by Shaykh Abdal Haqq Bewley

All Muslims agree that the basis of Islam is the Book and Sunnah and almost all Muslims agree that if someone follows the teachings of any one of the four orthodox madhhabs of Islam – the Hanafi Madhhab, the Maliki Madhhab, the Shafi‘i Madhhab and the Hanbali Madhhab – they will certainly be living within the parameters of the Book and Sunnah. The great majority of Muslims are affiliated to one or the other of these madhhabs but for almost all of them this affiliation takes place for purely geographical reasons and very few know very much about the nature of the madhhab they belong to. There is a common perception that the madhhabs are all more or less the same and only differ in respect of slight legal points such as where you put your hands in the prayer and other things of that nature, but that does not really explain why there should be these four madhhabs at all. In order to discover the reason for their existence, it is necessary to look at each of them and find out how and why they came into being in the first place.

The first of the four madhhabs in historical terms is the Madhhab of Abu Hanifah who was born in roughly 80AH and died in 150AH. The salient fact about Imam Abu Hanifah, rahimahullahu ta’ala, was that he did not live in Madinah, where the deen had originally been established; he lived in Iraq and his school developed in Iraq. He grew up in Kufa, was educated there and lived most of his life there, first as a merchant, then as a student and finally as a teacher. Kufa was one of the two great Iraqi cities of the time and Iraq was home to many different religions, sects and beliefs because, apart from containing the capital of the recently defeated Persian empire, it was also the home of various other ancient civilisations. Syriac Christians were dispersed throughout it and they had schools there in which Greek philosophy and the ancient wisdom of Persia were studied. In other words, at the time we are speaking of, Iraq was a melting pot of diverse races, cultures and beliefs and a place rife with confusion and disorder. There were frequent clashes of opinion on the subject of politics and religion. The Shi‘a and Mu‘tazilites stemmed from there and there were Kharijites in its deserts.

Along with this was the fact that comparatively few Companions had travelled from Madinah and settled in Iraq. Indeed it was an explicit policy of the second Khalifah ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله عنه, to discourage Companions with knowledge from leaving the Hijaz. He did this in order to prevent  knowledge of the deen becoming too dispersed. For this reason most of the great men of knowledge among the Muhajirun and Ansar stayed within the confines of Madinah. Two notable exceptions who did go to live in Iraq were Ali ibn Abi Talib, karama’llahu wajhah, and Abdallah ibn Mas’ud,  but the overall number was in fact very small. What that meant, in real  terms, was that the people of Iraq had very limited direct access to the Sunnah, because there were very few exemplars of it who came to them. All these factors meant that the Iraqi environment in which Islam was beginning to take root in the first and second centuries after the Hijrah was a very different one from that of Madinah in which the deen had originally been established.

Another corollary development was that, due to these multifarious foreign influences, many situations arose which were quite alien to anything confronted in the earliest days of Islam. Nevertheless, it was, of course, necessary for the establishment of the deen that solutions should be found for these new contingencies so that they could find their place within the compass of Islam.

This was the environment within which the Iraqi school developed and which caused it to have the particular form which came to characterize it so clearly. As we have seen, for historical, geographical and social reasons,the situation in Iraq was markedly different from that of the Hijaz where the deen had originally been established and taken root. This meant, as we have noted, that new situations were continually arising and it was a question of how to apply the Book and Sunnah to these novel circumstances in such a way that the deen would remain unchanged. As far as the Book of Allah was concerned, of course, the Iraqis had the same access to it as the Muslims in the Hijaz and those in everyother place to which the deen had spread. The difference was in their access to the Sunnah.

We have already noted that direct knowledge of the Sunnah in Iraq was limited because of the small number of Companions who moved there. On the other hand in Sayyidina ‘Ali and ‘Abdallah ibn Mas‘ud, they were two of the most knowledgeable Companions and two of those closest to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, and so their direct access to the Sunnah, although very limited in extent, was at the same time of the very highest quality. This led to the distinctive approach to the Sunnah which characterized the Iraqi school and in turn even coloured their attitude to the Qur’an itself. Because of the irreproachability of their direct sources to the Sunnah they were quite rightly supremely confident concerning what had reached them through them, but because of the limited scope of what they received there were many gaps in their knowledge.

In the period we are talking about there was already much forgetfulness and it was even the case that instances of hadith forgery were beginning to be recorded so that, rather than relying on sources about which they were not sure, the scholars of Iraq preferred to come to a judgement based on the use of their own reason within clearly defined parameters based on the knowledge of Book and Sunnah about which they did have absolute certainty. In this they were in fact following the example of Ibn Mas‘ud himself who refrained from attributing statements or actions to the Prophet  صلى الله عليه وسلم, unless he was absolutely sure they were correct and, in cases where he was not certain, would prefer to exercise his own opinion rather than falsely ascribe something to him.

This led to a way of looking at texts which was typical of the Iraqi school, whereby they would examine the reasons behind the judgements contained within them. It was almost as if they did not depend on the outward words but would, instead, look to the meaning behind them and what was intended by the statement involved and would then apply that analogically to the new situation confronting them. This methodology of implementing the Book and Sunnah, which developed in Iraq, caused the Iraqis to be known as the people of ra’i or opinion. Another of the characteristics of this school was that its adherents did not confine themselves to the deduction of rulings to be applied to actually existing cases but also posed hypothetical questions and gave judgment on them as well on the basis of their own reasoning, with the object of pre-empting situations which might well occur in the future.

The great Iraqi scholar Ibrahim an-Nakha’i is generally credited with being the founder of the Iraqi school of fiqh we have been talking about but there is no doubt that its greatest exponent and the man who gave it his name and who became most closely associated with it in the minds of the Muslims throughout history was Abu Hanifa an-Nu‘man. He started out as a silk merchant but soon devoted himself to learning and became a student of Shaykh Hammad ibn Sulayman with whom he studied all the Islamic sciences. There is no doubt that Abu Hanifa was a man of the utmost integrity and was imbued with intense fear of Allah which informed all his acts and decisions. He was also extremely generous and a man characterised by great self control. It is, however, for his scintillating intellect and his ability to apply it to the questions which confronted him for which he is justly most remembered and which led to him becoming the leader of the madhhab of the people of opinion.

His profound thinking led to him penetrating to the core of the questions presented to him. This meant that he did not stop at the outward meaning of texts but went beyond that to their intentions. He would study a text, seeking the causes of any judgment it contained, examining the implications of its words, phrases and intentions and the circumstances surrounding it. Once he became satisfied about its underlying cause, he used analogy based on that and took that very far indeed. His general attitude is well summed up by a simile he coined. He said, “One who learns hadiths but does not have fiqh can be likened to a chemist who makes up remedies but does not know what they cure until the doctor comes and tells him. Anyone who learns hadiths but does not grasp their true implications is just like that.”

An illustrative example of the way Imam Abu Hanifa’s mind worked can be seen in the famous account of his meeting with Muhammad al-Baqir, the great-great-grandson of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. It seems that the imam met al-Baqir when visiting Madinah near the beginning of his scholarly career. It is reported that al-Baqir said to him, on the basis of what he had heard of the direction things had taken in Iraq, “Are you the one who changes the deen of my grandfather and his Sunnah through the use of analogy?”

Abu Hanifa replied by saying, “I seek refuge with Allah!” and told al-Baqir that he respected him in the same way that his forebear, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, had been respected by his Companions during his lifetime. Abu Hanifa then said to al-Baqir, “I am going to present you with three questions to answer. The first is: Who is weaker, a man or a woman?”

Al-Baqir replied, “A woman.“

“What is a woman’s share in inheritance?” continued Abu Hanifa.

“A man has two shares and a woman one,” responded al-Baqir.

“That is what came from your great grandfather,” said Abu Hanifa. “If I were to have changed his deen by analogy I would have said that a woman should have two shares and a man one because she is the weaker of the two, but I have not.”

Abu Hanifa then asked al-Baqir, “Which is better, the prayer or fasting?“

“The prayer,” he replied.

“That is what your great grandfather said,” agreed Abu Hanifa. “If I were to have changed his deen, I would have said using analogy that, because the prayer is better, a woman who has finished menstruation should be ordered to make up the prayer and not the fast.”

Abu Hanifa then put his third question. “Which is the more impure, urine or sperm?“

“Urine is more impure.“

“If it was true that I had changed the deen of your great grandfather through the use of analogy I would, on account of that, have made people do ghusl after urinating rather than for the emission of sperm. I seek refuge with Allah from altering the deen of your great grandfather through analogy.“

In this instance Imam Abu Hanifa used his incisive, analytical intellect to uphold the orthodox position of Islam regarding these matters, but it gives us a clear indication of the way that he, in another situation when the position about a matter was as yet undecided and so open to interpretation, would use his mind to come to a decision about it. This great mental agility which characterised Imam Abu Hanifa was recognised by Imam Malik who said of him, “If he had gone to these stone columns and formed an analogy showing that they were made of wood, you would have thought that they were made of wood.”

This brings us to the school of Imam Malik, rahimahullahu ta’ala, who was, in chronological terms, the second of the four imams, living from 93AH to 179AH. Just as when examining the madhhab of Imam Abu Hanifa we discovered that what we were really looking at was the school of Iraq, the methodology used by the early Muslims of Iraq to establish what constituted the Book and Sunnah in that region, so we find that Imam Malik, who lived all his life in Madinah al-Munawwarah, the “Illuminated City”, was in fact the foremost exponent of the school of Madinah and passed down to posterity the methodology used by the people of Madinah in their implementation of the Book and Sunnah. The situation of Madinah was completely different to that of Iraq. Madinah was the place where much of the Qur’an was revealed, the place where Allah’s deen became established as a living social and political reality. It was in Madinah that Islam became flesh and bones and took on its definitive,final form.

So whereas in Iraq it became necessary to work out how Islam could be implemented in the new situation, in Madinah it was simply a matter of preserving unchanged what was already there. In the time of Imam Malik in Madinah people were doing the prayer, making hajj, doing wudu’, collecting zakah, carrying on every aspect of their lives as Muslims in exactly the same way that they had been doing without interruption from the time of the Prophet less than a century earlier. And, moreover, there had been conscious effort expended to ensure that the original teaching and practice of Islam remained unaltered in Madinah, borne out by the injunction of Sayyidina Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله عنه, forbidding knowledgeable Companions from leaving the city, precisely so that the body of knowledge and practice which constituted Islam in action in the world would remain whole and intact and would not become dispersed and fragmented. In Madinah, therefore, transmission of the deen was immediate and direct. As Malik himself said, “If you want knowledge, then take up residence (i.e. in Madinah). The Qur’an was not revealed on the Euphrates (i.e. in Iraq).“

This leads us to the vital difference between the Iraqi and Madinan schools. In Iraq, as we have seen, it was a question of taking the available knowledge of the Book and Sunnah, understanding what was intended, and applying it in the new environment, giving rise to what became known as the school of ra’i (opinion). In Madinah the Book and Sunnah were established as an integral element of the community – daily life in Madinah was the Book and Sunnah in action – so in Madinah it was simply a matter of absorbing and taking on the practice of the people there which had been preserved and transmitted unchanged, with the conscious collaboration of two generations of brilliant scholars, to be inherited and encapsulated and passed on to all subsequent generations by Imam Malik ibn Anas, rahimahullah, as the school of the ‘amal ahli’l- Madinah (the practice of the people of Madinah).

It is also acknowledged unanimously by the early ‘ulama of Islam that no bid‘ah (innovation) entered Madinah during the first three generations, meaning the generation of the Prophet and his Companions, their successors and their successors, the Followers of the Followers, one of whom was Imam Malik. So up until the time of Imam Malik nothing extraneous to the Deen, with regard to the Deen, entered into the environment where they lived. In other words what Imam Malik received and what he passed on to his students, and down to our own time in his great work al-Muwatta, was nothing other than the whole body of the Deen that had come down through those three generations to him in Madinah al-Munawwarah. Imam Malik himself expressed the nub of this matter very cogently in a famous letter he sent to al-Layth ibn Sa‘d in which he wrote:

Allah Almighty says in His Mighty Book: The Outstrippers, the first of the Muhajirun and Ansar. (9:100). Allah Almighty further says: So give good news to My slaves, those who listen well to what is said and then follow the best of it. (39:18). It is essential to follow the people of Madinah. The Hijrah was made to it, the Qur’an was sent down in it, and the halal was made halal and the haram was made haram there. The Messenger of Allah was among them and they were present when the Revelation was revealed. He instructed them and they obeyed him. He imparted the Sunnah to them and they followed it until Allah caused him to die and chose for him what is with Him, may the blessings of Allah and His mercy and favour be upon him always. Then after his death, the Muslims followed those from among his community who were given authority after him. When something happened which they already knew how to deal with, they did so. If they had no knowledge of the matter in question, they asked about it and then followed the best line they could. In this they were helped by having very recently been in personal contact (with the Prophet) … Then the Tabi‘un after them travelled this path and followed those sunan. If there is a practice which is clearly acted upon in Madinah, I do not think that anyone may oppose it because of the inheritance that the people of Madinah received which no one else can lay claim to. If the people of any other city were to say, “This is the practice in our city,” or “This is what those before us used to do,” that would not be permissible for them.

What is very evident from all this is that, for the Madinans, the Sunnah was defined by what had been done much more than what had been said. It was a matter of transmitted action rather than transmitted text. Zayd ibn Thabit رضي الله عنه, the famous Companion, stated, “When you see the people of Madinah doing something, know that it is the Sunnah.” This is a very important distinction in the light of developments, which, as we shall see, were shortly to follow and which were to meld together the two terms Sunnah and hadith and make them virtually indistinguishable one from the other. Understanding this point is pivotal to grasping the nature of the Madinan school and its methodology. ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab stated on the mimbar, “By Allah Almighty I will make it difficult for a man who relates a hadith different from it (the ‘amal).” Ibn al-Qasim and Ibn Wahb said, “I saw that in Malik’s opinion ‘amal (transmitted practice) was stronger than hadith (transmitted statement).” Malik said, “The people of knowledge among the Followers would sometimes transmit a hadith which had been conveyed to them from others and then say, ‘We are not ignorant of this, but the ‘amal which has come down to us from the past is other than it.’”

Malik said, “I saw Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr ibn ‘Amr ibn Hazm who was a Qadi. His brother was ‘Abdullah, a truthful man who knew a lot of hadith. When Muhammad gave a judgment in respect of which a hadith had come contrary to it, I heard ‘Abdullah criticise him, saying, ‘Hasn’t this and this come in this hadith?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’ His brother said to him, Then what is wrong with you? Why don’t you give judgment by it?’ He said, ‘Where are the people with respect to it?’ meaning what is the consensus regarding the actual practice in Madinah? He meant that the practice is stronger than the hadith regarding it.” Ibn Mahdi, who died in 186 AH and was one of the greatest hadith scholars of his time in Madinah, said, “It may be that I know a hadith on a subject and then I find that the people of the courtyard do something different from that. Therefore it becomes weak in my estimation.” And finally there is the famous statement of Rabi‘a, “I prefer a thousand from a thousand – in other words the established practice in Madinah – over one from one – meaning a singly narrated hadith – even if it is sound, because one from one can strip the Sunnah out of your hands.“

So from what we have seen it is clear that for Imam Malik and the people of Madinah, applying the Book and Sunnah basically constituted taking on unchanged the body of lived practice which had come down to them in their city uninterruptedly from the time of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, and his Companions,  ajma’in. We now arrive at the third of our madhhabs, that of Imam Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi‘i, rahimahullahu ta’ala. Imam ash-Shafi‘i was born in Makkah in the year of Imam Abu Hanifa’s death, 150AH, and pursued his early studies there under teachers steeped in the fiqh and tafsir of the great Companion ‘Abdallah ibn ‘Abbas, رضي الله عنه, which was to prove a strong influence on Imam ash-Shafi‘i later in his life. Although he reached a high level of proficiency in his studies he was not satisfied with what he had learned and travelled north to Madinah to sit at the feet of Imam Malik whom he was to consider the “Luminous Star” among the many teachers under whom he studied. He stayed with Imam Malik until 179AH when he died, although it is known that during that time he visited other places for short periods in search of knowledge.

After Imam Malik’s death Imam ash-Shafi‘i was appointed Qadi in Najran by the governor of Yemen. He remained there for five years but his uncompromising implementation of justice and his condemnation of all injustice made him unpopular with those in power and they slandered him to the khalifah accusing him of rebellion and he was sent to Baghdad in 184AH for trial. He exonerated himself but did not return to Yemen, remaining in Iraq and studying with Muhammad ash-Shaybani, the close follower of Imam Abu Hanifa. After a couple of years he returned to his birthplace, Makkah and it was there that his career as a teacher really started. He remained in Makkah for almost ten years and then visited Baghdad for the second time in 195AH, staying there on this occasion for about two years. He returned again to Baghdad in 198AH and then went on from there in 199AH to Egypt where he spent the remainder of his life, dying in Fustat on the last day of Rajab 204AH at the age of.

The reason for dwelling for some time on the varied movements of Imam ash-Shafi‘i during the course of his life is because it has a considerable bearing on the development of the method by which he determined what constituted the Book and Sunnah. Both Imam Abu Hanifa and Imam Malik remained comparatively stationary throughout their lives, which meant that the source of their knowledge was geographically limited and therefore quite consistent in its approach to the deen. As we have seen Imam ash-Shafi‘i, on the other hand, travelled a lot and because of this saw many different approaches taken to the deen. In fact it is true to say that he learned the fiqh of most of the schools existing in his time.

