Imâm Muhammad al-Ghazâlî (rahmat-Allâhi
’alaih) wrote in Kimyâ-yi sa’âdat: “It is fard for a Muslim to
know and believe primarily the meaning of the phrase Lâ ilâha ill-Allâh,
Muhammadun Rasûl-Allâh. This phrase is called kalimat at-tawhîd. It
is sufficient for every Muslim to believe without any doubt what this phrase
means. It is not fard for him to prove it with evidence or to satisfy his mind.
Rasûlullâh (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallâm) did not command the Arabs to know or
mention the relevant proofs or to search and clarify any possible doubt. He
commanded them to believe only and not to doubt. It is enough for everybody
also to believe briefly. Yet it is fard kifâya that there should exist a few
’âlims in every town. It is wâjib for these ’âlims to know the proofs, to remove
the doubts, and to answer the questions. They are like shepherds for Muslims.
On the one hand, they teach them the knowledge of îmân, which is the knowledge
of belief, and, on the other hand, they answer the slanders of the enemies of
Islâm.”
“The Qur’ân al-karîm stated the meaning of
kalimat at-tawhîd and Rasûlullah (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam) explained what
is declared in it. All as-Sabâhât al-kirâm learned these explanations and
communicated them to those who came after them. The exalted scholars who
conveyed to us what the as-Sahâbat al-kirâm had communicated, by committing
them to their books without making any alterations in them, are called Ahl as-Sunna. Everybody
has to learn the i’tiqâd of the Ahl as-Sunna and to unite and love one another.
The seed of happiness is this i’tiqâd and this unification.”
“The ’ulamâ’ of the Ahl as-Sunna explain
the meaning of kalimat at-tawhîd as follows: Men were nonexistent. They were
created later. They have one Creator. He is the One who has created everything.
The Creator is one. He does not have a partner or a likeness. There is no
second creator. He has been ever-existent; His existence did not have a
beginning. He will be ever-existent; there is no end to His existence. He will
not cease to exist. His existence is always necessary. His nonexistence is
impossible. His existence is of Himself. He does not need any means. There is
nothing that will not need Him. He is the One who creates everything and makes
it go on existing. He is not material or a thing. He is not at a place or in
any substance. He does not have a shape and cannot be measured. It cannot be
asked how He is; when we say ‘He,’ none of
the things which occur to the mind or which we can imagine is He. He is unlike
these. All of them are His creatures. He is not like His creatures. He is the
creator of everything that occurs to the mind and of every illusion and of
every delusion. He is not above, below or at one side. He does not have a
place. Every being is below the ’Arsh. And the ’Arsh is under His Power, under
His Omnipotence. He is above the ’Arsh. Yet this does not mean that the ’Arsh
carries Him. The ’Arsh exists with His Favour and in His Omnipotence. Now He is
the same as He was in eternity, in eternal past. He will always be the same in
the everlasting future as He had been before creating the ‘Arsh. No change
occurs in Him. He has His own Attributes. His Attributes called as-Sifât
ath-Thubûtiyya are eight: Hayât (life) ’Ilm
(Omniscience), Sam’ (Hearing), Basar (Seeing), Qudra (Omnipotence),
Irâda (Will),
Kalâm (Speech,
Word) and Takwîn (Creativeness).
No change ever occurs in these Attributes of His. Change implies deficiency. He
has no deficiency or defect. Though He does not resemble any of His creatures,
it is possible to know Him in this world as much as He makes Himself known and
to see Him in the next world. In the present world He is known without
realizing how He is, and in the Hereafter, He will be seen in an
incomprehensible way.
“Allâhu ta’âlâ sent prophets (’alaihimu ’s-salâm)
to His human creatures. Through these great people, He showed His human
creatures the deeds that bring happiness and those which cause ruination. The
most exalted prophet is Muhammad (’alaihi ’s-salâm), the Last
Prophet. He was sent as the Prophet for every person, pious or irreligious, for
every place and for every nation on the earth. He is the Prophet for all human
beings, angels and genies. In every corner of the world, everybody has to
follow him and adapt himself to this exalted Prophet.”[1]
The great scholar and Murshid-i-kâmil
Sayyid ’Abdulhakîm-i Arwâsî[2]
(rahmat-Allâhi ’alaih) said: “Rasûlullâh (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam) had
three tasks: the first one was to communicate and make known (tabligh) the
rules of the Qur’ân
------------------------------------
[1] Kimyâ’ as-Sa’âda. Muhammad al-Ghazâlî (rahmat-Allâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih)
was one of the greatest Islâmic scholars. He wrote hundreds of books. All his
books are very valuable. He was born in 450/1068 in Tûs, i.e. Meshhed, Persia,
and passed away there in 505/1111.
