History, as remembered, is often one-sided. And that is also true of our collective story.
Throughout Muslim history there have always been two strands of thought, and yet most if not all of you here will only have been aware of, and exposed to one, that of the ahl ul hadeeth.
Indeed the other arm of thought has all very nearly been snuffed out because of the predominance of the other. But that does not necessarily mean that the other untold story is bereft of benefit.
For we must always be vigilant especially when we recall that “Islam came as a stranger, and will return as one”, and when we recall the warning of the Messenger (saw) when he said that we will be many and then likened us to the froth on the sea.
The other arm of Muslim thought was often called the ahl ul ra’iy - the people of considered opinion. And contrary to what you might have been conditioned to think they were not heretics, and it is not heretical to use your faculties towards independent thought within the religion.
And this is not to diminish the importance of the Sunnah, nor the Hadith.
For indeed the Messenger (saw) raised one above the other when he said “those that are here transmit from me to those that are absent, per chance they may better understand”. For the first command, here, would have been sufficient, whilst the second is not an embellishment but is the reason.
And understanding is not from a book, nor from sitting with a scholar, but is through study and contemplation.
And when we contemplate the comprehensive advice that the Messenger (saw) gave to Muadh ibn Jabal (ra) when he sent him to the Yemen, therein is a lesson often forgot:
“How will you judge between the people?”
“I will use the Quran”
“And if you find it not there?”
“Then I will refer to your Sunnah”
“And if you find it not there?”
“Then I will exert my faculties to give a considered opinion”
To which the Messenger (saw) who was sent to teach us EVERYTHING, assented and confirmed.
Indeed the Ahlul Ra’iy - the people who use considered opinion- have always been a prominent section of our society from the very beginning. They were the judges (Qadis) and counted amongst them some of the great companions. And they were also our Mufasireen.
Ali (ra) before becoming the fourth Rightly Guided was himself a judge, whom people consulted in matters. And whom even the first three rightly guided consulted.
When Ali (ra) was asked the question of what to do with those who consumed alcohol, he in all likelihood was the first to use qiyaz- analogy- within his reasoning.
He said the like of, when a man consumes alcohol then he looses his sense of appropriateness and in the end he ends up slandering his womenfolk. And so he argued that the punishment for alcohol consumption should be akin to that of slander- a whipping.
However he would have been the first to admit that was his considered opinion. For the matter is not decided in the Qur’an and Sunnah, for we know of companions of the Messenger (saw) who loved both God and His Messenger but could not leave off from it. At times the judgment, for them then, was imprisonment.
It is instructive to look again at the advice that the Messenger (saw) gave to Muadh (ra).
Remember the Messenger (saw) asked in regards to his Sunnah, and “if you find it not there?”
Contrarily the ahl ul hadeeth school of thought wants us to believe that everything is and can be deduced from the hadeeth. Whereas the Sunnah, encompasses both what he said and did, and is therefore broader and much more comprehensive (than the hadeeth). And then our Messenger (saw) tells us here the complete opposite.
That there will be occasions when the Sunnah, whilst being greater than the Hadith, will not be able to help in determining the right course of action.
Even further than that it is clear to anyone who studies the Seerah, in depth, that the Messenger (saw) was at pains to limit his scope to that which was within his remit.
And that not just within his worldly and political life, but also within his religious edicts.
That the religion has its limits, just as do all bodies of knowledge.
That all things do not have to be deferred to a religious point of view.
And that the opinions of others in different fields of knowledge also carry merit.
The Messenger (saw) was the greatest of teachers, who withheld naught of what he knew. And that he deliberately shows us through his example that the religion has limits is clear.
And he was most happy when he saw his people being both independent and relying on the grace of the Infinitely Merciful.
It is often said that a man that uses independent thought within the religion is doomed to misunderstanding it.
But not when he is grounded in the religion. And not when he uses the opinions of our forbears as an anchor to his thought?
The greatest teacher that I had, never saw himself as a teacher - other than in manners and akhlaq and that to through example- but always as a fellow student that just happened to have studied at Medina, and for whom the tools of further study had been made open.
This is our common story that is often forgot.
That we teach to learn.
And learning is incumbent on us all, no less our teachers.
And one cannot be a learner, and therefore a teacher, unless he first imbues himself both with humility and openness. And openness is not about knowing the answer, but about being willing to ask the right questions.
