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

“When fitna arises and bid’as are
spread, he who knows the truth should say it! If he does not, may
he be accursed by Allâhu ta’âlâ, by angels and by all people,” we
have been striving to tell our brothers-in-Islam what we heard and
learned. May Allâhu ta’âlâ bless us with writing the truth! May He
bless it with influencing those who read it! May He forgive us the
mistakes which we may make! May He protect the Ummat al-
Muhammadiyya against the fitnas peculiar to the last days of the
world!
None of the scholars following a madhhab has ever disagreed
with his imâm al-madhhab’s usûl, even if he had reached the grade
of ijtihâd. The scholars who promulgated the teachings of a
madhhab were of various grades. Most of them were arbâb at-
tarjîh who studied the documentary evidences of tradition coming
from the imâm of the madhhab closely and then preferred one of
them. A tradition which was not preferred can not be said to have
been refused. Such traditions are acted upon when there is
difficulty. The preference of one of the traditions coming from the
imâm does not mean to disagree with the imâm. Hadrat al-Awzâ’î,
al-Baghawî and al-Ghazâlî, too, were mutlaq mujtahids like al-
Imâm ash-Shâfi’î. In many matters their ijtihâds were in agreement
with those of al-Imâm ash-Shâfi’î. The ignorant think that they
were in the Shâfi’î madhhab and that they disagreed with the imâm
al-madhhab. As for az-Zamakhsharî, let alone being a Hanafî, he
was not even a Sunnî. He belonged to the Mu’tazila, one of the
seventy-two heretical groups. Because the ’ibâdât of the Mu’tazila
resembled those of the Hanafî madhhab, the ignorant think that
they were Hanafîs.
Saying that the religion was altered after the Four Caliphs will
astonish not only a man of religious post but also anybody who
has read books; it is something which anybody, religious or
irreligious, will refuse. Both the Qur’ân al-kerîm and the hadîth
ash-sherîf state that religious knowledge will continue without
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being altered until Doomsday. A community on the right path will
be continuing until Doomsday. In every hundred years, an ’âlim
to strengthen the religion will be created. It is true that the
seventy-two heretical groups appeared and those with heretical
beliefs have been on the increase and there are many ignoramuses
and sinners also among Ahl as-Sunna, but still there are also those
who are on the right path. The right path is obvious; the religion
has been keeping its same purity as it had in the first century of
Islam.
The scholars of the four madhhabs have unanimously said that
the hadîth book