Fundación Mezquita de Sevilla Fundación Mezquita de Sevilla y Centro Cultural Islámico de Sevilla®
First of all I would like to welcome you all to this place and tell you that although you have seen me sitting here many times, it is still a real honor and privilege for me to be able to dedicate a few words to you, and believe it or not, I still get nervous when it comes to doing so.
This time more than others the truth, since the topic is a very interesting topic and not only that, but it is also a topic that affects me personally, since the general title of this event as you all know is: “Knowledge of Islam through its Imams”.
The first thing I would like to start with, as it could not be otherwise, is the principle and that principle is the first word of the title, which is: knowledge.
I am not going to speak of the merit of knowledge, of the reward it contains, of the supremacy of the person of knowledge, because it has already been mentioned on more than one occasion during these three days, so I do not think it is necessary to do it again.
What knowledge are we referring to? We are referring to the knowledge of Islam, the knowledge of the Din, to what in Arabic is traditionally called the ‘ilmu ddin, which is the knowledge on which we are going to focus. In the brilliant Hajj lecture Abdal Ghani yesterday, he spoke to us, among other things, about three levels of transmission of knowledge, ta’lim, tarbiyah and tarqiyah, and today, with Allah’s permission, I am going to focus mainly on the first of these levels, ta’lim, although many of the things I am going to say also cover the rest of the categories. This type of knowledge has different levels, which although there are more, we can summarize and condense them into two: the one that is obligatory for every Muslim, which is fardu a’in, which implies knowing what is obligatory for you, such as how to pray, knowing previously the purifications, how to fast, the knowledge of zakat, in case it is obligatory for you to pay zakat, the knowledge of trade in case you are a merchant… It also implies this knowledge, and in fact if we were to categorize it we would say that it comes before the knowledge of the Fiqh of the ‘ibadat, which is what we have just mentioned, would go the knowledge of Allah and His Messengers, or in other words the knowledge of what we believe, the knowledge of our ‘aqeedah. As Ibn ‘Ashir says: Awalu wayibin ala man kuliffa, mu… We have said that this kind of knowledge is an individual obligation for every Muslim man and woman and in a community of Muslims there must always be a field that allows the transmission of this knowledge, and it is good to continually encourage people to come to these circles so that this knowledge is not lost and is something alive. since, as it is often said: “The community in which knowledge is not present is a community, a group of people who are governed by their appetites and passions”. Above this ‘ilm, there is the ‘ilm, the knowledge (and remember that we always speak of the knowledge of the Din) which is not a particular obligation, but a collective obligation, a fard kifayah, whose definition is: “An obligation for one community, or a group of people, which if carried out by some members of that community ceases to be obligatory for the rest.” These types of people, those who take on their shoulders the responsibility of being the people of this category of knowledge, are what we usually call the ulamas, which is the plural of ‘alim, the people of knowledge, the people who have dedicated or dedicate a large part of their time, if not their entire lives, to the acquisition of knowledge of the Deen. Within this category come the Imams, and by the Imams I am not referring to the Imams of the mosques, but I am referring to the great imams of the mosques. These are true heroes, they are really the heirs of the Prophets and the Messengers, since they have not left wealth or possessions as an inheritance, but what they have left is a legacy, and it is these imams who through almost fifteen hundred years of history have maintained and preserved the Deen and I repeat it again. they continue to do so today. The first in this category, those who are at a higher level, are of course the four Imams that we all know, the Imams of the Madhahib, who in chronological order are Abu Hanifa, Malik, Shafi’ and Ahmad ibn Hambal.
They are the ones who through their teachings and their followers have allowed the essence and purity of the Deen to remain alive and for that we should be tremendously grateful to them. Understanding this is vital, it is essential to do so and it is much more so in our days when unfortunately there is this tendency to belittle and devalue them and say: “No, no, that is not valid, we have the Qur’an and the Sunnah and what we must do is each of us follow our own understanding and understanding of the Qur’an and the Sunnah”. or to put it in a technical term, we must do our own Ijtihad.
And I am not going to talk about what Ijtihad and Taqlid are, the conditions that a person must meet to do Ijtihad, and this is really something very interesting and that we should all know, but the time I have is limited and I am not going to talk about them.
If you want me to be honest with you, when I hear this mantra that everyone should do their own Ijtihad, I get deeply sad on the one hand and on the other I get angry, I get sad because I say: “What is happening? Have we not understood anything? Don’t we realize the need we have for them? Are we not aware of the vital role they have played?”
