Why do we not make the fatwa of the Companions the reference and leave the disagreement that exists among scholars?

The questioner : The question, O Shaykh, and this is truly what I hope for from Allah, Exalted is His Majesty, namely that Your Eminence would do this.

The Shaykh : Excuse me.

The questioner : You have called for many years past to adhere to the guidance of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in creed, in worship, in morals, and in conduct. And you did not stop there, but you also called for the fact that Muslims cannot understand the words of Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, and the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) except through the understanding of the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Just as they transmitted to us the words of the Qur'an and the Sunnah, so they transmitted to us the meanings of the Qur'an and the Sunnah. So I ask, why should this not be the case in all matters of religion?

The Shaykh : In all matters?

The questioner : In all matters of religion. And you have called for this, and we praise Allah and give thanks to Him. In other words, whatever is established from any of the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), whether in speech or action, has the ruling of what is established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), subject to the known disagreement regarding whether the statement of a Companion became famous or not. What became famous is clear: if it indicates obligation, we say it is obligatory. And what did not become famous, the least that can be said is that it is the best and the closest to the Book and the Sunnah, because the Companions knew from the Book and the Sunnah what we do not know, and they knew of the Arabic language what we do not know, and the contextual circumstances of the address are not something we can know from the apparent text of the hadith alone, without those who witnessed and sat with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). Therefore, I give one example of this, which Your Eminence has explained in more than one book, and it is the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) This phrase is a general statement. Scholars differed in its interpretation; some interpreted it as such and such, and others interpreted it as such and such. So when we returned to the original, authentic source, we learned that it was not the intention of the Prophet , meaning do not return to bowing before the rows are straight, because the Companions did it, and they were the ones who witnessed the contextual circumstances of the address. So I say, from this perspective, why do not all people of knowledge call people to take what the Companions were upon? And whether we say it is obligatory in what became famous from them, or recommended in what did not become famous from them, by that the disagreement ends and is cut off. It does not remain. First, people are raised on the idea that if scholars differ in understanding a hadith, they refer it back to what the Companions were upon. This is a very important aspect. Why, when we read in the books of jurisprudence, is the statement of a Companion, or the statement of more than one Companion, treated like the statement of other scholars? Why?
What is obligatory is what? It is said that Imam Ahmad is not more deserving than al-Shafi'i, nor is al-Shafi'i more deserving than Abu Hanifah, nor is Abu Hanifah more deserving than Malik. Rather, it is said that the understanding that agrees with what the Companions were upon, in action, omission, or speech, is what agrees with the Book of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, and the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).
This principle encompasses thousands of issues. I do not say hundreds of issues, but thousands of issues. And unfortunately, the reality today indicates a great distance in the method of teaching. And we are still, despite your call to the Sunnah and to adhering to the understanding of the Companions, which has brought much good, students are still raised on books written by men, perhaps in the ninth or tenth century, differing in schools of jurisprudence, and then they revolveThe student : in the orbit of these books, unable to go beyond them. And perhaps they are told, "Beware, and be warned against going beyond these books to what is behind them."
I mean, I say, and in other words, and I hope I have not been too long withThe Shaykh : I say, may Allah protect you, does Your Eminence not see that such books stand betweenThe student : the seeker of the truth and what the Prophet and his Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) were upon, such that what agrees with this book and this school of jurisprudence becomes the fatwa, and what contradicts this book and this school of jurisprudence, even if its holder is not censured, he is in a state of isolation. What is your opinion, Your Eminence?

The Shaykh : I say, indeed, praise is to Allah, we praise Him and seek His help and seek His forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and the badness of our deeds. Whom Allah guides, there is no one who can misguide him, and whom He misguides, there is no one who can guide him. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His messenger. There is no doubt, O VirtuousThe Shaykh : Abdullah, what you are circling around is a very, very important matter, and that is for Muslims to return to understanding the Book of their Lord and the Sunnah of their Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) as our righteous predecessors did, and especially the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), for the reason I mentioned and for some of the examples I cited. However, what I see, and Allah knows best, is that eliminating disagreement is an impossible matter. Therefore, what we should do, as students of knowledge as they say today—and it is correct to say, considering ourselves to be students of knowledge—is to seek what is possible and to avoid seeking what is impossible, because seeking the impossible is a waste of time and effort. Agreement and the elimination of disagreement are not possible for two reasons. The first reason is what is stated in the Book of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), such as His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He) . The other thing is that reality tells us that this agreement is not possible, because if it were a possible matter, the earliest predecessors would have been the most deserving of this possible and very, very beautiful matter. And since it was not, it will not be in the future, and they are the generations attested to as the best. If the matter is so, then this is, in my belief, a point of agreement in which there is no difference. So, first, we must strive to adopt the possible scientific means that help in eliminating this disagreement. I do not doubt, and I agree with you, that the books you referred to, whether they are books on the principles of jurisprudence or on the branches of jurisprudence, have deterred the masses of students of knowledge, if not the scholars themselves, from following the Book and the Sunnah and the methodology of the righteous predecessors. I do not doubt this at all. But what do we do? "It has happened what I feared would happen *** Indeed, to Allah we return." These books exist now, so we must try to direct the students and scholars you referred to with the scriptural evidence that convinces whoever is sincere among them of the obligation to return to understanding the Book and the Sunnah on the methodology of the righteous predecessors. And I placed the phrase "whoever is sincere among them" here to also indicate that the presence or absence of this sincerity is one of the causes of the continuation of disagreement. It is one of the causes of the continuation of disagreement. So if that impossible thing were possible and we made it a reality, we would still not be free from disagreement because of the existence of this affliction, the affliction of showing off and the affliction of opposing, and so on. Therefore, in short, all we have to do is adopt the causes that help those with sincerity to return to this correct matter which you hinted at, and we are with you in that. And I noticed in your speech something important and precise, which is the distinction between what was famous among the Companions from their sayings and what was not. So we give the first category of these sayings what we do not give the second category. We oblige the masses of these sincere people to submit to the saying of those Companions which they said and which became famous among them, and I have distinguished the implication of that saying on the legal ruling, whether it is obligatory, recommended, forbidden, disliked, and so on. So then, the other saying remains, which was reported from a Companion and did not become famous with that fame. Here now, we should pause a little. I hinted from the folds of your speech that you see that we should not treat this type of reports from the Companions as we treat the first type of reports from the Companions. And this is what I mentioned to you in a conversation that took place between you and me recently, and I gave you an example regarding the hadith . Personally, I attach the ruling of eating to the ruling of drinking, so I do not permit eating while standing, but I do not assert it with certainty, unlike drinking while standing, for which I do assert it with certainty. And I do not want to repeat the research which you must be aware of. So if the intention now in this research is to remain with this apparent distinction, then I do not see of the truth anything other than that. But if the intention is to treat the second category as we treat the first category, then the matter requires research and evidence that convinces us before we try to convince others. If you have something regarding this, we want to benefit from it. Otherwise, the matter is completely finished for me, as you said. The saying of a Companion, the opinion of a Companion, is better than the opinion of so-and-so. This is without doubt. But do we have in the Shari'ah what obligates us to adopt it, even if it was not famous among the Companions? This is the point of research. Please proceed.