge. And We subjected the mountains to exalt [Us], along with David and [also] the birds. And We were doing [that].” [4]

So Allah says: “And We gave understanding of the case to Solomon”

And in order to understand the reasoning behind their deriving the proofs from these verses is that Allah specified Suleiman with understanding which proves that he was correct in his ruling, and a ruling that differed with him was a mistake.

The opposition in terms of those who disagree with these derived proofs mention the following points:

a)      That saying this causes you to say that the Prophets of Allah are fallible, and this is not correct.

In response to this we say, they are infallible in their delivering the message sent by God, and they are infallible in terms of doing major sins, as for making some mistakes in rulings then no they are not infallible. (They would mistake and Allah would correct them.)

b)      It could be that they both were correct in their rulings and it only meant that Allah specified Suleiman and not Dawood.

In response to this we say, that the ayah proves that not only was Suleiman specified with understanding, anything that opposed his ruling was wrong.  Alongside that when Dawood heard the ruling of Suleiman he retracted his ruling, and one would not do that unless he was mistaken”

The sheikh goes on to mention 17 proofs for this opinion, however the nature of the article is not necessarily to prove which opinion is correct through the proofs, rather it is to mention that the opinion that truth only resides in one is not only the opinion of the Hanbali Madhab as well this has been mentioned in Rawdhatu Naadhir by Muwafiq Ad-Deen Ibn Qudaama Al-Maqdisi   (541-620) (رحمه الله) , but many scholars also accepted and took this as their opinion. So therefore if a person would like further information he should return to the book and read what the Sheikh brought forth.

Then he mentions the second opinion by stating:

“That every Mujtahid is correct, and anything that his Ijtihaad(deductive ruling)  leads to it is true, so the truth with them is multiple, and it has been said that Abu Haneefa held this opinion, and a statement of Maalik, and it has been linked to Shaafi’i, however some of them have denied this from among his Madhab, and this is because it has been found in some texts that the Mujtahid is correct in his ijtihaad(deductive ruling)  even if he doesn’t arrive upon the correct answer, so they understood from this that every Mujtahid is correct. This is the opinion of the Mu’tazilite and most of the Ash’aairah, and Imam Al-Ghazaali (رحمه الله) and Ibn Burhaan. (رحمه الله)”

In order to clarify in a way that can be understood, we can look at an issue of the branches of Fiqh where the scholars disagreed, for example in the issue of whether or not the eating of Camel meat breaks ones spiritual purity (Al-Wudhu’). Some say it does, and some say it doesn’t.

So if we take the first statement as truth, in that not every Mujtahid scholar is correct, we would say that, the opinion for example of the Hanaabilah is correct in that eating Camel meat does break ones Wudhu’ and anyone who said otherwise from among the scholars is wrong, however they are rewarded for their Ijtihaad (deductive ruling).

The second opinion would say that, no both of these opinions are right, and both scholars are right. Now this is hard to understand because how can the Law of Allah be more than one in any one specific issue? How can eating Camel both break your Wudhu’ and not break your Wudhu’ at the same time? We say, according to the first opinion of this article, that in can’t be true. The law with Allah in both Usool (Foundations) and Furoo (Branches)is only one way, and when a scholar does Ijtihaad (deductive ruling)” in the branches he is rewarded, however, only one of them is correct, and the correct one gets two rewards.

Alongside this we have to mention that even though we believe that only one Mujtahid Scholar is correct, this doesn’t mean we don’t accept differences of opinions. Rather we accept differences of opinions in the branches of Fiqh, and we don’t allow this to cause differing or hatred, we respect that perhaps in these issues of the branches the scholars who have given other rulings that differ than ours have saw the proofs differently than the scholars whom we may be following, and thus even though we believe that only one of them is correct, if it’s an issue that is not entirely clear[5], we can’t be entirely certain that we are correct and he is incorrect. Thus we accept the difference, and say it’s possible he may be right, however we still feel as though we are following what is correct. While in the law of Allah (The Shariah) only one right way truly exists.

Written by Abu Hasaan Yahya Trento, 4/16/2013.

May Allah send his peace and blessings upon his Prophet Muhammad, Upon his Family, and Upon All of his companions.








[1] Taken from the book by The Imam Abd Al-Mu’min Abd bin Al-Hayy Al-Baghdaadi Al-Hanbali(658-739 Hijri) in his book “Tayseer Al-Wusool ilaa Qawaa’id al-usool wa ma’aqid al-fusool  with the explanation by Sheikh Abd Allah bin Saalih Al –Fawzaan:
[2] Meaning, is a Mujtahid correct all the time when he gives a ruling concerning an Issue of the branches of Islamic Jurisprudence? Or is only one of them correct, while the rest are incorrect?
[3] Bukhaari 7352, Muslim 1716
[4] 21:78-79
[5] From proof that is supposed. 

No comments:

Post a Comment