[2] He was born in Baþkal’a in 1281/1864 and
passed away in Ankara in 1362/1943.
al-karîm, that is, the knowledge of îmân
and of ahkâm fiqhiyya, to all human beings. Ahkâm fiqhiyya is composed of the
actions commanded and actions prohibited. His second task was to transmit the
spiritual rules of the Qur’ân al-karîm, the knowledge about Allâhu ta’âlâ
Himself and His Attributes, into the hearts of only the highest ones of his
Umma. His first task, tabligh, should not be confused with his second task. The
lâ-madhhabî reject the second task. But, Abu Huraira (radî-Allâhu ’anh), said,
‘I learned two types of knowledge from Rasûlullah (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa
sallam). I told you one of them. You would kill me if I divulged the second
one. This word of Abu Huraira’s is reported in the 267th and 268th letters of
the Turkish book Mujdeci Mektûblar, and also in those books namely
Bukhârî,
Mishkât, and Hadîqa. The third task was carried out
upon those Muslims who failed to adhere to the advice and warnings concerning
carrying out the ahkâm fiqhiyya. Even the use of force is to be applied to get
them to obey the ahkâm fiqhiyya.
“After Rasûlullâh (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa
sallam), each of the four Khalîfas (radî-Allâhu ’anhum) accomplished these
three tasks perfectly. During the time of Hadrat Hasan (radî-Allâhu ’anh),
fitnas and bid’as increased. Islâm had spread out over three continents. The
spiritual light of Rasûlullâh (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam) had receded away
from the earth. The as-Sahâbat al-kirâm (radî-Allâhu ’anhum) had decreased in
number. Later, no one was able to do all these three tasks together by himself.
Therefore, these tasks were undertaken by three groups of people. The task of
communicating îmân and ahkâm fiqhiyya was assigned to religious leaders called mujtahids. Amongst
these mujtahids, those who communicated îmân were called mutakallimûn, and
those who communicated fiqh were called fuqahâ. The second task, that is,
making those willing Muslims understand the spiritual rules of Qur’ân al-karîm,
was assigned to the Twelve Imâms of Ahl al-Bayt (rahmat-Allâhi ta’âlâ ’alaihim)
and to great men of tasawwuf. Sirrî (Sarî) as-Saqatî (d.
[Scholars of Ahl-as-sunnat, learning this
second task of our master the Messenger of Allah from the Twelve Imâms,
established the (branch of) knowledge (called) Tasawwuf. Some people do not
believe in the Awliyâ, in kerâmats, in Tasawwuf. This denial of theirs
indicates that they have nothing to do with the Twelve Imâms. If hey had been
following the way taught by
the Ahl-i-Bayt, they would have learned
this second task of Rasûlullah from the Twelve Imâms and scholars of Tasawwuf,
Walîs would have been educated among them. Not only were no such people
educated among them, but also they do not believe in the existence of such
people. As it is seen, the Twelve Imâms are the imâms of the Ahl-i-Bayt. And
the people who love the Ahl-i-Bayt and follow the Twelve Imâms are the Ahl
as-sunnat. For being an Islamic scholar it is necessary to be an inheritor of
the Messenger of Allah in these two tasks of his. In other words, it is
necessary to become specialized in both these two branches of knowledge.
Abd-ul-ghanî Nablusî, one of such great scholars, quotes the hadîth-i-sherîfs
showing the spiritual principles taught in Qur’ân
al-kerîm on the two hundred and thirty-third and later
pages, and also on the six hundred and forty-ninth page of his book Hadîqat-un-nediyya,
and writes that denying this fact is sheer
ignorance and lack of good luck.]
“The third task, having the rules of the
religion done by force and authority, was assigned to sultans, i.e. goverments.
The sections of the first class were called madhhabs. Sections of the second one
were called tarîqas, and the third one was called huqûq (laws).
