Ijtihad in Minor Issues and Burdensome Opinions
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
A questioner says: Sometimes simple issues arise where the disagreement is minor, and some mujtahids (scholars qualified to derive rulings) come up with opinions that place a burden on the people. How is this ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) considered valid?
Answer:
Who is the mujtahid in this time? There is no mujtahid; they have not reached the level of ijtihad. May they be good at taqlid (following a scholar without knowing his evidence), but they are not even good at taqlid. These are matters in which a Muslim should be well-mannered regarding the affairs of knowledge and the issues of knowledge, and not claim a level he has not reached. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh,
A questioner says: Sometimes simple issues arise where the disagreement is minor, and some mujtahids (scholars qualified to derive rulings) come up with opinions that place a burden on the people. How is this ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) considered valid?
Answer:
Who is the mujtahid in this time? There is no mujtahid; they have not reached the level of ijtihad. May they be good at taqlid (following a scholar without knowing his evidence), but they are not even good at taqlid. These are matters in which a Muslim should be well-mannered regarding the affairs of knowledge and the issues of knowledge, and not claim a level he has not reached. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh,
Source
شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، فصل وأما ما أفتى به الحسن وإبراهيم النخعي ومالك في إحدى الروايتين عنه — islamhouse.com (59:12)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.