The Hadith Scholar and the Jurist

Question : A questioner asks: Is every hadith scholar a jurist, or is it the other way around?

Answer : Not every hadith scholar is a jurist, and not every jurist is a hadith scholar. The hadith scholar is divided into two categories: he may be a narrator who is not aware, meaning he narrates the hadiths, memorizes them, and transmits them with their chains of narration. This is a hadith scholar, but he may not be aware, meaning he may not know the hadiths, their implications, or their rulings. So this person is a narrator and not a jurist. For this reason, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: So we say that he is a hadith scholar and not a jurist. A person may also be a jurist who is aware and understanding, but he has little stock in hadith, so he is not a hadith scholar, even though we call him a jurist. Both are deficient. As for the first, the narrator without awareness, he is deficient, but he is beneficial to the Muslim community by preserving the hadiths. As for the second, the jurist, he is deficient, because the one who has jurisprudence in isolation, without relying on the hadiths and the Book and the Sunnah, is generally characterized by much deficiency. So he is deficient, but he is also beneficial to the Muslim community with the jurisprudence, understanding, and derivation of rulings he possesses. Perfection is for a person to be both a hadith scholar and a jurist. If this is achieved...