He started by learning the fiqh of Ibn Abbas in Makkah. He went on to learn the fiqh of Imam Malik in Madinah. He learned the fiqh of al-Awza’i, the school of Syria, from his companion, ‘Umar ibn Abi Salam. He learned the fiqh of Imam Abu Hanifa, the Iraqi school, from his follower Muhammad ash-Shaybani and he learned the fiqh of al-Layth ibn Sa‘d, the faqih of Egypt. As we have seen, there was a considerable difference between the Madinan and Iraqi schools and this was equally the case with all the other schools, with the result that quite distinct judgements were being made about almost identical issues in different areas. Because of his wide learning Imam ash-Shafi‘i was well aware of these differences and it became clear to him that, unless a uniform system of coming to judgment was devised and imposed, there was a very real danger of Islam becoming divergent. He saw that it might rapidly become changed out of all recognition from the original teaching as it had been implemented by the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, and the first community in Madinah.

In order to combat this clearly perceived threat – that Islam might suffer the fate of previous revelations by becoming changed and adulterated from its original form due to increasingly divergent rulings on virtually identical situations – Imam ash-Shafi‘i devised a brilliant system to ensure uniformity of legal decision-making and to prevent any further dispersal and dilution of the original teachings of Islam. He did this during his long stay in his birthplace, Makkah, to which he returned after his first visit to Iraq, and it is significant that he based his system on his earliest studies oft he knowledge and methodology of the great Companion, Ibn ‘Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him and his father.

The teaching of Ibn ‘Abbas was firmly based on his explanation of the text of the Qur‘an for which he had received explicit permission from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. The Qur‘an is, of course, a book, the Book, and for that reason a major element in the methodology transmitted from Ibn ‘Abbas was textual analysis involving detailed examination of the text itself. This involved a concern with the mujmal (unspecified) and mufassal (detailed), the mutlaq (unrestricted) and muqayyad (qualified) and the khass (specific) and the ‘amm (general). In the hands of Imam ash-Shafi‘I this type of textual analysis produced a new discipline for fuqaha which had not previously existed although all the elements of it had been present.

This detailed examination of the written word formed the core of the methodology for which Imam ash-Shafi‘i became famous and was the cornerstone of his system for ascertaining an authoritative and consistent standard for what constitutes the Book and Sunnah. He founded a systematic method of deduction which allowed judgments to be made on the basis of sound textual evidence and did not accept the latitude in the derivation of judgments which, as we have seen, had existed up until then. Under Imam ash-Shafi‘i’s system no opinion could be expressed which could not be traced to an authenticated text and so the possibility of innovation in the Shari’ah became vastly reduced. In this rigorous reliance on texts, however, lie both the strengths and weaknesses of Imam Ash-Shafi‘i’s superlative system.

It certainly fulfilled its intended task of halting the accelerating break-up in the homogeneity of the practice of Islam in the various areas of the Muslim world of that time and ensured a consistency of practice which was to safeguard the integrity of Islam right down to our own time. Indeed it is true to say that it is largely due to Imam ash-Shafi‘i’s superlative system that we owe the extraordinary uniformity of Islamic practice throughout the world, so that even today 1200 years later, wherever a Muslim travels in the world, despite all the geographical, ethnic and cultural differences which undoubtedly exist, there is no significant difference in any of the basic practices of Islam. This is a tremendous achievement. Another thing is that, because of the need for trustworthy textual evidence on which to base actions and judgments, it became necessary to collect together as many sound traditions from the Prophet as possible. This in turn led to the great hadith collections and all the sciences of hadith which were devised to ensure their authenticity, and it is significant that nearly all of the great hadith collections were put together by scholars who were adherents of the Shafi‘i madhhab.

However what this also meant was that both the Book and Sunnah became restricted in a way that had not previously been the case. Until that time the Sunnah had consisted in the transmitted practice of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, and the first community of Muslims in Madinah. In many cases there was textual corroboration of the actions concerned but in many other instances the practice in question had simply been passed down from one generation to the next without there being any textual justification for it. Thus the Sunnah was an organic pattern of behaviour, consisting of the implementation of Allah’s guidance in the Qur’an by the first Muslims under the direction of the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم, covering every aspect of life. This was passed down as a direct inheritance by two generations from those who brought it into being. The Sunnah was, in broad brush strokes, the way the first generations of Muslims had lived, and continued to live, their daily lives, particularly in Madinah. They made a continual and conscious effort to avoid admitting any change into what had come down to them and the men of knowledge among them spent their lives preserving it.

So up until Imam ash-Shafi‘i came along the Sunnah was in many cases simply the way the Muslims lived their lives protected by men of knowledge whose lives were dedicated to ensuring that no change occurred in what they had received from the past. After Imam ash-Shafi‘i, however, and his insistence on textual justification for action, the Sunnah became more and more identified with hadiths. This meant that unless there wasan actual text explicitly authorising a particular action it was no  longer considered to be part of the Sunnah, even if it had been practised by the Muslims from the earliest times. Not only that, but the rigour of Imam ash-Shafi‘i’s system of textual analysis meant that even the actions that did have textual justification were tempered by the way the texts were interpreted so that in some instances the actions themselves were changed by Imam ash-Shafi‘i’s unique methodology and this applies to the Qur‘an as well as hadith.

Two examples, one from the Book and the other from the Sunnah, will illustrate how the practice of the Muslims was affected by the application of Imam ash-Shafi‘i’s methodology. We find in the Qur‘an in Surat an-Nisa the ayah: 43:

O you who believe! Do not approach the prayer when you are drunk so that you know what you are saying, nor in a state of major impurity – unless you are travelling – until you have washed yourselves completely. If you are ill or on a journey, or any of you have come from the lavatory or touched women, and you cannot find any water, then do tayammum with pure earth, wiping your faces and your hands. Allah is Ever-Pardoning, Ever-Forgiving.

In reference to the words “or touched women” the Muslims, before Imam ash-Shafi‘i devised his system, had always understood them to have a sexual connotation. In other words, it was only necessary to renew wudu after some form of sexual contact with women. However, the word used here for “touch”, lamasa, can mean simply just that, without any sexual contact being implied. Applying his method of rigorous textual analysis, Imam ash-Shafi‘i reached the conclusion that the broadest possible interpretation must be allowed and, therefore, ruled that any touching whatsoever between men and women was sufficient to break wudu. This constituted a considerable change in practice from an accepted understanding – that what was intended by the ayah was sexual contact – which had been acted upon universally by the early Muslims, to an interpretation based on textual analysis which involved a completely different judgement than the one previously implemented.

With respect to the Sunnah an example of a similar alteration of practice can be seen in connection with the prayer. We find in Sahih al-Bukhari from ‘Ubada ibn as-Samit,  , that the Messenger of Allah  صلى الله عليه وسلم, said,“There is no prayer for anyone who does not recite the Fatiha of the Book.” The early Muslims all accepted that the Fatiha must be recited in every rak‘ah of the prayer. There was, however, an almost universal acceptance that the recital of the Fatiha by the imam in the audible prayers was sufficient to cover the recitation of everyone following him. But after the application of Imam ash-Shafi‘i’s system to the text of the hadith quoted above, it was judged necessary for every individual doing the prayer to recite the Fatiha in every rak’ah and because of that the imam was required to pause for a while after his own recitation of the Fatiha to allow those following him to do the same. This again introduced a practice which had not been performed by Muslims anywhere before Imam ash-Shafi‘i.

So we can say that in his exposition of the rulings of the deen, in other words his implementation of the Book and Sunnah, Imam ash-Shafi‘i relied almost entirely on the outward and apparent indication of texts. He disapproved of both the Iraqi and Madinan approaches to fiqh because the former tended to be based on the principle perceived to be governing a particular transmitted ruling and depended on the state of the faqih making the judgment and of the latter because of its tendency to accept transmitted rulings which had no textual authority to support them. As we have seen, Imam ash-Shafi‘i based his system almost entirely on texts and took a more literal and objective approach to them, causing him perhaps to err on the side of caution.

He took upon himself the task of setting out the principles for a consistent methodology of deduction to provide guidance for all those qualified to make judgments in the deen and to formulate the criteria involved. He set out a universal system founded on firm principles, not contingent upon  opinion or precedent or the resolution of hypothetical questions, and succeeded in devising a methodology for all subsequent scholars and judges to follow. His influence on the later development of Islam cannot be overstated and it is fair to say that the Islam we have inherited today is in no small part due to the system which Imam ash-Shafi‘i formulated twelve centuries ago.

We now come to the last of the four Imams who have given their names to the madhhabs followed by the Muslims, Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal. There is, however, a marked difference between Imam Ahmad and the other imams. The three earlier imams all definitely represented a particular methodology: Imam Abu Hanifa the Iraqi school of opinion; Imam Malik the Madinan school of direct transmission; and Imam ash-Shafi‘i his own system based on textual analysis. Imam Ahmad, on the other hand, cannot be said to have devised a particular methodology of fiqh. The great historian of Islam, at-Tabari, for instance, did not even include the madhhab of Imam Ahmad when discussing the early fuqaha. He said  of him: “He was a man of hadith not a man of fiqh.”

Qadi ‘Iyad states in his great book Tartib al-Madarik: “He was less than an imam in fiqh although he was brilliant in investigation of its sources.” And there were many other great ‘ulama who did not consider him the founder of a school of fiqh. Indeed he only became an imam in fiqh after his death and that was because some of his students collected together his statements, fatwahs and opinions, forming a legal corpus which was posthumously ascribed to him. Sometimes the transmissions from him varied considerably and sometimes they agreed. We will understand more of this ambivalence about his status as a faqih if we look at his life and how he studied and taught during the course of it.

He was born in Baghdad in Rabi‘ al-Awwal 164AH, half a generation after Imam ash-Shafi‘i, making him, historically speaking, the last of our four imams. This fact and the fact that he was born in Baghdad have a considerable bearing on the course his life and studies were to take. By the time Imam Ahmad came into the world and was brought up in Baghdad, the ‘Abbasid caliphate was thoroughly established and Baghdad had become a truly cosmopolitan imperial capital, a world away from the Madinan environment in which Islam had originally been established. By Imam Ahmad’s time Persian elements had come to dominate Arab elements and the sophistication of Persian civilisation was in the ascendance in general throughout the Muslim world. The cities of Islam were inundated with differing nations and races, and texts of all kinds were being translated from Persian, Syriac, Greek, Latin and other languages into Arabic. The result of this was that the more or less homogenous cultural environment of early Islam had become fragmented as all these different influences became part and parcel of the Islamic world. Add to this the clash of earlier religious traditions together with the attempts of their adherents to mould Islam towards their own world views and the result was an ambience, both religious and physical, which would have been all but unrecognisable to the first generations of Muslims.

This was what confronted Ahmad ibn Hanbal as he grew up in the ‘Abbassid capital and, as a pure-hearted, intelligent, deeply pious youth, he was left with the quandary of how, in the light of all the sophisticated deviation he was facing, he could regain something of the light, clarity and simplicity of the formative early days of Islam. The way he went about achieving his aim has already been indicated in the quotation from at-Tabari – he became a muhaddith. In order to get as complete and detailed a picture as possible of the life of the first community he devoted himself to accumulating the maximum possible number of reports from that time, not only from the Prophet  صلى الله عليه وسلم, himself but also from the Companions, ajma‘in.

So from very early in his life Imam Ahmad chose the men of hadith and their method and dedicated himself to it, to the extent that it certainly appeared that he had taken the path of the hadith scholars rather than that  of those who combined fiqh with hadith. In his search for hadiths Imam Ahmad travelled widely throughout the heartlands of Islam and may have been the first muhaddith to collect the hadiths of every region of the Muslim world and record them. Another thing which marked him out was his use of the pen in his compilation of hadith. In spite of his well known prodigious memory Imam Ahmad wrote down the hadiths he collected. The end result of all this hadith recording which started when he was sixteen years old and continued through much of his life was his great Musnad which contains almost thirty thousand hadiths.

For Imam Ahmad the Musnad was like a great painting in which the myriad reports it contained were the individual brush strokes which together made up the most accurate portrayal he could possibly convey of what the deen of Islam had been like in its original, pristine condition. It was this picture, made up of sayings of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, and reports and decisions from the Companions,   ajma’in, which was the bedrock on which Imam Ahmad built his life and on which he based all his judgments. In as far as he had a methodology for deriving judgments from these sources, he depended upon Imam ash-Shafi‘i under whom he studied and who was one of his most revered teachers. When he met Imam ash-Shafi‘i he learned the rules for sound understanding of the Book and reports of the Sunnah, comparison of textual sources, knowledge of the abrogating and abrogated, and in general how to deduce secondary rulings from the basic sources of the Shari’ah. So in this respect he was certainly not the same as the other three imams, each of whom had their own very distinct methodology for deriving judgments in the deen.

Another reason, perhaps, why Imam Ahmad was made the founder of a new school of fiqh was because of his absolutely exemplary character which inspired many people to take him as a model during his own lifetime. There is no doubt that all four imams were impeccable in their  personal behaviour and all of them had superlative qualities of character that marked them out among their contemporaries. Imam Ahmad, however, had a reputation for saintliness which outshone all of them. From his earliest youth he was famous for his incorruptible integrity which was put a severe test later in his life when he, unlike almost all his contemporaries, suffered over two years of imprisonment and constant severe beatings rather than adopt the rationalist Mu‘tazili doctrine of the createdness of the Qur’an which had become official Abbasid government policy and which was clearly contrary to the position held by the early Muslims. This event also showed his steadfastness and patience which saw him through the many other difficult periods which punctuated his long life.

Other qualities he possessed were great generosity in spite of scant means, transparent sincerity, scrupulousness and abstinence, modesty and cheerfulness, and a natural authority which ensured that people paid attention to what he said. So strong was his connection with the early days of Islam, and so brightly was light of that time reflected in all he said and did, that some of his contemporaries described him as being a great Follower removed from his proper time. All these things and his status as a man of knowledge meant that when he died on 12th Rabi‘ al-Awwal 241AH more than three hundred thousand people joined his funeral procession. All in all then it must be said that from very early times there has  been much discussion about whether Imam Ahmad can really be said to have been the founder of a separate madhhab. It is certainly clear that he was in a different category to the other three, who all represented very specific methodologies in their implementation of the Book and Sunnah. He was definitely one of a kind in terms of the time and place where he lived and ploughed his own furrow in his determination to cleave as closely as he possibly could to the path followed by the first community in Madinah, remaining absolutely orthodox in his views while at the same time being somewhat at odds with the prevailing ethos surrounding him. This is significant in the light of some of those who were to adopt him as their imam in fiqh later on, several of whom were people who found themselves at odds with the authorities of their own time and found in Imam Ahmad a way of remaining firmly within the bounds of orthodox Muslim belief and practice while at the same time differentiating themselves from the power structure of their time.

He himself said, “A man should not set himself up to give independent judgment about the deen unless he possesses five qualities. He must have a clear intention because unless he has he will have no light. He must have knowledge, forbearance, gravity and tranquillity. He must be firm in his knowledge. He must be independent and not dependent on other people. And he must be known to people.” There are few people in the history of Islam who have fulfilled these criteria to the extent that Imam Ahmad himself did. So what can certainly be said is that Imam Ahmad was a mujtahid of the very highest rank, absolutely able to make independent judgments concerning matters of the deen. That does not in itself, however, automatically make him the founder of an independent school of fiqh and, if he was, it was certainly in a very different way to that of his three pre-eminent predecessors.

Seeing Imam Ahmad’s work in this light, as an heroic attempt to recapture both for himself and his contemporaries the ethos of what was already by his time a bygone age, we are left with three distinct methodologies each of which aimed in their own way to embrace and define the Book and Sunnah and pass it on to subsequent generations.

The first was the Iraqi school also known as the “School of Opinion”, definitively formulated by Imam Abu Hanifa and known to future generations as the Hanafi Madhhab. The essence of this methodology was that, in the absence of a known, direct precedent, a new ruling could be made on the basis of understanding the legal purpose behind a previous ruling from the Book or Sunnah about a similar situation and analogously attributing that same legal aim to the new situation. In other words it aimed to distil certain legal principles from the body of the Book and Sunnah which could then be applied as new circumstances demanded. This process was obviously subject to great knowledge of the sources, scrupulous piety, and a rigorous adherence accepted limits on the part of the faqih concerned but it nevertheless allowed a certain leeway in the definition of what could be included within the parameters of the Book and Sunnah. For this reason it was an ideal system for those entrusted with the governance and administration of the Ummah and it is noteworthy that the first great power structure of Islam, the Abbasid Caliphate, was based in Iraq and that the two main dynasties of later times, the Osmanli Dawla and the Mughal Empire, who between them ruled over the vast majority of the Muslim world for centuries, both appointed the Hanafi Madhhab as the official legal modality of their administrative systems.

The Madinan school, definitively formulated by Imam Malik and outlined in his great work al-Muwatta, took a very different approach. For the Madinans the Book and Sunnah were a matter of direct transmission. They were simply what had been passed down and conscientiously and scrupulously preserved through the two generations that had elapsed since the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, and his Companions, ajma’in, as a lived reality. The textual sources were, for them, sounding boards or yardsticks against which their ongoing practice should be measured to make sure that there was no deviation and the road remained clearly delineated. The proof that the deen could be transmitted in this way is shown by the fact that the third generation received it in this way from the second, none of whom had had direct personal contact with the original phenomenon. The school of the ‘amal ahli’l-Madinah (the practice of the people of Madinah) flowed in a river of transmission down through the centuries along the North African coast and then into West Africa with small pockets remaining in the Arabian peninsular. It is significant that Qadi ‘Iyad in his great work Tartib al-Madarik, which traces the history of the Madinan school down to his own time, does not dwell on the texts written within it over the centuries but rather devotes himself to describing the type of men it produced, showing that it remained in his view much more a matter of transmitted behaviour than of recorded judgments.

