What is a Madhhab? Why is it necessary to follow one?

[inqilab]

Allaah is Above the Sky - Refuting the Jahmi Nuh Ha Meem Keller

[Dreamer]

no thanks... simple line is imam hanifa was a man who may or may nt be right.... his opinions can be discarded or accepted but there is no order on us 2 take him wholly and label ourselves hanafie....

[شمله ور خراساني]

I don't have a problem with people sticking to one particular madhab. But What I detest is blindly following one particular school.

What I think is more harmful is when people enforce on others their madhab and keep pushing saying this is the opinion of majority.

I want to see ayat of qur'an and sahih ahadith in support of any particular ruling. Otherwise, a scholar must have a very good reason to make a particular analogy.

What is most horrific thing ever is people who are scared that they will loose their authority and position and power over people when people start questioning the "madhab's rhetoric".

For ages, people were told to obey religious institutions who have monopolized everything based on their religious authority and used the religion to subdue the masses and to dance on their tunes.

Today, number one cause of movements such as Al Qaeda and Takfeeri movement is because people are sick and tired of religion being hijacked by political leaders and religious institutions being subservient to unjust rulers and tyrants.

We are facing a major problem. Today, you see clowns like Taher ul Padri and Sebghatullah Mujadidi issuing fatwa's and claiming to have seen the prophet muhammad saww in their dream commanding them to vote for such and so. And all of their followers follow suit because they have been raised and taught to never question religious figures and institutions tied to the state and political leadership.

[Mujib]

The way he reacted to those ahadith.

The thread is concerning fiqh and following a madhhab, not `aqida.

Since you bring up more hadiths, I ask again, do you blindly follow the scholars in attributing these to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace)?

[شمله ور خراساني]

Imam Nawawi says of this hadith:

This is one of the "hadiths of the attributes," about which scholars have two positions. The first is to have faith in it without discussing its meaning, while believing of Allah Most High that "there is nothing whatsoever like unto Him" (Qur'an 42:11), and that He is exalted above having any of the attributes of His creatures. The second is to figuratively explain it in a fitting way, scholars who hold this position adducing that the point of the hadith was to test the slave girl: Was she a monotheist, who affirmed that the Creator, the Disposer, the Doer, is Allah alone and that He is the one called upon when a person making supplication (du'a) faces the sky--just as those performing the prayer (salat) face the Kaaba, since the sky is the qibla of those who supplicate, as the Kaaba is the qibla of those who perform the prayer--or was she a worshipper of the idols which they placed in front of themselves? So when she said, In the sky, it was plain that she was not an idol worshipper (Sahih Muslim bi Sharh al-Nawawi. 18 vols. Cairo 1349/1930. Reprint (18 vols. in 9). Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 1401/1981, 5.24).

It is noteworthy that Imam Nawawi does not mention understanding the hadith literally as a possible scholarly position at all. This occasions surprise today among some Muslims, who imagine that what is at stake is the principle of accepting a single rigorously authenticated (sahih) hadith as evidence in Islamic faith (`aqida), for this hadith is such a single hadith, of those termed in Arabic ahad, or "conveyed by a single chain of transmission", as opposed to being mutawatir or "conveyed by so many chains of transmission that it is impossible it could have been forged". Yet this is not what is at stake, because hadiths of its type are only considered acceptable as evidence by traditional scholars of Islamic `aqida if one condition can be met: that the tenet of faith mentioned in the hadith is salimun min al-muarada or "free of conflicting evidence". This condition is not met by this particular hadith for a number of reasons. First, the story described in the hadith has come to us in a number of other well-authenticated versions that vary a great deal from the "Where is Allah?--In the sky" version. One of these is related by Ibn Hibban in his Sahih with a well-authenticated (hasan) chain of transmission, in which the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) asked the slave girl, "'Who is your Lord?' and she said, 'Allah'; whereupon he asked her, 'Who am I?' and she said, 'You are the Messenger of Allah'; at which he said, 'Free her, for she is a believer'" (al-Ihsan fi taqrib Sahih Ibn Hibban, 18 vols. Beirut: Muassasa al-Risala, 1408/1988, 1.419: 189).

Was Imaam Nawawi flawless?

[Mujib]

Today, number one cause of movements such as Al Qaeda and Takfeeri movement

With due respect, brother, it is well-known and clear as day that the cause and influence of these extremist groups is the very ideology that opposes the following of madhhabs, namely Wahhabism/Salafism. It is this movement that rose in opposition to Islam and Muslims. They accuse Muslims of shirk and make takfir of Muslims left and right. Their followers use the fatwas to fight and Muslims around the world.

[شمله ور خراساني]

With due respect, brother, it is well-known and clear as day that the cause and influence of these extremist groups is the very ideology that opposes the following of madhhabs, namely Wahhabism/Salafism. It is this movement that rose in opposition to Islam and Muslims. They accuse Muslims of shirk and make takfir of Muslims left and right. Their followers use the fatwas to fight and Muslims around the world.

Wahhabism rosein opposition to Islam? LOL! You mean because Ibn Abdul Wahhab destroyed shrines where people worshiped dead people, now Bin Laden wants to blow everything up?

No wonder why RAND corporation loves Hamza Yusuf so much. He is feeding his followers this kind of stuff.

[Mujib]

And since he could not refute the ahadith. He did what no one in history had done. He weakened them and rejected them.

I just read the article you posted. The author makes a similar claim to yours; he says, "instead he tried to weaken the hadith itself." This is completely false and untrue. No where in that article does Shaykh Nuh reject or attempt to weaken the hadith. In fact, he shows the very opposite in his citing of Imam al-Nawawi's (ra) commentary on Sahih Muslim.

Speaking and spreading falsehood about any human being, let alone a Muslim, let alone a scholar, is slander and slander is haram.