tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476241816557697032.post4876884092586657007..comments2021-06-21T06:31:15.879-07:00Comments on MREHAN or MREHAN15: WHAT IS A MADHHAB? WHY IS IT NECESSARY TO FOLLOW ONE?mrehan15http://www.blogger.com/profile/09875070288644057217noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476241816557697032.post-30575328044651764412010-09-21T12:08:30.916-07:002010-09-21T12:08:30.916-07:00The reason why madhhabs
exist, the benefit of them...The reason why madhhabs<br />exist, the benefit of them,<br />past, present, and future, is<br />that they furnish thousands of<br />sound, knowledge-based<br />answers to Muslims questions<br />on how to obey Allah. Muslims<br />have realized that to follow a<br />madhhab means to follow a<br />super scholar who not only<br />had a comprehensive<br />knowledge of the Qur'an and<br />hadith texts relating to each<br />issue he gave judgements on,<br />but also lived in an age a<br />millennium closer to the<br />Prophet (Allah bless him and<br />give him peace) and his<br />Companions, when taqwa or<br />"godfearingness" was the<br />norm--both of which<br />conditions are in striking<br />contrast to the scholarship<br />available today.<br />While the call for a return to<br />the Qur'an and sunna is an<br />attractive slogan, in reality it<br />is a great leap backward, a<br />call to abandon centuries of<br />detailed, case-by-case Islamic<br />scholarship in finding and<br />spelling out the commands of<br />the Qur'an and sunna, a highly<br />sophisticated, interdisciplinary<br />effort by mujtahids, hadith<br />specialists, Qur'anic exegetes,<br />lexicographers, and other<br />masters of the Islamic legal<br />sciences. To abandon the fruits<br />of this research, the Islamic<br />shari'a, for the following of<br />contemporary sheikhs who,<br />despite the claims, are not at<br />the level of their<br />predecessors, is a replacement<br />of something tried and proven<br />for something at best<br />tentative.<br />The rhetoric of following the<br />shari'a without following a<br />particular madhhab is like a<br />person going down to a car<br />dealer to buy a car, but<br />insisting it not be any known<br />make--neither a Volkswagen<br />nor Rolls- Royce nor<br />Chevrolet--but rather "a car,<br />pure and simple". Such a<br />person does not really know<br />what he wants; the cars on<br />the lot do not come like that,<br />but only in kinds. The salesman<br />may be forgiven a slight smile,<br />and can only point out that<br />sophisticated products come<br />from sophisticated means of<br />production, from factories with<br />a division of labor among<br />those who test, produce, and<br />assemble the many parts of<br />the finished product. It is the<br />nature of such collective<br />human efforts to produce<br />something far better than any<br />of us alone could produce from<br />scratch, even if given a forge<br />and tools, and fifty years, or<br />even a thousand. And so it is<br />with the shari'a, which is more<br />complex than any car because<br />it deals with the universe of<br />human actions and a wide<br />interpretive range of sacred<br />texts. This is why discarding<br />the monumental scholarship of<br />the madhhabs in<br />operationalizing the Qur'an and<br />sunna in order to adopt the<br />understanding of a<br />contemporary sheikh is not<br />just a mistaken opinion. It is<br />scrapping a Mercedes for a<br />go-cart.mrehan15https://www.blogger.com/profile/09875070288644057217noreply@blogger.com