This is again very different from the approach to the Book and Sunnah adopted by Imam ash-Shafi‘i. As we have seen, in order to counteract the growing tendency towards unacceptable variations in the practice of the deen he had observed on his travels and to preserve Islam within the clear parameters delineated by Allah and His Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم, he devised a system based on rigorous textual analysis of the ayaat of the Qur’an and the hadiths of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. This certainly achieved his desired aim, but at the same time limited the Sunnah to only those actions for which textual evidence could be produced. It is also very different from the Madinan tradition in which the transmitted action exists independently of the text which merely serves to confirm its authenticity. In the Shafi‘i system, on the other hand, the source texts serve as engenderers of action – in effect, the practice of the deen actually derives from the texts themselves.

As was pointed out earlier, this approach necessitated a vast increase in the number of authentic textual sources available and so brought about the development of all the sophisticated sciences surrounding the collection and authentication of hadiths. This and the complex intellectual discipline required to implement Imam ash-Shafi‘i’s demanding criteria, which became known to subsequent generations under the general heading of usul al-fiqh, entailed a new class of specialist scholars who became a necessary element in Islamic society from this time on. And it is true to say that many fuqaha from the other schools soon began to incorporate aspects of Imam ash-Shafi‘i’s methodology into their own procedures to the point that it might almost be said that basically all the scholars of Islam became to a greater or lesser extent adherents of Imam ash-Shafi‘i’s brilliant system.

Two things need to be said at this point as a necessary supplement to what has been discussed so far. The first is there has been no intention, in making these observations about the four madhhabs of Islam, to present a complete picture of any of them. From the beginning each of them included many elements which have not been presented in this analysis and certainly over time each of them developed into highly complex structures about which countless volumes have been written. My purpose has been to highlight certain salient features in each of them in order to show how each of them, in its own way, embodies a specific approach to the matter of exactly what constitutes the deen of Islam. The second point is to reaffirm categorically that every one of them comprises in itself an authentic transmission of the deen down to our own time. Each of them in its traditionally accepted form represents a body of knowledge and practice through which the whole edifice of Islam has been preserved and renewed down through the centuries. It is, however, important to observe that each of them is self-consistent, that each of them is the result of that particular methodology which brought it into being and, therefore, that it is not possible to chop and change indiscriminately between them.

Each must be taken as a whole and applied as it has come down in its accepted form. The haphazard mix and match approach adopted by some unqualified Muslims nowadays, whereby they randomly choose a different ruling from a madhhab other than their own to suit a particular situation in which they find themselves, is erroneous. The madhhabs are clear paths which have been laid down to be followed just as they are. A great deal of knowledge is needed to be able to judge when its is appropriate to use a ruling borrowed from another madhhab and anyone who does that without the necessary learning is in effect arrogantly setting themselves up as a qualified mujtahid. More grievously at fault are those Muslims who claim that no madhhab is necessary at all, that it is possible, or in the worst cases even compulsory, to reject all these centuries of traditional scholarship and, returning, as they assert, directly to the sources, to find a version of Islam which somehow escaped the notice of our sincere and extremely learned ancestors.

These latter culprits can be loosely gathered into two groupings, modernists and salafis, both of which, curiously enough, employ, in an inauthentic way, the very methodologies embodied by two of the madhhabs we have been examining. The modernists might well be termed deviant Hanafis because they are people who, without anything like the necessary knowledge, integrity and Taqwa to do so, employ an approximation of the methodology of the Iraqi school to reach judgments about current issues in a mistaken attempt to accommodate Islam to the times in which we live and who, in doing so, have made compromises in the deen which have undermined some of the basic premises of the Islamic Shari’ah.

One early instance of this trend, among innumerable examples which have occurred since, was the infamous late 19th century fatwa of Muhammad ‘Abduh permitting Muslims to invest in interest bearing accounts in the British run Egyptian post office. He paid no attention to the clearly expressed objections of his fellow ‘ulama, insisting that the Shari’ah should be interpreted by reason, and arguing that preventing Muslims from investing their money in this way would give an unfair advantage to non-muslims. This opened the door to the wholesale introduction of modern banking into Islamic lands and the consequent subjection of the Muslims to the kafir economic and political domination which followed in its wake.

In the hands of men such as ‘Ali ‘Abd ar-Raziq and ‘Abd ar-Razzaq as- Sanhuri this school of thought gathered momentum and led to introduction of foreign legal systems in almost every Muslim country which has resulted in the virtual abandonment of the Shari’ah everywhere in the Islamic world. The examples of this way of thinking, on both a communal and personal level, has resulted in a situation where the barriers between Islam and kufr have become blurred to the point that the Qur’anic ayah, “To you your deen and to me my deen,” has basically ceased to have any meaningful manifestation in the world today.

The second group, the salafis, base their practice of Islam on a “return to the sources” by which they mean a re-examination of the hadith collections. Their arrogant assertion is that by doing this they have discovered, after fourteen centuries, that for all this time the Muslims have been failing to implement properly the Sunnah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. In as far as their whole premise is based on analysis of hadith texts, even if lacking in the necessary inward and outward qualifications to make it authoritative, they could be said to be neo-Shafi‘i’s in that they use a debased form of the methodology devised by Imam ash-Shafi‘i to derive practices from their literal and deficient understanding of the texts involved. Their claim that earlier generations of Muslims did not have access to the texts is demonstrably false. The whole vast and intricate structure of the science of hadith developed by the scholars of Islam was devoted, as we have seen, to ensuring that the practices of the Sunnah were carefully based on a precise understanding the hadith texts involved. To say at this distance in time that these texts have in fact been misunderstood or misapplied by all the Muslims throughout history demonstrates an extraordinary arrogance which is almost incomprehensible.

One example of this is the salafi practice of placing the hands across the chest in the qabd position when standing up from ruku‘ in the prayer. The evidence for this, according to them, is a hadith in which it says that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, used to come back after ruku‘ into the same position he had been in before going into it. All the Muslims have always understood this to mean that he simply returned to the upright position. But this new literalist salafi interpretation of the hadith has introduced into the prayer a practice never performed before by any Muslims anywhere, with the unwarranted implication that the whole community has been mistaken about this matter for fourteen centuries. There are unfortunately a great many similar examples and this new version of Islam is more often than not propagated by its adherents with an overweening air of self-righteousness which is far removed from the courtesy and humility displayed by true scholars of the deen. Another unfortunate result of this false teaching is that it has spawned a generation of young people who truly believe that, armed with a translation of a collection of hadith, they can decide for themselves what constitutes the Sunnah and that, moreover, it is their bounden duty to put every other Muslim right if they do not agree  with them.

This then is the way that the methodologies of Imam Abu Hanifa and Imam ash-Shafi‘i have been ignorantly abused in the world today and the same can also be said of the methodology of Imam Malik although, in its case, the abuse has taken a slightly different form. As we have noted the basis of the distinctive methodology of Imam Malik is direct transmission.

The truth is that this is, for the vast majority of Muslims, the way they  infact take on the deen. They learn it by example from their families and the Muslim community in which they live. This is all well and good provided that what they absorb is within the limits set out by one of the four madhhabs we have been discussing. All too often, however, various accretions have crept in, borrowed from local culture or ancient custom, which are considered by the people of a particular area to be part and parcel of the deen when, in reality, they have nothing whatsoever to do with Islam at all. These supplementary practices sometimes become so ingrained in a particular Muslim community that it becomes very difficult to eradicate them and many of the people think that anyone who tries to do so is attacking Islam itself.

If this is the negative way that the madhhab methodologies are manifesting themselves in the present day, what about the originals, the great rivers of transmission of Islam from the past, we have been looking at – what is their relationship with the world in which we now live? The truth is that in the present context the madhhabs now have very little to do with the methodologies which originally brought them into existence. They are now, and have been for a considerable time, nothing but static bodies of law, compendious compilations of legal rulings, covering every aspect of personal and social life in the Muslim community.

As we said at the beginning a person’s affiliation to a particular madhhab has become in almost every case simply a matter of geography. The madhhab you have depends on an accident of birth; where you were born determines the madhhab you adopt. If you were born in Turkey or the Indian Subcontinent you are automatically a Hanafi. If you were born in the Far East you become Shafi’i. If you were born in North or West Africa you become Maliki. Throughout the Middle East there is more of a mixture and your madhhab tends to depend on the family you were born into. There is no doubt that this has in many ways proved a protection for the Muslims throughout the world and that through the teaching of their madhhab they have retained access to an unbroken and authentic transmission of the deen of Islam from the earliest times.

There is, however, a downside to this. It tends to give the impression that things are still all right, that the situation of the Muslims today is somehow comparable with what was in the past, that Islam is still a functioning reality. That is emphatically not the case. There is now nowhere on the surface of the earth where Allah’s deen is being implemented in anything but a most fragmented way. The hudud have been to all intents and purposes completely abandoned and replaced by various man-made versions of criminal law. Most of the personal and social aspects of the deen, even in those places where they are claimed to be in force, have in fact become watered down and compromised to fit in with Western legal modalities. As for the financial and economic aspects of the Shari’ah, they have been completely jettisoned in favour of the usury based capitalist economic system engendered in post reformation Europe, which was first used as a weapon to destroy Dar al-Islam and is now the instrument by means of which the Muslims, along with the rest of the world’s population, are held in a state of somnolent subjugation. The reason for this is that the Book and Sunnah are not seen as the prime source of governance by any Muslim regime anywhere in the world. This in fact has made all the madhhabs virtually redundant in real terms.

The madhhabs were all developed within a context of unabashed Muslim rule, where Allah and His Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم were seen as the only source of legal authority, in which the Book and Sunnah were seen as the only valid criteria for the government of human affairs. Their purpose was to come up with all the rulings necessary for the correct implementation of the Book and Sunnah in every area of Muslim life in the certainty that these rulings would be immediately enacted. There was nothing theoretical about them; they did not exist in a vacuum. They were a vital and active principle in the ongoing life of every Muslim society. Under their sway rulers ruled, judges judged, traders traded and, in every aspect, life was lived. What a difference between then and now! In the eyes of Muslim rulers now the madhhabs are irrelevant. Even for Muslim judges in this time the madhhab is well down their list of legal sources. And the idea of a modern Muslim businessman being subject to the strictures of a madhhab is simply laughable. The madhhabs have been reduced to being the domain of emasculated scholars who frequently know every ruling there is to know about every subject under the sun but are impotent to implement a single one of them.

So although the madhhabs do provide a link with the past and have ensured an authentic transmission of the deen into the present age, the truth is that they no longer fulfill the purpose for which they were brought into being. Their purpose was to provide the rulings for the complete implementation of Islam in every area of life and they are not able to do that because there is nowhere where Allah’s deen is established. This is the first time since the first community in Madinah that this has happened and our primary task as Muslims in this time must be to see the Book and Sunnah once more put back in place as the sole fountainhead of all our affairs. Nothing short of this is acceptable and it must be the continual and explicit intention of every Muslim to see this come about until it has happened.

The madhhabs were excellent tools for implementing the Book and Sunnah once they were in place but they had nothing to do with establishing them in the first place. So it is most unlikely that the madhhabs as presently constituted will provide us with the means to perform the task which faces us. Imam Malik used to say, “The last of this community will not be put right except by what put it right in the first place.” In other words, in order to restore Allah’s deen to its rightful place at the head of Muslim affairs, we have to get right back to what was there at the beginning. The question is how to do this? The modernists do not even want to. Although the salafis claim that it is what they want, their route is a non-starter because there is no direct access to the source by the means they espouse.

If we view Islam as a river whose source was the first community, and which has flowed down through more than fourteen centuries to our time, then the madhhabs have clearly been an inseparable part of that river. But the question here is do they lead back to its source? Continuing the river metaphor and turning the years into miles, if we go back up stream, we come upon a dam about two hundred and twenty miles from the source. Behind the dam is a huge reservoir into which much of the headwater of the river is gathered before flowing on again towards the sea. This dam is Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal. One hundred and eighty five miles from the source we find that a great canal has been dug, leading off the main river and running parallel with it for many hundreds of miles before rejoining it far downstream. It is beautifully engineered and allows the filtered and purified water from the river which fills it to flow uniformly between its well constructed banks making it easy to manage and administrate. This canal is the madhhab of Imam ash-Shafi‘i.

Further upstream, about a hundred and twenty miles from the source we find a tributary flowing into the river from one side and mixing with it, whose spring is in some nearby hills. This is the methodology of the Hanafi madhhab. Finally, a little before we reach that tributary we would find a sluice system through which all the water from the very source of the river is regulated and directed. This is Imam Malik. What this makes clear is that in the end it is only through Imam Malik that we can have access to the very source of the deen, that primal picture of Islam in action which we need in order to be able to re-establish the deen here and now.

In this regard, Imam Malik should be seen, therefore, not as the founder of  the subsequent madhhab named after him but rather as the Imam of the Dar al-Hijra, Madinah al-Munawwarah, and the recorder and transmitter of the ‘amal ahli’l-Madinah, the practice of the people of Madinah. As we know, Imam Malik saw it as his task to capture for posterity the living tradition of Islam in action, the Book and Sunnah in their pristine original form, which had been passed down to him unaltered through  the two generations that had elapsed since the death of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. This clearly represents the closest possible exposition of Islam as it was actually lived by the Prophet and his Companions, the unbroken transmission of the Book and Sunnah in the very place where it had been established, preserved and unaltered in any way by the two generations who had lived there between the days of the First Community and the time of Imam Malik. So what it brings to us is that raw, vital energy of the first days of Islam, the time of the Prophet himself صلى الله عليه وسلم, and the time immediately following it of the Khulafah Rashidun,   ajma’in, when the deen was in its most potent phase of expansion and establishment. For  that reason it is sometimes known as the madhhab of ‘Umar  رضي الله عنه.

It was that very behaviour pattern which made Islam happen in the first place, so what better model could there be for this time when it is once again necessary to start from the ground up. The historical proof of its potency can be seen in the example of the Murabitun in the eleventh century. The Practice of the People of Madinah was transmitted to them by Abdallah ibn Yasin, the teacher sent to them from Kairouan, where the living record of the ‘amal ahli’l-Madinah had been passed on unbroken from the time of Imam Malik himself, and with it, and nothing else, they burst out from their land in West Africa and revived Islam throughout the Maghrib and al-Andalus, ensuring the Muslims in Spain, who had at that time almost come under Christian domination, a further two hundred years of Islamic governance.

Its incontrovertible authenticity has been repeatedly verified throughout the centuries, not least by the celebrated Hanbali scholar, Ibn Taymiyya, whose book ‘The Soundness of the Basic Premises of the Madhhab of the People of Madinah‘, makes it clear that the most complete picture of the Sunnah, both in terms of its spirit and its actual practice, was that passed on by Imam Malik and captured in its outline in his book al-Muwatta. This was because of Imam Malik’s great knowledge, his geographical location in the City of the Prophet, the great number of men of knowledge who had remained there, preserving the deen in its entirety from the time of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and the fact that, as was universally acknowledged, no innovation in the deen at all entered Madinah during the first three generations of Islam. Also worth mentioning, in a contemporary context, is the book of Dr. Yasin Dutton ‘The Origins of Islamic Law’, a piece of scrupulous scholarship. In his book, Dr. Dutton shows conclusively that  Malik’sMuwatta does indeed contain a direct record of the authentic practice of the first Community and by doing so, incidentally, deals a death blow to those orientalists who have maintained that there was a time-gap between the first Community and the development of the Shari’ah of Islam.

Several times during the history of the deen at times when, for one reason or another, it had fallen into disrepair and decadence and was in need of renewal, the scholars of Islam have pointed out that the madhhab of the ‘amal ahli’l-Madinah represented a position which was pure Book and Sunnah with no controversy in it whatsoever on which all the Muslims could come together. A notable example, for instance was the great Indian scholar Shah Waliullah of Delhi, who explicitly propagated it as a way of reviving the deen in India in the face of the advancing British. In our own time, the mantle of this task has fallen on the shoulders of Dr. Shaykh Abdalqadir as-Sufi whose seminal text Root Islamic Education shows definitively how the primal model of Madinan Islam gives us all the guidance we need for the complete re-implementation of Islamic governance. He says in it:

The duty is to come together at that point where there is no argument and no deviation. The place is Madinah. Only there can we all meet in that primal ‘Umari Islam, … for it was the evidence and proof from the Messenger of Allah that men could live together in justice and in peace and with trust in each other, by obedience to Allah,  . It is the school of Madinah, salafi, and pure, that will unite the Muslims, and revitalise the deen, and restore the reality of the second shahada, along with the first.

So the Madhhab of the ‘amal ahli’l-Madinah, of the Actions of the People of Madinah, represents the way that Islam came into being in the first place, directly at the hands the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم in his explanation of the ayaat of the Qur’an and his implementation of them in his own life among his Companions, ajma‘in. This was the basis of all four madhhabs and this is what the Muslims have to get back to. This understanding of the Deen fresh from the source as it appeared in the actions of the people of Madinah is what we must have if Islam is to be restored to the position it should hold at the head of all human affairs.

