23 the Taqlid and Its Impact to the Contemporary Muslim
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ISSN 2705-2559 Al-Hikmah Journal of Arts & Social Sciences Education, Vol. 3, No. 1, JUNE 2021 E-ISSN 2705-2567 THE TAQLID AND ITS IMPACT TO THE CONTEMPORARY MUSLIM SOCIETY IN NIGERIA BY Dr. Tambari Sidi Yusuf: Department of Islamic Studies, Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto; E-mail: [email protected] Dr. Tukur Abubakar: Department of Arabic Language, Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto; E-mail: [email protected] & Shafa’atu Aliyu Barmo: College of Legal and Islamic Studies, Sokoto; E-mail: [email protected] Abstract The role of religion cannot be sustained without some degree of scriptural exegesis or interpretation over time. Every believer who is incapable of engaging in ijtihad, is required to choose among the group of available mujtahid, and follow the jurist’s interpretation and judgment in all matters of law. This ‘emulation of another in matters of law’ is called taqlid. In return, believers are obligated to pay a religious tax to the jurist, where the proceeds are primarily used for the development of religious institutions and the funding of social services. In a rational choice framework, we analyze the interpretation of religious scripture as a public good problem. The emergence of taqlid imitation of the work of former scholars by later scholars was a major turning point in Islamic history. It created two classes of scholars, those who referred to the primary sources of the Shariah (the early scholars), and those that did not (the later scholars). This Paper focuses on the Conceptual exposition of Taqlid among contemporary Nigerian Muslims, particularly the paper gave emphasis on ijtihad, which is the main instrument of interpreting the Divine message and relating it to the necessities of the Muslim community in its aspirations to attain justice, salvation and truth. In addition to this, the attention in the paper is drawn to relevance of Taqlid to Muslim community. Keywords: Taqlid, Contemporary, Muslim and Society Introduction All Praise is due to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, and peace be upon the greatest among the prophets and messengers, our master and leader Muhammad, and upon his righteous and pure progeny. The Messenger has said, “To Allah, the ink of the scholars is superior to the blood of the martyr” (Al-Jāmi' as Saghīr, Hadith 14582). The basis of any religion is its scripture. It constitutes the source of rules, rituals, philosophy, history and prophecies. For the most part, religions have highlighted the exogenous nature of scripture, as a set of doctrine time transmitted from God to humans, via messengers. For scripture to be classified as exogenous at any given time, the case has to be made that there exists a core content that is definite and unchanging1. The presentation or arrangement of the scripture in any accessible or stylized form should not alter the core content. It is also possible that the complete set of scripture evolves over time to include more sources, traditions and recorded events, in addition to the preserved core. Furthermore, some formative aspects of the scripture (such as a particular sequence of verses, a particular language, acceptable recitation methods and publication media) are considered to be sacred and may thus be included as part of this evolving core2. The initial era of Islam produced many great jurists and legalists: men who not only possessed exceptional acumen, but who led profoundly spiritual lives too. These jurists have been described as ‘grammarians of the 1 Al-‘Alwani, Taha Jabir, “The Crisis of Fiqh and the Methodology of Ijtihad,” TheAmerican Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 8 (1991), p. 332, quoted in Kamali, Mohammad Hashim “Methodological Issues in Islamic Jurisprudence,” Arab LawQuarterly, Vol. 11, No. 1, Brill, 1996, pp. 3-33, p. 6; accessed online on 27 Aug. 2014,<http://www.jstor.org/stable/3381731> 2 Ibid 23 ISSN 2705-2559 Al-Hikmah Journal of Arts & Social Sciences Education, Vol. 3, No. 1, JUNE 2021 E-ISSN 2705-2567 Divine Word’: explaining it, systemizing it and deriving new rulings from it. Out of these many jurists, four became renowned throughout the ummah. It was from them that four famous madhhabs, or schools of law, flowered and flourished: the Hanaf, Målik, Shåfi, and Hanbal schools of law3. In recent times, intense schisms have arisen over the issue of madhhabs and the layman’s relationship to qualified scholarship; the crux of which centres on four issues: (i) can a layman take Islam directly from the Qur’an and the Sunnah? (ii) Can a layman make taqlid of a qualified scholar: in other words, accept a scholar’s verdict without knowing the