Madhhabs that define îmân are called madhhabs in i’tiqâd. Our Prophet
(sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa salam) had prophesied that Muslims would part
into seventy-three groups in respect to îmân, and that only one of them would
be right and the others wrong. And so it happened. The group that was given the
good news of being on the right path is called the Ahl as-Sunnat wa’l-Jamâ’a. The
remaining seventy-two groups, which were declared to be wrong, are called the groups of bid’a, that
is, heretics. None of them are disbelievers. All of them are Muslims. But, if a
Muslim who says he belongs to one of the seventy-two groups disbelieves any
information that has been declared clearly in the Qur’ân al-karîm and the
Hadîth ash-sharîf and that has spread among the Muslims, he becomes a
disbeliever. There are many people today who, while carrying Muslim names, have
already dissented from the madhhab of the Ahl as-Sunna and have become heretics
or non-Muslims.” This is the end of our quotation from Abdulhakîm Efendi.
Muslims have to keep on learning from
birth to death. The knowledge which Muslims have to learn is called al-’ulûm
al-Islâmiyya (Islâmic sciences), which consist of two
parts: (1) al-’ulûm an-naqliyya; (2) al-’ulûm al-’aqliyya.
1) Al-’ulûm an-naqliyya (also called ‘religious
sciences’):
These sciences are acquired by reading
books of the ’ulamâ’ of the Ahl as-Sunna. The ’ulamâ’ of Islâm derived these
sciences from four main sources. These four sources are called al-adillat
ash-Shar’iyya. They are al-Qur’ân al-karîm, al-Hadîth ash-sharîf, ijmâ al-Umma and
qiyâs
al-fuqahâ’.
Religious sciences consist of eight main
branches:
i) ’ilm at-tafsîr (the science of the
interpretation of the Qur’ân al-karîm). A specialist in this branch is called mufassir. He
is a profoundly learned scholar able to understand what Allâhu ta’âlâ means in
His Word.
ii) ’ilm al-usûl al-hadîth. This branch deals with
the classification of hadîths. The different kinds of hadîths are explained in Endless Bliss (second
fascicle, sixth chapter.)
iii) ’ilm al-hadîth. This branch studies
minutely the utterances (hadîth), behaviour (sunna) and manners (hâls) of our
Prophet (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam).
iv) ’ilm al-usûl al-kalâm. This branch studies the
methods by which ’ilm al-kalâm is derived from al-Qur’ân al-karîm and al-Hadîth
ash-sharîf.
v) ’ilm al-kalâm. This branch covers the
study of the kalimat at-tawhîd and the kalimat ash-shahâda and the six
fundamentals of îmân which depend on them. These are the teachings to be
believed by the heart. The scholars of kalâm usually wrote ’ilm al-usûl
al-kalâm and ’ilm al-kalâm together. Therefore, the layman takes these two
branches of knowledge as one single branch.
vi) ’ilm al-usûl al-fiqh. This branch studies the
derivation of the methods of fiqh from the Qur’ân al-karîm and the Hadîth
ash-sharîf.
vii) ’ilm al-fiqh. This branch studies af’al
al-mukallafîn, that is, it tells how those who are sane
and pubescent should act on matters concerning the body. This is the knowledge
necessary for the body. Af’al al-mukallafîn has eight categories: fard, wâjib,
sunna, mustahâb, mubâh, harâm, makrûh and mufsid. However, they can be briefly
classified into three groups: actions commanded, actions prohibited and actions
permitted (mubâh).
viii) ’ilm at-tasawwuf. This branch is also
called ’ilm
al-akhlâq (ethics). It describes not only the things we
should do and should not do with the heart but also helps the belief to be
heartfelt, makes it easy for Muslims to carry out their duties as taught in
’ilm al-fiqh and helps one attain ma’rifa.
It is fard ’ain for every Muslim, man or
woman, to learn
kalâm, fiqh and tasawwuf as much as is
necessary out of these eight branches, and it is a crime, a sin, not to learn
them[1].
2) Al-’ulûm al-’aqliyya (also called
‘experimental sciences’): These sciences are divided into two groups: technical
sciences and literary sciences. It is fard kifâya for Muslims to learn these
sciences. As for Islâmic sciences, it is fard ’ain to learn them as much as is
necessary. To learn more than is necessary, that is, to become specialized, in
Islâmic sciences is fard kifâya. If there is no ’âlim who knows these sciences
in a town, all of its inhabitants and the government authorities are sinful.