19 – (The Chapter About Al-Haal  [The Circumstantial Noun])

ʿArabic Text:

‏‮(‬‬الـْحَالُ‏‮ ‬‬هُوَ‏‮ ‬‬الإِسْمُ‏‮ ‬‬الـْمَنْصُوبُ‏‮ ‬‬الـْمُفَسِّرُ‏‮ ‬‬لـِمَا انْبَهَمَ‏‮ ‬‬مِنَ‏‮ ‬‬الْهَيْئَاتِ‏‮ ‬‬نَحْوُ‏‮ ‬‬قَوْلِكَ‏‮ ‬‬جَاءَ‏‮ ‬‬زَيْدٌ‏‮ ‬‬رَاكِبًا وَرَكِبْتُ‏‮ ‬‬الْفَرَسَ‏‮ ‬‬مُسْرَجًا وَلَقِيتُ‏‮ ‬‬عَبْدَ‏‮ ‬‬اللَّهِ‏‮ ‬‬رَاكِبًا وَمَا أَشْبَهَ‏‮ ‬‬ذَلِكَ‏‮ ‬‬وَلاَ‏‮ ‬‬يَكُونُ‏‮ ‬‬الْحَالُ‏‮ ‬‬إِلاَّ‏‮ ‬‬وَلاَ‏‮ ‬‬يَكُونُ‏‮ ‬‬إِلاَّ‏‮ ‬‬بَعْدَ‏‮ ‬‬تَمَامِ‏‮ ‬‬الْكلاَمِ‏‮ ‬‬وَلاَ‏‮ ‬‬يَكُونُ‏‮ ‬‬صَاحِِبُهُ‏‮ ‬‬إِلاّ‏‮ ‬‬مَعْرِفَةً‏‮)‬‬

‏‮ ‬‬English Translation:

الـْحَالُ (The circumstantial noun) هُوَ (is)الإِسْمُ‏‮ ‬‬الـْمَنْصُوبُ‏‮ ‬‬ (the noun in the case of naṣb) الـْمُفَسِّرُ (which clarifies) لـِمَا انْبَهَم (what is unclear) مِنَ‏‮ ‬‬الْهَيْئَاتِ (about the circumstances [of الْفَاعِـل (the doer) or الـمَفْعُولُ‏‮ ‬‬بِهِ (the receiver of the action) or الـْمَجْـرُور (the noun in the case of jarr]) - (like when you say):  جَاءَ‏‮ ‬‬زَيْدٌ‏‮ ‬‬رَاكِـبًا (Zayd came riding) وَرَكِبْتُ‏‮ ‬‬الْفَرَسَ‏‮ ‬‬مُسْرَجًا and (I rode the mare with a saddle) وَلَقِيْتُ‏‮ ‬‬عَبْـدُ‏‮ ‬‬اللَّهِ‏‮ ‬‬رَاكِـــــبًا and (I met Abdullaahi riding) وَمَا أَشْبَهَ‏‮ ‬‬ذَلِــكَ‏‮ ‬‬ (and what is similar to these).  وَلاَ‏‮ ‬‬يَــكُونُ الـْـحَالُ (The circumstantial noun must not be anything) إِلاّ (other than) نَكِـرَةً‏‮ ‬‬ (an indefinite noun) وَلاَ‏‮ ‬‬يَكُــــــونُ (nor  does  it  occur) إِلاّ (other  than) بَـعْدَ‏‮ ‬‬تمَـامِ‏‮ ‬‬الْـكلاَمِ (after the completion of the statement) وَلاَ‏‮ ‬‬يَـكُونُ‏‮ ‬‬صَاحِِـبُهُ (and it is not accompanied [by another noun] إِلاّ (unless) مَعْرِفَةً (it is definite).

Explanation of Text in ʿArabic:

إن الحال نكرة مُشْتَقَّة واقعة بعد تمام الكلام تبين هيئَة الفاعل والـمفعول و كقولك جَاءَ‏‮ ‬‬زَيْدٌ‏‮ ‬‬رَاكِبًا ورَكِبْتُ‏‮ ‬‬الْفَرَسَ‏‮ ‬‬مُسْرَجًا ومَرَرْتُ‏‮ ‬‬بِعُمْرٍو جَالِسًا فراكبًا ومُسْرَجًا وجالسًا نكرات لأنّه‏‮ ‬‬يصلح دخول‏‮ ((‬‬ال‏‮)) ‬‬على كلّ‏‮ ‬‬منها ومشتقات لأنّ‏‮ ‬‬كُلاّ‏‮ ‬‬منها‏‮ ‬‬يدلّ‏‮ ‬‬على معنى وصاحبه وواقعات بعد تمام الكلام لأنّه‏‮ ‬‬يصح الاستغناءُ‏‮ ‬‬عنها‏‮ ‬‬

وراكبًا‏‮ ‬‬يبين هيئة الفاعل‏‮ ((‬‬زيد‏‮)) ‬‬ومسرحًا‏‮ ‬‬يبين هيئة الـمفعول‏‮ ((‬‬الْفَرَسَ‏‮)) ‬‬وجالسًا‏‮ ‬‬يبين هيئة المجرور‏‮ ((‬‬عمرو‏‮)) ‬‬وكلها متضمّنة معنى‏‮ ((‬‬في‏‮)) ‬‬دود لفظها لأنّ‏‮ ‬‬التّقدير في‏‮ ‬‬حال ركوبه إلى آخره شروط الحال ثلاثة أوّلها أن‏‮ ‬‬يكون نكرة ثانيها أن‏‮ ‬‬يكون فضلة ثالثها أن‏‮ ‬‬يكون صاحبه معرفة وهذه الشّروط تجدها في‏‮ ‬‬راكبًا من قولك جَاءَ‏‮ ‬‬زَيْدٌ‏‮ ‬‬رَاكِبًا لأنّه نكرة واقع بعد تمام الكلام وصاحبه معرفة وهو زيد

Explanation of Text in English:

الْـحَالُ (The circumstantial noun) is a separate indefinite noun which occurs after the completion of a statement and which clarifies the circumstance of الفَاعِل (the doer), الـْـمَفْعُول (the object of the verb) and الـْمَجْـرُور (the object of the preposition) – like when you say: جَـاءَ‏‮ ‬‬زَيْـدٌ‏‮ ‬‬رَاكِـبــًا (Zayd came riding) and رَكَبْتُ‏‮ ‬‬الْفَرَسَ‏‮ ‬‬مُسْرَجـــــًا (I rode the saddled horse) and  مَرَرْتُ‏‮ ‬‬بِعَمْرٍو جَالِسَا (I passed by ʿAmr while he was sitting). And so رَاكِـبًا , مُسْرَجًـا and جَـالِـسًا are indefinite because the prefixing of اَلْـ is not permissible for any of them. They are separate from the rest of the statement, because each of them gives meaning to what accompanies it and they occur after the completion of the statement, because it is (grammatically) permissible to leave or drop them from the statement.  And so رَاكِبًا clarifies the circumstances of زَيْدٌ (Zayd) – the doer – (that is to say, how he performed a particular act) and مُسْرَجًـا clarifies the situation or condition in which الْفَرَسَ the object of the verb was found (when it received the action of the verb) and جَـاِلسًا clarifies the situation ofعَـمْرٍو (‘Amr) – the object of the preposition (during the occurrence of the action being carried out by the doer).

The determinate conditions of الْـحَالُ (The circumstantial noun) are three.  First it must be نَـكِرَةٌ (indefinite), second it must be فُـضْلَةً (more than what is needed to complete the statement – (that is to say, it would be [grammatically] permissible to leave or drop it from the statement), and third ‏‮ ‬‬صَـاحِبُهُ‏‮ ‬‬مَـعْرِفَـةٌ(a definite noun must accompany it).‏‮ ‬‬ These conditions can be found in the noun راكبًا like when you say:  جَاءَ‏‮ ‬‬زَيْدٌ‏‮ ‬‬رَاكِـبًا, because it is نَـكِرَة (an indefinite noun) وَاقِـعُ‏‮ ‬‬بَـعْدَ‏‮ ‬‬تَـمَامِ‏‮ ‬‬الْـكَلاَمِ (which occurs after the completion of the statement) and صَاحِبَهُ‏‮ ‬‬مَعْرِفَةٌ (a definite noun accompanies it) and that noun is Zayd.

Click here for the: Matn Al Ajurruumiyyah (Arabic Text)

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by Shaykh Aḥmad bin Muḥammad Zurrūq²

صدق التوجه‮ ‬ (Correct turning [towards Allah]) مشروط (is preconditioned) بكونه من حيث‮ ‬يرضاه‮ ‬(wherein it [the turning] must be pleasing to Him), الحقّ‮ ‬تعالى (Al-Ḥaqq Taʿālaa [The Truthful One Who is Most High]) وبما يرضاه (and [it must be] what pleases Him). ولايصح مشروط (That which has been preconditioned is not ṣaḥīḥ [sound]) بدون شرطه (without its condition [being correctly followed]). ‭‬‮قال تعالى: ‬وَلاَ‮ ‬يَرْضَى لِعِبَادِهِ‮ ‬الْكُفْرَ[Allah the Most High has said]: (“He has not sanctioned disbelief for His slaves³”) فلزم تحقيق الإميان (Therefore, the affirmation of Imān [belief is necessary]),‭‬‮قال تعالى: ‬وَإِنْ‮ ‬تَـشْكُرُوا‮ ‬يَـرْضَـهُ‮ ‬لَـكُمْ‮ ‬ [Allah the Most High has also said] (“If you are grateful, He will sanction a thing for you⁴”),

فلزم العمل بالإسلام (ʿAmal [Actions, Deeds] are requisite in Islam).  فلا تصوف (There is no tasawwuf⁵ [raising of one’s self to a high degree of spiritual excellence) ‮ ‬إلاّ‮ ‬بفقه‮  ‬(without fiqh [knowledge of Islamic law]), إذ لا تعرف أحكام الله ( since the clear rulings of Allah are not known)  ‮ ‬إلاّ‮ ‬منه‮ ‬ (except through it [fiqh]); فلا فقه (and there is no fiqh) إلاّ‮ ‬بتصوف (without tasawwuf), إذ لا عمل (since there are no actions) إلاّ‮ ‬بصدق (without sincerity) وتوجه (and turning towards Allah); فلا هما (and neither of them [fiqh nor tasawwuf] exist) إلاّ‮ ‬بالإميان (without imān [uncorrupted belief in Allah]), إذ لايصح منهما (since neither of them [tasawwuf or fiqh]) is not ṣaḥīḥ [sound]) دونه (without it [imān]); فلزم الجميع (therefore the joining of them [tasawwuf and fiqh] is necessary), لتلازمها  (because they are inseparable) في‮ ‬الحكم (in regards to legal  rulings), كتلازم االأرواح للأسجاد (in the same way the souls and the bodies are inseparable). ولا وجود لها (They [the souls] do not exist [in this world]) إلاّ‮ ‬فيها (without being in them [the bodies]), كما لا حياة لها (just as there is no life for them (the bodies) إلا بها (without them ([the souls]). فأفهم (So  be aware [of these matter]).

ومنه (In regards to it [this matter]) قول مالك رحمه الله (is the saying of Imām Mālik [may God have mercy on him]):

من تَصَوَّفَ (“He who devotes himself to tasawwuf) ولم‮ ‬يَتَفَقَّهْ (and doesn’t know or understand fiqh) فقد تَـزَنْـدَقَ (becomes a zindīq⁶ [one who deviates from the correct path]), ومن تفقه (and he who learns fiqh)ولم‮ ‬يتصوف‮ ‬ (and avoids taasawwuf [trying to seek to raise himself to a high degree of spiritual excellence]) فقد‮ ‬تفسق (becomes fāsiq⁷ [a corrupt deviator from the commands of Allah]), ومن جمع بينهما (while he who joins both of them [tasawwuf and fiqh] together)‮ ‬فقد تحقق(finds the Truth”).

قلت I [Ahmad Zarrūq] say, that تـزَنْـدَقَ‮ ‬الأول (the first person [mentioned] becomes a zindīq) لأنّّـه قال بالجبر (because he discusses al-jabru [fatalism])⁸ الـموجد لنفي‮ ‬الحكمة والأحكام (which results in the negation of proper judgement and rules).

تُـفَسِّقَ‮ ‬الثاني (The second person [mentioned] becomes a fāsiq), لخلو عمله من التوجه (because his actions are void of turning towards Allah), الحاجبة منهما (which would be the protection for both of them  [both the zindīq and fāsiq]) عن معصية الله (from disobedience to Allah), ومن الإخلاص (and [because his actions] are void of sincerity), الـمشترط (which is one of the required conditions) في‮ ‬العمل لله (in actions [done] for the sake of Allah.

وتَـحَقّقَ‮ ‬الثالث (The third person [that has been mentioned] finds the Truth) لقيامه (because of his steadfastness) بالـحقيقة (in the very action) في‮ ‬عين التمسك بالحق (of cling to the Truth). فأعرف ذلك (So be conscious of that).

Footnotes:

1 Ahmad Zarruq explained the reason why he wrote The Rules of Tasawwuf [Sufism] by saying: فالقصد بهذا المـختصر وفصوله تمهيد قواعد التصوف وأصوله وعلى وجه‮ ‬يجمع بين الشريعة والحقيقة ويصل الأصول والفقه بالطريقة (“The purpose of this short treatise and its sections is to simplify the rules and principles of Sufism in a way that brings ash-Sharīʿah (the Sacred Law) together with al-Ḥaqīqah (the true realization of tawḥīd), and to join al-usuul (the principles of the Dīn) and al-fiqh (Islamic law) with at-Ṭarīqah (the Sufī Path).”

2  Māliki faqih and sufi who has been described as one of the last of those who united fiqh and Tasawwuf. His full name is Ahmed Zarruq (or Sheikh Shihāb ad-Din Abu al-ʿAbbās Ahmed bin Ahmed bin Muhammad bin ʿIsa al-Barnūsī al-Fasī Zarrūq) (1442–1493) was a Shadhili Sufi Sheikh and founder of the Zarruqiyye branch of the Shadhili Sufi order (Tariqa). He was born on the 7th June 1442 (846 of the Islamic ‘Hijra’ calendar) – according to Sheikh Abd Allah Gannun – in a village in the region of Tiliwan, a mountain area of Morocco.[1] He was a contemporary of Muhammad al-Jazuli. He was a Berber of the tribe of the Barnusi who lived in an area between Fes and Taza.

He took the name ‘Zarrūq’ (meaning ‘blue’) and he studied the traditional Islamic sciences such as jurisprudence, Arabic, traditions of the Prophet and wrote extensively on a number of subjects. His most famous works are first of al his Qawa’id al-Tasawwuf (The Principles of Sufism), his commentaries on Maliki jurisprudence and his commentary upon the Hikam of ibn ‘Ata Allah.

He travelled East to the Hijaz and to Egypt before taking up residence in Misrata, Libya where he died in 899 (1493).

Anecdotes of Zarrūq’s childhood, travels and education appear in an untitled fahrasa and Al-Kunnash fi ilm ash, both still in manuscript. Selected passages appear in translation in: Zarruq the Sufi: a Guide in the Way and a Leader to the Truth by Ali Fahmi Khushaim (Tripoli, Libya:General Company for Publication, 1976) (Taken from Wikipedia)

3 Surah Az-Zumar  Verse 7

4 Surah Az-Zumar  Verse 7

5 Tasawwuf – Sufism; a systematized form of spiritual training (tarbiyah) which is used to guide individuals towards a proper Islamic attitudes in life, and to guide them towards intellectual and moral elevation in order to overcome the diseases of the lower self (nafs) that prevent spiritual development; tasawwuf is also know as Iḥsān which is the ability to conquer distraction and absent-mindedness in worship, and to perfect worship and ones behavior, by keeping in mind that one, in reality,  is always in the presence of Allah.

6 Zindīq: one who believes in dualism; one who does not believe in the  hereafter; one who does believe in Tawḥīd; one who conceals his disbelief with an outward show of belief; one who is attached to or associated with any form of زَنْـدَقَـة (act of deviation from correct beliefs about Islam).

7 Fāsiq: a transgressor; person who is corrupt; he acknowledges and observes what  is prescribe by the law and also acknowledges its authority, and thereafter falls short in his own observation of some or all of the law; he practices فِسْق (deviation from Allah’s commands; going outside of the limits of the law and obedience)

8 Al-jabru [fatalism] is a false doctrine and deviant view about Allah’s relation with human beings held by Al Jabariyyah a sect found in early Islam: who believe that a person does not have a choice, and nor does he have a free will. And that the doer of every action is Allah!  And that the humans do not have a will and strength over anything [i.e. they are compelled]. he destroys the legislations of the religion, and its creed : and he frees himself of any accountability in front of Allah ; from any sins which he has commits.  So if he fornicated, or drank alcohol, or murdered, he says : I am excused, I am compelled [majbuur].  The followers of this sect say, “The One who gives us faith and who makes us perform acts of worship is Allah. Every action is done under Allah’s compulsion. Man is doomed to his qadar, so no one is responsible for the sins he commits.” And they cite the following Qur’anic verses to corroborate their views:

Allah guides whom He wills and leaves to stray whom He wills. [Ibrahim 4]

If your Lord had willed, all the people on earth would have believed. Then will you force people to become Believers? No one can believe except by the permission of Allah. [Yunus 99,100]

It is Allah who creates you and what you do. [As-Saffat 96]

 بسم الله الرّحمن الرحيم

About The Prayer of the Oppressed:

The power of this prayer of Imam Muhammad al-Dar’i lies in its simplicity, its purity, and its sincere supplication. It is essentially a plea to God that our transgressions be overlooked, that divine mercy be bestowed upon us, that social justice be restored in spite of us, that wrongs be righted, and that righteousness reign once again in our lands, so that the destitute may no longer be in need, the young may be educated, the animals’ purpose fulfilled, rain restored, and bounties poured forth. It is a plea to be freed from the aggression of foreigners in lands over which they have no right – a plea much needed in our modern world, rampant as it is with invasions and territorial occupations. Ultimately, it asks not that our enemies be destroyed, but simply that their plots, and the harm they cause, be halted. Its essence is mercy, which in turn is the essence of the Messenger of God, Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him: “And We have only sent you as a mercy to all the worlds.”

