The Ruling on Denying Scholarly Consensus and the Statement of One Who Says It Is Not a Proof
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah forgive you, Honorable Shaykh. Some scholars say that scholarly consensus (ijma') is not a proof, but rather one takes comfort with it; because there is no consensus that does not rely on an explicit text. Furthermore, the claim of consensus in many issues is examined. What is your opinion of this statement?
Answer:
Denying scholarly consensus (ijma') absolutely is disbelief (kufr) and apostasy (riddah) from Islam. Denying scholarly consensus absolutely, meaning the one who says there is no consensus absolutely, is a disbeliever. As for the one who denies some forms of consensus, this requires consideration: is his statement correct or incorrect? Because there are things in which consensus is claimed but consensus has not actually occurred. As for the one who denies consensus absolutely and says it is not used as a proof, this is a disbeliever, a disbeliever in Allah the Exalted and Majestic, because consensus exists, and praise be to Allah. The scholars agreed on the creed, and they agreed on the oneness of Allah, and they agreed on the prohibition of riba (usury or interest), and they agreed on the prohibition of zina (unlawful sexual intercourse), and they agreed on matters known from the religion by necessity. The one who denies consensus absolutely is a disbeliever. As for the one who denies some forms of consensus, he may have a valid point in what he denies.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you
May Allah forgive you, Honorable Shaykh. Some scholars say that scholarly consensus (ijma') is not a proof, but rather one takes comfort with it; because there is no consensus that does not rely on an explicit text. Furthermore, the claim of consensus in many issues is examined. What is your opinion of this statement?
Answer:
Denying scholarly consensus (ijma') absolutely is disbelief (kufr) and apostasy (riddah) from Islam. Denying scholarly consensus absolutely, meaning the one who says there is no consensus absolutely, is a disbeliever. As for the one who denies some forms of consensus, this requires consideration: is his statement correct or incorrect? Because there are things in which consensus is claimed but consensus has not actually occurred. As for the one who denies consensus absolutely and says it is not used as a proof, this is a disbeliever, a disbeliever in Allah the Exalted and Majestic, because consensus exists, and praise be to Allah. The scholars agreed on the creed, and they agreed on the oneness of Allah, and they agreed on the prohibition of riba (usury or interest), and they agreed on the prohibition of zina (unlawful sexual intercourse), and they agreed on matters known from the religion by necessity. The one who denies consensus absolutely is a disbeliever. As for the one who denies some forms of consensus, he may have a valid point in what he denies.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you
Source
شرح نونية ابن القيم [43] — alfawzan.live (40:12)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.