The ruling on choosing the easier option in matters of scholarly disagreement
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
In one of his questions, he says: I heard one of the brothers in one of the gatherings say, "If you disagree on an issue, and since the issue is one of scholarly disagreement, choose the easier one." Is this statement correct?
Answer:
This is the speech of an ignorant person, and such speech is not permissible. We do not worship by following the opinions of people; rather, we worship by following the evidence. Opinions differ; some are based on evidence, and some have no evidence for them. The one that has evidence is the one that is relied upon and adopted, while the one that has no evidence is set aside. Allah the Exalted said:[An-Nisa 4:59] [An-Nisa 4:59] So if this person knows how to determine the stronger position and knows the evidence, he takes what is supported by evidence from the scholars' opinions. If he is a layperson and does not know how to determine the stronger position, he asks the people of knowledge and does not choose for himself, saying, "I took the easier one." And if the easier one has no evidence for it, what do you do? And is your conscience cleared by that? Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you,
In one of his questions, he says: I heard one of the brothers in one of the gatherings say, "If you disagree on an issue, and since the issue is one of scholarly disagreement, choose the easier one." Is this statement correct?
Answer:
This is the speech of an ignorant person, and such speech is not permissible. We do not worship by following the opinions of people; rather, we worship by following the evidence. Opinions differ; some are based on evidence, and some have no evidence for them. The one that has evidence is the one that is relied upon and adopted, while the one that has no evidence is set aside. Allah the Exalted said:
And if you disagree over anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger, if you should believe in Allah and
فَإِن تَنَازَعْتُمْ فِي شَيْءٍ فَرُدُّوهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَالرَّسُولِ إِن كُنتُمْ تُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِand the Last Day. That is the best [way] and best in result.
الْآخِرِ ذَٰلِكَ خَيْرٌ وَأَحْسَنُ تَأْوِيلًاThe presenter:
May Allah reward you,
Source
نور على الدرب - الفوزان - 03/275 — archive.org (4:47)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.