Continuing the topic from the previous tape, which is the conditions of the mujtahid in partial ijtihad, even in a single issue.

The Shaykh : ... I have been patient with you... We are being tested by this speech now.

The questioner: No, no.

The Shaykh : If you permit me, the condition you are linking in the third section to partial ijtihad, even in a single issue, why is it? To ensure there is no deviation in understanding; is that not so? I am asking you now.

The questioner : Yes, that is correct.

The Shaykh : Fine, I return and build upon that; since this issue is one that was previously researched, addressed, and studied, and so on, and a man of knowledge and virtue was found who adopted what this mujtahid understood as a partial ijtihad, adopting this understanding that preceded him by the scholar, the guarantee that scholars require when one performs ijtihad in a partial issue without having this... is so that he does not deviate, and this is very important regarding the issues that are occurring. As for you—may Allah bless you—you are mixing the two matters, and this is a very fundamental difference. As for an issue where it is said that "time has eaten it up and drunk it," and it was killed by research, and so on, and ijtihad, and so on; there is no need for you to require these conditions in it, because these conditions are only obligatory for an issue that has occurred; perhaps prayer on an airplane is valid or not valid, or there was no airplane in their time? Perhaps filling a tooth is valid or not valid? Some of the scholars today, whom we call followers, say it is not permissible, and so on. These issues, by Allah, this condition that you read from the scholars is fully applicable; because the issue is very serious. But an issue that scholars have addressed previously, taking that opinion, ends there; it was not in the protection of certainty from error.

Another questioner : He was a follower in it and was not a mujtahid.

The questioner : Yes; therefore he is not called a mujtahid. A mujtahid is not called a mujtahid of an issue. We say of him: he is a follower of a school. We say of him... he is called a follower. As for the mujtahid of an issue, now when I want to perform ijtihad in an issue, if I do not know the principles, then I do not know the general and the specific. If I do not know everything that has come in this issue from verses and hadiths, no... As for "time has eaten it up and drunk it" and the matter is finished, I am not a mujtahid, I am a follower.

The Shaykh : I ask you...

The questioner : When am I a mujtahid?

The Shaykh : I ask you, Professor.

The questioner : When I derive and look at the situation and so on, I am a mujtahid of an issue.

The Shaykh : I ask you; is there a disagreement between you and me now on this point?

The questioner : No, but if I say no... I err. If he follows another, he is not considered.

The Shaykh : Pardon me.

The questioner : No, but there is a point slightly.

The Shaykh : No problem, but I am asking you a one-word question and its cover: is there a disagreement or is there no disagreement?

Another questioner : Yes, yes.

The questioner : There is a disagreement.

The Shaykh : What is the point of disagreement?

The questioner : This person who looks at an issue... and follows another is a follower; who is the mujtahid of the issue?

The Shaykh : I do not say: he followed.

The questioner : He followed, I consider him, and he followed another, he followed. But when I study the opinions of the imams and I study the hadiths that have come, and I am... from the Arabic language and a scholar of the general and the specific and the abrogating and the abrogated, at that time it is right for me to perform ijtihad, and if I perform ijtihad in that issue, I am called a mujtahid of an issue. This is the one, otherwise I am not called. As for merely, by Allah, taking the opinion of this one, I am a follower. And this mujtahid is required to have the conditions. But to say there are no conditions at all, when I want to perform ijtihad in an issue, Professor, a lot of... therefore one comes to perform ijtihad in one direction and does not understand what is general and what is specific.

The Shaykh : Professor, do not return to repeat the past; this is not a point of disagreement, this point now.

The questioner : Which one?

The Shaykh : I am telling you: an issue has occurred, we are performing ijtihad in it, and we perform ijtihad, this speech, we mention it... Fine, is there a disagreement here?

The questioner : No... it requires knowledge.

The Shaykh : We come to issues that scholars have addressed.

The questioner : A follower in this.

The Shaykh : And everyone, if you permit me, sir, we want to return to the point we agreed upon.
Each of the previous imams expressed his opinion in that issue and brought his evidence, and if a person does not have these conditions that you require, and I agree with you in their realization for whoever wants to perform ijtihad now in new issues, this person does not have these conditions available in him. But like any student of knowledge graduated from the university, are these conditions available? Any graduate from the university?

The questioner: No.

The Shaykh : I sign in blank, these conditions are not available, but he has a type of culture, he opens a book from the simplified books in Shafi'i fiqh—for example—"al-Majmu'"; in the Hanafi, "Fath al-Qadir," and so on; and in "al-Mughni" in the Hanbali, and so on of simplified books in the evidence of the schools; he studies here and studies here and studies here. He does not have these conditions, but it became clear to him that this is the stronger. And what does this stronger mean? It means whoever said this opinion, this is stronger for me, this is a mujtahid. But his ijtihad does not require these conditions; because these conditions are required for whoever wants to research a sudden issue.

The questioner : No need, this is the point.

The Shaykh : Allow me.

The questioner : He is not a mujtahid, no, the conditions did not exist in him. You want to prefer this and that, if you do not know how to prefer? How do I judge Abu Hanifa as wrong and I judge al-Shafi'i as correct if I do not know? When I say that this... I must know what... their methods of understanding.

The Shaykh : Are you not asking now? ... Your entire research is actually... Professor, this is if you do not call them.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Allow me, you are now contradicting this, you are now adopting this opinion, you are adopting this opinion.

The questioner : Yes, yes.

The Shaykh : Fine, are you now a mujtahid or a follower?

The questioner : I am a follower.

The Shaykh : A follower, fine, so you are a follower when you come to study an issue from the issues, you study an issue... Has it not occurred to you one day that if your school is Shafi'i or Hanafi, either way, and you studied the issue in the way I presented here, a book, and it is a book, and so on; and if you are reassured by an opinion other than your school, is it permissible for you to take it?

The questioner : I must take it...

The Shaykh : ... .

The questioner : I must.

The Shaykh : Allow me, allow me.

The questioner : And I am considered Hanafi at the same time.

The Shaykh : Allow me.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : So you noticed with this opinion it contradicts your school, are you a follower in this issue?

The questioner : No, I am a mujtahid in this issue, rather I am a scholar of the principles.

The Shaykh : Allow me, sir.

The questioner : What is valid for me? ... Scholar.

The Shaykh : Allow me, sir.
You forgot the speech I started with, you or anyone else graduated from the university is not a mujtahid, and does not have the means of ijtihad that you mentioned earlier.

The questioner : Why?

The Shaykh : Why? You ask yourself.

The questioner : ... If I believe.

The Shaykh : Sir, now I want...

The questioner : Not everyone is a professor.

The Shaykh : Allow me.

The questioner : The point, let me, but a point; a new graduate does not... let me...

The Shaykh: All right.

The questioner : ... one who is still in his second, third, fourth year of graduation... meaning he studied the principles... the issue, and if here it was realized and he was certain and studied the principles and knew the abrogating and the abrogated and knew the evidence... in this state, if the evidence is clear to him, it is obligatory. The Imam tells you, every Imam tells you: "If the hadith is authentic, it is my school, and cast my opinion to the winds." So if I contradict Abu Hanifa in this issue and I follow, I am considered Hanafi.

The Shaykh : Please—my professor—do not... the agreed-upon things, we need to discuss...