Muwatta

Fiqh

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله

Amongst the many fields of the Islamic sciences, the one most familiar and relevant to people is fiqh, also known as jurisprudence. This field deals with the legal codification of all matters; from the technicalities of purification and prayer, to marriage and inheritance, and even capital punishments.

Fiqh provides a ruling for everything, so that every action falls into one of five categories:

  1. Obligatory (performance is rewarded and omission is sinful)
  2. Recommended (performance is rewarded and omission is not sinful)
  3. Permissible (no reward and no sin)
  4. Disliked (performance is not sinful and omission is rewarded)
  5. Forbidden (performance is sinful and omission is rewarded)

It is well known for example that praying the five daily prayers is obligatory and drinking alcohol is forbidden. But these rulings also apply to things like:

Along with these rulings are various technicalities and exceptions. Eating pork is strictly forbidden, but a person who is starving and in danger of dying is permitted to eat pork. Similarly, the five prayers are mandatory but women cannot and need not pray during menstruation.

These set of rulings form our religious law, known as the Sharia. Allah ﷻ has given us this Sharia as a mercy and means of honor. Every obligatory and recommended action contains benefit and every forbidden or disliked action has some harm. Sometimes the benefit or harm is obvious and sometimes it is less clear. The benefit and harm can be physical, spiritual, psychological, sociological, and so on. This is the system of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic.

Where do these rulings come from

The rulings on these matters are derived by scholars using primarily the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and secondarily tools like analogical reasoning. Deriving these rulings is not easy, it requires a sharp mind and deep knowledge of the Qur'an and the Sunnah.

For the layperson, it is strongly recommended that they learn from reliable scholars and read their books, rather than deriving their own rulings for every matter. This makes things much easier and puts upon someone else the burden of accumulating knowledge, analysis, and the possibility of being incorrect.

Nowadays people are confused where these rulings come from, whether they should follow them, why they need to listen to scholars, and why there are differences of opinion in the matter. To clarify these confusions, I would highly recommend this lecture by Maulana Taha Karaan. He explains the system of fiqh and its history.

In the vast majority of issues, there is consensus amongst the scholars. However, there are a few disagreements in the technicalities or edge cases. For example, everyone agrees that the prayer is obligatory, but there is some disagreement on the best place to place your hands while standing in the prayer. This is a minor issue of contention as it deals with what is superior, not if something is obligatory or forbidden. To gain an understanding of why these differences of opinions manifest, I would recommend reading "The Differences of the Imams", written by Maulana Zakariya Kandhlawi. It is short, easy to read, and filled with illustrative examples.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of misunderstanding today about the concept of following a school of Islamic law (referred to as taqlid). Mufti Abdur-Rahman Mangera has penned an excellent work on this topic named "Fiqh al-Imam", which I highly recommend. He first discusses the benefit and importance of taqlid. He then goes through a number of issues regarding the salah according to the Hanafi school of law. Using these issues, he shows the sophisticated legal philosophy employed by the Hanafi school in their derivation of legal rulings from the Qur'an and the Sunnah.

Learning the Basics

Knowing how to perform the basics like wudhu, ghusl, and salah is incredibly important. It lays the foundation for the entire religion. If a person learns how to perform these with excellence along with their technicalities it eliminates doubts and increases confidence. It enables a person to guide their family members like their spouse and children with these basics and answer any basic questions themselves. And most certainly it elevates a person spiritually.

For those interested in learning or even reviewing the rulings regarding the basics of worship, I would recommend "Ascent to Felicity". Written by the 11th century scholar Imam Shurunbulali, the book goes through the basic rulings on the five pillars of Islam according to the Hanafi school of law. It also contains a section on Islamic creed (aqidah) and has an appendix with many useful supplications.

Summary