http://www.livingislam.org/n/sfh_e.html#5
{He gives wisdom to whomever He will, and whoever receives wisdom receives immense good} (2:269). "He for whom All�h desires great good, He grants him (superlative) understanding in the Religion (yufaqqihhu/yufqihhu f� al-d�n). I only distribute and it is All�h Who gives. That group shall remain in charge of the Order of All�h, unharmed by those who oppose them, until the coming of the Order of All�h."1
Im�m al-Sh�fi`� said: "You [the scholars of h.ad�th] are the pharmacists but we [the jurists] are the physicians." Mull� `Al� al-Q�r� commented: "The early scholars said: The h.ad�th scholar without knowledge of fiqh is like a seller of drugs who is no physician: he has them but he does not know what to do with them; and the fiqh scholar without knowledge of h.ad�th is like a physician without drugs: he knows what constitutes a remedy, but does not have it available."2
Im�m Ah.mad is related by his students Ab� T.�lib and H.umayd ibn Zanj�yah to say: "I never saw anyone adhere more to h.ad�th than al-Sh�fi`�. No one preceded him in writing down h.ad�th in a book." The meaning of this is that al-Sh�fi`� possessed the intelligence of h.ad�th after which Ah.mad sought, as evidenced by the latter's statement: "How rare is fiqh among those who know h.ad�th!" This is a reference to the h.ad�th: "It may be one carries understanding (fiqh) - meaning: memorizes the proof-texts of fiqh - without being a person of understanding (faq�h)."3 The Salaf and Khalaf elucidated this rule in many famous statements showing that, for all the exalted status of the Muh.addith, yet the Faq�h excels him:
* Ibn Ab� Zayd al-M�lik� reports Sufy�n ibn `Uyayna as saying: "H.ad�th is a pitfall (mad.illa) except for the fuqah�'," and M�lik's companion `Abd All�h ibn Wahb said: "H.ad�th is a pitfall except for the Ulema. Every memorizer of h.ad�th that does not have an Im�m in fiqh is misguided (d.�ll), and if All�h had not rescued us with M�lik and al-Layth [ibn Sa`d], we would have been misguided."4
Ibn Ab� Zayd comments: "He [Sufy�n] means that other than the jurists might take something in its external meaning when, in fact, it is interpreted in the light of another h.ad�th or some evidence which remains hidden to him; or it may in fact consist in discarded evidence due to some other [abrogating] evidence. None can meet the responsibility of knowing this except those who deepened their learning and obtained fiqh." Im�m al-Haytam� said something similar.5
Ibn Wahb is also reported to say: "I met three hundred and sixty learned people of knowledge but, without M�lik and
al-Layth, I would have strayed."6
Another versions states: "Were it not for M�lik ibn Anas and al-Layth ibn Sa`d I would have perished; I used to think everything that is [authentically] related from the Prophet - All�h bless and greet him - must be put into practice."7
Another version has: "I gathered a lot of h.ad�ths and they drove me to confusion. I would consult M�lik and al-Layth and they would say to me, 'take this and leave this.'"8 Ibn Wahb had compiled 120,000 narrations according to Ah.mad ibn S.�lih..9
Hence, Ibn `Uqda replied to a man who had asked him about a certain narration: "Keep such h.ad�ths to a minimum for, truly, they are unsuitable except for those who know their interpretation. Yah.y� ibn Sulayman narrated from Ibn Wahb that he heard M�lik say: 'Many of these h.ad�ths are [a cause for] misguidance; some h.ad�ths were narrated by me and I wish that for each of them I had been flogged with a stick twice. I certainly no longer narrate them!'"10
By his phrase, "Many of these h.ad�ths are misguidance," M�lik means their adducing them in the wrong place and meaning, because the Sunna is wisdom and wisdom is to place each thing in its right context.11
* Ibn al-Mub�rak said: "If All�h had not rescued me with Ab� H.an�fa and Sufy�n [al-Thawr�] I would have been like the rest of the common people." Al-Dhahab� relates it as: "I would have been an innovator."12
