Role of Scholars and Ulema
Dr. Mozammel Haque
Before going into the question of who are
scholars and what are their roles, it is essential to understand the philosophy
of the religion, philosophy of Islam. Islam is a social religion or the
religion for the society, not for individual only. Individual has to live
within the society and has to perform his social activities and social
responsibilities. Islam does not expect individual to be isolated or to live
alone.
Philosophy
of Islam
Speaking
about the fundamental message and the philosophy of Islam, Dr. Ahmad
al-Dubayan, Director General of the Islamic Cultural Centre & the London
Central Mosque Trust, said, “Islam is
more for the society; not individual religion which exactly tries to keep you
individually isolated from other people. No. Islam itself is like those who
work; like those who are very useful in the society; like those who having
engagement with the people around them. They do the best for everybody.”
“So the Qur’an, the deen of Allah Subhanahu wa Taala does not want to be like this; relying on
people. They feed you; they give you and you are sitting and doing nothing. You
said, I am reading Qur’an all the time; I am busy; so you prepare for me lunch,
dinner or whatever and then. No; those who prepare this; they are, may be,
closer to Allah Subhanahu wa Taala more than you. You have to understand the philosophy of the religion.
How Islam sees this. It is not only the worship; it is worship and something
else. More than other things,” said Dr. al-Dubayan and added, “For us, this is
Islam; this is the real message of Islam. Now we believe in this; then what is
the role of the scholars after the Prophet Sallalahu Alayhe Wassallam especially after the companions and
followers.”
Who are scholar
Dr. al-Dubayan then spoke about the scholars
and their role in society and religion. He said, “After the Prophet Sallalahu Alayhe Wassallam, especially after the companions and followers,
like any other society, many people engaged themselves with knowledge studying
the Qur’an, Hadiths These people became scholars. We all know four imams: Abu
Hanifa, Malek, Ahmed, these four and other imams. By the way, we do not only have
these imams; we have many imams, many; but these four are well-known; and they
have many followers. Other imams, Imam Daud Ali, Imam Muhammad bin Tabari, Imam
Shafei bin Rafei, ibn Saad Imam, I can give you many many names, they are all
imams exactly equal to Abu Hanifa, to Shafie to Ahmed, to Malek. They used to
have followers. But after all these centuries, the followers of the four imams
become more well-known; many students wrote books about them. So they are
well-known about the others; others did not have all this heritage left behind
by their students.”
Role of Scholars
Now Dr. al-Dubayan spoke about the role of
scholars. He first of all, enquired what are the role of these scholars and
immediately replied, “The role of scholars is to teach people, to explain; and
when something new happen, then they have what we call Ijtihad.” He said, “Ijtihad
means I studied the Qur’an, then I know it, then okay, I know Allah Subhanahu
wa Taala says what is
forbidden in the Qur’an, what Prophet Sallalahu Alayhe Wassallam said; then I can make judgement on some new
things. For example, now smoking. Smoking did not happen during the days of the
Prophet Sallalahu Alayhe
Wassallam. Smoking
came only when Christopher Columbus went to America. He found Red Indians used
to smoke. Then he carried this; he brought to Europe, from Europe people
started to smoke. Then some companies were established, to make cigarette
business; it becomes a very big industry in the world now; say four hundred
years.”
Speaking about smoking, whether it is haram
or halal, Dr. al-Dubayan said how we will decide that. He asked, “What do you
think about smoking? Is it haram or halal? Now this is the Ijtihad. You
will never find a text in the Qur’an or Hadiths of the Prophet Sallalahu Alayhe Wassallam or imams talking about smoking. It was not
known at that time. So how do you say it is haram or halal; based on what? This
is the ijtihad. Now we will see; is smoking very useful? For you as a person or
is it damaging your health, for example or wasting money. Based on this,
scholars, many of them, said, well, it is haram like drugs. What about drugs?
Drugs are even more, for example; even more than cigarettes; drugs is actually
Haram. Why scholars said, it is haram. I know in some countries, some people
say to you, no; no, it is not haram. I know some countries said it is not
haram; because some of those Sheikhs I know unfortunately they themselves do
it; they think it is not haram. I discussed with them, how come you brothers,
you are doing this; you are damaging your society; it is haram brothers.”
Smoking,
Drugs, Alcohol
Then Dr. al-Dubayan elaborated this point by
giving various examples such as about Alcohol, Drugs and smoking. He said, “Alcohol
is haram and there is even logic in Islam. Show me your authority in the Qur’an
or in the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him.) It is not mentioned but
there is Ijtihad; anything you create it, making new damage; or damaging your
health, wasting your time; wasting your money, actually that is why it is haram
or at least it is hateful. Smoking is haram but drugs definitely haram,
definitely. Drug is definitely haram; all kinds of them. About smoking, some
scholars say, it is hateful; but you should avoid this;, but the word haram is
big a little bit. But many great scholars say it is really haram, because it is
damaging your health; wasting your money; that’s why some scholars say, like
even wasting time is hateful; you cannot waste your time all the time.”
