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Originally Posted by Grace Seeker  I was recently told
If this is so, then why is it necessary to have interpretors, scholars, and others who serve the role of helping people to understand what is obviously unclear to many. If it were clear, I would think that there would be no questions and certainly no differences. But we do see differences in Isalm, be it question about who is to be in authority after Muhammed's (pbuh) pasing, or the various schools of law, there isn't even agreement about the beginning and end of Ramadan.
Opinion's come to the fore in Islam all the time. A recent thread on LI showed that just in discussing what was appropriate and not appropriate for a Muslim to do in relating to non-Muslim family members at Christmas time. And both were able to produce ahadeeth to back up their various opinions. So, how is it that one can say that Islam is not a religion of opinions? |
You have misunderstood the statement or whoever explained it to you was not very clear and why not might have misunderstood the matter as well.
When we say that Islam is not a religion of opinions we mean that no one can speak of islam based on his mere opinion or upon his/her whims and desires.
Islam as every other religion has a foundation and this foundation is established based upon the word of God and the messenger of God.
Therefore this is the criterion and not the whims and desires or even honest opinions of people and as you know opinions differ therefore sure knowledge is not based upon differences but upon certainty and certainty in religious matters comes only from the Lawgiver.
The messengers cam to the human kind with matters that can not be arrived at by reason itself, yet they are not against reason. To some extent reason might grasp to some extent the reality of the matters but this is only in general sense thus it is necessary that revelation guides reason and thus they are in harmony.
As you say, opinions of people differ even upon the understanding of certain hadith and this is exactly why we are ordered to go back to the sources to check the matter in relation to it. Whatever complies with it is accepted and whatever opposes it is rejected.
This is the reality with all the messages brought by all the messengers of God without exception. However the religions other than Islam (Judaism and Christianity) have been less adamant on this and this is not a hidden matter for anyone who has studied and compared between them.
This is the only reason that we say that Islam is not the religion of opinions. But in the core of the matter every message from the messengers of God is not a message of opinions rather is a revelation and sure knowledge. Yet it does not contradict reason. However as reason is relative between people misunderstandings will happen and this is the reason that we limit opinions as reason is only a tool to understand the reality it is not a condition for it.
This matter is very broad and it would take a lot of time to explain it but I hope I have shed some light on it.
Hope this helped. Regards.