Warning Against the Error of Binding Ifta and Judiciary to a Specific School of Jurisprudence in Some Islamic Countries.

The Shaykh : From this, we arrive at a very serious issue. It is what has happened in many Islamic countries today, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is on the path of falling into this as well. By the Islamic countries that have fallen into this problematic issue, I mean, for example, Syria and Egypt, where they have obligated judges and rulers to judge and issue fatwas based on a specific school of jurisprudence, either based on the Majallah previously, or based on laws recently established with some modification of the rulings of the Majallah. This is regarding the judges... So this is an obligation of what is not obligatory in the first place. Rather, this is a command for the opposite of what this hadith indicates. If a mufti is asked for a ruling, he must refer to the Book and the Sunnah, not refer to the school of jurisprudence in which his imam said, "It is not permissible for him to issue a fatwa until he knows its evidence." So this mufti who is restricted in issuing fatwas... And buying grapes cannot become khamr (intoxicants) except by pressing them, and this juice cannot become khamr because it may become vinegar, except by processing it in a technical way until it becomes khamr. Once it becomes khamr, it cannot be drunk from shops and stores except by bringing it from the press to the seller of khamr, and so on. Therefore, all of these people help the drinker of khamr to drink khamr, so they were all cursed. How can this be hidden from one who has knowledge of the Book and the Sunnah, so he issues a fatwa to that questioner that it is permissible to store pork? So the calamity today is that the fatwa is imposed to be issued from a book that is not the Book and the Sunnah. And judges must issue fatwas from laws, and these are not purely Shari'ah laws as was the case in the time of the Majallah, where all of it, or most of it, was derived from the Hanafi school. So today, there are in it man-made laws that did not descend from the sky but emerged from the earth, and these rulings were imposed on Muslim judges to judge by them between Muslims. This is a calamity that has befallen the Syrian and Egyptian countries, and perhaps in other countries, we do not know the true state of affairs in them. And now, there are callers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia calling for the codification of rulings, meaning following the Syrian and Egyptian states and imposing certain opinions and ideas on the judges who rule there by the Book and the Sunnah. So this is a calamity, a new calamity, and we hope to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) that it does not materialize in that land. But it is obligatory for every Muslim to know this truth, which is that it is not permissible to issue fatwas except from the Book of Allah and the Hadith of the Messenger of Allah, just as it is not permissible to judge except by deriving from the Book of Allah or the Hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). So in this hadith, there is a warning regarding matters that concern us and concern the community that appoints muftis and judges who rule by other than what Allah has revealed, and all of these forget the severe warning mentioned in three verses in the Noble Qur'an: , , . These are explicit verses in condemnation, rather in ruling with disbelief upon whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed.