The Islamic Personality by Sheikh Taqīuddīn An-Nabahānī

After the era of the students of mujtahidin came the adherents and followers of the mazhabs. They did not continue on the path which the imams and scholars of mazahib followed in Ijtihād and in the inference (istinbat) of rules. Nor did they continue on the path taken by the students of the mujtahidin in terms of studying the evidence, clarifying the angle of eduction and the branching out of the rules and exposition of issues. The followers of each imam or the scholars of each mazhab were only concerned about supporting their own mazhab, supporting its furu’ and usul in all of the issues. They were not interested in studying the soundness of the dalīl and outweighing the preponderant evidence over the weaker evidence even if it went against their mazhab.

Sometimes they were concerned with establishing the proofs for the correctness of the view they have adopted and invalidate the proofs against it and at other times their interest was devoted to extolling the imams and the scholars of the mazhabs. This preoccupied the scholars of the mazahib and distracted them from the primary source which is the Qur’ān and Sunnah. A person among them did not refer to the text of the Qur’ān or Sunnah except for the purposes of finding anything that will support the mazhab of his imam. Accordingly, their studies were confined to their mazhabs. And their zeal for absolute Ijtihād and reference to the primary sources in order to derive rules from them became weak. Their eagerness for Ijtihād was restricted to their mazhab or to one issue or simply to make Taqlīd without scrutiny. Their dependence on Taqlīd reached the point where they said: any ayah or hadīth which goes against what our scholars have said – i.e, our mazhab- it is to be interpreted (to accord with what we say) or it has been abrogated. They made the following of a mazhab an obligation on the Muslim. And they began to study in Islamic institutions such as al-Azhar, the saying of the author of Jawhara al-Tawheed fi wujub al-Taqlīd:

Rather, they believed that the door of Ijtihād should be closed for the Muslims. They held that Ijtihād was not permitted until many of the ‘Ulamā from amongst those who were qualified for Ijtihād and who had the aptitude for Ijtihād did not dare to perform Ijtihād or say that they were mujtahids. This decline started towards the end of the 4th century A.H, although in the beginning until the end of the 6th century and the beginning of the 7th there was some progress. Mujtahidin and scholars were present at a time when the likes of al-Qaffal were advocating the closing of the door of Ijtihād. However, from the beginning of the 7th century until the end of the 13th century A.H the decline was complete but it was within the limits of Islam. The decline was in thought but the jurisprudential opinions remained Islamic. As for after the 13th century i.e, from 1274 A.H. till now, the decline has reached the point where the Sharī’ah rules have become mixed with unIslamic laws and the situation reached the worst possible state of decline.

It was due to this jurisprudential decline that it made it difficult for people to act upon the Sharī’ah rules. So after the Islamic Sharī’ah had been sufficient for the entire world they made it difficult even for its adherents until they were forced to accomodate other laws which are not a match to it. Many pious Muslims began to refer to a Sharī’ah which was not the Islamic Sharī’ah. Towards the end of the ‘Uthmani state it was the ignorance of Islam and the ignorant fuqaha which was the principle reason for the backwardness of the Muslims and the end of their state. There were fuqaha who were rigid and always ready to give fatwa forbidding anything new and forbid the thoughts of any thinker. One of the curiously ludicrous and lamentable thing that happened was that when coffee appeared some scholars gave fatwa forbidding it and when smoking appeared they gave the fatwa of prohibition and when people wore the fez the fuqaha gave the fatwa that it was forbidden to wear it and when the printing press appeared and the state decided to print copies of the Qur’ān some fuqaha forbade it to be printed. The telephone was invented and some fuqaha forbade people to speak through it and many other issues followed. Until the consequence in Islamic jurisprudence was that the Muslims became completely ignorant of it. The issue changed from studying the Sharī’ah rules to studying Western laws. And law schools were founded; schools whose presence in the Muslims countries was a shameful blot for them and towards the end of the ‘Uthmani state - the Islamic state and its leader the Khalifah of the Muslims - decided to imitate Western jurisprudence in the codification of law. Thus they introduced the Majalla in 1282 A.H as a civil law and a grand edict was issued in 1293 A.H to put it into effect and before that they had drawn up the Ottoman penal code in 1274 A.H. They introduced that in place of the hudud, criminal (jinayat) and discretionary punishments (ta’zeer). And in 1276 A.H. they introduced the Law of Rights and Commerce. Then they introduced the constitution in order to abolish the Khilafah system in its entirety in 1294 A.H. However, it was abolished and then reinstituted in 1326 A.H. (1908 C.E.). However, they tried to make it agree with Islam and mantained the Khilafah system. In this way, fiqh (comprehension) declined and became canon’s and the Sharī’ah rules were abandoned and rules other than from Islam were adopted under the pretext that they agreed with Islam. An erroneous notion became prevalent that whatever agrees with Islam it is taken from any human being and the zeal of the ‘Ulamā waned and they, all of them, became muqallidin (followers). However, that was seen as coming under the shadow of Islam. But after the end of the Khilafah and the kuffār ’s occupation, the English and French, of the Muslim lands. Then the Muslims countries came to be states founded on a nationalistic basis whether Arab, Turk or Iranian etc. The Islamic fiqh was wiped out from existence from the relationships of people and from education and learning. It was not studied except in certain countries, such as al-Azhar in Egypt, Najaf in Iraq, Zaytuna in Tunisia, however they were studied in the same manner as Greek philosophy was studied. The decline reached shocking levels since the Islamic fiqh vanished from existence from people’s relationships.