Answer to an Enemy of Islam

The imâms or their disciples did not say that it was
necessary to admit their deductions or ijtihâds. Imâm Abû
Hanîfa said, ‘This is my ijtihâd. If there should be anyone
to say the better I will follow him.’ When Hârûn ar-Rashîd
wanted to command everybody to follow the ijtihâds of
Imâm Mâlik, the imâm said, ‘Do not do that! A hadîth
which is not known at some place is known at some other
place.’ A hadîth reported by only one person denotes
supposition. Such a hadîth, even if it is sahîh, is to be given
up if it is against the public advantage. The Sunna will not
be abandoned by doing so. It will have been omitted
because strong evidence against it has been seen. So is the
case with Hadrat ’Umar’s ijtihâd upon divorce and mut’a.
Hadrat ’Umar cannot be said to have opposed to the
hadîth.”
He boasts of himself by writing through the preacher’s tongue:
“O you virtuous young man! I now appreciate your deep
and extensive knowledge.”
He writes again through the preacher’s tongue:
“The harm of taqlîd, even if it were only getting stuck
into the books of one’s own madhhab and neglecting the
books of hadîth, will prove it [taqlîd] wrong.”
Not only Imâm Ahmad but also the other a’immat al-madhâhib
said to their disciples, “Do not follow anybody, not even me. Take
what is conveyed from as-Sahâba,” because there were mujtahids
among their disciples. Mujtahids had to do so. And the statement,
“You are free to adapt yourself to those who came after as-
Sahâba” is a lie, for, a mujtahid was not permitted to follow
another mujtahid. Hadrat ’Abd al-Wahhâb ash-Sha’rânî wrote in
Al-mîzân al-kubrâ:
“An ’âlim in the grade of ijtihâd, that is, a scholar who can find
out the adilla and infer rules from them, is not permitted to follow
somebody else. However, according to the ’ulamâ’, it is wâjib for
an ordinary Muslim to follow a mujtahid. They said that if a nonmujtahid
Muslim did not follow a mujtahid, he would deviate from
the right path. All mujtahids inferred rules from the documentary
evidences they found in Islam. No mujtahid has ever talked out of
his own opinion concerning the religion of Allâhu ta’âlâ. Each
madhhab is like a tissue woven with the threads of the Book and
the Sunna. Anybody who is not in the grade enabling him to
employ ijtihâd has to choose and follow any one he likes of the
– 78 –