* Im�m Ah.mad's teacher, Yah.y� ibn Sa`�d al-Qat.t.�n, despite his foremost status as the Master of h.ad�th Masters and expert in narrator-recommendation and discreditation, would not venture to extract legal rulings from the evidence but followed in this the fiqh of Ab� H.an�fa as he explicitly declared: "We do not belie All�h. We never heard better than the juridical opinion (ra'�) of Ab� H.an�fa, and we followed most of his positions."13
Similarly, Muh.ammad ibn `Abd All�h ibn `Abd al-H.akam said: "If it were not for al-Sh�fi`� I would not have known how to reply to anyone. Because of him I know what I know."14 As for Muh.ammad ibn Yah.y� al-Dhuhl� (d. 258) of Khur�s�n, whom Ab� Zur`a ranked above Im�m Muslim and who is considered an Am�r al-Mu'min�n f� al-H.ad�th ("Commander of the Faithful in the Science of H.ad�th"), he never considered himself a non-muqallid but said: "I have made Ah.mad ibn H.anbal an Im�m in all that stands between me and my Lord."15 Mis`ar ibn Kid�m
said the same with regard to Im�m Ab� H.an�fa.16
* Fiqh is the context of M�lik's statement: "Wisdom and knowledge are a light by which All�h guides whomever He pleases; it does not consist in knowing many things"17 and al-Sh�fi`�'s: "Knowledge is what benefits. Knowledge is not what one has memorized."18
Similarly, al-Dhahab� defined knowledge in Isl�m (al-`ilm) as "Not the profusion of narration, but a light which All�h casts into the heart. Its condition is followership (ittib�`) and the flight away from egotism (haw�) and innovation."19 All this elucidates al-H.asan al-Bas.r� report that the Prophet said: "The purpose and energy of the Ulema is towards addressing needs while the purpose and energy of fools is to narrate" (himmat al-`ulam�' al-ri`�ya wa himmat al-sufah�' al-riw�ya).20
* Wak�` preferred long-chained narrations through the fuqah�' to short-chained ones through non-fuqah�' and said: "The h.ad�th current among the jurists is better than the h.ad�th that is current among the h.ad�th scholars."21
This is a foundational rule in the School of Im�m Ab� H.an�fa. Like Yah.y� al-Qat.t.�n, Wak�` did not make ijtih�d but followed the positions of Ab� H.an�fa.22
* Al-A`mash (Ab� Muh.ammad Sulaym�n ibn Mahr�n al-Asad� the T�bi`� 61/-148) also said: "The h.ad�th that jurists circulate among themselves is better than that which h.ad�th narrators circulate among themselves."23
* Ibn Rajab said that Ab� D�w�d in his Sunan was more concerned with the jurisprudence of the h.ad�th than with its chains of transmission.24
* Sufy�n al-Thawr� used to say to the h.ad�th scholars: "Come forward, O weak ones!"25 He also said: "If h.ad�th were a good thing it would have vanished just as all goodness has vanished," and "Pursuing the study of h.ad�th is not part of the preparation for death, but a disease that preoccupies people." Al-Dhahab� commented: "He said this verbatim. He is right in what he said because pursuing the study of h.ad�th is other than the h.ad�th itself."26
* Sufy�n also said: "The explanation (tafs�r) of the h.ad�th is better than the h.ad�th."27 Another wording has: "The explanation of the h.ad�th is better than its audition."28 Ab� `Al� al-Naysab�r� said: "We consider understanding superior to memorization."29
* Ish.�q ibn R�h�yah said: "I would sit in Iraq with Ah.mad ibn H.anbal, Yah.y� ibn Ma`�n, and our companions, rehearsing the narrations from one, two, three routes of transmission... But when I said: What is its intent? What is its explanation? What is its fiqh? They would all remain mute except Ah.mad ibn H.anbal."30
* The perspicuity and fiqh of Ab� Thawr among the h.ad�th Masters is famous. A woman stood by a gathering of scholars of h.ad�th comprising Yah.y� ibn Ma`�n, Ab� Khaythama, Khalaf ibn Salim, and others. She heard them saying: "The Prophet said," and "So-and-so narrated," and "No one other than So-and-so narrated," etc. Whereupon she asked them: "Can a woman in her menses wash the dead?" for that was her occupation. No one in the entire gathering could answer her, and they began to look at one another.