The Prayer of the Oppressed (al-Du’a al-Nasiri)

Building the Community

Having seen the sort of intellectual and spiritual training given to those men and women who clustered around the Shehu, we shall now look at the shaping of the nucleus of the Shehu’s followers in the emerging new order – the Jama‘a. Here we shall be concentrating on three areas as the basis of their identity and solidarity: the molding of the character, the building of the communal spirit and the development of a “new culture”.

For any movement with the goal of bringing about a society superior to the one it abhors and is challenging, the test of its sincerity lies in its ability to develop individuals who are the very embodiment of its message and vision. No movement can be taken seriously if the character and behavior of the core members do not set them clearly above others. That was precisely the challenge before the Shehu. His responsibility was not only to preach the truth and attack evil but also, and more fundamentally, to produce men and women who believed in that truth and whose general disposition was a clear testimony to their faith in it.

Moral Ideals

Our concern now is to look at those qualities which the movement regarded as being vital for its members– especially those involved in the dissemination of its message – to acquire and practice in everyday life. There is nothing new in these qualities, for they were derived from the teachings and practice of the Prophet @, his Companions % and the early generations of Islam. They were, however, new to Hausaland where they had been all but abandoned and where, if they were still regarded as ideals at all, they were certainly not translated into action or expressed socially.

The most important work for the understanding of the moral training of Shehu’s lieutenants and students is his Ṭarīq al-Jannah but the moral ideals imparted in those men and women were best articulated by Muhammad Bello in Ṭā‘āt al-Khallāq bi-Makārīm al-Akhlāq. Other sources are ‘Abdullahi’s Sabīl an-Najāt and Minan al-Minan and Bello’s Jalā’ aṣ-Ṣuḍūr.

Knowledge

The first and perhaps the most important of the qualities the movement considered vital for every person in the forefront of the struggle was knowledge (‘ilm). This involved the learning of those aspects necessary for the realization of the objectives of tajdīd, including the understanding of the Qur’an, Sunnah, uṣūl, fiqh and taṣawwuf, the acquisition of the necessary skills in such sciences as medicine, and a full understanding of the means and method of government and administration.

Since knowledge was conceived as an instrument of tajdīd, a considerable stress was laid on its application in everyday life. Knowledge which was not put to use was not considered relevant. Thus, while ‘Abdullahi in Minan stressed that knowledge was the “root of our work, to the extent that the work we do in ignorance is of no merit,” he added that acquired knowledge must produce its results in practical life, otherwise it is meaningless. And Bello, in Jalā’, after quoting the ḥadīths of the Prophet @: “Woe to the one who does not learn!” and “Woe to the learned who does not put his knowledge to use,” likened such a learned man to a lamp which, while providing light to others, burns itself out.

Cognition

Associated with knowledge was the quality which Bello in Ṭā‘āt called ‘aql (cognition). Essentially it means the full cognition of the aims, purposes and significance of the commands and prohibitions of Islam. “‘Aql is what leads you to the consciousness of Allah, and saves you from passion,” because the cognition of evil and its ultimate consequences is the thing most likely to help someone avoid it. Bello said that the truly cognizant is he whose words are few but whose actions are many.

The importance of cognition is twofold. First of all it gives every action not only a social or spiritual meaning but an intellectual significance as well. The man of cognition does or avoids things in the full appreciation of what they mean to him personally, what they contribute to his relationship with Allah, and what their consequences might be on the Day of Judgment. There is a qualitative difference between deeds performed with intellectual awareness and those performed merely in compliance with the letter of the law.

There is, for instance, a world of difference between a ruler who is just out of mere obedience to the law and another who is just because he is aware that it is justice that sustains a nation or because, as a leader, he will appear before Allah on the Day of Judgment in chains and it is only his justice that can release him from them. And there is there a similar difference between someone who performs the four rak‘āts before Dhuhr because the Sunnah requires him to do so and someone who does the same with the understanding that that is the very hour in which his deeds are being presented to Allah. This quality imposes on an individual the duty to probe deeply into the meaning of the injunctions and prohibitions of Islam and to devote time to pondering them.

Secondly, the importance of this quality is that it furnishes individuals with the necessary instruments for calling people towards religion. Questions as to why Islam has enjoined certain things and prohibited others are bound to be raised by people, some with a sincere aim to learn and obey and others with a mischievous intention. If cogent answers are given, Islam will thus be exalted; otherwise serious damage may result.

Repentance

In Sabīl, ‘Abdullahi said of the importance of repentance (tawbah): “Know that Allah has made tawbah a covering for the nakedness of work, a cleansing of the impurities arising from error, and a means by which the sins of the past are wiped out and the deeds of the future are perfected.”

We may look at tawbah from two angles: firstly that of a person’s individual recognition of their own innate imperfection as a human being, which impels them constantly to seek to make up their deficiencies by recourse to the act of repentance; and secondly, that of repentance as a vital social imperative for a nation in a period of decline.

In its latter, wider context tawbah means the progressive abandonment of the path that is leading to social and political disintegration and the ultimate collapse of a the society concerned and turning to the path which leads to regeneration and rectitude. Tawbah thus embraces both the spiritual and socio-moral behavior of people and societies. In a yet more profound sense, on an individual level, tawbah means a return to the path that leads to Allah, the objective being to escape from perdition on the Day of Judgment and gain admittance into the Garden.

 So for a people striving to regenerate their society, tawbah implies a sustained disengagement from the norms and attitudes of the prevailing order, because it is they that are the symptoms of the diseases that have plagued the society causing its decay, and the adoption of the kind of behavior and attitudes that will lead to its regeneration. Tawbah involves, therefore, a total change in an individual’s conception of, and attitude to, life, as well as the absolute change of course necessitated by the initiation of a processof social transformation.

Zuhd

That new attitude to life is what is called zuhd, which was a fundamental quality of the movement. Zuhd, as explainedby the Prophet صلّى الله عليه وسلّم, has two elements: abstention from the world and keeping away from the possessions of other people. To abstain from the world means, among other things, that a person should live in it on the understanding that it is only a temporary abode, indeed, that it is in fact a place of trial and a place of preparation for the realm of reward and permanence which is the Next World.

Whatever one takes from the world, whether it be in the form of sustenance, power, knowledge or skill, and whatever other pursuits one undertakes in it, should all be seen as a means by which one is being tested by Allah, who will take the final account on the Day of Judgment. Nothing in this world, therefore, is an end in itself. Everything is given or taken by way of trial. The world itself will at some point cease to exist and give way ultimately to the everlasting life of the Hereafter.

Zuhd also involves, however, exerting the effort necessary to secure your own livelihood so as to be self-reliant and free from having to look towards what belongs to other people. Bello stressed in Jalā’ the need for people to preserve their integrity through self- reliance, saying: “The Prophet  صلّى الله عليه وسلّم said, ‘Take to trading, for it secures nine-tenths of wealth’… It is related that [Prophet] Isa met a certain person and asked him, ‘What do you do for a living’? He replied, ‘I engage in worship’. Isa  then asked him, ‘In that case, who takes care of your needs?’ ‘My brother,’ he answered. ‘Then,’ said Isa, ‘your brother is more of a worshipper than you are.’”

In essence, zuhd means that one should ardently seek the realm of the Hereafter by mobilizing and channeling the materials of this world towards the accomplishment of the higher purposes of life and by living one’s life, as far as possible, in accordance with the injunctions of Allah. Equally, it means exerting the efforts necessary to make one self-reliant and self-sufficient, to obviate any need to sell one’s honor, or even as a last resort one’s religion, in order to live.

In its ideological context, zuhd means the mobilization of a movement’s moral and material resources with the purpose of delivering the people from the grip of this world. Moral resources provide the strength to strive against a degenerate social order, while material resources, secured through the members’ extensive and serious engagement in various professions and trades, are advantageous in the struggle for economic and technical supremacy.

Ṣabr

To achieve that moral and economic supremacy another quality is, however, essential: ṣabr. In a narrow sense, ṣabr just means patience, but in a wider sense, it embraces a number of attitudes, including endeavoring to live honestly and honorably in a situation where those qualities are not tolerated by the prevailing system and putting up with the hardships and disadvantages suffered as a result. The purpose of embodying this attitude is that it serves as a shining light in the midst of pervasive darkness. Ṣabr also means overlooking much of the ill-treatment, harm and wrongs which come from others and which are an integral part of human life. Allah has said in this regard that He has made some people a means to test others, in order to see which of them will exercise patience.

The most important form of ṣabr is the endurance of hardships suffered while striving on behalf of one’s religion. In their struggle against a decadent system, some people might lose social or economic privileges, some might lose their freedom, some their means of subsistence and some their very lives. In all these trials the most valuable weapon is ṣabr, because the path of religion is long, the steps hard and the efforts exhausting. Ṣabr means not personalizing any harm or injury suffered in the cause of Allah and not holding personal enmity towards those who inflict such harm, so that hostility will cease as soon as such an adversary opens his heart to the faith. It also entails overlooking temporary inconveniences and viewing such trials as moral training, not as a punishment from Allah.

The fruits of ṣabr are ready forgiveness, the lack of any other than ideological adversaries, the ability to overlook and overcome any obstacles placed in your path, and ultimately the attainment of your goal. Apart from knowledge and piety, there is no greater weapon for an individual striving in the cause of Allah than ṣabr.

Diplomacy, Forgiveness and Ḥilm

For a movement, the relationship of its vanguard with the generality of the people is vital, not only for its image but also, more significantly, for its very survival. In this regard three other qualities, in addition to ṣabr, were given prominence in the Shehu’s movement. One of them was what Bello called mudārah, or diplomacy. It entails showing kindness, generosity and respect to others, even to those who nurse enmity towards religion, in the hope of either winning their hearts to the faith or at least neutralizing their enmity. In short, mudārah is another word for restraint and caution.

Bello was quick, however, to distinguish between this honest effort to safeguard religion and acts of opportunism or ambivalence, whereby a person heaps praises and gifts on a powerful enemy in order to gain the latter’s acceptance or favor. “That,” he said, “is squandering religion to safeguard wealth.” In a wider sense, mudārah embraces those steps a movement takes to disarm its potential enemies by winning their hearts through persuasion, such as showing regard for their feelings and sensitivities and offering them help in a time of need.

The second quality is ‘afw or the spirit of forgiveness. In this respect Bello quoted the verse of the Qur’an: “Repel the bad with what is better and, if there is enmity between you and someone else, he will be like a bosom friend.” (41:33) He also quoted the words of the Prophet @: “A person does not forgive a wrong done to him without Allah exalting him on account of it; therefore, take to forgiveness so that Allah may exalt you.”

The third quality is what Bello called ḥilm, which means to develop and perfect a gentle disposition so that people find comfort and have confidence in you. Even in anger, you should never stray from truth.

Discipline

A further extremely important quality highly prized by the movement is what Bello in Ṭā‘āt called adab, which, for want of an appropriate word, we may term discipline. “The Prophet,” Bello said, “has inculcated discipline in his ummah by instructing them to mention the name of Allah before a meal and to give praise to Him after it; by forbidding them to drink while standing, or directly from buckets; and by forbidding them from eating with the left hand or removing impurities with the right.” That is just one of the several aspects of adab.

In a more comprehensive sense, adab embraces the discipline and control of what Shehu in Ṭarīq and ‘Abdullahi in Sabīl called the five organs – the eye, the ear, the tongue, the heart and the belly. The eye must be controlled, Shehu said, for three main reasons: firstly, because Allah himself has commanded that Muslims should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; secondly, because the Prophet صلّى الله عليه وسلّم warned us that immodest gazing at women is “one of the poisoned arrows of Shaytān” and that anyone who avoids it will be graced with the sweetness of worship; and thirdly, because the eye was created, not to seek out the beauty of women, but to gain the vision of Allah – glorious and great is He! ‘Abdullahi added that controlling and restraining the eyes helps towards the perfection of faith and obedience to Allah.

Similarly, it is part of adab to keep the hearing under control. This is achieved by not listening to irrelevant or offensive things, such as vulgar music or the denigration of others. The tongue, for its part, should be prevented from making any utterances which are likely to involve the body in physical or moral danger or that will be a cause of regret when you stand for judgment before Allah on the Last Day. Such utterances include, for instance, slandering other people, which Allah likens to eating the flesh of your dead brother.

The control of the heart is, as far as both the Shehu and ‘Abdullahi were concerned, the most important challenge people face. The Shehu called attention to five factors which account for this crucial importance. The first is that in all matters Allah looks into the heart, into people’s intentions, as is stressed so often in the Qur’an. The second is the reinforcement of this point by the Prophet صلّى الله عليه وسلّم. The third is the point that the heart is, as it were, the king of the body and all the other organs its subjects, so that if it is corrupted the whole body is likewise corrupted. The fourth is that the heart is the repository of innate human qualities such as intelligence and knowledge. “It is most fitting,” said Shehu, “that such a repository should be preserved against being contaminated or despoiled.” The fifth is that the heart is, as it were, the battleground between good and evil, between angelic and satanic forces.

Controlling the heart means preserving it from inordinate ambition, haste, envy and pride and, conversely, refining it through such attitudes as modesty, where hope or ambition is concerned, deliberation in affairs, entertaining goodwill to people, and humility.

The control of the belly means preserving it from taking in what is either expressly unlawful or of a dubious nature, or taking in even lawful things in excess of one’s needs. Excessive consumption, even of lawful things, has the effect of hardening the heart, causing injury to the other organs of the body, weakening the intellect and the ability to pursue knowledge, reducing one’s desire for worship, increasing the possibility of falling into dubious and prohibited ways and, above all, it may warrant one’s being subjected to serious scrutiny on the Day of Judgment.

Besides this comprehensive discipline, adab also involves, according to Bello, acquainting oneself with the knowledge of good works and endeavoring to perform them; and acquainting oneself with the knowledge of evil deeds and distancing oneself from them. It encompasses the control of the senses, the positive orientation of one’s total disposition, keeping within the legal limits set by Allah, the abandonment of passions and dubious conduct, striving towards good deeds, and keeping the mind engaged in thought and remembrance of Allah.

Another quality related to adab is what Bello called inā or deliberation. This is important for an individual, because it enables him to ponder issues before he undertakes them, thus saving him from rushing into things which he may later regret. Deliberation is essential for a movement that regards its cause as a lifetime undertaking. In this case, inā involves the realization that, in the task of raising people to moral excellence, there is no need for excessive urgency, since there is no shortcut in such matters. “Haste,” said the Prophet صلّى الله عليه وسلّم in a ḥadīth quoted by Bello, “is from Shaytān,” whereas caution and deliberation are from Allah. Bello made, however, six important exceptions where haste is not only allowed but praiseworthy: the payment of debt, offering food to a guest, burying the dead, prayer at the right time, the marriage of a girl who has reached maturity and tawbah (repentance) after doing wrong. Other qualities pertaining to adab were listed by Bello as being a humble disposition, generosity, contentment, truthfulness in speech, strengthening the ties of relationship, honoring trusts, good neighborliness, fulfilling promises and obligations, modesty, keeping appointments, and being merciful to creatures. And he quoted this noble statement of the Prophet صلّى الله عليه وسلّم:

“My Lord has commanded me to do these nine things, and I recommend the same for you. He has commanded me to be sincere in all matters, secret or open; to do justice in all circumstances, in pleasure or anger; to be moderate in all conditions, prosperity or poverty; to forgive thosewho wrong me; to give to those who deprive me; to seek ties with those who break from me; that my silence should be for reflection; that my utterance should be a reminder; and that my seeing should be to gain instruction.”

This emphasis on the qualities we have enumerated implies that the Shehu was determined to create individuals imbued with the qualities of the Prophet @ himself and to evolve, through them, a community that embodied the qualities and characteristics of the community of the Prophet صلّى الله عليه وسلّم. Every mujaddid knows that the course of his movement is determined ultimately by the quality of the

people who champion it and, that it is only when such people are nurtured to moral and intellectual maturity through a long and painstaking process of training and education, that Allah in His wisdom will entrust them with the great task of shouldering the responsibility of forming a new ummah.

The Communal Spirit

We can now look into the nature of the social relationships that were being nurtured in the nascent community and see this as one of the principal means through which the new order was developed. It is natural that a special kind of relationship should exist among members of an ideological group, dictating their interpersonal conduct, establishing the rights and obligations of each member and holding the community together. This relationship is an expression of a profound mutual commitment to a cause, something absent in society as a whole, and a sense of unity, belief, purpose and destiny.

In the case of the Shehu’s community, the question of the rights and obligations of its members was not determined by the development of a new code. These had already been spelled out by Islam itself. If society at large did not implement them, it was not because they were not there, but rather because a sense of unity, a sense of commitment to Islam and a feeling of brotherhood were missing. But a group committed to the regeneration of Muslim society should not only establish these mutual rights and obligations but also give them a new significance within the context of their particular situation. They are not mere rules but constitute the means of maintaining the community spiritually, morally and socially, as well as being the means of self-development and self-expression.

The rules did not only deal with the duties of one member to another but also with the duties of each member to his or her parents, children, and spouse. It was, in effect, the training of an individual in social responsibility. Our main source of information about this is ‘Abdullahi’s Tibyān li-Ḥuqūq al-Ikhwān. This short treatise, we venture to suggest, was only a written testimony of what the movement had in fact put into practice right from its inception.

Brotherhood

The first category of duties and responsibilities is the mutual rights of Muslims that flow from the bond of brotherhood which ties each to the other in this world and the Next. The fulfillment of these mutual responsibilities has the effect of cementing that brotherhood and brings together all members into a single ummah, separate and distinct from the communities of other faiths.

The rights cover the whole spectrum of life. A Muslim should greet a fellow Muslim whenever they meet, an action which, according to the Prophet, increases love among Muslims, mutual love being something which assures admittance to paradise. He should accept the invitation of his Muslim brother. He should visit and care for a fellow Muslim when he falls sick. He should honor his brother’s words and oaths. He should give him good counsel or advice whenever it is sought or whenever he deems it necessary. He should protect his brother’s honor when he is absent. He should attend his funeral. And, above all, he should love for his fellow Muslim what he loves for himself and hate for him what he hates for himself.

