The Series "The Caliphate and Imamate in Islamic Thought"
By the Writer and Thinker Thaer Salama – Abu Malek
Part Thirty-Six: The Latent Theoretical Power Behind Consensus, Which Gives It the Property of Certainty – Part 2
3) Similarly, the honorable companions transmitted to us the religion that was revealed to Muhammad ﷺ, and the nation took it from them, generation after generation. Since error is impossible in the religion, as conclusive evidence of its correctness has been established, and God Almighty said: ﴿Falsehood cannot approach it from before it or from behind it﴾ [Fussilat: 42]. Therefore, the consensus of the companions cannot be wrong legally, for they transmitted the religion. This is conclusive legal evidence that their consensus is definitive, because the meaning of their consensus not being definitive would allow doubt to creep into the religion. This is taken as legal evidence that they are the ones through whom God preserved His book and His religion. Therefore, their consensus must be definitive and legal evidence, and the details of that come from the following definitive points:
1- God Almighty confined the right to legislate to Himself alone, to achieve justice and establish the balance of equity on Earth. If an issue is devoid of legislation connected to revelation, then this is an entry point for the existence of injustice through human legislation in that issue. Therefore, the Sharia must be preserved with its Quran and Sunnah to complete the blessing of establishing the balance of justice and equity. We know that in the Sunnah there is explanation, so the Sunnah is explanatory, clarifying, and interpreting the Quran, attaching branches to their origins, and legislating new rulings that have no basis in the Quran. If some of the Sunnah were lost, then something of the legislation would be lost!
2- God Almighty has promised reckoning for even an atom's weight of work, as He said: ﴿So whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it, and whoever does an atom's weight of evil will see it.﴾ [Al-Zalzalah: 7-8]. This verse requires that there be a warning for even an atom's weight of work to be reckoned based on it, and it requires that the description of an atom's weight of work as good or evil be attributed to God Almighty, and that it be reckoned for!
3- God Almighty did not leave people aimless,1 meaning without command or prohibition, not even in a single issue for which He will hold them accountable. God Almighty said: ﴿Does man think that he will be left aimless?﴾ [Al-Qiyamah: 36]. If any issue were devoid of command or prohibition, it would be established that man was left aimless in it, and it would not be possible to hold him accountable for his action in any way, as its description of good or evil would not be established since it is devoid of the command of revelation. Therefore, reckoning for it would not be valid, and all of this contradicts the definitive verses that establish the existence of command and prohibition in every issue, and the existence of reckoning for even an atom's weight of work, and the description of that atom's weight as good or evil based on its reference to revelation. Revelation has permitted some commands and prohibitions to be based on conjecture in establishment or indication, and has made them part of the religion, so the infiltration of conjecture into their establishment does not remove them from the description of the religion. For example, if two scholars differ, and one of them infers from the legal evidence that touching a woman does not invalidate ablution, then his ruling is legal, and it is part of the religion. If the other infers from the same legal evidence the opposite of that ruling, that is, that touching invalidates ablution, then his ruling would also be legal. The first worships God with what he has conveyed based on his conjecture that it is the ruling of the Sharia in the matter, just as the second does. So both of them found a command and a prohibition related to the matter, and they will be held accountable for following what their diligence has led them to,
4- The religion itself is complete, ﴿This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion.﴾ [Al-Ma'idah: 3], and the religion itself is ثابت النسبة للوحي through the evidence,
5- The warning is only through revelation, exclusively, and the prohibition is definitive in following what is legislated from other than it, so it required the preservation of revelation so that the warning could be established, by which the argument is established against the creatures, and to cut off the path to the laws of others, and to enable His servants not to follow guardians other than revelation: ﴿Follow what has been revealed to you from your Lord﴾ [Al-An'am: 106], ﴿Follow what has been revealed to you from your Lord and do not follow other than Him any allies. Little do you remember.﴾ [Al-A'raf: 3], ﴿Say, "I only warn you by revelation." But the deaf do not hear the call when they are warned.﴾ [Al-Anbiya: 45],
6- Establishing the argument against the people, so there is no excuse for the people before God after the messengers, and this requires that the argument be established until the Day of Judgment, ﴿[We sent] messengers as bringers of good tidings and warners so that mankind will have no argument against Allah after the messengers. And ever is Allah Exalted in Might and Wise.﴾ An-Nisa 165, if something of the religion is lost, it will be devoid of argument in those جزئيات, which is inconsistent with the establishment of the argument, and the possibility of being held accountable for it,
7- The loss of something from the Sunnah requires the loss of it being an explanation of something from the religion that was revealed in the Quran, and this means that the Quran is no longer explanatory (the Quran has made the Sunnah an explanation), ﴿Say, "Obey Allah and obey the Messenger; but if you turn away - then upon him is only that [duty] with which he has been charged, and upon you is that with which you have been charged. And if you obey him, you will be guided. And there is not upon the Messenger except the [responsibility for] clear notification."﴾ [An-Nur: 54], and the word "clear" is a descriptive term, and therefore it is a restriction on the conveyance, so the conveyance is not clear, and the reasons for guidance are not complete with the loss of the explanation and the restriction to the explained or the general in the Quran, in جزئيات that have been lost, so the argument is not established in those جزئيات by restricting oneself to the general that is in the Quran!
