Questions About Islam's Views on Knowledge/Study

format_quote Originally Posted by Al-Mu'minah

Assalaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatulaah WnbSlveOfAllah



Jazakallahu Khayr for the correction. In no way was I implying the Majority does not follow Qur'an and Sunnah subhan Allah, I am sorry if it seemed that way. I was talking about following the strongest evidence.

Sadly, I don't have a link to the Q & A tape. I didn't listen to it online.

Assalamualaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu,

Shukran for clearing the misunderstanding up, if you do come accross the Q & A then do let me know anytime Insh'allah.

If you want I can PM you some stuff.

You can PM it too me too if you want insha'allah thus contributing towards a better understanding. I have much to learn.

Jazak Allah khair for your efforts ukhti.

Some thing that should be noted is the hadith:

According to a hadith in Sahih Muslim (Book 30, Number 6159):

Narrated Aisha: A person asked Allah's Apostle (peace be upon him) as to who amongst the people were the best. He said: Of the generation to which I belong, then of the second generation (generation adjacent to my generation), then of the third generation (generation adjacent to the second generation).

Therefore the best have passed us already and we should refer to those before us as the Sahabas, the Tabi'ins and the Tabi-Tabi'ins.

and when one compared a Sahabah about whom there was some contreversy to a tabi'in who had great reputations:
Hadrat 'Abdullah ibn Mubarak, one of the prominent among the Taba' at-Tabiin, said, 'The dust that entered the nose of Hadrat Muawiya's (radi-Allahu ta'ala 'anh) horse while he was riding beside Rasulullah was more beneficial than Uwais al-Qarani and 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz.'

Therefore the best have past before us, and all we can do is hold on to what they held onto. We rely on the Ulema to preserve it for us, and we then rely on them to break it down for us due to our lack of knowledge.

thanks for all your comments - does anyone else have an opinion/comments on this subject? would like as to know the thoughts of as many as possible on this subject, which i find very interesting.
i've downloaded the book WnbSlveOfAllah mentioned - haven't had time to read it, but it looks like it may answer some of my questions. hope i can get to it fairly soon. i am sort of overwhelmed with stuff at the moment.
sometimes it is frustrating that there is so little time and so much i want to learn about a lot of different things, but that's life, i guess. we probably all have that problem. what else is new?
p.s. Al-Mu'minah, please don't forget me. :sunny:

We do follow the majority of scholars i.e consensus of scholars. But the question is when?

One has to understand Usul-Fiqh for this, Islams main authority is the Quran however if it is not found in it we turn to the Sunnah of our Prophet in other words the Hadith, if the scholars are still left without an answer they resort to Qiyaas (analogy) and the consensus of the scholars. Due to the general meaning of the Hadith

"Verily Allah will not make my community -- or Muhammad's community -- agree on error, and Allah's hand is with the largest congregation." Tirmidhi said: "And the meaning of "jama`a" according to the people of knowledge is: the people of jurisprudence, learning, and hadith."

"When a matter is not specifically addressed by the Qur’ân or Sunnah, its ruling might be deduced from an explicit ruling on a similar matter by way of analogy. Another ruling might be a matter of juristic consensus. Because of this, there is no circumstance or contingency that cannot be addressed by Islamic law using the principles of Islamic legal theory."[Shaykh`Alî Bâdahdah]

"The consensus of the Ummah on any thing is a valid proof that should be applied, because Allah [may He be Glorified] did not command us to return to His Book except when there is a difference regarding anything. Whatever the Ummah agreed upon should therefore be adopted because the entire Ummah cannot agree on an error or on something that contradicts the rulings of the Book of Allah or the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace be upon him)."[Tafsir Ibn Sa'di p. 699]

thanks for your reply.
who determines what is the majority? and how does a person find out?

i'm not sure if you've read this whole thread or not - so i wanted to give you a specific example.
sometimes a person here will say on a certain subject: "well, there is difference of opinion among the scholars on this".
and then others will say, "yes, but the majority say...."
how does anyone know or find out if this is so?

The majority of opinion is based upon the views of prominent scholars even in the past big scholars have always known of eachother and usually when difference of opinion is mentioned some of the names of the scholars are mentioned, so its not a case of just brushing things of by saying the majority of scholars etc.

of course, the scholars know but how is the average muslim seeking guidance supposed to know?

yes, please PM me.

format_quote Originally Posted by NoName55

^^ I'll risk it one more time and post here.

here goes:

A lay person follows the madhab of Imam of his Mosque who may or may not be well versed with opinions of scholars of past and present.

wa salam

thanks :sunny:

Hi Snakelegs,

NoName55 summarised it pretty well, I just wanted to elaborate a little bit.

The majority of Muslims are not qualified to be able to tell which opinion is strong than another opinion. It takes years of intensive study under the feet of scholars to be able to tell which opinion is stronger.

For this reason a Muslim should follow a certain school of thought, or a certain scholar. For the purpose of increasing in knowledge the Muslim should find out the reasons for the ruling as well.

Some people say that you should abandon your opinion if a clear hadith comes to you that contradicts your opinion, but that is not totally correct, the person should first go back to the scholar he/she follows and ask him about it. It may be that the hadith was not authentic or that it has a certain interpretation, or that the ruling it contains is abrogated.

Hope that helps!

thanks malaikah.

i am going to swipe something from another thread because it fits in with this discussion and it expresses something i have thought about - i've made that part in bold type. i'd like to get your responses about this.
to see it in its complete context here is the thread:

http://www.islamicboard.com/refutati...tml#post812322

Originally Posted by believer"

I donot claim to be an islamic scholar.....
I already literally throw my personal library away because I have found the Qur'an. ...

Allah gave humanity the Qur'an for us to think, reflect and be thankful about this life and his creation and provision. now, if you will rely on the islamic scholars interpretation alone without thinking on your part... that is a form of SHIRK. to further explain my point: If anybody who willshow his badge around saying this is true - does that make him credible? So another guy claiming to have the truth - but he is only a deputy - worse - he has no badge - does that mean we cannot take his word?

Hi snakelegs,

I don't know if it is shirk, but yes we are meant to contemplate the Quran. This does not mean that I have to come up with my own interpretation and rulings based on it, rather it means I should find out the correct interpretation for verses that are not clear, and contemplate the verse based on that correct interpretation.

so for example the verse "Then how many of the blessings of your Lord will you both deny". I can contemplate that verses without needing to ask a scholar what it means because its meaning is obvious. (Well, I would need to ask a scholar what is meant by 'you both'- it means the jinn and mankind). But for the part about denying my Lords favour, I can contemplate that by thinking about all the favours my Lord has bestowed upon me and who ungrateful I have been and so on.

but - would you agree with believer that you are not supposed to rely on the islamic scholars interpretation alone without thinking on your part?
would like others opinions on this subject too.

what if you think what the scholar says doesn't make sense on a certain ruling - are you allowed to question it and search further? or are you supposed to just accept it?
in practice, do you accept what your imam says is the ruling of the majority of the scholars just because your imam says so or are you encouraged to think and question?
obviously, there are many areas of islam that are basic - but there are areas that are less clear.

If the scholars ruling didn't make sense, I would look in to what other scholars have said, not come up with my own interpretation.