These mutual duties are increased when the Muslim brother is also a neighbor. He should be helped whenever necessary. A loan should be extended to him if he is in financial difficulty and if an outright gift is not possible. He should be congratulated when good comes to him and consoled when misfortune afflicts him. He should share a meal with him from time to time. Neither his neighbor nor his neighbor’s children should be made to feel any difference that might exist on an economic level. His neighbor’s privacy must be respected and guarded.

Mutual rights are also increased, both in quality and intimacy, when a Muslim is a fellow traveler in a common cause. As a friend and confidant his rights are that he should be accorded almost the same status as yourself with regard to your property. At the very least, he should be considered as having absolute right to what is in excess of your needs, and at best, you should follow the example of earlier Muslims by preferring him to yourself. You should go to his aid even before he asks for it and support his family if he dies. You should refrain from exposing his weaknesses and secrets and discourage others from doing so.

You should also be silent about his dislikes, except, of course, when it is your duty to prevent evil. You should make him happy through whatever honorable means are available, such as commending his good qualities and those of his children, “without,” added ‘Abdullahi, “having to tell lies.” You should overlook any bad behavior on his part and accept his excuses, whether they are true or not. You should also pray for him from time to time. And, finally, you should avoid putting unnecessary burdens on him, so that the bond of love is preserved and not strained.

Parent-Child Obligations

Rights and obligations flowing from child/parent relationships constitute a further relevant category. A child has a duty to obey his parents. ‘Abdullahi quoted a number of traditions without, however, making any specific recommendations; but Bello might have been expressing ‘Abdullahi’s thoughts in Fawā’id Mujmilah fi-Mā Jā’ fi-l-Birr wa-l Sillah when he commented briefly on Allah’s injunction to be dutiful to one’s parents:

“It is narrated in the Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Abū Hurayrah % that a person came to the Messenger of Allah صلّى الله عليه وسلّم and asked, ‘Who is most entitled to my best treatment?’ to which the Messenger of Allah replied, ‘Your mother’. The man asked, ‘Who next?’ He replied, ‘Your mother.’ The man asked, ‘Who next?’ He replied, ‘Your mother.’ He asked further, ‘Who next?’ And the Messenger of Allah replied, ‘Your father.’”

The implication of this – that someone’s affection for a mother should be three times that given to their father – is supported by what we see in life, since a mother bears the burden of conception, the burden of childbirth and the burden of nursing.

“Five duties,” Bello wrote further, “devolve on a responsible person in respect of his parents. Firstly, that he should not be arrogant towards them; secondly, that he should avoid rebuking them even when they confront him with something he dislikes; thirdly, that he should address them in a pleasing, respectful manner… as a humble servant addresses his noble master; fourthly, that he should show great affection to them, not raising his voice in their presence or walking in front of them, and should do what they want, without of course disobeying the law, showing them love, compassion, reverence, and serving them in an excellent way; and fifthly, that he should always pray for Allah’s mercy on them provided they are Muslims, and offer ṣadaqah on their behalf after they are dead.”

Regarding the children’s rights, ‘Abdullahi emphasized that a child is a trust (amānah) in the hands of his parents, endowed with a pure, innocent heart, free from guilt. At the same time, a child’s heart is impressionable so that it can be steered towards either good or evil. If a child is introduced from the beginning to goodness he will grow in that direction and will be a success in this world and in the Hereafter, and everyone who has contributed to that moral success will share in the reward. If, however, he is introduced to evil, he will grow in that direction and the burden of misguidance will be on those who are responsible for it.

A child should be suckled, ‘Abdullahi insisted, by a woman who lives on lawful food and is herself upright because “unlawful milk corrupts the child, as there is no blessing in it at all.” A child’s correct upbringing in the home is a duty owed to it by its father. ‘Abdullahi suggested that children should be inculcated with Islamic discipline in matters such as eating, dressing and sleeping.

Concerning his education, he should first be introduced to the Qur’an and entrusted to an upright teacher. Throughout his early education, the child should be guided towards developing strength of character. He should be taught not to cry loudly if beaten at school, nor to seek the intervention of anyone against his punishment by his teacher, but rather to endure the punishment patiently. He should be allowed sports and playtime after school to prevent depression, blunting of the intelligence and loss of interest in schooling altogether.

Regarding general behavior, ‘Abdullahi suggested that children should be taught to hate pride and love humility. They should not be allowed to brag about their parents’ wealth, possessions or livelihood. They should be taught to respect those who associate with them, to be soft in speech, to talk little, and avoid unnecessary questions. They should be taught that gentlemanly behavior lies in giving, not in taking, and that greed is degrading. They should not spit when in company. They should be attentive when spoken to by older people and offer them a place to sit. At the same time they should avoid people who use obscene speech, curse or insult others.

Mothers have a duty to teach their children to respect their fathers and to give due regard to their teachers and superiors. Children should be taught their duties as Muslims and be told stories of upright men and women. They should be warned against stealing, cheating and lying and be inspired to perform and love good deeds. If they make mistakes they should be corrected and if they repeat them they should be rebuked in secret and made to appreciate the gravity of what they have done. They should conversely be rewarded for displaying good qualities.

As children grow older, they should be made to appreciate that the purpose of eating is to enable them to be strong enough to carry out the injunctions of Allah, and that this world is ephemeral and so a sensible person will only take from it those provisions necessary for the Next. The ephemeral nature of this world and the reality and permanence of the Hereafter should be so inculcated into a child’s consciousness that it becomes ingrained permanently in their character. When maturity is reached, marriage should be arranged. ‘Abdullahi repeated the Prophet’s teaching that every child is born with a pure natural disposition. It is up to the parents to keep their children on this natural form and not allow it to become corrupted.

Family Obligations

A husband, ‘Abdullahi wrote in Tibyān, has approximately eleven obligations towards his wife. The first, which arises from the marriage bond itself, is the payment of sadāqi or dowry and also the costs of the marriage celebration, provided that it is done as the Prophet صلّى الله عليه وسلّم specified. The second obligation is that a husband should tolerate annoyance and endure injury from his wife and, more importantly, “he should be forbearing, indulgent and understanding when she gets angry following the example of the Messenger of Allah صلّى الله عليه وسلّم.” Thirdly, he should stimulate her mind by engaging in lawful fun and games with her but, fourthly, he should be moderate in this regard so as not to lose her esteem or lose the ability to correct her if she violates the Sharī‘ah.

Fifthly, he is obliged to correct her but is not entitled in the course of this to subject her integrity to suspicion or to change her attitudes or to neglect her or be indifferent towards her. His sixth responsibility is to maintain his wife fairly though moderately. His seventh obligation is to educate her “in the tenets of the people of the Sunnah and in the injunctions and prohibitions of the law”, instruct her in her religious duties and instill the fear of Allah into her if she shows slackness in the practice of her dīn. The eighth duty applies to a man who has more than one wife, in which case he has to maintain justice between his wives. The ninth thing is that, if ever she exceeds the limits of tolerable companionship, he should discipline her in the way the Qur’an prescribes, “without violence”. The tenth duty is to take pleasure in her children – male and female. Finally, if a divorce does occur, he should continue to please her heart with gifts, guard her secrets and respect her privacy.

As for the rights of a husband, ‘Abdullahi explained, “they are many: for instance, a wife should obey her husband in all matters so long as they do not amount to sin, and pursue those things that give him happiness. He quotes the words of the Prophet  صلّى الله عليه وسلّم: “Any woman who meets her death while her husband is happy with her will go to paradise.”

Finally, servants have legal rights, too. They should be fed with the same food their master eats and be clothed in the same decent and dignified way as their master. They should not be burdened with work that is beyond their capability. Servants should not be subjected to humiliation or blackmail by their employers.

To reiterate, there is nothing radically new in this code of social behavior but it gains special significance when placed in the context of Hausaland at that time and when it becomes an integral part of the growth of a new social movement. The intention behind the code was, no doubt, to create a fellowship of the people who shared a common cause; to establish good and virtuous neighborliness; to build loving and upright homes; and to raise the dignity of even the lowliest of people within the community. On deeper reflection, it would appear that what ‘Abdullahi was in fact advocating in Tibyān was the transformation of the community into what amounted to a single large family, sharing a single set of values and pursuing a single cause.

The New Culture

In addition to the spirit of fellowship and mutual obligation that was fostered in the Jama‘a, there was the simultaneous development of a new social attitude, a kind of counterculture, in the movement. In fact, the cultivation of this particular kind of behavior was an extension of the mutual obligations we have mentioned, which served to strengthen the solidarity of the Jama‘a, but it was also essential in giving the new movement a sense of identity, a superior spiritual and cultural attitude, that distinguished it from the rest of the community and helped to draw other fairminded and cultured people towards it. This is the subject matter of Shehu Usman’s Kitāb al-Adab.

The acquisition of knowledge was the most fundamental characteristic of Shehu Usman’s Jama‘a. Indeed, the emerging ethos and values that were molding the Jama‘a revolved entirely around knowledge and scholarship. The fact that the eight-page Kitāb al-Adab, which dealt with more than fifteen issues, devoted almost half its space to matters relating to knowledge indicates the paramount importance of this matter.

Education, like any other sphere of human activity, should be governed by certain values and ethical principles, all the more so in a society where knowledge is sought primarily as a means to gain wealth or social prestige. For, if knowledge is vulgarized or commercialized, as indeed it was in Hausaland, it will no longer be possible for scholars to raise the moral tone of society or influence it in any positive manner. The reiteration of the ethics of education was therefore imperative, if only to provide the new movement with a distinct sense of direction and purpose.

This meant that the new generation of scholars – the vanguard for the revival of Islam in Hausaland – had to display qualities and attitudes consistent with their role as teachers, guardians of societal values and as the conscience of the ummah. So, while remaining humble, they had also to behave in a dignified manner that commanded respect from all. And, while it was essential that they show respect to people in general, it was not expected of them to accord honor to oppressors, if only as a mark of their disapproval of criminal, un-Islamic acts. They were to endeavor to be “scholars of the Hereafter” and not scholars of this world. Consequently, they had to seek knowledge that was useful in the Hereafter, knowledge that would facilitate and encourage obedience to Allah.

They were not to be materialistic in matters of food, clothing or accommodation. They were to endeavor to acquire sound spiritual knowledge, strive to combat undesirable innovations in society, and gain insight into the causes of corruption and confusion. In addition, they were required to keep their distance from kings. This, we may add, was essential if these scholars were to serve as the focus of social mobilization and as the symbols of people’s aspirations. Indeed, the fundamental distinguishing factor between the generation of ‘ulamā’ raised by the Shehu and the rest of the scholars, was that the former saw itself as a distinct body independent of the existing political order and committed to its overthrow. Such scholars could not fraternize with those they regarded as oppressive rulers, let alone serve them.

The responsibility of the scholars was to their students: to impart useful sciences to them; to urge them to pursue knowledge purely for the sake of Allah; to urge them to learn about their individual religious obligations before embarking on other subjects; and to discourage them from associating with men of evil character. In addition, the scholars had to show kindness to their students, mould their characters and give them good advice at all times. They were not to belittle subjects not taught by them and were to deal with each student according to his intelligence.

The students, on their part, had to pay due respect to their teachers, give the school the same veneration due to the mosque, and accord to the acquisition of knowledge the same reverence the accorded to the prayer. They should not display any materialistic tendencies and should behave in a dignified fashion. They too had to keep their distance from oppressive kings and strive to preserve their dignity. “Do not,” the Shehu advised, “place wealth above honor.” The ultimate objective of each of the sciences had to be considered carefully by the students before they made their choice about which disciplines to pursue, remembering, however, that the purpose of knowledge is to improve the character and seek nearness to Allah.

 In the area of social behavior, several matters were dealt with in Kitāb al-Adab. The Shehu advised his men to display composure, social restraint and common sense in their association with people in general. They should limit their disapproval of the behavior of others but be quick to advise on right and wrong, offering advice, however, only when there was a real hope of it being accepted. They should not plunge into other people’s discussions, nor should they pay attention to rumors and lies peddled in public, listen to obscene language, frequent places of ill repute or seek anything from people of low morals. They should be thoughtful and humble and, in their search for a livelihood, they should put their trust in Allah and be content with what they had lawfully acquired.

While it was essential that members of the Jama‘a should develop maturity by, for example, not eating too much and not tiring themselves unduly during the day, they must at the same time improve their inner disposition, thus strengthening the cohesion of the Jama‘a and raising their status with Allah. Hence, the mind should be freed from nursing any hatred or enmity towards a fellow Muslim and from being unduly anxious over worldly matters.

 The mind should rather be occupied with the thought of the Hereafter, to counterbalance its normal preoccupation with this world. In addition, qiyām al-layl (standing for prayer in the night) should be observed on a daily basis, and the mind should be trained to be conscious of Allah, to fear His punishment, and to be ashamed of its moral failures. Over and above this, constant reading of the Qur’an, observing the respect due to it, and making an effort to understand and contemplate it was desirable.

When starting on a journey, members of the Jama‘a, and in a wider sense Muslims in general, should free themselves first from all moral and economic obligations, so that they could travel with an absolutely free conscience. According to Shehu Usman, they should first amend any wrong they had done, pay their debts, return anything that had been entrusted to them and arrange for the maintenance of those under their care. They should take adequate provision but use only lawful means to acquire it. They should carry items of basic necessity with them. And above all, they should fulfill their spiritual obligations throughout the journey and adhere to the ethics of travel established by the Prophet of Allah صلّى الله عليه وسلّم.

The Kitāb al-Adab also touched on the ethics of sleep. The Shehu advised his people to regard sleep not merely as a physical phenomenon but also as a profound lesson which repeats itself daily. They should see sleep “as a form of death” and their reawakening “as a form of resurrection”. In other words, the thought of the Hereafter should be paramount in their minds when going to bed. It might, in fact, be their last sleep. Therefore, they should go to bed in a state of purity – teeth brushed and wuḍū’ performed. They should ask Allah’s forgiveness for all their sins and offer the supplication (du‘ā’) appropriate for going to bed. Their beds should not be excessively soft – either because that would indicate an inclination to luxury, which is hateful to Islam, or because a soft bed might diminish a person’s ability to wake for Ṣubḥ prayer.

When the Shehu touched on the obligations a man owes to his wife, the wife to her husband and mutual obligations between Muslims, there was no fundamental difference between Kitāb al-Adab and ‘Abdullahi’s Tibyān, although the Shehu added several points not included by ‘Abdullahi. He advised Muslims to honor the aged and show compassion to the young. He said they should meet each other with cheerful faces, be considerate and fair in their dealings with one another, and fulfill one another’s needs on a cooperative basis. He instructed them to protect one another against injustice and come to one another’s defense and, most significantly, he told them to avoid the company of the rich, associate always with the poor and take adequate care of orphans.

On the matter of the ethics of visiting to the sick, the Shehu advised that visitors should exhibit compassion, pray for the sick person as the Prophet has counseled and ask as few questions as possible. The sick person, for his part, should be patient, keep his complaints to a minimum and put his trust for recovery in Allah, while continuing to take the necessary medication. It may be said that, on the whole, there was nothing new, either in Tibyān or Kitāb al-Adab. What was new was that the social and moral rules they contained were being put into practice by a group dedicated to establishing a better and superior social order. The Jama‘a was nurtured on well known principles, values and ethics. When these were actualized in a social setting, they assumed added significance and, in turn, made their mark on the emerging social force. As long as the Jama‘a remained faithful to these values and ethics, there did not exist any force that could weaken them or alter their course towards reviving Islam.

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18 – (The Chapter About Ḍharfu-z-Zamaan  [The Adverb Of Time] and Ḍharfu-l-Makaan  [The Adverb Of Place])

ʿArabic Text:

‏‮(‬‬ظَرْفُ‏‮ ‬‬الزَّمَانِ‏‮ ‬‬هُوَ‏‮ ‬‬اسْمُ‏‮ ‬‬الزَّمَانِ‏‮ ‬‬الـْمَنْصُوبُ‏‮ ‬‬بِتَقْدِيرِ‏‮ ‬‬فيِ‏‮ ‬‬نَحْوُ‏‮ ‬‬الْيَوْمَ‏‮ ‬‬وَاللَّيْلَةَ‏‮ ‬‬وَغُدْوَةً‏‮ ‬‬وَبُكْرَةً‏‮ ‬‬وَسَحَرًا وَغَدًا وَعَتَمَةً‏‮ ‬‬وَصَبَاحًا وَمَسَاءً‏‮ ‬‬وَأَبَدًا وَأَمَدًا وَحِينًا وَمَا أَشْبَهُ‏‮ ‬‬ذَلِكَ‏‮ ‬‬وَظَرْفُ‏‮ ‬‬الـْمَكَانِ‏‮ ‬‬هَوَ‏‮ ‬‬اسْمُ‏‮ ‬‬الـْمَكَانِ‏‮ ‬‬الـْمَنْصُوبُ‏‮ ‬‬بِتَقْدِيرِ‏‮ ‬‬فِي‏‮ ‬‬نَحْوُ‏‮ ‬‬أَمَامَ‏‮ ‬‬وَخَلْفَ‏‮ ‬‬وَقُدَّامَ‏‮ ‬‬وَوَرَاءَ‏‮ ‬‬وَفَوْقَ‏‮ ‬‬وَتَحْتَ‏‮ ‬‬وَعِنْدَ‏‮ ‬‬وَمَعَ‏‮ ‬‬وَإِزَاءَ‏‮ ‬‬وَحِذَاءَ‏‮ ‬‬وَتِلْقَاءَ‏‮ ‬‬وَهُنَا وَثَمَّ‏‮ ‬‬وَمَا أَشَْبَهَ‏‮ ‬‬ذَلِكَ‏‮)‬‬

English Translation:

ظَرْفُ‏‮ ‬‬الزَّمَانِ (The adverb of time) هُوَ (is) اسْمُ‏‮ ‬‬الزَّمَانِ (the noun of time) الـْمَنْصُوبُ (in the case of naṣb) بِتَقْديرِ‏‮ ‬‬فِي (it is expressed with [the preposition] فِي being implied) -  (like when you say): الْيَوْمَ (today) وَاللَّيْلَةَ and (tonight) وَغُدْوَةً and (in the morning) وَبُكْرَةً and (at dawn) وَسَحَرًا and (at dawn) وَغَدًا and (tomorrow) وَعَتَمًا and (in the first third of the night) وَصَبَاحًا and (in the morning) وَمَسَاءً and (in the evening) وَأَبَدًا and (always / never) وَأَمَدًا and (briefly) وَحِينًا and (sometimes) وَمَا أَشْبَهُ‏‮ ‬‬ذَلِكَ (and what is similar to these).

