The Twenty-seventh Word
Conclusion
Laws change over time. Prior to Prophet Muhammad, the Seal of Prophets, different Prophets were sent to different people with different laws in even one age. As the Prophet’s most comprehensive Shari‘a suffices for all people in every age, there has been left no need for different Laws. However, various secondary matters showed that different legal schools were needed. Just as clothes are changed seasonally and cures may differ according to temperaments, rules governing secondary matters may differ, as they are based on time’s passage and people’s characters and capacities. This allows them to answer newly arising questions and situations.
At the time of the early Prophets, people were physically and intellectually distant from each other. Their characters were somewhat coarse and violent, and their minds were primitive. Thus the laws for that time were different and appropriate to their conditions. There were even different Prophets and laws in the same continent during the same age.
The Last Prophet came with an all-comprehensive religion to lead us forward in all areas of science, education, and civilization, and to bring us to the point where all of us could receive one lesson, listen to one teacher, and act in accord with one law. Therefore there was no longer any need for different laws or teachers. But because all people cannot be on the same level or lead the same sort of social life, different schools of legal thought are needed. If this were not the case, all the schools could be united.
QUESTION: Given that the truth is one, how can the rulings of these various legal schools be true?
ANSWER: The same water functions in five different ways when given to five sick people. It will cure the first person’s illness, and so, according to the science of medicine, it is necessary. It will be like poison for the second person, making him even sicker, and therefore is medically forbidden. It will be slightly harmful for the third person, and therefore should be avoided. It will be beneficial for the fourth person, and thus medicine advises it. It will be neither harmful nor beneficial for the fifth person, and because he can drink it with good health it is medically permissible. Thus all five approaches are valid. Can you argue that water is only a cure, and that it must be consumed regardless of its effect?
Similarly, Divine Wisdom requires that Divine ordinances of secondary importance should differ according to those who follow them. This results in different schools, all of which are right. For example, most members of the Shafi‘i school are closer to village life and less familiar with the social life that makes the community like a single body. This is why, in a congregational Prayer, each one recites Suratu’l-Fatiha behind the imam to unburden themselves at the Court of the Dispenser of needs and relate their private wishes. This is right and pure wisdom.
However, since over time the majority of Islamic governments have adopted the Hanafi school of law as their official code, those who follow this school have been closer to civilization and city life and more inclined to social life. As social, civilized life makes a community like a single individual, one person can speak for the community. Therefore, since all people affirm and support the leader with their hearts and his word becomes the word of all, Hanafi congregations do not recite Suratu’l-Fatiha behind the imam. This is also right and pure wisdom.
As most adherents of the Shafi‘i school are villagers and manual laborers, they are prone to filth and closer intermingling of the sexes. However, the Shari‘a aims at physical cleanness, spiritual purity, and moral chastity, and trains and educates the soul. Thus this school states that one’s ablution is invalidated by touching the skin of a woman whom he can legally marry and by a small amount of filth on his body or clothes. The Hanafi school, most of whose adherents are more socialized and civilized, says that neither of these invalidates one’s ablution.
Consider a manual laborer and a gentleman. Pursuing his livelihood, the former comes into contact with dirty things and mixes with unknown women. As he might be unable to resist the associated temptations, the Shari‘a warns him with a heavenly tune: “You’ll lose your ritual purity if you touch the women. Your Prayers will be invalid if you become tainted.” The gentleman, in line with social custom and common morality, and provided he remains chaste and modest, does not have to mix with unknown women and seldom becomes dirty. In the Hanafi school, therefore, the Shari‘a shows its permissive side and saves the gentleman from scruples: “Simply touching her with your hand does not invalidate your ablution. If you can’t remove the dirt from your body or clothes, any amount less than three grams is permitted. So, you don’t have to renew your ablution.”
These examples are like two drops from an ocean. Try to judge in this way the Shari‘a ordinances according to Imam Sha‘rani’s criteria.
All-Glorified are You! We have no knowledge save what You have taught us. Surely You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.
O God, bestow blessings and peace on him who, by being a comprehensive mirror to Your All-Beautiful Names’ manifestations, embodied the lights of Your love for the beauty of Your Attributes and Names; being Your most perfect and wonderful creature, and the sample of Your Art’s perfections and the index of Your inscriptions’ beauties, in whose being were focused the rays of Your love for Your inscriptions; being the most elevated herald of the Your Art’s beauties, the one who proclaimed in the loudest voice his admiration for Your inscriptions’ beauty, and is the most unique in praising Your Art’s perfections, displayed in his being the subtleties of Your love and desire for the appreciation of Your Art; having all good morality through Your favor and all beautiful attributes through Your grace, gathered together in his being the varieties of Your love and appreciation of You for the good morals of Your creatures and the beauties of Your creatures’ attributes; and who is the most exact criterion and superior standard for all whom You mention in the Qur’an—Your Criterion of Truth and Falsehood— You love from among those who always do good, are patient, believers, God-conscious, those who turn to You in penitence and submission, and all classes of those whom You love and have honored with love of You in Your Criterion of Truth and Falsehood, so he became the leader of those who love You and the master of those whom You love. Bestow blessings and peace on his Family, Companions, and followers. Amin, through Your Mercy, O Most Merciful of the Merciful.
Bediuzzaman Said Nursi