Documents of the Right Word

Likewise, they had to make painstaking inquiries about how they
should deal out the property he had left among his inheritors. It
was Abû Bekr as-Siddîq, again, who quoted the hadîth-i-sherîf,
“Prophets do not leave an inheritance behind them.” So they
acted accordingly.
Âisha-i-Siddîqa ‘radiy-Allâhu anhâ’, the mother of Muslims,
stated: “When Rasûl-i-ekrem ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallâm’ passed
away, the hypocrites rose in rebellion. The Arabs became
renegades, that is, they abandoned Islam. The Ansâr held
themselves aloof. The disasters that befell my father would have
crushed mountains had they befallen them. The case as this was,
whereever there was a disagreement, my father would be there to
solve it and reconcile the people concerned.”
When the As-hâb-i-kirâm ‘radiy-Allâhu ta’âlâ anhum ajma’în’
were confronted with something they did not know how to do,
(they would look the matter up in the Sunnat-i-seniyya,) and if
they did not find a solution in the Sunnat-i-seniyya, either, they
would (decide how to) do it through a method called re’y
(finding) and qiyâs (comparison), that is, by comparing it with
other matters they knew how to do. This paved the way to ijtihâd.
If the ijtihâds of the As-hâb-i-kirâm or other mujtahids agree on
a matter, there will be no doubt left pertaining to that matter. This
concurrence of ijtihâds was called Ijmâ-i-ummat. Making ijtihâd
requires having profound knowledge. Scholars who possess this
deep knowledge (and are therefore capable of making ijtihâd) are
called Mujtahid. If the ijtihâds made by mujtahids do not agree
with one another, it becomes wâjib for each mujtahid to act upon
his own ijtihâd.
The caliphate election was a matter of ijtihâd, too. There were
hadîth-i-sherîfs denoting that Abû Bekr, ’Umar, ’Uthmân and Alî
‘radiy-Allâhu anhum’ would become Khalîfa. Yet the time for any
of them was not stated clearly. Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa
sallam’ did not say, “Appoint so and so Khalîfa after me.” He left
this job over to the As-hâb-i-kirâm to decide on. The ijtihâds made
by the As-hâb-i-kirâm pertaining to caliphate election did not
agree with one another. There were three different ijtihâds:
The first one was the Ansâr’s re’y [finding]; they said that the
person “who has served Islam most must be Khalifa. The Arabs
became Muslims in the shade of our swords. Therefore one of us
must be Khalîfa.”
The second ijtihâd was the re’y of most of the As-hâb-i-kirâm
‘radiy-Allâhu ta’âlâ alaihim ajma’în’; they said that Khalîfa “must
– 138 –