The Meaning of the Hadith: The Lawful Is Clear, the Forbidden Is Clear, and Between Them Are Doubtful Matters
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The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, regarding the hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "The lawful is clear, the forbidden is clear, and between them are doubtful matters." What are these doubtful matters, and I hope you will clarify an example of them?
The Shaykh:
The doubtful matters are those in which there is disagreement among scholars, the issues of scholarly disagreement where the evidence differs among the people of knowledge, not in their ruling, and no stronger evidence has appeared favoring one side, with each holding that his view is the correct one because no evidence has emerged in the matter. These are encompassed by doubt; it is safer to leave them alone. Leaving doubtful matters means one has purified his religion and honored it. For example, the one who marries in this country, Egypt, where there is disagreement regarding breastfeeding, but you do not know, you do not have information about the women of this village, and you do not know them. The best thing is that you do not marry from this village, because there is disagreement; it is possible that you would marry her, so you avoid it. Or a group of women, all young, but you do not know them specifically. The best thing is to speak about all of them, in the sense of avoiding doubtful matters. Every issue in which there is disagreement and no evidence has appeared favoring one of the two parties, then it is...
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, what is the ruling on the supplication that a person makes?
The Shaykh:
Regarding doubtful matters, no, avoiding doubtful matters in such a case is not obligatory; it is a matter of scrupulousness, a matter of scrupulousness and choice. So it is obligatory, yes.
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, the supplication that...
The Shaykh:
...is such that you do not have a specific one, for example, one was slaughtered by a Muslim or a People of the Book, and one was slaughtered by a disbeliever, and all of it is beneficial, and I want to find this lawful. This is doubtful, so you encompass the doubtful matter, fearing that you might fall into the forbidden, fearing that the sheep from which you ate is the forbidden one. I say, yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, regarding the hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "The lawful is clear, the forbidden is clear, and between them are doubtful matters." What are these doubtful matters, and I hope you will clarify an example of them?
The Shaykh:
The doubtful matters are those in which there is disagreement among scholars, the issues of scholarly disagreement where the evidence differs among the people of knowledge, not in their ruling, and no stronger evidence has appeared favoring one side, with each holding that his view is the correct one because no evidence has emerged in the matter. These are encompassed by doubt; it is safer to leave them alone. Leaving doubtful matters means one has purified his religion and honored it. For example, the one who marries in this country, Egypt, where there is disagreement regarding breastfeeding, but you do not know, you do not have information about the women of this village, and you do not know them. The best thing is that you do not marry from this village, because there is disagreement; it is possible that you would marry her, so you avoid it. Or a group of women, all young, but you do not know them specifically. The best thing is to speak about all of them, in the sense of avoiding doubtful matters. Every issue in which there is disagreement and no evidence has appeared favoring one of the two parties, then it is...
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, what is the ruling on the supplication that a person makes?
The Shaykh:
Regarding doubtful matters, no, avoiding doubtful matters in such a case is not obligatory; it is a matter of scrupulousness, a matter of scrupulousness and choice. So it is obligatory, yes.
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, the supplication that...
The Shaykh:
...is such that you do not have a specific one, for example, one was slaughtered by a Muslim or a People of the Book, and one was slaughtered by a disbeliever, and all of it is beneficial, and I want to find this lawful. This is doubtful, so you encompass the doubtful matter, fearing that you might fall into the forbidden, fearing that the sheep from which you ate is the forbidden one. I say, yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 141/29 شرح زاد المستقنع/ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com (1:26:10)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.