Hakikat Kitabevi Publications No: 10 answer to an enemy of islam

al-Hidâya about the fast of a
person who undergoes cupping that if a person eats
something after going through a cupping operation because
he supposes his fast has been broken, he will perform both
the qadâ’ and the kaffâra, since this supposition of his is not
based upon any religious document. If the muftî gives such
a fatwâ, it will be a document for him. If he has followed a
hadîth, the case will be the same and he will not do the
kaffâra (al-Kâfî and al-Hâmidî). Rasûlullah’s words would
not be inferior to a muftî’s. All the four imâms said, ‘Leave
aside our words and take the hadîth.’ But some people say
that he who wants to act upon the Book and the Sunna
becomes a zindîq. Abû Hanîfa said, ‘It is not permissible
for anyone who does not know my documentary evidences
to issue fatwâ according to my ijtihâd.’ He meant that he
did not employ ijtihâd so that people would turn away from
the Book and the Sunna and follow his words, but his
ijtihâds were intended to show people how to derive rules
from the Book and the Sunna. To say, by following the
words of the posterity, such as Ibn ’Âbidîn, that it is harâm
to infer rules from the Book and the Sunna will mean to
disagree with Abû Hanîfa. These imitators conveyed the
saying, ‘A’mâl should be based upon fiqh, not upon
hadîths,’ from other imitators. Though the book 
Zahiriyya
writes that the saying was intended for ordinary people, it
comes to mean that it is not permissible to act upon the
Book and the Sunna while there is fiqh, and it is obvious
that the saying is wrong. Those who say so are ignorant and
stubborn. Al-Kaidânî said that the tenth of the harâm
actions was to raise the finger while performing salât. ’Alî
al-Qâri’ said that this statement was sinful and that if it
could not be explained away, he [al-Kaidânî] would be
considered as a disbeliever, for it was certain that
Rasûlullah raised his finger.”
Yes people are of two categories. The first ones are the
scholars of Islam who have reached the grade of ijtihâd. The
second ones are those scholars who have not reached the grade of
ijtihâd and ordinary people. In the statement that ordinary people
will ask a muftî about what they want to know, ‘the muftî’ means
‘a muftî in their own madhhab’. Ibn ’Âbidîn wrote in the preface
– 59 –

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