The Meaning of Imam Ahmad's Statement: Whoever Claims Consensus Has Lied
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. This questioner says: What is the meaning of Imam Ahmad’s (may Allah have mercy on him) statement regarding scholarly consensus (ijma’): “Whoever claims ijma’ has lied, and how does he know? Perhaps they differed?”
The Shaykh:
No, the community is considered, and its evidence is from the Qur’an:[An-Nisa 4:115] So what does that mean? I do not know about the authenticity of this from Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him). Yes.
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. This is a woman asking, and she says: Some wives…
The Shaykh:
Ijma’ is of two types: definitive ijma’ and probable ijma’. The one who denies definitive ijma’ is misguided without a doubt. As for the one who denies probable ijma’, this is easier than the first, but it is not permissible to deny ijma’ in its two types. It is not permissible to deny it in either type, neither the definitive nor the probable. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. This questioner says: What is the meaning of Imam Ahmad’s (may Allah have mercy on him) statement regarding scholarly consensus (ijma’): “Whoever claims ijma’ has lied, and how does he know? Perhaps they differed?”
The Shaykh:
No, the community is considered, and its evidence is from the Qur’an:
and follows other than the way of the believers
وَيَتَّبِعْ غَيْرَ سَبِيلِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَThe questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. This is a woman asking, and she says: Some wives…
The Shaykh:
Ijma’ is of two types: definitive ijma’ and probable ijma’. The one who denies definitive ijma’ is misguided without a doubt. As for the one who denies probable ijma’, this is easier than the first, but it is not permissible to deny ijma’ in its two types. It is not permissible to deny it in either type, neither the definitive nor the probable. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 53 من 86 /شرح كتاب إغاثة اللهفان في مصائد الشيطان/صوت المعازف/صالح الفوزان/العقيدة/كبار العلماء — youtube.com (55:45)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.