Ab� Thawr arrived, and they referred her to him. She asked him the same question and he said: "Yes, she can wash the dead, as per the h.ad�th of al-Q�sim from `A'isha: 'Your menses are not in your hand,'31 and her narration whereby she would scrub the Prophet's hair at a time she was menstruating.32 If the head of the living can be washed
[by a woman in her menses], then a fortiori the dead!"
Hearing this, the h.ad�th scholars said: "Right! So-and-so narrated it, and So-and-so told us, and we know it from such-and-such a chain," and they plunged back into the narrations and chains of transmission.
The woman said: "Where were you all until now?"33
* Ibn `Abd al-Barr cites Im�m Ah.mad as saying: "From where does Yah.y� ibn Ma`�n know al-Sh�fi`�? He does not know al-Sh�fi`� nor has any idea what al-Sh�fi`� says!"34 Ibn R�h�yah similarly conceded defeat before al-Sh�fi`�'s jurisprudence although himself reputed for fiqh.35
* `Abd al-Razz�q al-S.an`�n�, Sufy�n's contemporary, was the teacher of the pillars of h.ad�th memorization in their time - Ah.mad, Ibn R�h�yah, Ibn Ma`�n, and Muh.ammad ibn Yah.y� al-Dhuhl�. Yet when Muh.ammad ibn Yaz�d al-Mustaml� asked Ah.mad: "Did he [`Abd al-Razz�q] possess fiqh?" Ah.mad replied: "How rare is fiqh among those who know h.ad�th!"36
* Anas ibn S�r�n said: "I came to K�fa and found in it 4,000 persons pursuing h.ad�th and 400 persons who had obtained fiqh."37
* Ibn `Abd al-Sal�m said: "The majority of h.ad�th scholars are ignorant in fiqh."38 A majority of 90" according to Anas ibn S�r�n - among the Salaf!
* Al-Dhahab� said: "The majority of the h.ad�th scholars have no understanding, no diligence in the actual knowledge of h.ad�th, and no fear of All�h regarding it."39 All of the authorities al-Dhahab� listed as "those who are imitated in Isl�m" are Jurisprudents and not merely h.ad�th masters.
* Al-Sakh�w� in his biography of Ibn H.ajar entitled al-Jaw�hir wa al-Durar relates similar views:
Al-F�riq� said: "One who knows chains of h.ad�th but not the legal rulings derived from them cannot be counted among the Scholars of the Law." His student Ibn Ab� `As.r�n (d. 585) also followed this view in his book al-Intis.�r.40
* Ibr�h�m al-Nakha`� said: "Truly, I hear a h.ad�th, then I see what part of it applies. I apply it and leave the rest."41 Shaykh Muh.ammad `Aww�ma said: "Meaning, what is recognized by the authorities is retained while anything odd (ghar�b), anomalous (sh�dhdh), or condemned (munkar) is put aside." Yaz�d ibn Ab� H.ab�b said: "When you hear a h.ad�th, proclaim it; if it is recognized, [keep it,] otherwise, leave it."42
* Ibn Ab� Layl� said: "A man does not understand h.ad�th until he knows what to take from it and what to leave."43
* `Abd al-Rah.m�n ibn Mahd�, the Commander of the believers in H.ad�th, said: "It is impermissible for someone to be an Im�m [i.e. to be imitated] until he knows what is sound and what is unsound and until he does not take everything [sound] as evidence, and until he knows the correct way to infer knowledge [in the Religion]."44