Religious teachings do not change in the
course of time. It is an unexcusable crime to go wrong as a result of reasoning
and erroneous thinking on ’ilm al-kalâm. In matters pertaining to fiqh, the
variations and facilities shown by Islâm can be made use of when one has the excuses
permitted by Islâm. It is never permissible to make alterations or to make
reforms in religious matters with one’s own opinion or point of view. It causes
one to go out of Islâm. Change, improvement and progress in al-’ulûm
al-’aqliyya are permissible. It is necessary to develope them by searching,
finding and learning them from non-Muslims, too.
The following article is quoted from the
book Al-majmû’at
az-Zuhdiyya. The book was complied by an ex-Minister of
Education as-Sayyid Ahmed Zühdü Pasha (rahmat-Allâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih):
“The word ‘fiqh’, when used in Arabic in the
form of ‘faqiha yafqahu’, that is, in the fourth category, means ’to know, to
understand.’ When it is used in the fifth category, it means ‘to know, to
understand Islâm.’ A scholar in ’ilm al-fiqh is called faqîh. ’Ilm
al-fiqh deals with the actions which people should do and those which they
should not do. The knowledge of fiqh is obtained from the Qur’ân al-karîm, the
Hadîth ash-sharîf, ijmâ’ and qiyâs. The consensus of the as-Sahâbat al-kirâm
and the mujtahids, who came after them, is called ijmâ’ al-Umma. The rules of the
religion derived from the Qur’ân al-karîm, the Hadîth ash-sharîf and ijmâ’
al-Umma are called qiyâs al-fuqahâ’. If it could not be understood
from the Qur’ân al-karîm or the Hadîth ash-sharîf whether an action was halâl
(permitted) or harâm (forbidden), then this acion was compared to another
action which was known. This comparison was called qiyâs. Applying
------------------------------------
[1] Al-hadîqa, p.
323, and in preface to Radd al-mukhtâr.
qiyâs required the latter action to have
the same factor which made the former action permitted or forbidden. And this
could be judged only by those profound ’ulamâ’ who had attained the grade of
ijtihâd.
“ ’Ilm al-fiqh is very extensive. It has
four main divisions:
i) ’ibâdât, composed of five subdivisions:
salât (namâz), sawn (fast), zakât, hajj, jihâd. Each has many sections. As it
is seen, it is an ’ibâda to make preparations for jihâd. Our Prophet
(sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam) said that jihâd against the enemies of Islâm
was of two kinds: by actions and by words. It is fard to learn how to make and
use new weapons in preparation for jihâd by actions. Jihâd is done by the
State. It is fard for the people to join in the jihad by obeying the State laws
and orders. Nowadays, the attacks of our enemies through publications, motion
pictures, radio broadcast and every means of propaganda – the second kind of
war – has tremendously increased, and it is also a jihâd to stand against the
enemies in this field.
ii) munâkahât, composed of subdivisions, such
as marriage, divorce, alimony and many others [written in detail in our book Se’âdet-i Ebediyye].
iii) mu’âmalât, composed of many subdivisions,
such as purchase, sale, rent, joint-ownership, interest, inheritance, etc.
iv) ’uqûbât (penal code), composed of five
main subdivisions: qisâs (lex talionis), sirqa (theft), zinâ (fornication and
adultery), qadhf (forgery) and ridda (case of becoming an apostate).
“It is fard for every Muslim to learn the
’ibâdât section of fiqh briefly. It is fard kifâya to learn munâkahât and
mu’âmalât, in other words, those who have anything to do with them should learn
them. After ’ilm at-tafsîr, ’ilm al-hadîth and ’ilm al-kalâm, the most
honourable ilm is ’ilm al-fiqh. The folowing six hadîths will be enough to
indicate the honour of fiqh and the faqîh ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ alaihim
ajma’în’:
‘If Allâhu ta’âlâ wants to do a favour for a servant of His, He
makes a faqîh of him.’
‘If a person becomes a faqîh, Allâhu ta’âlâ sends what he wishes
and his sustenance from unexpected sources.’
‘The person about whom Allâhu ta’âlâ says ‘most superior’ is a
faqîh in the religion.’
‘Against Satan, a faqîh is stonger than one thousand ’âbids (those
who worship much).’
‘Everything has a pillar to base itself upon. The basic pillar of
the religion is the knowledge of fiqh.’
‘The best and most valuable ’ibâdat is to learn and teach fiqh.’
The superiority of al-Imâm al-a’zam Abu
Hanîfa (rahmat-Allâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih) is understood also from these hadîths.
