What is the criterion in matters on which scholars have disagreed?
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Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. There are matters on which scholars differ regarding their ruling, such as matters of creed, where one person sees a certain action as shirk (associating partners with Allah) and another scholar sees it as a sin or a means to shirk, such as visiting graves for tabarruk (seeking blessing) and other examples. What is the criterion in this matter?
Answer:
The criterion is the evidence; whoever has the evidence is in the right, and whoever contradicts the evidence is incorrect. Allah did not leave us to our minds and our differences; rather, He sent down to us the Book and the Sunnah. So whoever, by Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He), says[Taha 20:123-124] ... well, we are people who deny the existence of Allah, the atheists and the materialists. The existence of disagreement among humans is not strange, but the matter is about proof and evidence. Yes.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. There are matters on which scholars differ regarding their ruling, such as matters of creed, where one person sees a certain action as shirk (associating partners with Allah) and another scholar sees it as a sin or a means to shirk, such as visiting graves for tabarruk (seeking blessing) and other examples. What is the criterion in this matter?
Answer:
The criterion is the evidence; whoever has the evidence is in the right, and whoever contradicts the evidence is incorrect. Allah did not leave us to our minds and our differences; rather, He sent down to us the Book and the Sunnah. So whoever, by Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He), says
And if there should come to you guidance from Me - then whoever follows My guidance will neither go astray [in the world] nor suffer [in the Hereafter]. (124) And whoever turns away from My remembrance - indeed, he will have a depressed
فَإِمَّا يَأْتِيَنَّكُم مِّنِّي هُدًى فَمَنِ اتَّبَعَ هُدَايَ فَلَا يَضِلُّ وَلَا يَشْقَىٰ وَمَنْ أَعْرَضَ عَن ذِكْرِي فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [470 -1024] ما هو الضابط في المسائل التي اختلف فيها العلماء؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.