وَظَـــرْفُ‏‮ ‬‬الـْمَكَـــانِ‏‮ ‬‬ (And the adverb of place) هُو (is)   اسْمُ‏‮ ‬‬الـْمَكَانِ the noun of location) الـْمَنْصُوبُ (in the case of naṣb) بِتَقْديرِ‏‮ ‬‬في (it is expressed with [the preposition] فِي being implied)  – like when you say: أَمَامَ (across from / in front of) وَخَلْفَ and (behind), وَقُدَّامَ and (in front of)  وَوَرَاءَ and (behind) وَفَوْقَ and (above) وَتَحْتَ and (below) وَعِنْدَ and (with) وَمَعَ and (with) وَإِزَاءَ and (face to face / opposite someone or something) وَحِذَاءَ and (opposite / face to face with) وَتِلْقَاءَ and (opposite /in  front  of) وَهُنَــا  and  (here) ‏‮ ‬‬وَثَـــمَّand  (there)  وَمَا أَشَْبَهَ‏‮ ‬‬ذَلِك (and what is similar to these).

Explanation of Text in ʿArabic:

ظَرْفُ‏‮ ‬‬الزَّمَان وَظَرْفُ‏‮ ‬‬الـْمَكَان هما الإسمان الـمنصوبان الواقع فيهما الفعل متضمِّنًا معنى في‏‮ ‬‬دون لفظها كقولك خَرَجْتُ‏‮ ‬‬يَوْمَ‏‮ ‬‬الْعِيدِ‏‮ ‬‬ومَشَيْتُ‏‮ ‬‬وَرَآءَ‏‮ ‬‬الْقَوْمِ‏‮ ‬‬فيوم وورآء مفعول فيهما لأنّه قد وقع فيهما الفعل وهو الخروج والـمشِي‏‮ ‬‬وكلاهما متضمّن معنى في‏‮ ‬‬دون‏‮  ‬‬لفظها لأنّ‏‮ ‬‬التّقدير في‏‮ ‬‬اليوم والورآء ومثل جِئْتُ‏‮ ‬‬الْيَوْمَ‏‮ ‬‬وأَذْهَبُ‏‮ ‬‬غَدًا‏‮ ‬‬وقُمْتُ‏‮ ‬‬صَبَاحًا ونِمْتُ‏‮ ‬‬مَسَـاءً‏‮ ‬‬وجَـلَسْتُ‏‮ ‬‬حِذَاءَكَ‏‮ ‬‬ووَقَفْتُ‏‮ ‬‬قُدَّامَكَ‏‮ ‬‬إلى آخره‏‮ ‬‬

ظَرْفُ‏‮ ‬‬الزَّمَان هو الإسم الدّالّ‏‮ ‬‬على الزّمان نحو الْيَوْمَ‏‮ ‬‬واللَّيْلَةَ‏‮ ‬‬وغُدْوَةً‏‮ ‬‬وبُكْرَةً وسَحَرًا وغَدًا وعَتَمًا وصَبَاحًا ومَسَاءً‏‮ ‬‬وأَبَدًا وأَمَدًا ووَقْتًآ وحِينًا وما أشبه ذلك فهذه‏‮  ‬‬جميعًا تُنْصَبُ‏‮ ‬‬على الظَّرْفيَّةِ‏‮ ‬‬تقول أَتَيْتُ‏‮ ‬‬الْيَوْمَ‏‮ ‬‬وذَهَبْتُ‏‮ ‬‬بُكْرَةً‏‮ ‬‬

وظَرْفُ‏‮ ‬‬الـْمَكَان هو الاسم الدّال على الـمكان نحو أَمَامَ‏‮ ‬‬وخَــلْفَ‏‮ ‬‬وقُدَّامَ‏‮ ‬‬ووَرَاءَ‏‮ ‬‬وفَوْقَ‏‮ ‬‬وتَحْتَ‏‮ ‬‬وعِنْدَ‏‮ ‬‬ومَعَ‏‮ ‬‬وإِزَاءَ‏‮ ‬‬وتِلْقَاءَ‏‮ ‬‬وحِذَاءَ‏‮ ‬‬وهُنَا وثَمَّ‏‮ ‬‬ومَا أشبه ذلك تقول جَلَسْتُ‏‮ ‬‬أَمَامَ‏‮ ‬‬زَيْدٍ‏‮ ‬‬أو حِذَاءَ‏‮ ‬‬عَمْرٍو أو تِلْقَاءَ‏‮ ‬‬الْبَيْتِ‏‮ ‬‬وقس الباقي

Explanation of Text in English:

ظَرْفُ‏‮ ‬‬الزَّمَانِ‏‮ ‬‬وَ‏‮ ‬‬ظَرْفُ‏‮ ‬‬الـْمَكَانِ  (the adverb of time and the adverb of place) are the nouns in the case of naṣb wherein their verb [is expressed] with an implied meaning  [which includes] the preposition  فِي   -  like when you say: خَرَجْــــتُ‏‮ ‬‬يَـوْمَ‏‮ ‬‬الْعِيــــدِ  (I  left  on  the  feast  day) and  مَشَيْتُ‏‮ ‬‬وَرَاءَ‏‮ ‬‬الْقَوْمِ (I walked behind the people); and so يَوْمَ and وَرَاءَ are adverbial objects for both of the verbs  (خَرَجْتُ‏‮ ‬‬ and مَشَيْتُ), because the action falls on both of these objects which is the action of  الْـخُرُوجُ (leaving) and the action of الْـمَشِي (walking).  Both contain the meaning of the preposition فِي without the expression of it, because it is implied by الْيوْمَ and الْوَرَاءَ.  Similar examples are: جِئْتُ‏‮ ‬‬الْيَوْمَ‏‮ ‬‬وأَذْهَبُ‏‮ ‬‬غَدًا‏‮ ‬‬(I came today and I am leaving tomorrow), قُمْتُ‏‮ ‬‬صَبَاحًا ونِمْتُ‏‮ ‬‬مَسَـآءً (I arose in the morning and slept in the evening), جَلَسْتُ‏‮ ‬‬حِذَاءَكَ‏‮ ‬‬ووَقَفْتُ‏‮ ‬‬قُدَّامَكَ (I sat across from you and I stood in front of you) and so forth

ظَرْفُ‏‮ ‬‬الزَّمَان (the adverb of time) is the noun which demonstrates time  – like when you say: الْيَوْمَ (today), اللَّيْلَةَ (tonight), غُدْوَةً (in the morning), بُكْرَةً (at dawn), سَحَرًا (at dawn), غَدًا (tomorrow/on the morrow), عَتَمًا (in the first third of the night), صَبَاحًا (in the morning), مَسَاءً (in the evening), أَبَدًا (always / never), أَمَدًا (briefly), and حِينًا (sometimes) and what is similar to these.  All of these nouns are in the case of naṣb because they are in the adverbial condition.  And so you say:‏‮ ‬‬أَتَيْتُ‏‮ ‬‬الْيَوْمَ‏‮ ‬‬وَ‏‮ ‬‬ذَهَبْتُ‏‮ ‬‬بُكْرَةً (I came in the day and left in the evening).

ظَرْفُ‏‮ ‬‬الـْمَكَان (the adverb of place) is the noun which demonstrates location  – like when you say:  أَمَــــامَ (across from / in front of), خَلْفَ (behind), قُدَّامَ (in front of), وَرَاءَ (behind), فَوْقَ (above), تَحْتَ (below), عِنْدَ (with), مَعَ (with), إِزَاءَ (face to face / opposite someone or something), حِذَاءَ (opposite / face to face with), تِلْقَاء (opposite / in front of), هُنَا (here),‏‮ ‬‬ثَمَّ (there) and what is similar to these.  And so you say: جَلَسْتُ‏‮ ‬‬أَمَامَ‏‮ ‬‬زَيْدٍ (I sat across from Zayd) and حِذَا عَمْرٍو (opposite ʿAmr) and تِلْقَاءَ‏‮ ‬‬الْبَيْتِ (in front of the house).  The rest of the adverbs of time are use in a similar manner.

(*note in ʿArabic)

الظرف هو الـمسمَّى الـمفعول فيه أيضًا فهو الـمـنصوب الواقع فيه الفعل متضمنًا معنى في‏‮ ‬‬دون لفظها فهكذا قلنا ظَرْفُ‏‮ ‬‬الزَّمَان وَظَرْفُ‏‮ ‬‬الـْمَكَان‏‮ ((‬‬منصوب على تقدير في‏‮ ‬‬دون لفظها‏‮)) ‬‬لأنّ‏‮ ‬‬معنى قولك أَتَيْتُ‏‮ ‬‬الْيوْمَ‏‮ ((‬‬أَتَيْتُ‏‮ ‬‬فِي‏‮ ‬‬الْيَوْمِ‏‮))‬‬ ومعنى قولك جَلَسْتُ‏‮ ‬‬عِنْدَ‏‮ ‬‬زَيْدٍ‏‮ ((‬‬جَلَسْتُ‏‮ ‬‬فِي‏‮ ‬‬الـْمَكَانِ‏‮ ‬‬الْقَرِيبِ‏‮ ‬‬مِنْهُ‏‮)) ‬‬فلو لم‏‮ ‬‬يكن على معني‏‮ ‬‬في‏‮ ‬‬نحو انْتَطَرْتُ‏‮ ‬‬يَوْمَ‏‮ ‬‬الْعِيدِ‏‮ ‬‬أو كانت‏‮ ((‬‬في‏‮)) ‬‬ظاهرةً‏‮ ‬‬نحو أَتَيْتُ‏‮ ‬‬فِي‏‮ ‬‬الصَّبَاحِ‏‮ ‬‬كان الأوّل منصوبًا على انه مفعولٌ‏‮ ‬‬به والثَّانِي‏‮ ‬‬مجرورًا بالحرف‏‮   ‬‬

(*note in English)

الظَّرْفُ (The adverb) is also known as الْـمَفْعُولُ‏‮ ‬‬فِيهِ (the adverbial object).  It is the noun in the case of naṣb upon which the action of the verb falls and implies the meaning of the preposition فِي (in) without expressing it. Therefore, we  have  said, “ظَرْفُ‏‮ ‬‬الزَّمَانِِ (the adverb of time) and ظَرْفُ‏‮ ‬‬الـْمَكَانِِِ (the adverb of place) are in the case of naṣb because of the implication of [the harf] فِي”. It means that what is being implied is the prepositions فِي (in) without it being expressed, because when you say: أَتَيْتُ‏‮ ‬‬الْيَوْمَ (I came today) what you mean is أَتَيْتُ‏‮ ‬‬فِي‏‮ ‬‬الْيَوْمِ (I came in the day) and when you say:  جَلَسْتُ‏‮ ‬‬عِنْدَ‏‮ ‬‬زَيْدٍ (I sat with Zayd) what you mean is  جَلَسْتُ‏‮ ‬‬فِي‏‮ ‬‬الـْمَكَانِ‏‮ ‬‬الْقَرَيبِ‏‮ ‬‬مِنْهُ (I sat in a place near him).  The preposition فِي is not implied however, if you say: أَنْتَطَرْتُ‏‮ ‬‬يَوْمَ‏‮ ‬‬الْعِيدِ (I await the day of ‘Iid)  or when the word فِي comes in (a sentence) like:أَتَيْتُ‏‮ ‬‬فِي‏‮ ‬‬الصَّبَاحِ‏‮ ‬‬(I came in the morning). The word يَوْمَ in the first example is in the case of naṣb because it is the object of the verb and the word الصَّبَاحِ in the second example in the case of khafḍ because it is the object of the preposition.

 الْـحَيْضُ (The blood of menstruation) ‮ ‬هُـوَ‮ ‬الدَّمُ‮ ‬الْـخَارِجُ‮ ‬بنَفْسِهِ(is the [natural] blood flow in itself) مِنْ‮ ‬قُبُلِ‮ ‬مَنْ‮ ‬تَـحْمِلُ (from the woman who is able to become pregnant). عَادَةٌ‮ ‬فِي‮ ‬مُدَّةِ‮ ‬خَمْسَةَ‮ ‬عَشَرَ‮ ‬يَـوْمًـا (It can last up to fifteen days) فَدُونَهَا إِلَى سَاعَةٍ‮ ‬ (or as little as an hour) مِنْ‮ ‬غَيْرِ‮ ‬وِلاَدَةٍ‮ ‬([as long as] it is not caused by childbirth) وَلاَ‮ ‬مَـرْضٍ (or illness). فَأَقَلُّهُ (The minimum duration [of purity from the blood of menstruation]) لاَ‮ ‬حَـدَّ‮ ‬لَـهُ (has no limit), كَـأَكْـثَرِ‮ ‬الطُّهْـرِ(likewise the maximum duration [of purity from the blood of menstruation][has no limit]). وَأَمَّا أَقَـلُّ‮ ‬الطُّهْـرِ (The minimum) فَخَمْسَةَ‮ ‬عَشَرَ‮ ‬يَوْمًا (can be fifteen days). وَأَمَّا أَكْثَرُ‮ ‬الْـحَيْضِ (As for the maximum duration period for the blood of menstruation), فَـيَخْتََلفُ (it varies) بِـخْتِلاَفِ‮ ‬الْـحُيَّضِ (in accord with the different menstrual cycles [of each female]). ‮  ‬فَإنْ‮ ‬كَانَـتْ‮ ‬مُـبْتَدَأَةٌ‮ ‬ (If she’s just staring to have a menstrual period) فَأَكْثَرُ (the maximum period) فِـي‮ ‬حَـقِّهَا‮ ‬(in reality) إذَا تَـمَادَتْ‮ ‬بِـهَا الْـحَيْضَةُ (if the bleeding persists) خَمْسَةَ‮ ‬عَشَـرَ‮ ‬يَـوْمًـا (is fifteen days). وَإِنْ‮ ‬كَنَاتْ‮ ‬مُعْتَادَةٌ‮ ‬(If she is a woman who is accustomed to regular menstrual cycles]),فَـإِمَّّا أَنْ تَـخْتَلِفَ‮ ‬عَـادَتُـهَا أَمْ‮ ‬لاَ (her normal period is either irregular or regular). فَـإنْ‮ ‬لَـمْ‮ ‬تَـخْتَلِفِ‮ ‬(Even if it is not irregular), ‮ ‬اسْظهَرَتْ‮ ‬عَلَى عَادَتِهَا بِثَلاَثَةِ‮ ‬أَيَّامًا (she can use precaution by adding three days above her normal period) مَا لَـمْ‮ ‬تُجَاوـِزْ‮  ‬خَـمْسَةَ‮ ‬عَشَـرَ‮ ‬يَوْمًَا ( that usually doesn’t exceed fifteen days),وَإِنِ‮ ‬اخْتِلاَفَتِ‮ ‬اسْتَظَهَرَتْ‮ ‬عَلَى أَكْثرِ‮ ‬عَادَتِهَا‮ ‬ (while if it [her period] is irregular, she can also use precaution for what is beyond her normal period),كَـذَ^الكَ‮ ‬ (in the same way [that is to say: she can add three days to what is above her normal period]). وَهِـيَ‮ ‬ (She),فِـي‮ ‬أَيَّّامِ‮ ‬الاسْـتِظْهَارِ (during the days of istiḍh-haar [precaution before performing ablution]) ‮ ‬حَـائِـضٌ (is still considered to be a menstruating woman). فَإِنْ‮ ‬تَـمَادَى بِهَا (If it [the bleeding] persist with her) ‮ ‬إِلَى تَـمَامِ‮ ‬خَمْسَةَ‮ ‬عَشَرَ‮ ‬يَومًا (up to the completion of fifteen days), فَحُكْمُهَا حُكْمُ‮ ‬الطَّاهِرِ (the judgement for her is same as the judgement for the woman who has purity) ‮ ‬فِـي‮ ‬تَـوْجِـيهِ(in respect) الصَّلاَةِ (to the prayer),وَالصَّوْمِ‮ ‬(fasting), وعَـدَمِ‮ ‬القَضَاءِ (the repayment of missed prayers), وَإِتْيَانِ‮ ‬الزَّوْجِ (and the arrival of the husband for intercourse).