proof? (iii) Is it necessary for a layman to strictly follow one of these madhhabs to the exclusion of the others? (iv) Since there were more than four great jurists, why are there just four madhhabs; why not more?. It is in the hope of shedding some light on these questions, and in an attempt to reduce these schisms in our contemporary Muslim Community, that this paper was written. Concept of Taqlid Scholars and linguists agree that the term taqlid has its etymology, its origin, in the Arabic word, qallada; which means: “To place a collar (qilådah) around the neck.”4 The reason it is termed as such is that the one making taqlid - the muqallid - resigns his affair to the one he is performing taqlid of. Thus he is, so to speak, like someone being ‘led by the collar. As for its religious meaning, the scholars of Usul al-fiqh: those who specialise in Islamic legal theory, define taqlid in various ways. One of the most widely accepted definitions is the one that Imåm al- Ghazål articulated. He says that it is: “Accepting the view of someone without a proof (qablu qawli’l-ghayr min ghayri ˙ujjah).”5 Taqlid literally means to follow someone, to imitate. But in Islamic legal terminology it means to follow a mujtahid in religious law and commandment as he has derived them. A mujtahid is a person who is an expert on Islamic jurisprudence. Some scholars define Taqlid as the acceptance by some Muslims of the opinion of the jurist as binding authority on them and to follow it without question is known as the doctrine of Taqlid 6. Overview on “Ijtihâd” and “Taqlid Ijtihâd Linguistically, the word “ijtihâd” emanates from the root word “al-juhd”, meaning “exertion, effort, trouble or pain.” “Al-juhd” connotes exercising one’s capacity, ability, power, or strength in a correct and righteous manner.7 In the jurisprudential sense, it refers to the endeavor of a jurist to formulate a rule of law on the basis of evidence (dalil) found in the sources. (Peters, 1980:135) Besides, it has also been depicted as a "reconsidering" (Fazlurrahman 1962:12) or, most commonly, as "independent reasoning" (Schacht: 1979: 69) Speaking to either its technical or legal nature, a number of scholars have provided definitions of the term ijtihâd. For example, Saif al-Din al-Âmidî defined ijtihâd as the “total expenditure of effort in the search for an opinion as to any legal rule in such a manner that the individual senses (within himself) an inability to expend further effort” (Amidi, 1984: IV/169). The word “ijtihâd” does not exist in the Qur’an, but in some versus the words “cehd” and “cuhd” are used with the same meaning of “ijtihâd” (Q, 5:53/6:109). In the prophetic narrations which are named by “hadiths”, the term ijtihâd was used by the meaning of “doing the best to reach the right decision.” (Buhari, Itisam, 13, 21; Muslim, Akdiyyah, 15) 3 Ibid 2 p. 4 4 Najm al-D•n al-T¥f•, Shar˙ Mukhtaßar al-Raw∂ah (Beirut: Mu’assasah al-Risålah, 1410H), 3:65. 5 Al-Mustaßfå min ‘Ilm al-Uߥl (Cairo: Maktabah al-Tijåriyyah, 1356), 2:387. 6 I M Bello, 2019 7 Zebîdî, 1307:II/329 24 ISSN 2705-2559 Al-Hikmah Journal of Arts & Social Sciences Education, Vol. 3, No. 1, JUNE 2021 E-ISSN 2705-2567 Ijtihâd in Islamic Legal Theory The principle of ijtihâd is considered by jurists to have roots in a Hadith, in a discourse between the Prophet and Muadh Ibn Jabal, a companion, on his way to al-Yaman as a judge. The Prophet asked him how he would decide matters coming up before him. "I will judge matters according to the Qur'an", said Muadh. "If the Book of God contains nothing to guide me, I will act on the precedents of the Prophet of God, and if it is not in that either, then I will make a personal effort [_jtihâd] and judge according to that". The Prophet is said to have been most pleased at the reply. (Tirmizi, Ahkam, 3, Ebu Davud, Akdiyyah, 11) Some of the companions of the Prophet had appealed to the process or exercise of ijtihâd when a need arose in his absence.8 This practice continued in issuing fatwas after his death during the Khulafa-i Rashidin and the Ummayad period (al-Musâwî, 1985: 66-347) and was known as ijtihâd al-ra'y9, an expression that occurs frequently in this early period. Ijtihâd was linked with ra'y and was treated as a legitimate activity. The term carried the connotation of exerting one's efforts on behalf of the Muslim community and its interests.10 From the second century onward (eighth century CE) ijtihâd was gradually dissociated from ra'y. Muhammad Ibn Idris al-Shafi’i (d.821), the founder of the Shafi’i fiqh (school of jurisprudence), was the first to make a break from ra'y and adopted ijtihâd as a methodology synonymous with qiyas, analogical deduction,1 in his Risala2 which was the first book to be written on the principles of Islamic jurisprudence.