Importance of Fiqh

Importance of Fiqh

 

 Fiqh means to understand the orders of Allah.

 Fiqh is the most important thing after belief in Allah, the Prophets and the Imams.

 Getting knowledge of Fiqh is wajib on all  Muslims.

 According to Hadees, if we do not acquire fiqh, we may die as the biggest kafir or the biggest munafiq (Aarabee).

 Islam reminds us that our real life is the life hereafter, which is forever. Our present life on this earth is short, temporary and a trial period for the next permanent (real) life. This life is a transit in our ultimate destination to heaven or hell. This present life is a test period to judge who obeys the orders of Allah and who does not.

 Therefore it is necessary to understand and obey orders of Allah (Fiqh).

 

 Two Sources of Fiqh

a.       Holy Qur’an.

b.      Sunnah.

 

 Holy Qur’an is the word of Allah as revealed to Holy Prophet (SAW) and Sunnah means the sayings, actions and silent approval of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and the Holy Imams (AS).  There are over 6000 Quranic verses and around 70,000 hadiths (Sunnah).

 Both the Holy Qur’an and Sunnah have equal status as far as wajibat is concerned. If one wajib is mentioned in Sunnah only, it has same weight as one wajib mentioned in Quran only.

 Dreams (in which Prophet or Imam comes) have no meaning in Fiqh and can not  over rule laws of Fiqh.  However dreams can support existing laws of fiqh.

 

Fundamentals of Islam:

 

ISLAM

½

­­­­­­­­         ______________________________________________________

        ½                                                                                                                  ½                        

5  Beliefs (Aqidah)                                                                                      Actions (Amal)

or Roots of Religion                                                                        or Branches of Religion                

(Usool-e-Deen)                                                                                           (Furoo-e-Din)      

                                                                                                                              ½

__________________½_______________                                                 All Wajib Acts

½                                                                ½

Usool-e-Islam                                      Usool-e-Iman

or Usool-e-Deen                                  or Usool-e-Mazhab

 

There are three USOOL-E-ISLAM:

1.      Tauheed (Oneness of Allah)

2.      Risalah (Prophethood)

3.      Qiyamah (Day of Judgement)

 

There are two USOOL-E-IMAN:

4.      Adalah (Justice of Allah)

5.      Imamat (Belief in12 Imams)

 

 A Muslim is one who believes in ALL THREE Usool-e-Islam and a Shia Muslim or Momin is one who believes in ALL FIVE Usool-e-deen.

 

 A kafir is one who does not believe in or who denies in any of the following four things:

i)                    Tauheed

ii)                   Risalah

iii)                 Qiyamah

iv)                 Necessities of Religion (Established tenets of Islam).

 

 Necessities of religion are those things on which all Muslims agree as established commandments of Islam, eg. Salat, Sawm, Hajj, Hijab, finality of prophethood etc. For example, Qadiyanis are kafir because they do not believe in the finality of our Holy Prophet, while all Muslims agree on Prophet Muhammad (SAW) to be the last Prophet of Allah.

 

 Furoo-e-Din are wajib on a person, who has the following 4 conditions:

i)                    Alive (Zinda)

ii)                   Mature (Baligh)

iii)                 Sane (Aql)

iv)                 Capable (Mukhtar)

 

 There are differences in fiqh in Sunni & Shia Islam. For example: rabbits and crabs are halal in Sunni fiqh but they are haram in Shia fiqh.

 
According to Hadees of our 1st Imam Ali (AS), anyone who follows Islam without the knowledge of fiqh is on the right path but is going in the wrong direction.

 In Islam, lack of knowledge of fiqh (shariah) is not an excuse for not following tenets of Islam correctly.

 Lack of knowledge of fiqh about a good deed can sometime lead to punishment (azaab) instead of reward (sawab) from Allah even though the intention may initially be good. There are many examples of this.

 

 Story of a wife, who after the death of her husband, donated all his property and wealth to the poor, but she earned hellfire because she did not know the rules of fiqh that after the husband’s death, his property and wealth must be distributed to heirs according to the Islamic laws of inheritance.  According to fiqh, the wife gets only a small portion of husband's property and wealth.  After husband's death, she can not even spend his money on his children unless the husband has made her as his wali (guardian) during his life time or through a will.  Writing of Will (wasiyah) is very important for people living in theWest.

 

 Charity in the way of Allah has greatest sawab but only if it is done with your halal earning.  Shaitan acts very strongly against charity givers.

 

 Sadqa is the the best protection from problems of this world and also of akhirah.

 

 Sadqa becomes sadqa and is effective only when it reaches the poor. Collecting sadqa in a box on a daily basis has no effect of sadqa unless it reaches the poor immediately.

 

 How to get sawab of Sadqa if poor are not available where you live?  Knowledge of fiqh offers solutions to this problem.  There are three methods:

 

(i) If you know some poor person overseas or anywhere whom you send money on a monthly basis or regularly, get permission from him that you will be sending sadqa on a monthly/quarterly basis to him; or

(ii) Get permission from Mujtahid or his wakil (representative) for giving sadqa by collection in a box and sending it to the poor after a fixed duration. This method can also be used for collection of sadqa at Islamic Centres or Mosques; or

(iii) Give loan (Qarzae hasna) to some poor in lump sum in advance, then give sadqa (by intention) to that person from that loan as and when required. Thus the loan will be written off through sadqa. 

 

 Method no (iii) above is known as ‘IBRA’ in Arabic, and this method can also be used for paying fitra or sehme sadat in advance.