“Just for example, sitting somewhere playing
chess or cards, you do nothing; if you do sometimes with friends; it is okay;
but if somebody spends everyday like six seven hours playing cards, this is not
allowed. Why? Because you are leaving some things which are more important in
your life actually and you are keeping yourself busy with something which is
not acceptable. You don’t give time to your family; you don’t give time to your
wife; to your husband; to your children; you leave behind all your
responsibilities; you just want to enjoy your time playing cards in a café with
your friends. It goes beyond the normal limits; this is wasting of time. Though
this is not wasting of health; it is wasting of time,” Dr. al-Dubayan mentioned.
Waste
anything is not allowed in Islam
Dr. al-Dubayan also mentioned about wasting
anything is not allowed in Islam. He said, “Whatever you waste it is not
allowed. Even waste of water; I talked about it once, it is not allowed.
Wasting food, if you cook food, for example, for somebody in your home; for
three people, when you are alone; meat rice or whatever, then you eat little
and nobody is eating. Okay, throw it into the bin. This is haram. For you are
destroying the natural resources; you are wasting food. You should give it to
somebody to eat. If you don’t you must not cook it from the very beginning.
Whenever you have extra food; try to find somebody who needs food, give it to
him. Otherwise, if you cook specially for sisters, then don’t cook more than to
eat; don’t cook because after that it would be in the bin. It is wasting of
money, wasting the food, and wasting of time to cook it.”
Now going back to earlier discussion about
the role of scholars Dr. al-Dubayan said, “The role of these scholars is really
to judge the new things; to protect the Shari’ah; to protect the religion
itself to keep it in proper perspective. After all these centuries; of course,
there are many things added to the religion. The Prophet Sallalahu Alayhe Wassallam told us in his Hadiths that this Ummah,
Muslims, is going to be divided into 73 sects or schools; he is the one who
told us. Someone asked him, then which one I will follow out of these 73? The
Prophet Sallalahu Alayhe
Wassallam said
those who are doing exactly the like I am doing now and my companions do;
follow those. Those who are coming closer to the Qur’an and the real Sunnah of
the Prophet Sallalahu Alayhe Wassallam they are the one who comes close to Allah Subhanahu wa Taala.”
“If we come back to the principles I told you
the Prophet Sallalahu Alayhe Wassallam delivered the message clear 100 per cent complete, nothing missing,
nothing hidden. The Prophet said follow these messages I delivered. You should
not add anything to it. Anybody adds something to it that is not from the
Prophet, from the authority. The only authority is the Qur’an and the Prophet Sallalahu Alayhe Wassallam. If you remove a part of it you are not
allowed to remove a part of it. Because this is the message complete from the
Prophet Sallalahu Alayhe
Wassallam,” mentioned
Dr. Al-Dubayan.
No
Hierarchy in Islam
In Islam, there is no hierarchy. Nobody has
the authority above the Qur’an and Sunnah. Speaking about this aspect of Islam,
Dr. Al-Dubayan mentioned, “In Islam itself, we don’t have any hierarchy,
religious or administrative religious system. That means somebody can say, well,
I decide this is to be haram; or I decided alcohol was haram but now somebody
decided it is halal; no, you cannot. You cannot do this, because it is complete
Islam; it is done. You have to follow as it is, if you can. If sometimes
somebody is weak, and he drinks alcohol sometimes, for some reason or other;
may Allah forgive him or forgive her.”
“But there is a difference; if someone does
something, he knows it is wrong, and someone who says no, no. no, it is halal,
it is not haram. It is even worse. Who tries to change the judgement of things
even worse than the one who does something, then he knows not halal, but Allah
forgives him and Inshallah he will repent or try to change; but may be he does
not or next morning he or she met friends who drinks also and again becomes
weak again and then drinks again and then try to make repent again and say
again even today I will not do it again and do it again and again three times
you promise and one day you will succeed, but don’t say or
the devil comes to you and say: every day you say I will give it up and
do it again, no need to give up just continue. This is the one devils wanted
from you, don’t stop, try to change to be better even if you do the things
again and again,” said Dr. Al-Dubayan.
Role of
Ulema
Speaking about the role of Ulema Dr. al-Dubayan
made it clear that the role of Ulema is to advice you, to give you guidance and
at the same time you have the right to check its authenticity. He said, “If you
hear anything from Ulema you have the right to check it; you have the right to
ask him; can you show me where did you get it from the Qur’an; show me where
did you get it from the Hadiths; don’t follow someone blindly. Just like this
without asking about that. This is very very dangerous. If you see some Muslims
anywhere in the world follow blindly; they sometimes even did something directly
contradict the Shari’ah.”
Explaining the situation Dr. al-Dubayan gave
an example. He said, “For example, Allah Subhanahu wa Taala told
us some times in the
year are blessed times. Like what? Like the month of Ramadan; Okay, like the
day of Arafah, the blessed time; .say like the day of Jumah, the blessed times;
like the day of Ashoorah. That’s why we fasted. How do we know these days are
blessed days or times; because Allah Subhanahu wa Taala told us
in the Qur’an or the Prophet Sallalahu Alayhe Wassallam told us to do this. More than this,
we cannot do this. You cannot come and say: listen; by the way, the day
Wednesday is the blessed day, fast. You cannot, because Prophet Sallalahu Alayhe Wassallam did not say that. The religion is you have
to follow the Prophet. The religion is you have to go back to the source. Don’t
take from anybody whatever he says.
Similarly,
there are some places which Allah . Subhanahu wa Taala called
them blessed places, Makkah is one of them.
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