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Mohammed Nizami
  • Home
  • About
    • About Me
    • My approach
    • This website
  • Articles
    • Blog
    • In depth
    • Faith
    • Qur’an
    • Shari’ah
    • Politics and Society
  • Media
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Friday Sermons
  • Events
    • Quran sessions
    • Workshops
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Method and Reasoning

    BlogContemporary IssuesMethod and Reasoning

    Claiming the “understanding of the salaf”

    by admin June 9, 2019

    “Understanding of the salaf” (salaf here meaning early Islamic scholars) is possibly the most misrepresented claim of authority amongst Muslims today, deployed by various groups across the board and usually against one another, from the Deobandis, Salafis and Sufis, to the Shi’ah and even militant Muslim secularists. Just this fact alone tells you that the term is not only used ambiguously, but also rather subjectively.

    But beyond this there’s a conceptual issue at hand that’s nearly always overlooked – they speak of an understanding of the salaf but rarely do they (both clerics and laymen) actually draw on the salaf’s actual understanding. Instead they simplistically adopt the (1) contextual conclusions of (2) particular early Muslim scholars.

    So there are two important points to explain here:

    1. Early Islamic scholars reasoned phenomenally, nothing like the binary and uncouth articulations of many clerics today – and it’s as simple as picking up one of their books and reading it cover to cover to see this. They were highly intelligent and philosophical, and understood the sophisticated nature of operationalising revelation, identifying principles (أصول), operative factors (علل) and contextual variables (قرائن) that would lead them to specific conclusions for specific scenarios. They’d even discuss how these tools would determine their conclusions! But those today who claim to adhere to their “understanding” don’t actually seek to understand matters as they did, in an unschooled fashion they just look at what their concluded statements for an issue were, neglecting why they came to that conclusion for that scenario, what their methods of reasoning were, which operative factors they took into consideration and how they saw it as fitting into the bigger picture of the shariah, all of which serve to enlighten our approach to the issues of today.

    “But Umar/Ibn Mas’ud/Abu Hanifah/Malik/Ahmad etc said…” is not a complete way of thinking, it’s severely lacking. The question that ought to arise is why they said what they did – what were they speaking to? A response is that “Yes, they said it about that, but THAT is not THIS!”

    One point that certainly requires further contemplation is the problem with today’s “traditional” Islamic studies: they offer a somewhat linear view of the history of fiqh or aqidah as a steady progress from the imams to contemporary manifestations of religious practice, passing over the many problems in transferring assumptions that were largely fashioned in the distant past and applying them today.

    2. Early Islamic scholars differed on many issues, and studying those differences ought to be highly enlightening for a mufti – it’s a record of how the godly brought together reason and revelation to conclude what God might want from them.

    Where they’d all agree on something, that’d simply be Ijma (juristic consensus) and invoking the “understanding of the salaf” in such cases would be pointless since juristic consensus is far more authoritative.

    So when the clerics use the term “understanding of the salaf” they’re not actually referring to a pervasive understanding back then, but an opinion of some scholars of the salaf, or one sahabi (prophetic companion), with other scholars seeing the respective issue differently. It’s a dishonest way of evoking the idea of widespread conformity amongst early Muslims in order to misleadingly establish a sectarian version of “orthodoxy”.

    And which scholars of the salaf ought to be the focus for precedent differs amongst the groups – there were thousands of early scholars – one group will draw on a particular cohort from the salaf whilst the other has its own cohort. So in reality, whilst they all seem to be claiming the same thing it remains an appeal to authority that isn’t mutual.

    [Of course, there are legitimate reasons for invoking the “understanding of the salaf”, an example of which is where a mufti is simply evidencing precedent for an opinion and staving off infantile or unschooled accusations of heresy or it’s like by showing that it was an established opinion from amongst the opinions of the salaf.]

    June 9, 2019
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  • BlogFaithMethod and Reasoning

    Claiming ‘Orthodoxy’

    by admin March 30, 2017
    March 30, 2017

    A few colleagues who have graduated from British religious seminaries (Dar-ul-ulum), and Madinah, Umm Al Qura and Al Azhar universities recently intimated their…

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  • In depthMethod and Reasoning

    Thoughts for the Contemporary Mufti

    by admin January 24, 2017
    January 24, 2017

    There are personalities who issue fatwas on politicised matters of faith seeking to position themselves as moderate to non-Muslim liberals, or offer everything…

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  • In depthMethod and Reasoning

    A Three Point Plan and Four-Step Solution

    by admin June 18, 2016
    June 18, 2016

    A true believer is fundamentally one who engenders Abrahamic monotheism and aspires to the highest form of moral conduct reflected in the shari’ah,…

    Read more
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To make the UK a place in which revelation comes to life and believers develop and enhance their literacy and shar’ī competence. My aim is to advocate a lived monotheism, promote faith and godliness, champion the religion of Abraham, contribute to building an inspiring faith community, and intelligently articulate the functionalisation of what was revealed to Muhammad, Abraham’s descendent and God’s final messenger.

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