The Criterion for the General Public Delving into Legal Issues

Machine translationRead the Arabic original

Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. This questioner says: What is the criterion for the general public delving into general legal issues and current events? And does their delving count as speaking about Allah without knowledge?

Answer:
Yes, it is speaking about Allah without knowledge. Matters are referred to those who know their ruling and know how to resolve them.

And when there comes to them information about [public] security or fear, they spread it around

وَإِذَا جَاءَهُمْ أَمْرٌ مِّنَ الْأَمْنِ أَوِ الْخَوْفِ أَذَاعُوا بِهِ

[An-Nisa 4:83]

This means they engaged in it and began to declare things lawful and speak about them without having any right to do so.

But if they had referred it back to the Messenger or to those of authority among them

وَلَوْ رَدُّوهُ إِلَى الرَّسُولِ وَإِلَىٰ أُولِي الْأَمْرِ مِنْهُمْ

[An-Nisa 4:83]

The authorities are the scholars and the rulers; the scholars and the rulers are the authorities.

But if they had referred it back to the Messenger or to those of authority among them, then the ones who [can] draw correct conclusions from it would have known about it.

وَلَوْ رَدُّوهُ إِلَى الرَّسُولِ وَإِلَىٰ أُولِي الْأَمْرِ مِنْهُمْ لَعَلِمَهُ الَّذِينَ يَسْتَنبِطُونَهُ مِنْهُمْ

[An-Nisa 4:83]

So we do not enter into political matters or these general affairs; we leave them to those who can free themselves and the Muslims from them, namely the scholars and the rulers. If it is a matter of politics, meaning this issue that arose from political affairs, it is referred to the rulers and politicians. If it is a matter of religion, of what is lawful and what is forbidden, it is referred to the scholars.

Source خوض العامة في المسائل والنوازل الشرعية العامة — alfawzan.live

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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