The Islamic Personality by Sheikh Taqīuddīn An-Nabahānī

The Sahabah (ra) were Arabs and the Arabic language was intrinsic to them, and they were scholars with a precise and comprehensive understanding of the Arabic tongue. They would accompany the Messenger of Allah (saw) with the Qur’an being revealed while they were with the Messenger (saw). The Messenger (saw) would clarify the rule of Allah (swt) in the incidents so they would witness it with their eyes and ears, this is why they were also scholars of the Shari’ah with a comprehensive understanding of it. When an incident would occur infront of them requiring a clarification of the rule of Allah (swt), they would elucidate its Shari’ah rule (hukm shar’i) through elucidating their opinion that they deduced from the text of the understanding of the text (ma’qul an-nass). Often they would limit themselves to giving the rule without clarifying its evidence, thus the companions’ judgement was transmitted in the form of their opinions. This is what led some to understand that the Sahabah would give their (own) opinions in judgements. The reality is that the Sahabah would give the Shari’ah rule which they deduced from their understanding of the Shari’ah texts, but they did not append it with evidence or clarify the legislative reason for the rule or the evidence for the legislative reason.

This led to speculation that this opinion is from the Sahabah (ra) and that it is allowed for a person to give his opinion in an issue as long as he has comprehensive knowledge about Islam and knows Arabic.

When the era came in which corruption happened in the Arabic tongue, principles of Arabic came to be taught in order to preserve the tongue. And when falsehood infiltrated the narrators, and there were ahadith narrated from the Messenger which he (saw) never said, the ahadith became a specific expertise taught with its principles (usul). Therefore, deducing rules became linked to the attainment of knowledge in the Arabic language and Shari’ah texts such that the Shari’ah rules came to be accompanied by evidence and even the way of deduction. Fiqh developed a new existence shaped through research resulting in a specific type of arrangement in categorisation. With the different styles of categorisation and arrangement, it became necessary to clarify the Shari’ah rules together with clarifying the rules as well as clarifying the way of deduction where the rule is one with different opinions. Islamic libraries were constructed with hundred of thousands of fiqh manuscripts in different styles of categorisation and presentation. However, when the kuffar succeeded in invading Muslims after the 18th century CE, they began misleading them about the Islamic sciences and made them detest fiqh books like the (sofista)

made people detest honey when they told them it was the excreta of flies. Islamic fiqh was placed in a dark environment until the Muslims turned their back on it. When Muslims turn their backs on fiqh, they turn their backs on knowing the Islamic rules thereby falling into ignorance about Allah’s deen; and this is what actually happened.

Hence it is a must to encourage Muslims to come forward to study fiqh by offering a model of Islamic fiqh to affect the desire for studying it. It is beneficial to offer people a model of Shari’ah rules relating to public relationships known today as political rules or constitutional fiqh, a model of Shari’ah rules related to relationships between individuals known as civil law, and a model of Shari’ah rules related to evidences such that they become a clear fiqh model in order to build the desire for studying Islamic fiqh from the well-known books of fiqh.