. I '/ } (cont.)

If Zaid ibn Thaabit was asked about something, he would say, "Has that happened?" If the answer was in the negative, he would say, "Leave it until it happens." Al-Auzaai once said, "If Allah wants to prevent His servant from getting the blessings of knowledge, He makes his tongue busy with the perplexing problems. Verily, I have seen those people and they are the people with the least amount of knowledge."2 The Companion Abu al-Darda once stated, "You will not be a scholar until you are ! a student. And you will still not be a scholar based on knowledge until you act [based on that knowledge]. And it is sufficient as a sin for a person that he continues to be argumentative. And it is sufficient as a sin for a person that he continues to be quarrelsome." (Recorded by al-Daarimi.) If the person is just concerned with hypothetical cases, it would lead him not to act at all. He may even come across some cases where what has been stated cannot be appliedin fact, in his ignorance, he may not even realize that the text does not apply at all to such a case. 3 This weakens his faith in the text and weakens his application of the text. Ibn Rajah points out that, unfortunately, people also go to the opposite extreme. That is, instead of taking a text and asking questions about it and so forth, they simply take the text but fail to study and understand its meaning. Historically, this happened with some of the people busy with hadith. They 1 Ibn Rajah, Jaami, vol. 1 , pp. 243-244. 2 Quoted in ibn Rajah, Jaami, vol. 1 , p. 245. If something is truly expected to occur, then one may ask about it. For example, someone is permitted to ask, "If am flying tomorrow from New York to Los Angeles and the times for prayers will be during the flight, how shall I pray then?" 3 One of the biggest problems with hypothetical questions is that one cannot truly imagine all of the circumstances surrounding an event. If the event were to actually occur, one would understand how it came about and what is the correct ruling concerning it. However, when one is simply imagining a case, one cannot imagine the entire picture properly. Hadith #9: "What f have Forbidden You, Avoid ... " passed on the texts but never realized what the texts meant. Consequently, they had some very strange ideas about how to apply the hadith. 1 Both of these approaches are incorrect. The correct approach is to accept whatever has been said in the Quran and sunnah. One should strive to understand it properly, in the light of the sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him), teachings of the Companions and the other great scholars of lslam. Then, when one understands the purport of the verse or hadith, one applies it in his life. In fact, as ibn Rajah pointed out, when a new situation arises and this approach is properly followed, the person will be able to understand the situation properly. He will be able to apply what he has studied and understood from the Quran and sunnah to that new situation. Ibn Rajah then states that whoever tries to follow a path other than this one, will be confused and destroyed in the end. 2 The key to all of this is that the person must have the right intention. He must have the intention to get closer to Allah by knowing and understanding what Allah has revealed. He must have the intention to properly follow the Straight Path as it is shown in the Quran and sunnah. If the person does that, Allah will guide him and show him the straight path. Allah will teach him what he had not known. He will be from those truly knowledgeable people that Allah has described in the Quran: 1ࢄJ:i"1 I e - ,/,.-'\ e ࢍ I ୙୚\ I O॔I...>' • - !". .• ࢎ W ,,.,,. •,,, a: ࢌ.. [ "It is only those who have knowledge among His slaves that fear Allah" (Faatir 28). "Verily, the people before you were destroyed only because of. . . their disagreeing with their Prophets." Differences and bickering are one of the greatest means by which a people become weakened. They turn their attention and anger towards one another. They even disagree with their leader and guide, as is the case when people turn against the guidance of their own prophets. In this hadith, the Prophet (peace be upon him) stated a second reason for the destruction of the earlier peoples: their disagreeing with their prophetsthat is, their lack of complete and absolute submission to their Prophets. This is in contrast to Allah's description of the true believers: 1 lbn Rajab, Jaami, vol. 1, p. 248. Unfortunately, this phenomenon continues to exist.