فصْلٌ (Section)

ولِلطَّهْرِ‮ ‬عَلاَمَتَانِ (Purity from menstruation has two signs:) 1. الْـخُفُوفُ (dryness): وَهُـوَ (it is) أَنْ‮ ‬تُـدْخِـلَ‮ ‬الْـمَرْأَةُ (when a woman puts) خِرْفَةً (a cloth) فِي‮ ‬فُرْجِـهَا (into the opening of her vagina) فَتَخْـرُجَ (and when she takes it out),‮ ‬جَافَّةً (it is dry);لَـيْسَ‮ ‬عَـلَيْهَا شَـيْءٌ‮ ‬مِـنَ‮ ‬الدَّمِ‮ ‬ (there isn’t any blood on it). 2. وَالْقَصَّةُ‮ ‬الْبَيْضَاءُ (al-qiṣṣatu-l-bayḍaa’u) ‮ ‬وَهِيََ‮ ‬مَاءٌ‮ ‬أَبْيَضُ‮ ‬رَقِيٍقٌ(which is thin white water) يَأْتِى فِي‮ ‬آخِرِ‮ ‬الْـحَيْضِ (that comes at the end of menstrual bleeding) كَـمَاءِ‮ ‬الْقَصَّةِ (which like the water from gypsum). ‮ ‬وَهِـيَ‮ ‬الْـجِيرُ(It [resembles] the water of quicklime) وَالْـقَصَّةُ (and gypsum). أَبْـلغُ (This is a more reliable indicator) للْـمُتَادَةِ (for a woman who is accustom to having a menstrual period). فإِذَا رَأَتِ‮ ‬الْـخُفُوفَ‮ ‬أَوَّلاً (Even if she see the dryness first), ‮ ‬انْـتَظَرَتِ (she should still expect to see) الْـقَصَّةَ (the white water) لآخِرِ‮ ‬الْوَقْتِ‮ ‬الْـمُخْتَارِ (towards the end of the particular period).

وَأَمَّا الْـمُبْتَدَأَةُ (As for the one who is just starting to menstruate), فَـلاَ‮ ‬تَـنْتَطِرُ (she should not expect to see) الْـقَصَّةِ‮ ‬ (the white water)إذَا رأَتِ‮ ‬الْـجُفُوفِ‮ ‬أَوَّلاً‮ ‬(if she sees dryness first). وَعَـلَى الْـمَرْأَتِ (A woman is obligated) أَنْ‮ ‬تَنْتَطِرَ‮  ‬طَهْرَهَا (to look for her state of purity) عِنْدَ‮ ‬النَّوْمِ (when she’s going to sleep) وَعِنْدَ‮ ‬صَـلاَةِ‮ ‬الصُّبْحِ (and when it is time to pray Ṣalatu-ṣ-Ṣubḥ).

وَيَـمْنَعُ‮ ‬الْـحَيْضُ (Menstruation prevents) الصَّلاَةَ (prayer [from being performed]), وَالصَّومَ (fasting) والطَّلاَقَ ([the pronouncement of] divorce), ومَسَّ‮ ‬الْـمُصحَفِ (the touching of a copy of the Qur’an), وَقرَاءَةَ‮ ‬القُرْأَنِ (the recitation of the Qur’an), وَدُخُـولَ‮ ‬الْـمَسْجِـدِ (the entry [of a woman] into the masjid), وَالْـوَطَءَ‮ ‬فِـى الْـفُرْجِ (sexual intercourse [between the man and the woman]) زَمَنَ‮ ‬الْـحَيْضِ (during the time of menstruation), وَبَـعَدَهُ (and after it), قَبْلَ‮ ‬طُهْرِهَا بِالْـمَاءِ (before the woman has purified herself with water).

فصْلٌ (Section) النَّفَاسُ (The Blood of Parturition [Childbirth])

النَّفَاسُ (The blood of parturition [childbirth]) هُـوَ‮ ‬الدَّمُ‮ ‬الْـخَارِجُ (is the blood which comes out) مِـنَ‮ ‬الْـقَبْلِ (of the opening of the woman)  بِسَـبَبِ‮ ‬الْوِلاَدَةِ (because of childbirth) غَـيْرَ‮ ‬زَائِدِ‮ ‬عَلى سِـتِّيـنَ‮ ‬يَوْمًا (for a period not exceeding sixty days)¹ فَـلاَ‮ ‬يَسْـتَظْهِرُ ([After sixty days,] there are no precautionary days)². وَحُـكْمُ‮ ‬دَّمِ‮ ‬النَّفَاسِ (The legal ruling for the blood of parturition [childbirth]) فِـيمَا‮ ‬يَـمْنَعُهُ (in respect to what it prohibits) وَِفِي‮ ‬اقتضَائِهِ‮ ‬الْغَسْلَ (and in respect the necessity of ghusl) حُـكْمُ‮ ‬دَمِ‮ ‬الْـحَيْضِ (is the [same as] legal ruling for menstruation) مُـطْلَقًا (without any restriction). وَاللَّهُ‮ ‬أَعْلَمُ (And Allah is the Best Knower).

Footnotes:

^{1 Minimum of the bleeding after childbirth (Nifas)}

^{وإذا انقطع دم النفساء وإن كان قرب الولادة اغتسلت وصلت}

^{If the bleeding after childbirth (nifas) stops soon after the birth, a woman should do ghusl straightaway and start doing the prayer. [ If shortly after childbirth a woman sees the sign which indicates that it is ended with white discharge and dryness, then she washes and prays. "Soon after birth" has no minimum limit in relation to time and it has a minimum in relation to what emerges, which is one gush.]}

^{Maximum of the bleeding after childbirth (Nifas)}

^{وإن تمادى بها الدم جلست ستين ليلة ثم اغتسلت وكانت مستحاضة تصلي‮ ‬وتصوم وتوطأ}

^{However, if bleeding continues longer than sixty days, then she does ghusl anyway, the bleeding is considered as istihada, and she does the prayer and fasts and her husband can have sexual intercourse with her. [If the bleeding continues, she waits for sixty days, which it the maximum of its extent. If it stops after sixty, the matter is clear. If she continues to bleed after sixty, it is abnormal bleeding and she has a ghusl, prays and fasts and her husband can come to her.]}

^{2 The three precautionary days that a woman waits before performing ghusl.}

17 – (The Chapter About Al-Maṣdar [The Verbal Noun])

ʿArabic Text:

‏‮(‬‬الـْمَصْدَرُ‏‮ ‬‬هُوَ‏‮ ‬‬الإِسْمُ‏‮ ‬‬الـْمَنْصُوبُ‏‮ ‬‬الذِي‏‮ ‬‬يَجِىءُ‏‮ ‬‬ثَالِثًا فِي‏‮ ‬‬تَصْرِيفِ‏‮ ‬‬الْفِعْلِ‏‮ ‬‬نَحْوُ‏‮ ‬‬ضَرَبَ‏‮ ‬‬يَضْرِبُ‏‮ ‬‬ضَرْبًا وَهُوَ‏‮ ‬‬قِسْمَانِ‏‮ ‬‬لَفْظِيٌّ‏‮ ‬‬وَمَعْنَوِيٌّ‏‮ ‬‬فَإِنْ‏‮ ‬‬وَافَقَ‏‮ ‬‬لَفْظُهُ‏‮ ‬‬لَفْظَ‏‮ ‬‬فِعْلِهِ‏‮ ‬‬فََهُوَ‏‮ ‬‬لَفْظِيٌّ‏‮ ‬‬نَحْوُ‏‮ ‬‬قَتَلَهُ‏‮ ‬‬قَتْلاً‏‮ ‬‬وَإَنْ‏‮ ‬‬وَافَقَ‏‮ ‬‬مَعْنَى فِعْلِهِ‏‮ ‬‬دُونَ‏‮ ‬‬لَفْظِهِ‏‮ ‬‬فَهُوَ‏‮ ‬‬مَعْنَوِيٌّ‏‮ ‬‬نَحْوُ‏‮ ‬‬جَلَسْتُ‏‮ ‬‬قُعُودًا وَقُمْتُ‏‮ ‬‬وَقُوفًا وَمَا أَشَْبَهَ‏‮ ‬‬ذَلِكَ‏‮)‬‬

 English Translation:

الْـمَصْدَرُ (The verbal noun) هُـوَ (is) الإِسْـمُ‏‮ ‬‬الـْـمَنْصُوبُ (the noun in the case of naṣb) الذِي‏‮ ‬‬يَـجِىءُ (which occurs as) ثَـالِـثًا (the third form) فِي‏‮ ‬‬تَـصْرِيفِ (in the conjugation of) الْـفِعْـــلِِ (the verb)  - نَـحْـــوُ (like when you say):  ضَـرَبَ (He beat…), يَضْرِبُ (He is beating…), ضَرْبًا (a beating).  وَهُـو (And it is) قِسْمَانِ (of two  kinds): لَـفْظِيّ (a noun that has a pronunciation that is similar [to the verb]) وَمَـعْنَوِيّ (and a noun that has a similar meaning [to the verb]). فَـإِنْ (If) وَافَقَ‏‮ ‬‬لَفْظُهُ (its pronunciation corresponds) لَفْظَ‏‮ ‬‬فِعْلِهِ (to the pronunciation of its verb), فََـهُوُ (then it is) لَـفْظِيٌّ (a noun that sounds like the verb in its pronunciation)  - نَـحْوُ‏‮ ‬‬ (like when you say):  قَتَلَهُ‏‮ ‬‬قَـتْلاً (I killed him a killing)¹ فَـإِنْ (but if), وَافَـقَ (it [the maṣdar’s meaning] corresponds) مَعْنَى فِعْلِهِ (with the meaning of its verb) دُونَ‏‮ ‬‬لَـفْظِهِ (but not its pronunciation), فَـهُوَ (then it is) معنـــويّ (a noun possessing a similar meaning [to the verb]) - نَـحْوُ (like when you say): جَلَسْتُ‏‮ ‬‬قُعُودًا (I sat a sitting)²  وَقُمْتُ‏‮ ‬‬وُقُوفًا and (I stood a standing)³ وَمَا أَشَْبَهَ‏‮ ‬‬ذَلِكَ (and what is similar to these).

Explanation of Text in ʿArabic:

إن الـمصدر هو الذي‏‮ ‬‬يقع ثالثًا فِي‏‮ ‬‬تصريف فعله وهو منصوب لأنَّه الـمفعول الـمطلق وهو الإسم الـمُسَـلِّط عليه عاملٌ‏‮ ‬‬وهو فعل مذكور معه والـمصدر قسمان لفظيّ‏‮ ‬‬ومعنويّ‏‮ ‬‬فالـمصدر اللّفظي‏‮ ‬‬نحو ضَرَبْتُهُ‏‮ ‬‬ضَرْبًا فضربًا مصدر منصوب وضَرَبَ‏‮ ‬‬هو عامله وهو موافق له في‏‮ ‬‬لفظه ومعناه وأمّا الـمصدر الـمعنويّ‏‮ ‬‬هو من ذات معنى عامله فقط نحو قَعَدْتُ‏‮ ‬‬جُلُوسًا فجلوسًا مصدر منصوب ومسّلط عليه عامله من معناه ولا من لفظه وهو قَعَدَ‏‮ ‬‬فإن جلوسًا موافق معنى‏‮ ((‬‬قعد‏‮)) ‬‬دون لفظه،‏‮ ‬‬

Explanation of Text in English:

الْـمَصْدَرُ (The verbal noun) is the noun which occurs as the third form in the conjugation of its verb.  It is in the case  of  naṣb, because  it  is  الْـمَفْعُول الْـمُطْـلَق (the unrestricted object) which is influenced by  عَـامِــــــلٌ (a governor).   Its governor is  فِعْــلٌ مَذْكُورٌ‏‮ ‬‬مَعَهُ (a verb that is mentioned with it).

الـمَصْدَر (The verbal noun) is of two kinds: لَـفْظِيُّ (a noun that has a similar pronunciation to the pronunciation verb) and مَـعْنَوِيٌّ (a noun having a similar meaning to the meaning of the verb).  الْـمَصْدَرُ‏‮ ‬‬اللَّفْظِيُّ (the noun having a similar pronunciation to the verb) is like when you say: ضَـرَبْـتُهُ‏‮ ‬‬ضَـرْبًـا (I beat him a beating – that is to say: I beat him intensely).   And so ضَرْبًـا is a مَصْدَرٌ (a verbal noun) in the case of naṣb and the verb ضَـرَبَ is عَـامِـلُهُ (its governor) and that which agrees with it in its pronunciation and its meaning.

As for الْـمَصْدَرُ‏‮ ‬‬الـمَعْنَوِيُّ (a noun having a similar meaning to the verb), it is from the essence of the meaning of عَـامِـلُهُ (its governing verb).  It is like when you  say: قَـعَدْتُ‏‮ ‬‬جُـلُوسًـا (I sat a sitting - [that is to say: I sat for a long time]).  And so, جُـلُوسًـا (sitting) is a مَـصْدَرٌ in the case of naṣb and عَـامّـلُهُ (its governor) has influenced its meaning but not its pronunciation.  It (الْـعَامِـلُ [the governor]) is قَـعَدَ (sat).  And so جُـلُوسًـا agrees in meaning with قَـعَدَ without having its pronunciation.

(*note in ʿArabic)

الـمصدر ما‏‮ ‬‬يؤكد عامله كضَرْبَتُهُ‏‮ ‬‬ضَرْبًا أو ما‏‮ ‬‬يبيّن نوعه كنَظَرْتُ‏‮ ‬‬إِلَيْهِ‏‮ ‬‬نَظَرًا أو ما‏‮ ‬‬يبيّن عدده كضَرَبْتُهُ‏‮ ‬‬ضَرْبَتَيْنِ‏‮ ‬‬

يسمّى الـمصدر مفعولاً‏‮ ‬‬مطلقًا أيضًا فسمّى مطلقًا لأنّه مفعولاً‏‮ ‬‬بدون قَيْدٍ‏‮ ‬‬إذْ‏‮ ‬‬تقول‏‮ ‬‭:‬‮ ‬‬ضَرَبْتُهُ‏‮ ‬‬ضَرْبًا فيكن ضَرْبًا نفس الفعل الذي‏‮ ‬‬فعلته وتقول‏‮ ‬‭:‬‮ ‬‬ضَرَبْتُ‏‮ ‬‬خَالِدًا فإنّ‏‮ ‬‬خَالِدًا ليس نفس الفعل الذي‏‮ ‬‬فعلته بل فَعَلْتَ‏‮ ‬‬بِخَالِدٍ‏‮ ‬‬فِعْلا وهو ضرْبًا ولذلك‏‮ ‬‬يسمّى خالِدًا مفعولاً‏‮ ‬‬به وإنّ‏‮ ‬‬الـمفعول الـْمُطْلَق فهو نفس ما فعله الفاعل‏‮ ‬‬

وقيل أيضًا‏‮ ‬‬يسمّى الـمصدر مطلقًا لانّه الـمفعول الذي‏‮ ‬‬لم‏‮ ‬‬يتقيد بحرف جرّ‏‮ ‬‬نحو الـمفعول‏‮ (( ‬‬به‏‮)) ‬‬والـمفعول‏‮ (( ‬‬معه‏‮ )) ‬‬والـمفعول‏‮ (( ‬‬فيه‏‮ )) ‬‬وقِسْ‏‮ ‬‬علي‏‮ ‬‬مُقَيِّدِ‏‮ ‬‬الـمفعول‏‮ ‬‬

(*note in English)

الَـمَصْدَرَُ (The verbal noun) can emphasizes عَامِله (its governing verb) like: ضَرَبْتُهُ‏‮ ‬‬ضَرْبًا (I beat him a beating – that is to say: “I beat him intensely”) or clarify (the kind of action) – like: نَـظَرْتُ‏‮ ‬‬إِلَـيْهِ‏‮ ‬‬نَـظَرًا‏‮ ‬‬(I look at him a looking – that is to say: “I stared at him”) or show the number of times the action occurred like: ضَـرَبْـتُهُ‏‮ ‬‬ضَرْبَتَيْنِ (I beat him two beatings – that is to say: “I beat him twice”).

الْـمَصْدَرُ (The verbal noun) is also called الْـمَفْعُول الْـمُطْـلَق (the unrestricted object).  It is said to be مُـطْلَقًا (unrestricted), because it is an object without restriction.  When you say, ضَرَبْتُهُ‏‮ ‬‬ضَرْبًا (I beat him a beating), it is ضَرْبًا which is the essence of the action which you did.  Whereas if you say: ضَرَبْتُ‏‮ ‬‬خَالِدًا (I beat Khaalid), خَالِدًا (Khaalidan) is not the essence of the action you did.  On the contrary, فَعَلْتَ‏‮ ‬‬بِخَالِدٍ‏‮ ‬‬فِعْلاً (you did an action to خَالِدًا [Khaalid])  -  and that action is ضَرْبًا (a beating).  Therefore, it is for this reason Khaalid is called مَفْعُول بِهِ (a receiver of it) or an object.  الْـمَفْعُولُ‏‮ ‬‬الْـمُظْلَقُ (the unrestricted object), it is the essence of the action done to him by the doer.

It has also been said, that الْـمَصْدَرُ (The verbal noun) is called مُـطْلَقًا (unrestricted), because it is the object that is not restricted by حَـرْفُ‏‮ ‬‬جَرٍّ (a preposition) like when you say:الْـمَفْعُولُ‏‮ ‬‬‏‮ ‬‬بِـهِ‏‮ ‬‬ِ‏‬  and  الـْـمَفْعُولُ‏‮ ‬‬مَـعْهُ‏‮ ‬ and ‏‮ ‬‬الْـمَفْعُولُ‏‮ ‬‬فِيهِ‏‬ and so forth which restricts the objects.

Footnotes:

1  قَتَلَهُ‏‮ ‬‬قَتْلاً I killed him a killing – meaning: I slaughtered him. 

2  جَلَسْتُ‏‮‬‬ قُعُودًا I sat a sitting - meaning: I sat for a very long time. 

3  قُمْتُ‏‮ ‬‬وُقُوفًا I stood a standing – meaning: I stood for a long time.