This means that the religion is preserved from loss, and from it is the evidence that the Sunnah is preserved from loss, it was all transmitted to us, because it contains the explanation of the Quran, and the تفصيل of its generalities, and the restriction of its absolute terms, and the explanation of its words, and the clarification of its rulings and meanings, and with it the religion was completed, and our mission is to purify its correct from its weak, as most of the legal rulings were taken from the Sunnah, considering that the Sunnah is explanatory, clarifying, and interpreting the Quran, attaching branches to their origins, and legislating new rulings that have no basis in the Quran, and with it the religion was completed and the blessing was completed, and God approved Islam for us as a religion, including what is in it and what is in the Quran of rulings, the Truth Almighty said ﴿And We have revealed to you the message that you may make clear to the people what was sent down to them and that they might give thought.﴾, and He said: ﴿And We have not revealed to you the Book, [O Muhammad], except that you may make clear to them that wherein they have differed and as guidance and mercy for a people who believe.﴾,
With the existence of precise principles for reaching the legal ruling, it permitted the existence of the path of conjecture in reaching the legal rulings, and therefore it permitted the existence of conjecture in individual pieces of evidence that came from the Sunnah in its establishment or indication, just as it permitted the conjectural nature of some Quranic verses in their indication, and therefore the religion in its entirety, according to the principles of jurisprudence, fulfills God Almighty's promise of the existence of commands and prohibitions related to every action of actions, and every issue of issues, and every نازلة, and fulfills the possibility of reckoning for even an atom's weight, and the release of good or evil upon it, so whoever transmitted this religion to us must have his consensus definitively established, otherwise doubt will be obtained in the establishment of the religion, and the establishment of the completion of the religion, and the establishment of the comprehensiveness of the religion for every small and large matter, and we would not have received the command and prohibition and the possibility of reckoning would not have been achieved, so those through whom the religion was established and transmitted to us completely, certainty is obtained that their consensus is certain to be true.
4) The impossibility of a conspiracy of vast numbers of companions on lying, cheating, and forgery.
5) The impossibility of them all falling into error, inadvertence, negligence, forgetfulness, or ignorance all at once without a follower, despite being the only means for the Sharia to reach those after them.
6) The impossibility of the existence of an apparent interest, or a general mood that could push these crowds to conspire and deviate from the requirement of truth.
7) The existence of enemies of the nation from among the disbelievers and hypocrites lying in wait for it, who reached large numbers, from among whom it is possible for them to oppose this mutawatir or collective transmission with what they witnessed of events, and since nothing of this has been transmitted from them, this means that what is صح بالتواتر or by consensus is impossible to be the product of a general mood or a conspiracy on what contradicts the truth.
8) تحقق conditions of متواتر in what they agreed upon in their class, and متواتر is definitive without doubt or مخالف, so if their consensus is transmitted in the class of the تابعين and تابعى التابعين تحقق the conditions of التواتر the خبر was متواترا and definitive.
This is the supporting theoretical strength, to accept this consensus2.
1- It is mentioned in the book Ahkam al-Quran by al-Shafi’i that al-Shafi’i said: The حكم of God, then the حكم of the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, then the حكم of the Muslims is evidence that it is not permissible for anyone who deserves to be a ruler or a mufti to judge or give a fatwa except from the direction of a لازم خبر, and that is the Book, then the Sunnah or what the people of knowledge say that they do not differ in, or قياس on some of this. And it is not permissible for him to judge or give a fatwa by الِاسْتِحْسَانِ; if الِاسْتِحْسَانِ is not واجب or in one of these meanings. And he mentioned in what he argued with the saying of God Almighty: ﴿Does man think that he will be left aimless?﴾ [He said] The people of knowledge of the Quran did not differ in what I knew that ﴿السُّدَى﴾ that is not commanded or prohibited. And whoever gives a fatwa or judges with what he was not commanded with, then he has chosen for himself to be in the meanings of السُّدَى and he has informed him Almighty that he was not left aimless and he رأى that he said I say what I want, and he claimed what the Quran was revealed with against it. God ( جل ثناؤه ) said to His Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace: ﴿Follow what has been revealed to you from your Lord﴾ And He Almighty said: ﴿And that you judge between them by what Allah has revealed and do not follow their inclinations and beware of them that they should tempt you away from some of what Allah has revealed to you﴾, then { a قوم came to him, and asked him about the اصحاب الكهف and others: so he said I will inform you tomorrow meaning I will ask Gabriel, peace be upon him, then I will inform you, so God Almighty revealed: ﴿And never say of anything, "Indeed, I will do that tomorrow," Except [when adding], "If Allah wills."﴾. { And a woman of Aws ibn al-Samit came to him complaining about Aws, so he did not answer her until it was revealed to him: ﴿Allah has certainly heard the statement of she who argues with you, [O Muhammad], concerning her husband﴾, and العجلانى came to him accusing his wife, so he said: It has not been revealed about you both and wait for the revelation, so when God Almighty revealed to him: He called them both, and he performed لعان between them, as God Almighty commanded } and he expanded the speech in استدلال with the Book and the Sunnah and the reasonable, in رد حكم with what the human استحسن without قياس on the Book and the Sunnah and الإجماع" أحكام القرآن للشافعي > فصل في إبطال الاستحسان.
2- See: Taysir al-Wusul ila al-Usul by Allama Ata Abu Al-Rashtah, Part One, p. 82, and Islamic Personality, Part Three, Chapter on Consensus. Also, see the news of آحاد between the trap of the question and the problematic of the method. For Ali Aqil Al-Hamrouni with great discretion.