 

Conditions for Following Fiqh (Sharaet-e-Takleef-e-Sharai)

 

 Acting on fiqh is wajib only if a person meets four conditions:

i)                    Alive (Zinda)

ii)                   Mature (Baligh)

iii)                 Sane (Aqil)

iv)                 Capable (Akhtiyar)

 

If someone’s life is in danger then all haram becomes halal or vice versa except in two situations:

a)      Jihad is wajib even if life is in danger

b)      Killing another Muslim is haram even if one’s own life is in danger.

 

Islam and knowledge of fiqh are not the necessary conditions for a person for following the fiqh.

 

Hukm (Laws) are of two types:

o       Hukme Takleefi (regarding sawab or azaab)

o       Hukme Waz-ee (regarding other characteristics like right or wrong)

 

 From Fiqh point of view, a girl becomes baligh at the age of 9 Islamic years even if her monthly period has not started.  A boy becomes baligh at the age of 15 Islamic years or at an earlier age if he starts discharging semen (Ehtelam) or pubic hairs appear below his navel.

 

 If a na-baligh child offers salat, sawm etc, he will get the sawab of these acts if he is of such age that he can distinguish good from bad or right from wrong (Mumaiyaz in Arabic).

 

It is wajib on wali (guardian) to stop na-baligh children from certain major haram things, which include Wine, Pork, Haram Meat, Music, and Stealing.

 

When a non-shia becomes shia, then he has to re-pay zakat and fitra paid during the period he was non-shia.  Why? Because in shia fiqh, the zakat and fitra must go to poor shia.  However, he does not have to repeat salat, saum, hajj etc performed earlier.

 

 When a kafir becomes a Muslim, he does not have to offer qaza of salat or sawm missed during the period of kufr.  But he has to pay khums and zakat on his previous year's savings/items on the day he becomes a Muslim.

 

 On the Day of Judgement, a kafir will get punishment of not accepting Islam, and also for not offering salat, sawm etc during his period of Kufr.

HISTORY & FIQH

 

 Some knowledge of history is essential to understand how our Holy Imams (AS) propagated the knowledge of Fiqh and also to understand the philosophy/logic of some masail of Fiqh.

 

 Tonight (7th Zilhajj) is the anniversary of shahadat of our 5th Imam Muhammad Baqir AS (which occurred in 114 hijri).

 Open dissemination of Fiqh knowledge was started by the 5th Imam, who is also known by the title BAQIRUL ULOOM.

 Our 5th & 6th Imams are known by a common title of SADIQAIN.

 The real benefits of martyrdom of Karbala started appearing in the time of the 5th Imam, when people started enquiring openly about real Islam and it’s laws.

 

 The 5th & 6th Imams established the first Hawzae Ilmiya (Islamic University). They also gave knowledge about the established system of Taqleed and Khums.

 

 According to all Muslims (including Wahabis), the best family lineage in the world is family of our Holy Prophet (SAW) through Bibi Fatima (AS) and Imam Ali (AS).

 Our 5th Imam has unique distinction of having Masoom grandfathers from father’s side as well as from mother’s side. The father of 5th Imam was Imam Zainul Abideen (AS), the son of Imam Husain (AS). The mother of 5th Imam was Fatima, the daughter of Imam Hasan (AS).

 

LAW OF ILZAM (Qanoon-e-Ilzam)

 

  In order to understand the topic of Ijtihad and Taqleed, it is first necessary to understand the law of Ilzam in fiqh.

 

  Law of Ilzam helps in solving problems due to differences in fatwas from different Mujtahids on the same issue.

 

  Law of Ilzam also solves problems arising due to conflicting laws in fiqh between Shia school of fiqh and Sunni school of fiqh on the same issue.

 

  These laws were first explained by our 5th Imam (AS).

 

  According to the Law of Ilzam, if a thing is incorrect (batil) in Shia fiqh, but if the same thing is considered correct according to Sunni fiqh, then a shia can take a benefit from it. This is best explained by examples:

 

  Example 1: Divorce Laws. There are major differences in divorce laws in shia and sunni fiqh. Shia fiqh is very strict in divorce laws (divorce formula must be recited in Arabic, 2 witnesses must be present and the woman must be free from menstruation at the time of divorce). In sunni fiqh, only the recitation of word Talaq three times is enough and other conditions are not necessary.  If a sunni gives divorce to his wife according to rule of his fiqh, then (according to law of Ilzam), shia fiqh recognises the divorce as valid and a shia is allowed to marry such a divorced woman.

 

  Example 2: Inheritance Laws. According to Quran, when husband dies, his wife gets 25% of his property if he had no children, or 12.5% if he had children. The property can be of 2 types: Movable (clothes, house building, cash etc) or Immovable (land of house, farm land etc). In shia fiqh, a wife gets a share only in movable property. In sunni fiqh a wife will get share from movable and immovable properties. If a shia wife gets a share from her sunni husband’s immovable property, it is halal for her even though it is incorrect in her own fiqh.

 

  Example 3: Jamaat Prayers. In shia fiqh, the Imame Jamaat must be a shia ithna asheri along with other conditions such as being adil.  But if a sunni Imame jamaat is leading salat according to his sunni fiqh, then a shia can pray jamaat behind such a sunni imam (he should make a niyyat of jamaat and recite suras himself too).

 

  The same law of Ilzam applies to differences in fatwas on fiqh by two or more shia Mujtahids. Examples are the differences in fatwas in moon sighting laws, Taharat of Ahle Kitab etc.