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As a student of Islamic Law, I was surprised by the hadith which says that the differences of opinions between the ulema is in fact a blessing upon the ummah. My surprise was due to my familiarity with opinions like this one Here from the Malaysian Shariah Lawyers Association which basically urges the government to take action against those who contend against the recent fatwa on yoga. I actually thought that the four imams of Islamic law were like these Sharia Lawyer fellows but far from it, they were actually open to debates and discussions.
These lawyers should be very familiar with the legal debates which surround the rise of Islamic law. They should know that there is no agreement as to what sources actually constitute Islamic law. Some schools favour four sources (namely Quran, sunnah, ijma’ and qiyaas) while others accept only two (quran and sunnah). This is no small difference. And that’s not even the end of it, we also have to recognise that even the criteria for accepting who a companion of the prophet varied. If there is no consensus as to who a companion is, dare we ask how much unity there is when it becomes to selecting hadith information? Lastly, we should ask , is there any unity in the application of Quran? Again, we find the answer is no. Quran is subjected to a number of processes such as specification and abrogation and no two legal scholars agree on what’s actually applicable. In short, what we know as Islamic Law is simply an ad hoc legal formulation by the Muslims at the time in their effort to practise Islam. It was a legal evolution and no has the right to claim that the doors of legal reasoning is for them alone There is no absolute authority to it, no final word. So what is the Shariah Lawyers Association talking about, with their ‘mempertikaikan majlis fatwa’ complaint?. Instead of engaging with actual intellectual movements like the Sisters in Islam, they prefer to call for action for the protection of ‘kesucian islam’. When, pray tell, was ‘kesucian islam’ ever in question? When did anyone say Islam was in any way deficient? What was called into question was the veracity of the National Fatwa Council. The council made a number of erroneous deductions about the practise of yoga. For a start, they claimed that yoga involved ‘worshipping’ and ‘chanting’ without considering that such physical postures and verbal utterances were to be seen as therapeutic, not religious. There is no sliding from aqeedah here, only a slide from sound research. No one is perfect. Even Mohamed himself was corrected by Allah as recorded in the Quran. The four imams also made statements highlighting their fallibility and the contingent situations surrounding their legal opinions. So what does our Fatwa Council have that makes them superior to the Prophet and the old Imams? They are human beings and may have missed some vital information in their formulation. This loud complaint by the Sharia Lawyers Association is nothing more than a flexing of muscles and repeating the self-manufactured delusion that they are the guardians of Islam. In truth, Islam has nothing of the authoritarian tones which these people preach. Islam allows disagreement and allows people to practise their reasoning. Lets not allow these threats to deter us from the advancement of Islamic discourse. Farouk A. Peru www.farouk.name
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Obviously there are more 'Farouks' around but they need to come out to walk the talk.
Salam.