In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may blessings and peace be upon the noblest of the prophets and messengers, our Prophet Muhammad, and upon all his family and companions.
This is a summary of what was presented in this part of the explanation of Imam al-Shafi’i’s book al-Risala, focusing on the important points and clarifications.
Introduction:
- A supplication for good deeds and a good destiny, and an explanation that good character is among the great blessings.
- Emphasis on the importance of sincerity of intention for Allah in every deed.
Ijtihad:
- Ijtihad is expending effort and exhausting one’s capacity in deriving legal rulings from the detailed (particular) evidences.
- A detailed evidence relates to a specific issue and carries a ruling particular to it, such as the verse on the prescribed punishment for theft.
- The jurist is the one who derives the ruling from the text or evidence.
- Ijtihad requires hardship. One does not say “I exerted my effort (jahd) in carrying the pen”; rather, it is said of matters that require expending one’s capacity, such as memorizing knowledge, building a house, or repelling an enemy. From this root, jihad was named jihad.
- Making the religion prevail requires effort in manifesting it by the sword and by proof.
- What the scholars expend in repelling doubts and establishing proofs is no less than what the fighters expend on the battlefields.
- He mentioned the saying “The ink of the scholars is like the blood of the martyrs” to illustrate the expenditure of effort.
Facing the qiblah:
- Allah commanded the Muslims to face al-Masjid al-Haram: “So turn your face [i.e., yourself] toward al-Masjid al-Haram. And wherever you [believers] are, turn your faces [i.e., yourselves] toward it [in prayer]” (Al-Baqarah 2:144).
- Shatr means direction and side.
- If the Muslims can see al-Masjid al-Haram itself, they pray toward it in adherence to the text.
- If that is not possible, they must exert effort to determine the qiblah.
- The one who exerts his effort is excused if he errs in determining the qiblah.
- He mentioned the example of the Quba’ Mosque and how the worshippers there turned from praying toward Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis) to praying toward the Ka’bah.
- He mentioned the hadith: “If the judge exercises ijtihad and is correct, he has two rewards; and if he exercises ijtihad and errs, he has one reward.”
- Objectives that are stipulated in the text without their exact location being specified are reached by sensory signs (such as stars and mountains) and by rational signs.
- He mentioned the verse: “And it is He who placed for you the stars that you may be guided by them through the darknesses of the land and sea” (Al-An’am 6:97), and the verse: “And landmarks. And by the stars they are [also] guided” (An-Nahl 16:16).
- He mentioned the Arabs’ knowledge of the stars, their names, and the times of their rising and setting.
Reasoning from evidence in religion:
- No one other than the Messenger of Allah ﷺ may speak about the religion of Allah except by reasoning from evidence (istidlal).
- The blameworthy istihsan is that which concerns religion, because it is a kind of following one’s desires.
- The upright person (‘adl) is one who acts in obedience to Allah.
- He urged that witnesses to contracts be upright people.
The first kind of bayan (what the Book made clear by explicit text):
- He mentioned the example of the one performing tamattu’ in Hajj and his expiation: “then whoever performs ‘umrah [during the hajj months] followed by hajj [offers] what can be obtained with ease of sacrificial animals. And whoever cannot find [or afford such an animal] - then a fast of three days during hajj and of seven when you have returned [home]. Those are ten complete [days]” (Al-Baqarah 2:196).
- He explained that the words of Allah the Exalted “Those are ten complete” serve to show that what is intended is the combination of the three and the seven, not a choice between them.
- He mentioned the verse: “And We made an appointment with Moses for thirty nights and perfected them by [the addition of] ten; so the term of his Lord was completed as forty nights” (Al-A’raf 7:142).
- He explained that the term “padding” (hashw) is a grammatical term meaning addition, not the legal sense.
- He mentioned the verse: “O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous” (Al-Baqarah 2:183).
- He explained the ruling on the sick person and the traveler in making up fasts: “So whoever among you is ill or on a journey [during them] - then an equal number of other days [are to be made up]” (Al-Baqarah 2:184).
- He explained that the month is what lies between two new crescents, and it may be thirty or twenty-nine days.
- He explained that the words of Allah the Exalted “Those are ten complete” are an addition for further clarity, not padding or redundancy.
- He explained that the Arabs knew addition (arithmetic summation).
The second kind of bayan (what needs clarification from the Sunnah):
- He mentioned the example of ablution: “O you who have believed, when you rise to [perform] prayer, wash your faces and your forearms to the elbows and wipe over your heads and wash your feet to the ankles. And if you are in a state of janabah, then purify yourselves” (Al-Ma’idah 5:6).
- He explained that the text is clear in terms of order and in mentioning the essential acts, but it needs the Sunnah to clarify what is unelaborated (mujmal).
- The mujmal according to the legal theorists is broader than the mujmal according to the linguists.
- He mentioned that “to” (ila) in “to the elbows” can carry two meanings: the end point (excluding what follows) or inclusion (“together with”). The Sunnah made clear that what is intended is going beyond the elbows.
- He mentioned the example “I saw Suhayl,” explaining that it is an unelaborated expression that can carry more than one meaning.
- He explained that the words of Allah the Exalted “when you rise to [perform] prayer” are evidence that prayer is not valid without ablution, and that ablution is obligatory only for prayer.
- He mentioned the hadith: “I have only been commanded to perform ablution when [rising for] prayer.”
- He explained that the words “and wipe over your heads” are evidence that there must be water on the hand when wiping the head.
- He explained that the two ankles (ka’bayn) are the two bones protruding on either side of the feet.
- He explained that the purity in the verse “None touch it except the purified” (Al-Waqi’ah 56:79) is not physical purity but spiritual purity.
This is a summary of what was presented in this part. We ask Allah the Exalted for success and guidance to what is right.
All parts of Summary of the Explanation of al-Risala by Shaykh Dr. Ahmad al-Naqeeb