And I get angry because I say, “Are we so arrogant and ignorant, so proud and ungrateful, that we’re going to throw away, are we going to throw overboard the immeasurable work that these noble men did?”
This is something that is happening, it is something that unfortunately we see present in our days; I have come to hear and read terrible things about them, things that for those who are able to understand the importance of this are really very painful and that out of respect for them and for you I will not pronounce here today.
But let’s say that someone comes with this, as it has happened to me, people who say that today we do not have the need to follow the imams of the past, that we must make a new reinterpretation of the Qur’an and the Sunna, that we must establish a universal madhhab, that on such a television channel a man with a very large turban has said that today there is no that Imam Malik, Abu Hanifa, that yes, they were very good, but that their teachings today are not valid, that I have read a hadith in the saheeh al-bukhari that says this, and Imam Malik does not take it into account because he does it differently, so that is why you should not follow them, and that what must be done, is that, each one of us his own Ijtihad…
The first thing is that the best thing you can do is ignore the person who comes to you with all this, give them an answer a little above and let them go, since they are usually people with a desire for prominence, to want to be something; So the best thing is that, get rid of them in the best possible way.
However, if he still wants to argue with you, you will surely come to a point in the conversation, or in the heated debate, where he tells you something about the Qur’an or the Sunnah and you tell him something about Imam Malik; and then he will say: “Aha, I appoint Allah and His Messenger and you appoint Malik, or Abul Qasim, or Sahnun, or Khalil, or whoever is of the great Imams, so you are putting them above Allah and His Messenger.” If the conversation comes to this point, then roll up your sleeves and as my father would say, you say to him: “Look my dear, when I say Malik,” said Malik, “or said whoever is one of the great Imams, but let’s put the case of Imam Malik since he is the closest to us,” then when I say Malik, What I am really saying is: “Imam Malik ibn Anas, the noblest and most knowledgeable of the Tabi’ At-Tabi’een, who according to most opinions is referred to by the Messenger of Allaah, salla allaahu alaihi wa sallam in his well-known hadith said when he said:
“The time is near when people will beat the armpits of the horses and the livers of the camels (an allusion to undertake a journey) in search of knowledge; and they will not find a more knowledgeable sage than the sage of Medina
“, of which Imam Shafi’ said: “when the ‘ulamas’ are mentioned, Malik is the star”; the one who seemed to be suspended between heaven and earth when asked to issue a fatwa (that word so used even today) due to the commitment and scrupulosity that this meant for him, the one who said that the shield, that the protection of the man of knowledge is to say I don’t know, the one who, as Hayy Abdulghani said yesterday, did not ride any animals in the city of Medina, since he said that the Messenger of Allah had walked those streets and that therefore he would not do it riding on an animal, the one who when speaking of the hadith, of the words of the Messenger of Allah made wudu, dressed well, combed his hair, perfumed himself and took it with the utmost seriousness and seriousness possible, When I say that he said something, what I am referring to is that he said it, based on his deep understanding and understanding of the word of Allah, or the word of the Messenger of Allah, salla allaahu alaihi wa sallam, or the words and actions of those who witnessed with their own eyes and actions the words and actions of the Messenger of Allah, or of the Tabi’een who clearly understood the word of Allah and His Messenger, and who imitated what they saw the companions of the Messenger of Allah himself doing… that this is so.
That is really what I am saying when I say, “Imam Malik said.”
Then tell him if he still wants to war: “And you tell me that it is better for me to leave all this, and follow what Allah and His Messenger say, i.e., to base myself on my own limited understanding, when I am unable to have a complete understanding of the Qur’aan, when I am unable to encompass the knowledge of the sciences of Hadith, without knowing (both in the Qur’an and in Hadith) what is abrogated and what is abrogating, what is absolute and relative, what is general and specific, what is doubtful and clear, what is apparent and what is textual, what were the causes of revelation, without having a deep knowledge of the Arabic language…” He then goes on to say (remember that he has started the discussion) “So consider for yourself what is best, to follow the word of someone, that he has followed it from his teacher and he has followed it from his teacher, until you reach one of the great imams, recognized in the east and in the west of the earth as valid, or the word of an ignorant person who says: “Allah said and His Messenger said…”.
If after this he still wants war, he is still committed to his own, you can say to him: “Well, you call for everyone to do their own Ijtihad, okay, do you know what are the preconditions, the knowledge or prerequisites that you have to know in order to do Ijtihad?”
and those conditions according to the ulamas of Usul al-Fiqh are 13, which are as follows: Conditions of Idhjtihad:
- Being a Muslim.
