Is Fiqh necessary?

 

Is Fiqh necessary?

 

Now there will be no revelation, but this is clear that the verses of the Holy Quran and the words of the Hadith are limited, where as the problems of the humankind, which are refashioned by the passing of time, are unlimited.  For this reason, the extraction of rules of the contemporary issues by contemplating over the sources of Islamic law is highly necessary. In the Science of Jurisprudence (Fiqh), these very issues of human life are dealt with.

 

The verses of the Holy Quran and the Hadith that deal with these issues are 500 and 3000 respectively.  Obviously, rules have to be formulated by contemplating over these verses and Hadith.  At some places the rules have been mentioned concisely.  At some places they are hidden.  At some places they have been mentioned in abbreviated form and at some places they are ambiguous.

 

To contemplate over them, understand the intent of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) and formulate rules, which include personal, economic, political, domestic rules for the guidance of the community and the Ummah, is beyond the ability of even an accomplished scholar, let alone a common man.

 

Mere mastery of language does not qualify one to understand the finer points of the law and neither can every litterateur/philologist be a legislator as well.  When this is not possible in the laws made by men, but is considered a joke that only mastery over a language qualifies one to be a legislator, then comprehension of divine laws demands much more from us.  For this reason, those revered personalities who spent their entire lives in the deduction and extraction of laws, who remained the leaders of the community because of their knowledge and piety, their deductions are more authoritative than ours.

 

The Holy Quran is the epitome of eloquence.  In spite of being easy to understand, most of the subjects dealt with in the Holy Quran are such that understanding the rules that can be deduced from them is not easy.  The reason is that the Holy Quran and the Hadith describe the necessity and importance of Fiqh.  Allah Ta’ala says in the Holy Quran:

 

 

 

And it is not possible for all the Muslims to set out (together). So, why should a party from within every group (or tribe) not go forth in order that they may acquire deeper knowledge (i.e. thorough understanding and insight) of Din (Religion), and warn their people when they return to them so that they may guard themselves (against a life of sins and disobedience).  Surah Tauba (9:122)

 

 

 

There is another verse of the same purport in Surah Baqarah.  The one who has been granted wisdom (Fiqh), has in reality been given a great ni’mah.  There is a Hadith in Sahih Bukhari.  Whosoever, Allah Ta’ala wants to bless, He grants him understanding of religion and there is nothing except that I distribute and Allah Ta’ala grants.  Shaykh Ul Islam Imam Muhammad Anwarullah Farooqui mentions a Hadith in Haqiqatul Fiqh, on the authority of Jame Us Sagheer, that the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said:

 

 

 

Translation of Hadith:  Every thing has its mainstay and the mainstay of this religion is Fiqh (Jurisprudence) one Faqih (Jurisprudent) is harder on Satan than a 1000 worshippers (A’abid).

 

 

 

Following the rules, which have been formulated by the Jurisprudents and the Legislators (Mujtahidin), is to follow the Holy Quran and the Hadith itself.  When anyone assumes these rules, he/she is said to be following these personalities (Taqlid) and this Taqlid is to follow the Holy Quran and the Hadith and this following means that these personalities have extracted rules from the Holy Quran and the Hadith, even though we may not know the basis of such extraction.  To know the basis of such extraction is not even necessary.  Consequently, the stalwarts of every age have accepted any one of the 4 Imams as the greatest Jurisprudents and have followed the rules extracted by them.  There are many verses in the Holy Quran and in the Hadith, which talk about Taqlid.  The objections of the dissenters betray their own lack of understanding, otherwise nobody assumes that the legislators have ruled thus out of their own personal preferences.  They in fact, have extracted and formulated rules from the Holy Quran and the Hadith.  If before objecting, the ‘non-followers’ (Ghair Muqallidin- those who refuse to follow any of the Imams) consider this, then I think no objection will remain, but what to say about false assumptions-

 

  

O Believers! Avoid most conjectures. Indeed some conjectures are sins (liable to punishment in the Hereafter). And spy not (on someone’s unknown matters or secrets), nor backbite one another. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? You would hate it. And fear Allah (in all such matters). Indeed Allah is Ever-Returning, Ever-Merciful.  Surah Hujuraat (49:12)