Most of the adherents of opinion were in Iraq because they trained with ‘Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud, who
refrained from transmitting from the Prophet out of fear of making a mistake but did not refrain from
exercising his opinion. If there was a sound
hadith
on the subject, he referred to the
hadith
. There were also
old philosophies and sciences in Iraq as well as the classical texts of Greece and Rome. Those who were
influenced by this were comfortable with
ijtihad
by opinion, especially when there were not many
hadiths
among them to be consulted.
This process continued and in the time of the
Tabi‘i’t-Tabi‘in
and the
mujtahids
with
madhhabs
, the gap
became very wide indeed and disagreements became intense. When the two groups met, each borrowed from
the other. The people of
hadith
abandoned their former hesitation and were compelled to use opinion in some
cases; and when the people of opinion saw the
Sunna
and traditions, some wrote them down and began to
examine them, supporting their opinions with
hadiths
or leaving opinion aside if they had a sound
hadith
which they had not known about previously. This was the period in which
fiqh
developed.
Lies about the Prophet proliferated in this period because various groups defended their positions
unscrupulously with words which led to the spread of forged
hadiths
which they espoused and which then
spread among the Muslims. This upsurge in lies led to two things.
Hadith
scholars started to devote
themselves to the investigation of truthful transmission and to the method of distinguishing the true from the
false. To this end they studied the transmitters of
hadiths
, investigated their circumstances, learned those who
were truthful and ranked them according to their truthfulness.
They then studied the
hadiths
and compared them with unquestioned elements of the
Deen
. Eventually,
some scholars began to record the sound
hadiths
. Among them were Malik with his
Muwatta’
,
al-Jawami‘
of
Sufyan ibn ‘Uyayna, and
al-Jami‘ al-Kabir
of Sufyan ath-Thawri. The second consequence was that people
gave
fatwa
more and more frequently according to opinion, out of fear of lying against the Prophet or
depending on something that might well have been forged. This occurred mostly in Iraq because the
fuqaha’
there who transmitted from the
Tabi‘un
and the next generation were known for opinion and often gave
fatwa
by it.
Shah Waliyullah ad-Dihlawi says in his book, after discussing the adherents of
hadith
:
“Over and against them, in the time of Malik and Sufyan and after them, were people who did not
dislike questions and were not afraid to give
fatwa
, saying that
fiqh
must be spread on the basis of the
Deen
but fearing to transmit the
hadiths
of the Prophet and attribute them to him wrongly. Ash-Sha‘bi
said, ‘We prefer anyone to the Prophet (as authority for
fiqh
).’ Ibrahim said, ‘I prefer to say
“‘ Abdullah said” and “ ‘Alqama said”.’
“They did not have the
hadiths
and traditions to deduce the
fiqh
on the principles which the people
of
hadith
chose, nor were they inspired to look into the words of the scholars of other lands, collect
them and investigate them. They believed that their Imams had the highest level of precision and their
hearts were the closest to the Companions.
“ ‘Alqama said, ‘Is there anyone more solid than ‘Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud?’ Abu Hanifa said, ‘Ibrahim
has more
fiqh
than Salim. If it had not been for the virtue of being a Companion, I would have said
that ‘Alqama had more
fiqh
than Ibn ‘Umar.’ They possessed intelligence and intuition, and their
minds swiftly moved from one thing to another, enabling them to derive the answer to problems from
statements of the Companions.
“Everyone is given ease in that for which he was created and
‘every party rejoices in what it has’
.
So they formulated
fiqh
on the rule of extrapolation. The people of Iraq gave
fatwa
because they felt
that it was their duty and the basis of the
Deen
; but at the same time they were afraid to report from
the Messenger of Allah. They did not accept the statements of the people of other lands, and were
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: