Fiqh

Ahmed ibn Hambal said if the ruler is corrupt, advice the ruler and the advice should come from good people.


Ahmed ibn Hambal
164 A.H. -241 A.H.

• Ahmed ibn Hambal lived most of his life in Baghdad.
• He was a student of Shafi and Malik. He went to Madinah to learn from Malik and exchanged letters.
• He learnt from Al Leith ibn Saad, the Egyptian and Abu Yusuf, a student of Abu Hanifa.
• During his time, Baghdad was like our current day Las Vegas, parties, best singers, dancers and corruption going on in the city.
• When he looked into what people were doing, Ahmed ibn Hambal felt very upset and disturbed. His reaction to that was for heaven’s sake, strictly follow the hadith even if the hadith is dhaif (weak). We need to think about the circumstances that Hambal faced.
• He said, “I go with nothing, but the hadith”.
• Musnad ibn Hambal is the book that is widely circulated, but Ahmed ibn Hambal did not verify it.
• He did not permit bid’ah (innovation in acts of worship).
• He was not interested in politics because at that time Islam was violated at all levels.
• He was of the opinion that obey the ruler even if the ruler is corrupt, and prompted the idea that the efficiency of the ruler is for the ummah, but the deficiency is for the ruler himself. He went on to the extent that even if the ruler took the allegiance (baiyat) at the use of sword, one should accept it. This school of thought is prevalent in Saudi Arabia today.
• If the ruler is corrupt, he said advice the ruler and the advice should come from good people who have brains and not from commonality. i.e. go to an aalim (a learned scholar) and ask him to advise the ruler, which was different from Imam Zaid who said it is the responsibility of the people to correct the ruler. The aalim became a filter in the Hambali school. He said the advice to the ruler is fard-kifayah, which means it is not a duty for everyone, if some do it, rest are exempted.
• He hated jurisprudence to be written or recorded.
• Philosophy came during Umayyad and during Abbasids and a philosophical debate was started, whether Qur’an is created or eternal. Created means it is by God and has a beginning, before it was non-existent. Eternal means it was always there.
Mutazilities opined that Qur’an was created and other traditionalists said we should not talk about that.
Some said Qur’an began and it cannot end.
But harm was done when Hambal was asked if Qur’an was created, Hambal said he will not agree that Qur’an is created. Mutazilities called Hambal and asked him about that. The caliph debated with Hambal and finally Hambal was accused of creating a fitna. Mutazilities at that time got all scholars who denied that Qur’an was created and beheaded them. Since Hambal was a known scholar, they did not behead him and instead they tortured by beating him every day even at one stage, the Caliph begged him to change his view. Three caliphs were changed while he was still tortured in the prison.
• One of his students stayed with him all the way until he died.
• Ahmed ibn Hambal was released later and he eventually died. The city of Baghdad witnessed a big funeral procession for him.
• After several hundred years later, Mohammad ibn Abdul Wahab (around 1800 A.D), who was impressed with Hambali madahib came with the Wahabi revolution.
• Mohammad ibn Abdul Wahab had an alliance with ikhwanan, a fundamentalist sect and stormed Makkah, establishing Saudi dynasty, then the dynasty became the custodian of Hambali madahib.
Other important scholars:
Al Leith ibn Saad
• He was a very interesting figure, a scholar in medicine, fiqh, science and poetry.
• His method was to take anything in face value that is said in the Qur’an. He did not believe in analogy.
• He considered everything is halal unless it is stated explicitly as haram.
e.g. He debated whether the fat of pork is halal or haram because Qur’an only talked about the flesh, yet he ended claiming that pork is haram
Usury (Interest) was prohibited in six items only i.e. wheat, dates, barley, silver, gold and salt
• He said that there is nothing like oath of divorce because he claimed that the format is fixed and there is no oath except by God.
• He was the one who said the woman can perform haj on her own and said nothing is stated clearly anywhere about the prohibition that woman should not perform haj on her own.
• He allowed birth control, if a woman wants to maintain her physique.
• He said music is enjoyable.
• He wrote a book called “Tawq al Hamama” (The Color of Pigeon).
Imam At-Tufi- 716 A.H.
• He was very strong in the goals of shariah.
Imam As-Shawkani 73 A.H.
• He was from Yemen, a Zaidi Shia, a very revolutionary and very progressive figure. The Zaiddis accept the Khilafah of Umar under the title “lesser person can rule over higher person”.
• He wrote a book “Al Quawal al Moufid fe Idillat al ijtibol wal Taquleed” (The ultimate say on the issue of Ijtihad versus imitations).
• He had extensive discussions on madahibs and considered madahibs to be a bid’ah.
(The writer is Sr. Advisor, Muslim Public Affairs Council -MPAC)