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

mujtahidi fi ’sh-shar’. In
this grade were the four a’immat al-madhhâhib. They established
– 64 –
[1]
Al-mustanat al-mu’tamad. The author, Ahmad Ridâ Khan al-
Barilawî, as an ’âlim in the Hanafî madhhab, shows that ’Alî al-Qârî’
(d. Mecca, 1014/1606), who was also a Hanafî, was wrong and had no
authority in Islam, and defends and praises al-Imâm as-Suyûtî, who
belonged to the Shâfi’î madhhab. The ’ulamâ’ of Islam have always
done the same and defended the right, paying no attention to the
difference of madhhabs. The upstart reformers, however, attack the
Ahl as-Sunna by attributing the groundless stories in the books of
their lâ-madhhabî friends and the slanders in the books of the enemies
of the Ahl as-Sunna to the Ahl as-Sunna. And, with a view to
blemishing the scholars of fiqh and the most valuable books of the
madhhabs, Rashîd Ridâ calls on such a person as ’Alî al-Qârî’, who
was as excessive as to say “disbelievers” about the blessed parents of
our master Rasûlullah (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam), as a witness for
himself.

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the methods (usûl) and principles (qawâ’id) of their own
madhhabs. In the second grade were the 
mujtahidi fi ’l-madhhab,
the mujtahids belonging to a madhhab, such as the mujtahids
among al-Imâm al-a’zam’s disciples, who deduced rules from
documents by following the principles set by him. In the third
grade were the scholars called 
mujtahidi fi’l-masâ’il, who deduced
the rules for the matters that had not been mentioned by the
imâm al-madhhab and his disciples. They could not disagree with
them. The ’ulamâ’ such as at-Tahawî, Abû’l-Hasan al-Karkhî,
Shams al-a’imma al-Halwânî, Shams al-a’imma as-Sarahsî and
Qâdî Khân were in this grade. In the fourth grade were the 
as-hâb
at-takhrîj, who were not mujtahids. They explained the brief
statements and unclear rules of the mujtahids. Ar-Râzî was one of
them. In the fifth grade were the