- To be responsible (mukallaf according to the shari’a of Islam, and we already know what that is).
- Be morally upright (‘adl) and bring those morality into all aspects of your life.
- To be aware of the social circumstances of the place and time in which one lives; This is a very important point, because what it means is that a person who lives in a certain place cannot do ijtihad for another person who lives in another place on earth and who has completely different circumstances.
- Be insightful and have mental and intellectual acuity.
- Have a broad command of the Arabic language.
And this is fabric, since it implies knowing grammar, lexicology and rhetoric, syntacsis, morphology. - Know the Qur’an.
And here things also get serious, because this implies knowing the different causes of the revelation of the different verses that deal with the law, with the ahkam; to know the abrogated men and women; to know what each and every one of the verses that deal with the law are (about 500 approximately); to know the commentaries on the Qur’an made by the Prophet (peace be upon him), the Companions, the Followers and the other scholars in the science of Tafseer; to know the different readings or recitations of the Qur’an and the legal implications that their differences may cause. - To know the Sunnah.
This implies knowing each and every one of the hadiths that deal with the law; to know the abrogants and the abrogated; to know the transmitters of the hadiths; to know what hadiths specify and restrict others in their legal application; To know the science that deals with the different levels of transmission force that the different hadiths have, the usul al hadith, since there are saheeh, hasan, da’if, which can be saheeh, hasan and da’if, then there is muttasil, marfu’, musnad, mauquf, maqtu’, etc.
There are many kinds of hadith, and you should know all these categories and know from the hadiths that deal with the law, which one is in which category. - To know the sayings of the Companions and to verify their transmissions, and here it is almost the same with the hadith, that there are different and numerous degrees.
- To know on which points of the law there is consensus and on which there is not, and by consensus we refer to the iyma’, of which we could also speak at length.
- Know the rules of Analogy and its perfect application, the famous qiyas, which has a lot of fabric to cut and which we were talking about a little last week
- Master the science of the Fundamentals of Fiqh (usul al-fiqh).
- To know the objectives of the Shari’a (maqasid ash-shari’a) and its perfect application in order to apply the law by balancing the letter and spirit of the law and not with a rigidity that leads to absurdity, unnecessary hardship and injustice.
You also know the different aspects that must be taken into account when making a judgment, such as: the Practice of Medina, the Opinion of a Companion, the General Interest (maslaha mursala), the Avoidance of Pretexts (sadd ad-dara’i‘), Fairness (istihsan), the Revealed Laws prior to the Shari’a, the Presumption of Continuity (istis-hâb) and Custom (‘urf). Do you know what this thing I’m talking about? You are aware that for example the great Imam Ibn Sirin, when asked about something of the haram or halal, the color of his face changed, to such an extent that he was transformed in such a way that he looked like a different person; or Imam Ahmad who practically never stated anything one hundred percent when it came to halal or haram, unless it was clear and evident, but he said, in my opinion, I think, I hope, what is dearest to me… And you come now to tell me to forget all that and make my own judgments and verdicts, addressing the Qur’an and the Sunna?” If after all this, he still wants to argue and has not been able to come to his senses and continues to debate with the same arguments, then you call him Assalamu Alaykum and turn around, because he is a person who has a hard heart and a sealed intellect, so there is nothing good in staying by his side, and to get into an argument that leads nowhere, the best thing you can do is turn around and go back the way you came. All this that I have just said, I consider it very important that we know it, especially in these times in which we live very turbulent things regarding our Deen, but I thought I had to say it, because although I am sure that many of you already know it, listening to it never hurts, because it reinforces our identity and reinforces us in our bases. For these are really our foundations and it is very important to have the foundations clear, for having the foundations and the foundations clear and firm, we can build on top of a building, and what a wonderful building, than the edifice of Islam. Now, does all of this mean that Islam, or the knowledge of Islam or the knowledge of Fiqh, which is what we are mainly focusing on, the ta’lim that we mentioned at the beginning, is something rigid that is anchored in the past and that does not allow us to evolve and live in the present times? No, of course not, of course it is not. And this is one of the great problems of today, wanting to structuralize the Deen, or wanting to categorize the knowledge of our Deen. And this can be achieved, and I hope you understand this sentence that I am about to say, if we fall into the extremism of rigidly clinging to the laws, without any knowledge of the reason and the essence of the madhhab. We