DR. ABDUL KARIM ZAIDAN'S COMMENTARY ON THE STUDY (BETWEEN FOLLOWERS AND TRADITION) BY SALEH SARIYA

Research (Between Followers and Tradition) written by Professor Saleh Abdullah Sariya and commented by Dr. Abdul Karim Zidan and published in 1376 AH / 1956 AD within the publications of the Islamic Company for Printing and Publishing Ltd. in Baghdad .

Dr. Abdul Karim Zidan's commentary dealt with important and focused advice for those who wanted to reach true knowledge of what God Almighty and His Prophet Muhammad wanted from him .

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Comment

Professor Abdul Karim Zidan

1) The duty of every Muslim is to obey God, the Exalted, the Almighty, and to His Messenger, and obedience requires knowledge of what God and His Messenger commanded .

2) The infallible one who is absolutely obligated to be followed in everything that is commanded and forbidden is the Messenger of God only .

3) A Muslim who wants to know what God and His Messenger has commanded must follow the legitimate path of knowledge, such as accompanying trusted scholars, receiving knowledge from them verbally - and by science we mean knowing the Book of God and the Sunnah of His Messenger - or accompanying them through what they left of scientific books and monuments .

4) And the Muslim, while in order to reach the knowledge of what is enjoined in Sharia - meaning the command of God and His Messenger - is taking from the scholars as a guide to lead him to his destination, such as the person who wants to reach the Levant, so he takes a guide and guide him on the safe way in the desert to reach the Levant safely - and he That is, one who seeks access to knowledge of what is legally enjoined - but take so-and-so as a guide for him because he is one of the people of knowledge and is eligible for this matter, such as guides and experts on the road to the Levant, for example .

5) If it appears during the course of the walk for the applicant to reach the one who is legally enjoined that his guide or his guides, i.e. the scholars, living or dead, have made a mistake at some stage, i.e., in any of the issues, and that whoever has hit another guide and appears to this correct evidence is conclusive or likely to turn this student from The words of his guide refer to the saying of the other guide, just as the traveler in the desert turns from the opinion of his guide who guides him on the stages of the road to the opinion of another guide from whom I know about the indication of the safe road at this stage of walking, as there is no purpose for the seeker of knowledge or for the desert boy but to take the safety road that leads to His safety, not his intention to follow the guide for himself and everything. Insisting on following the guide when he makes a mistake is a folly that does not befit the rational person and has no meaning .

6) It may be said: How can the seeker distinguish the error of his guide in one of the stages of his journey when he only took his guide due to his lack of independence in this course? The answer to this is to be guided by every true and legitimate way that shows error from what is correct, such as if other guides - that is, truly knowledgeable people - mention that the correctness in this stage or this issue is this, and they mention for their saying legal evidence such as a true hadith, for example, which the people of hadith received with acceptance or an old consensus or As a directive for a noble verse to which many scholars went ... etc. If the seeker of knowledge turns to the words of these trustworthy people after they have presented him with this evidence, then there is no offense against him in this conversion to them. Even if it is assumed that they are mistaken in the same matter, there is nothing on them to follow, because this is what he can, and these are the clues that favor their followers, and God does not burden a soul beyond its power. In other words, it is permissible for the seeker of knowledge to turn to the opinion of other guides, if evidence of their correctness appears to him in the first place, it is sufficient for them to follow this evidence and after he exerts his efforts in investigation and research .

7) Among the guides who have a long tradition of truthfulness in the ummah, the Four Imams are qualified to act as guides for those seeking access to knowledge of what God and His Messenger commanded. And their taking as guides is only by referring to their books and according to them, on the condition :

  A) That he does not believe in their infallibility .

  B) And that he believes that he followed them because they are supposed to lead him to what God and His Messenger commanded .

  A) And that he will not insist on anything that they went to if his error appeared .

8) So it is permissible (and is not required) to follow one of these learned imams and learn what they mentioned according to the conditions mentioned in the aforementioned paragraph, and for the Muslim to expand and continue to know the legal evidences and knowledge of these imams' sights until he rises in the homes of knowledge and strengthens his insight and rises above the rank of the common people .

9) As for the person who is not able to associate with scholars and receive knowledge from them or look at their books, then he should ask the scholars about its legal ruling on such and such, and he does not have to ask them to rule according to the jurisprudence of Imam so-and-so. If they answer him about the Islamic ruling, follow it on the grounds that he follows what God and His Messenger commanded, and considering that the official is a true Muslim man and does not lie .

10) A question often arises, which is: Is it permissible to work with Sahih al-Bukhari, for example, or with the hadith of the Prophet directly? The answer to this is that it is not permissible for anyone to forbid the use of the hadith of the Messenger of God - as preventing this may lead to alienation from Islam, but it must be clearly known that working with the noble hadith must be in the correct manner that requires the following things :

  A) That the hadith is known and validated by those who know the hadith .

  B) To know its meaning and significance and what it contains of the ruling and whether it is abrogated, and this shall be by referring to the people of knowledge in this regard .

  C) To spend his efforts in investigating and searching for paragraphs a, b .

Sahih Al-Bukhari is unanimously agreed by the Ummah that it is the most correct book after the Book of God. This is the noble book that contains the noble Sunnah. If the meanings of his hadiths are clear and complete in a correct way by honest and pious scholars, the Muslim has no harm - rather he must act upon it .

11) If a commoner wants to seek a scholarly opinion on an issue, he must strive hard and investigate the pious and pious world who knows the Sunnah, to ask him what he wants, and his diligence is based on Sharia-established presumptions, including the extensive and common among Muslims in the fact that so-and-so has these qualities and this is what the ordinary can do .

12) The student to follow the Prophet’s Sunnah absolutely, wherever it is found, should beware not to deviate in his whims and desires and follow the sayings that favor his personal interest when evidence contradicts because he must follow the strongest evidence regardless of his interest. He said ﷺ (None of you should believe until his whim according to what you came with him. The same applies to many matters, such as pre-emption, for example, and the brotherhood bequeathed with the grandfather or not bequeathed to them .

From here it becomes clear to us the issue of fabrication, its permissibility and its impermissibility. The blameworthy fabrication is to follow the whims and desires of the human being, regardless of the evidence on which they are based . .

13) What seems to us is that the disagreement is very narrow between those who obligate to follow the Sunnah and they are right, and between those who deny this and they are wrong .

God says the truth and he guides the right path .