Belief and Islam

‘sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam’, and to speak ill of them
means to speak ill of him, who educated and trained them. For this
reason, the great men of Islam say that lack of respect and high
opinion of the Sahâbat al-kirâm is, in effect, denial of the
Messenger of Allah. The battles of “Jamal” (Camel) and “Siffîn”
cannot be taken as grounds for slandering them. For some
religious reasons, none of the Sahâbîs who stood against Hadrat
’Alî in those battles was evil; in fact, they all deserved to be
rewarded on the Day of Judgment. A hadîth-i-sherîf says: “One
reward will be given to the mujtahid who is mistaken, and two or
ten to him who finds what is right. One of the two rewards is for
employing ijtihâd. The other one is for finding the truth.” The
disputes and combats among those great people of Islam were not
out of obstinacy or hostility but because of their [different] ijtihâds
and out of their wish to carry out what Islam commanded. Each of
the Sahâbat al-kirâm was a mujtahid. [1]
It was fard for every mujtahid to act in accordance with the
conclusion he had found by his own ijtihâd, even if his ijtihâd
might not be in agreement with that of a mujtahid much higher
than he. It was not permissible for him to follow another’s ijtihâd.
Abû Yûsuf and Muhammad ash-Shaibânî, the disciples of al-Imâm
al-a’zam Abû Hanîfa Nu’mân ibn Thâbit (d. Baghdad, 150 A.H.
[767]), and Abû Sawr and Ismâ’îl al-Muzanî, the disciples of Imâm
Muhammad ibn Idrîs ash-Shâfi’î, (d. 204 [820 A.D.], Egypt,)
disagreed with their masters on many aspects, and about some of
the things which their masters said ‘harâm’ (forbidden) they said
‘halâl’ (permitted), and about some of the things which their
masters said ‘halâl’ they said ‘harâm.’ They cannot be said to be
sinful or evil on that account. No one has said so, for they were
mujtahids like their masters.
It is true that Hadrat ’Alî ‘radiy-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anh’ was higher
and more hearned than Hadrat Mu’âwiya and Hadrat ’Amr ibn al-
’Âs ‘radiy-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anhumâ’. He had many superior qualities
to distinguish him from them, and his ijtihâd was more powerful
and keener than their ijtihâds. However, since all the Sahâbat alkirâm
were mujtahids, it was not permissible for those two to
follow the ijtihâd of that great religious leader. It was necessary for
them to act upon their own ijtihâds.
[1] For example, it is stated in the hadîth as-sherîf in the 298th page of al-
Hadîqa that ’Amr ibn al-’Âs ‘radiy-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anh’ was a
mujtahid.
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