by Ustadha Sultana Zaman
The respected Imams of the past were eager to take reliable knowledge from the Sunnah, and depended on acting upon it, and thereafter deducing the rulings and legal opinions from them. Hence, they encouraged people to seek noble hadith, disregarding one’s own subjective opinion which are formed without basis.
Here, the discussion begins; when one wishes to then act on that which is reliable and collated by the Imams, it is a common query as to why there are differences amongst the scholars. Please note, that whilst there are differences between the four main Imams for example (Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Shafi’ee, Imam Malik and Imam Ahmad R- upon whom the madhabs are rooted from), utmost respect should be held for each and everyone of them for their striving and efforts in understanding the religion.
Shaykh Muhammad ‘Awwamah (H) breaks down the causes as to why there are differences amongst the Jurist Imams into four main reasons. First is due to the varying criteria the Imams had to allow a hadith to be acted upon. The conditions as to what made a hadith authentic differed for individuals. For instance, Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim (R) when looking into the chain of narrators of the hadith, they had different views of whether a hadith was authentic based on whether it was actually established that the narrators met, to transmit the hadith, or if it was not established but remained a feasible possibility.
This then branches into the point: after having categorised the ahadith into whether they are weak or authentic or so on, could one only act upon sahih (authentic) hadith or others also? A number of the jurists and hadith transmitters do not think it to be a prerequisite to only act upon sahih hadith. It is understood, that overall, action upon weak hadith are allowed provided no other relevant hadith exists on that topic.
Within the varying criteria, there is also a difference in opinion as to whether one has to maintain the exact words of the prophet (SAW) or if transmitting it by its meaning would suffice. The worry here lies in the fact that hadith could be misunderstood if altered; thus, Imam Abu Hanifa (R) stipulated that only a learned jurist can narrate hadith by meaning alone. Such an individual should be an expert in the Arabic language, amongst fulfilling other conditions.Similarly, some differ in agreement over what the correct harakats (vocalisation) of the Arabic words are, as even one harakat change can alter what an individual is referring to in Arabic.
The second cause for differences amongst the Imams is due to the differing natural and acquired mental faculties of each scholar. This is based on their level of understanding and environment of learning of the fiqh (Islamic rulings). This topic is very important as one requires deep understanding, interpretation and explanation of the Quran and Sunnah to deduce rulings of the religion. This cannot be removed from Islam, so people now tend to err when they assume they may simply take their own understanding of verses and hadith to act upon something.
Moving on, the third cause of differences is based on the route of action chosen to be taken when scholars come across two contradicting hadith. Some Imams either attempt to combine and reconcile the differences between the hadith, if this is not possible, they then claim one has been abrogated and the other has come in its place, as time passed in the life of the prophet (SAW). If this is not possible, Imams then give preference of one hadith over the other. This process is not simply completed, rather thorough understanding of the Sunnah and certain principles and conditions are required to begin this process.
The final and fourth cause mentioned as a reason for differences is due to the scholars’ varying degrees of acquaintance with the sunnah. Nevertheless, all of the Imams had a thorough acquaintance with the Sunnah, however, as humans, none were absolutely comprehensive. Therefore, some later retracted opinions they had, in favour of something else narrated to them which had eluded them before.
Some people have taken issue with this note assuming it is then unreliable to follow these Imams as then perhaps more may have even eluded them. However, it is a fundamental error of scholarship and reason to judge a whole in terms of it’s exception. Our Imams strove, researched and studied to a degree that is beyond us today.
On this note, Shaykh ‘Awwamah (H) summarises that similarly there are those who will find fault and oppose following the Imams, picking at these understandable differences or claiming that the Sunnah/hadith books now are easier to follow. They then assume that one can deduce a new school of fiqh (rulings) or choose from the present madhabs/ schools according to what seems strongest to them in each case.
The answer to this argument is very simple. The Sunnah books today do not contain the vast amount the Imams had transmitted and heard, rather they are compiled as concise books. Not only this, however, one needs knowledge of the Sunnah to decipher such hadith, along with having righteous deeds, worship, piety and other conditions within them. Some continue to argue that some books of the Imams have weak and fabricated hadith also, so how are they to be followed. However, as mentioned previously, the categorisation of hadith sometimes differ, so what is deemed weak by one, may not be weak to all. For instance, a hadith may be weak but there is other strong supporting evidences that qualifies the content within this particular hadith, hence they have chosen to keep it in their book. Or, sometimes due to the fact that there is no other relevant hadith on that topic, the Imam has chosen to use it as evidence, as this is better than one’s own deduction without other basis.
It is important that one attempts to understand the religion, and understand that differences amongst the Imams are not a reason to leave them aside, rather their striving is to be celebrated. For those of us without their same understanding and research are not qualified to keep shifting madhabs and differ between their proofs, rather this is dangerous and causes instability within a person. Thus, it is key to have consistency with the group one chooses to follow in shaa Allah ta’aala.