The rules of Islâm in the Hanafî madhhab
were transmitted through a chain beginning with ’Abdullâh ibn Mas’ûd
(radî-Allâhu anh), who was a sahâbî. Al-Imâm al-a’zam Abû Hanîfa (rahmat-Allâhi
ta’âlâ ’alaih), the founder of the madhhab, acquired the knowledge of fiqh from
Hammâd, and Hammâd from Ibrâhîm an-Nakhâ’î. An-Nakhâ’î learnt it from Alkama
and Alkama, learnt it from Abdullah ibn Mas’ud, who learnt it from Rasûlullâh
(sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam).
Abu Yûsuf, Imâm Muhammad ash-Shaibânî,
Zufar ibn Hudhail and Hasan ibn Ziyâd were al-Imâm al-a’zam’s disciples
(rahimahum-Allâh). Of these, Imâm Muhammad wrote about one thousand books on
Islâmic teachings. He was born in
Al-Imâm al-a’zam Abu Hanîfa (rahmat-Allâhi
’alaih) compiled the knowledge of fiqh, classified it into branches and sub-branches
and set usûls (methods) for it, and also collected the knowledge of i’tiqâd, as
Rasûlullah (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam) and the as-Sahâbat al-kirâm
(ridwân-Allâhi ’alaihim ajma’în) had preached, and taught them to thousands of
his disciples. Some of his disciples became specialists in ’ilm al-kalâm, that
is, in the teachings of îmân. Of them, Abu Bakr al-Jurjânî, one of Imâm
Muhammad ash-Shaibânî’s disciples, became famous. And Abu Nasr al-’Iyâd, one of
his pupils, educated Abu Mansûr al-Mâturîdî in ’ilm al-kalâm. Abu Mansûr wrote
in his books the knowledge of kalâm taught by al-Imâm al-a’zam (rahmat-Allâhi
ta’âlâ ’alaih). By contending against heretics, he consolidated the i’tiqâd
of the Ahl as-Sunna. He spread it far and
wide. He passed away in Samarkand in
The fiqh scholars are grouped in seven
grades. Kemâl Pasha Zâde Ahmad ibn Sulaiman Effendi (rahmat-Allâhi ta’âlâ
’alaih), in his work Waqf an-niyyâ, explained these seven grades
as follows:
1. The mujtahids of Islâm constructed the
methods and the principles of deriving rules from the four sources of the
religion (al-adillat ash-Shar’iyya) and thus derived rules. The four a’immat al-madhâhib
were of these.
2. The mujtahids in a madhhab, following
the principles formulated by the imâm of the madhhab, derived rûles from the
four sources. They were Imâm Abû Yûsuf, Imâm Muhammad, etc. (rahmat-Allâhi
ta’âlâ ’alaihim ajma’în).
3. The mujtahids of matters (mas’ala), for
the matters that were not dealt with by the founder of the madhhab, derived
rules by using the methods and principles of the madhhab. Yet in doing this,
they had to follow the imâm. They were at-Tahâwî (238-
4. As’hâb at-takhrîj were not able to
employ ijtihâd. They were the scholars who explained brief, unclear rules
derived by mujtahids. Husâm ad-dîn ar-Râzî ’Alî ibn Ahmad (d.
5. The arbâb at-tarjîh selected one of
several riwâyas (narrations or the opinions of mujtahids as narrated) coming
from mujtahids. They were Abul’-Hasan al-Qudûrî (362-
6. Certain muqallids wrote various riwâyas
about a matter in an order with respect to their reliability. They did not
include any refused riwâya in their books. Abû ’l-Barakât ’Abdullâh ibn ’Ahmad
an-Nasafî (d.
’Abdullâh ibn Mahmûd al-Musûlî (d. 683),
the author of Mukhtâr; Burhân ash-Sharî’a Mahmûd ibn
Sadr ash-Sharî’a ’Ubaid-Allâh (d. 673), the author of Al-wiqâya; and
Ibn as-Sâ’âtî Ahmad ibn ’Alî al-Baghdâdî (d. 694), the author of Majmâ’ al-bahrain, are
of these (rahmat-Allâhi ta’âlâ ’alaihim ajma’în).
7. Muqallids incapable of distinguishing
weak riwâyas from genuine ones. These were counted among fiqh scholars because
they were able to understand what they read and explained it to the muqallids
who could not understand.