Understanding Usul Al-Fiqh by Abu Tariq Hilal - Abu Ismael al-Beirawi

When Umar (ra) became the Khaleefah, if anyone from the Sahabah (ra) wanted to migrate to the newly liberated lands, he would have to take the permission of Umar (ra). Upon the request, Umar (ra) would grant a leave for a specified number of months on the condition that they would return.

When Uthman (ra) became the Khaleefah, he allowed the Sahabah (ra) to disperse. The Sahabah (ra) began leaving Madinah, heading out to regions such as North Africa, Sham, Kabul, and even Peking, while others went back to Makkah. For instance, Ibn Mas‟ood (ra) went to Kufah, Abdur-Rahman bin Awf (ra) reached Peking, while Abdullah bin Umar (ra) stayed in Madinah. However, for the most part, the two main groups of Sahabah (ra) were either in Kufah or Madinah.

Those whom we call the Tabi‟een were the followers and companions of a specific Sahabi. For example, Sa‟eed ibnu Musayeb, Nafi‟, and Salem ibn Abdullah bin Umar are well known Tabi‟een who followed Abdullah bin Umar (ra). Most of the Tabi‟een were not Arabs so they learned the Arabic language, and in some cases they learned the language better than the Arabs themselves, and became major contributors to Fiqh.

During the days of the Tabi‟een, two major methodologies of understanding the text arose:

a) Ahlel-Hadith (The People of Hadith) in Madinah.

b) Ahlel-Ra‟ee (The People of Reason) in Kufah.

Those who followed Ahlel-Hadith (The People of Hadith) had more Hadith at their disposal and relied on the Hadith more than on Qiyas, while Ahlel-Ra‟ee (The People of Ra‟ee) relied more on Qiyas and the meanings behind the text, but did not at all neglect the Hadith. Another difference between the two schools is that the Ra‟ee (reasoning) in the School of Ra‟ee was based on Qiyas while in Madinah Ra‟ee was based more on an elaboration of the text itself.

Among the Tabi‟een in Madinah were Sa‟eed ibnu Musayeb, Zuhri, Yahya, and Rabiah-ar-Ra‟ie, „Urwa, Abu Bakr bin „Ubaid bin Harith, Qasim bin Muhammad bin Abu Bakr, „Ubaidullah, Sulayman bin Yassar, Khaija bin Zayd bin Thabit. They took their Fiqh from Abdullah bin Umar (ra). Sa‟eed ibnu Musayeb was known as Al-Jareei (The Outspoken) or the on who has guts to make Ijtihad, while Rabiah was called Ar-Ra‟ie because of his common practice of making Ijtihad.

The populace in Madinah had lived with the Prophet (saw) and took his (saw) actions and sayings in a more practical manner. Thus, Ahlel Hadith (People of the Book) emerged in Madinah.

There is also a misconception that Ahlel-Hadith (The People of Hadith) used to only adhere to the Hadith without performing Ijtihad whatsoever. This claim is false. For example, Imam Malik bin Anas, who emerged from the School of Madinah, used to do Ijtihad according to Maslahah Mursalah even more than Abu Hanifah, who emerged from the School of Kufah.

Among the Tabi‟een in Kufah were Ash-Sha‟bee, Hasan al-Basri, and Ibraheem an-Nakha‟ee, Hammaad, Alqamah bin Qais, Masjood bin Ajdah. These Tabi‟een took their Fiqh from Ali bin Abi Talib (ra) and Abdullah bin Mas‟ood (ra). Some of the Tabi‟een such as Ash-Sha‟bee was considered Muhaditheen (Scholars of Hadith).

The populace in Kufah (Iraq) was experiencing many problems such as the fabrication of Hadith, political turmoil, etc., and the scholars were very careful in collecting Hadith due to the possibility of fabrication. Due to these problems, they often used reasoning. Reasoning (Ra‟ee) here implies opinion derived from different understandings of the text. Thus, they came to be known as Ahlel Ra‟ee (People of the Reasoning).

The word Ra‟ee linguistically means: opinion. Therefore some people think that the term Ahlel-Ra‟ee (The People of Ra‟ee) means the people who present their opinion. This is a misconception, to anyone who believes that their opinion was based on their desires. The opinion presented by Ahlel-Ra‟ee was through their Ijtihad, which was based on the legislative evidences, i.e. Qur‟an and Sunnah.

The Prophet (saw) said:

“Allah does not remove the „Ilm after it was given to you, rather the „Ilm would be removed with the death of the „Ulema. Then some people, who are ignorant, will start giving their Ra‟ee based on their desires and they are misled and will lead the Ummah astray.” (Bukhari & Ahmad)

Awf b. Malik al-Ashja'i narrated that the Messenger of Allah (saw) said:

“My Ummah will become divided into some seventy sects, the greatest will be the test of the people who make analogy to the deen with their own opinions, with it forbidding what Allah has permitted and permitting what Allah has forbidden.”39

The Prophet (saw) said: “Whoever speaks about the Qur'an without knowledge, then let him prepare for himself his seat in the fire.” (Tirmizi, Ahmad, An-Nisai & Ibn Jarir)

These Ahadith are clearly referring to the person who adopts opinions or gives Fatwa based on his „Aql without any evidence from the Shari‟ah, Ahlel-Ra‟ee on the other hand, were those who exerted their utmost effort in scanning the Islamic texts, and then issued an opinion. This process is called Ijtihad as discussed earlier.

Some people say that Ahlel-Ra‟ee did not utilise Hadith in issuing their opinions. This claim is false. People like Ash-Sha‟bee were recognised Muhaditheen while being from Kufah and from Ahlel-Ra‟ee.

The main difference between them was that the People of Ra‟ee practiced more Qiyas and Istihsan and they went deeper into the text to extract more rulings than the People of Hadith. These two main schools influenced many other schools of thought.