Issue: Who is the Haakim?
We know that Allah the most High is the Haakim and He is the only One Who has the right to legislate. If we agree on this then we need to ask “what is it that He legislates?”
answer: that He legislates what is Halal and what is Haram.
if we agree that He is the only one that can ordain Halal and Haram then we need to ask a question.
question: When a scholar says, “in this issue i rule or deem that this is impermissible, or that it is permissible” what is he trying to do?
do we say that he has taken the role of legislation in the Deen of Allah, or that he is trying to resemble the soveringty of Allah and claim the right to make Halal and Haram?
answer:no then what are they doing legislating?
This is where a student of Fiqh must understand this issue very well and it is:
Allah the Most High has sent 2 types of Truth’s upon us either in Quran or Sunnah.
We all are obligated to follow the truth which is what Allah wanted us to perform from halaal or haram in a particular action
so to understand the hukm (ruling) of Allah in that particular issue would be the truth which He wanted His slaves to follow
Truth is of 2 types which Allah has sent:
1) Truth which He wanted all the mankind to unite upon and which He has sent upon us
2) Truth: which he Has not sent upon us, or has kept away from us and thus will judge between us on Day of Judegement
if we understand this, then we need to ask:
- How do we know the truth which Allah has sent upon us by which He wanted His servants to unite upon’
-how can we achieve this unity by holding onto this unhideen truth sent down to us’?
The answer is:
‘This truth which there is no doubt in any particualr issue which Allah obligated all His slaves to hold on to is Via IJMAA‘
–>ANY issue where there is Ijmaa, we know that in such particular issue the truth is known which Allah wanted us to unite upon
if we know this then we ask:
‘is there any room for anyone to deviate or to choose another opinion when the ijmaa has been formed’?
the answer :NO! because all the muslim scholars who Allah has obligated or has given the job to search for the truth has united upon this that in such particular issue Allah wanted us to follow such n such ruling
now this was the 1st type of truth which Allah has sent upon us by which He wanted all of us to unite upon.
now comes the 2nd type of truth which is Hidden and is with Allah.
Hidden Truth: every scholar, his purpose is to use evidences from Quran n sunnah to reach or find the true legislation of Allah and see ‘IF ALLAH DID TELL US CLEARLY WHAT WOULD THE RULING HAD BEEN IN THIS ISSUE’
so he tries to apply all his knowledge, his principals and all his tools to see and comeup a ruling which he says
‘according to me, IF ALLAH Did tell us clearly it would have been this n this ruling’
however, because this truth has been taken away from us, we cannot unite upon this because Allah didnt wanted us to unite upon these issues as He didnt reveal the absolute truth in such matter
what do we see from this?
1- that in such matters where the truth has been concealed from us – the no one can claim that he is upon truth and that rest are misguided in any particular issue
2- that it would allow us to accomodate other scholars views and judgements because one know that in this issue the truth is not known, so all are allowed to use their knowledge to base their opinoin hence we respect them – though we may not agree but we do not discard them
3- the muslims know that in these issues, Allah will be the judge on day of Qiyymah as He said, ‘And i will Judge between them in matters you used to disagree upon’ and ibn taymiyyah said, ‘He will judge even in issues related to taharah (purifcation)
4-muslims give respect to all ulema and do not take away their credibilty that because we dont agree with their opinoin that they are miguided, because if the truth was known then there would be IJMAA on such issue.
these are the benefits on knowing the issue of who is Haakim and the role of scholars and the Truth which they are trying to seek.
conclusion
Every scholar is trying to reach the true hukm which he asks himself, ‘if Allah has told us in clear language, what would have been the ruling’?
so, he uses his utter most hard to comeup with the ruling and this is why either he can be mistaken or correct, but his judge will be Allah on Qiyyamah to tell us what was the correct stance becasue the truth was not send to us in clear manifestation