must understand that the knowledge of the Deen is not something rigid, and that what the Messenger of Allah transmits to us, salla allahu alaihi wa sallam, and what the Imams transmit to us later, in its origin, although unfortunately in many cases it has later become that, is not a series of fixed and structured laws; the knowledge transmitted to us by the Messenger Muhammad, which comes from Allah, subhanahu wa ta’ala is a path, or it is a pattern, through which to achieve our purpose and goal in this life, which is none other than to worship Allah, or to know Allah, which implies, of course, and without any doubt, tranquility, Tranquility and happiness in this life, which naturally leads to happiness in the next life. What is the purpose of the Messenger Muhammad and the rest of the Prophets and Messengers? What are the reasons why they are sent? There are mainly two and they are the ones we have just mentioned: Al hidayatu ila ma’rifatil Khaliq, guiding us in knowledge to Allah, establishing the guidance that leads to the knowledge of Allah, and establishing a path to happiness, both in this life and in the next, giving preference of course to that of the next life. We could add some more, but mainly these are the two or these are the two most important; and when the Prophet says that such a thing is haram, or that such a thing is halal, or when he adopts some quality or behavior, he does it or says it, so that we can put it into practice, because by applying it in our lives, we will be achieving those two goals, we will be walking on the path that leads to the knowledge of Allah and we will be walking the path that will bring us the tranquility and happiness necessary to live in this life, which will give us an elevated position in the next. Therefore, the role of the Imams in the transmission of knowledge, or of the people of knowledge, those who are the heirs of the Prophets and the Messengers, beginning with the great Imams of the past, is two-sided, both being completely united and interrelating with each other at all times. On the one hand, the knowledge of halal and haram, the knowledge that marks the way, because that is very important, we cannot attain either the knowledge of Allah or the correct worship of Allah, nor happiness in this life and in the next if it is not through this path, that is why Imam al-Jujaid said, that there is no knowledge of Allah except by following in the footsteps of the Messenger Muhammad. This is one of the functions of the Imams, totally necessary, that we never forget, it is vital for us and we must not despise it and forget it; and the other, and this is what differentiates the great Imams from those who are not, and therefore is the most complicated, is the transmission of the essence, of the light, of the soul, of the heart of the Deen and its implementation in the time in which we live. EXAMPLE OF ATAHIYATU AND SAYDA (Here I explained the meaning of these, why they are made, where they come from and what they really mean.) “The greetings are for Allâh, good deeds are for Allâh, good words and prayers are for Allâh.
Peace be upon you, O Prophet, as well as Allah’s mercy and blessing!
Peace be upon us and upon the righteous servants of Allah! I testify that there is no god but Allâh, one and without associate; and I testify that Muhammad isHis servant and messenger.”
It is the transmission of that way of life, of that pattern that we have spoken of before, which is for all humanity, with its changes in societies and thoughts, with its ideologies and particularities, with its advances and its setbacks.
It is being able to break the barriers of time and space in order to correctly implement the Deen of Islam.
It is being able to get out of rigidity, knowing the wisdom of judgments and their reasons to be able to apply it in your current world.
It is having the ability to know the world in which you live, the society in which you find yourself, it is knowing society in its political, economic and social aspects, it is the ability to understand and internalize what our Sheikh has transmitted to us for years, it is the ability to use the original ingredients, with the original knowledge, as Shaykh Abdalhaqq said in this same place some time ago, to cook a new dish of Islam, not to reheat the usual one over and over again to such an extent that it loses its flavor; if not with those same original ingredients but with the tools and subtleties of the time and place in which you are, have the ability to cook it.
We have to have the thing itself, not a mere imitation.
Nothing else will do.
And there is no doubt – and these are the words of Sheikh Abdalhaqq – that it is a task not for the faint of heart.
It will require great courage, total surrender and full trust in Allah.
This is the role of the Imams, of the teachers, of the shuyuk, this is the function of the people of knowledge, this is the responsibility that is on the shoulders of the heirs of the Prophets and the Messengers today; to lead people to what the Prophets led to, with indulgence as they did, with mercy as they did, with intelligence as they did: and it is really not an easy responsibility, it is not an easy job, but with courage, with dedication and with trust, I am totally convinced that Allah, in his justice and power, he will make it possible.
And I pray to Allah that it may be so. Sheikh Ahmed Bermejo, Imam of the Great Mosque of Granada, Sunday, July 9, 2017.