* Al-Sh�fi`� narrated that M�lik ibn Anas was told: "Ibn `Uyayna narrates from al-Zuhr� things you do not have!" He replied: "Why, should I narrate every single h.ad�th I heard? Only if I wanted to misguide people!"45
Shaykh `Abd al-Fatt�h. Ab� Ghudda mentioned some of the above examples and commented: "If the likes of Yah.y� al-Qat.t.�n, Wak�` ibn al-Jarr�h., `Abd al-Razz�q, Yah.y� ibn Ma`�n, and those who compare with them, did not dare enter into ijtih�d and fiqh, then how rash are the claimants to ijtih�d in our time! On top of it, they call the Salaf ignorant without the least shame nor modesty! All�h is our refuge from failure."46
BLESSINGS AND PEACE ON THE PROPHET
He did not reach the same stature in fiqh. Al-Bayhaq� and others narrate that he unsuccessfully debated al-Sh�fi`� on a legal question, as a result of which the latter disapproved of his title as the "jurisprudent of Khur�s�n." To a Jahm� scholar who said: "I disbelieve in a Lord that descends from one heaven to another heaven," Ibn R�h�yah replied: "I believe in a Lord that does what He wishes." [Narrated by al-Dhahab� who identifies the scholar as Ibr�h�m ibn (Hish�m) Ab� S.�lih. in Mukhtas.ar al-`Uluw (p. 191 #234).] Al-Bayhaq� comments: "Ish.�q ibn Ibr�h�m al-Hanzali made it clear, in this report, that he considers the Descent (al-nuz�l) one of the Attributes of Action (min s.if�t al-f�`l). Secondly, he spoke of a descent without `how'. This proves he did not hold displacement (al-intiq�l) and movement from one place to another (al-zaw�l) concerning it." [See post titled, "The `Descent' of All�h Most High".] Sources: Ibn Ab� Ya`l�, T.abaq�t al-H.an�bila (1:6, 1:184); al-Bayhaq�, Man�qib al-Sh�fi`� (1:213) and al-Asm�' wa al-S.if�t (2:375-376 #951); al-Dhahab�, Siyar (9:558 #1877); Ibn al-Subk�, T.abaq�t al-Sh�fi`iyya al-Kubr� (2:89-90, 9:81). 36Narrated by Ab� Ya`l� in T.abaq�t al-H.an�bila (1:329) and cited by Shaykh Ab� Ghudda in his introduction to Muh.ammad al-Shayb�n�'s Muwat.t.a' and his short masterpiece al-Isn�d min al-D�n (p. 68). 37Narrated by al-R�mahurmuz� in al-Muh.addith al-F�s.il (p. 560). 38Ibn `Abd al-Sal�m, al-Fat�w� al-Maws.iliyya (p. 132-134). 39In al-Sakh�w�, al-Jaw�hir wa al-Durar (p. 18). 40Al-Sakh�w�, al-Jaw�hir wa al-Durar (p. 20-23). 41Narrated from Ibn Ab� Khaythama by Ab� Nu`aym in the H.ilya (4:225) and Ibn Rajab in Sharh. `Ilal al-Tirmidh� (1:413). 42In Ibn Rajab, Sharh. `Ilal al-Tirmidh� (1:413). 43In Ibn `Abd al-Barr, J�mi` Bay�n al-`Ilm (2:130). 44Narrated by Ab� Nu`aym in the H.ilya (9:3). 45Narrated by al-Khat.�b in al-J�mi` li Akhl�q al-R�w� (2:109). 46Ab� Ghudda, al-Isn�d min al-D�n (p. 68). He means by his remarks al-Alb�n� and others of his ilk. Ab� Ghudda's student, Shaykh Muh.ammad `Aww�ma, listed several examples of this rule of the Salaf in his Athar al-H.ad�th al-Shar�f f� Ikhtil�f al-A'immat al-Fuqah�' ("The Mark of the Noble H.ad�th in the Differences of the Im�ms of Jurisprudence"). Hajj Gibril
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{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all."
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
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