A call from Hasan al-Suqaf regarding the stance on the disagreement among the Imams.

The Shaykh : This is the Hasan al-Suqaf you know. He called me more than once. The last time, he asked what we say about the disagreement among the Imams: do we approve of this disagreement or do we disapprove of it? I told him that disagreement is of two types: disagreement of variation and disagreement of contradiction. If it is of the first type, we approve of it. He asked for an example. We gave him examples: the supplications of opening the prayer, the types of tashahhud, and the Ibrahimic prayer. If it is of the type of contradiction, we believe that the truth is one, and that what contradicts it is a clear error. I mentioned to him the verse where Allah the Exalted said: . He kept trying to find a loophole to reach a goal that is not hidden from you. So I understood his intent and said to him, "What is your opinion? What do you think?" He said, "If the disagreement is with each of the two disagreeing parties, or the disagreeing parties according to the reality, and it is a hadith, then we approve of this disagreement." So I realized that he wants not to distinguish between disagreement of variation and disagreement of contradiction.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes, I said to him, "So what do you say about the hadith? And here is the point, as an example of what we are discussing. What do you say about the hadith ? Is it authentic?" He said, "It is authentic." Notice now, he answers immediately that it is authentic because it agrees with his madhhab. I said to him, "Okay, do you act upon it?" He said, "Yes." I said to him, "What do you say about the hadith ? Is it authentic?" He started to hedge. He said, "Some scholars authenticate it and some weaken it." I said, "Why this hedging?" He said, "I am not hedging." I said, "No, when I asked you about the first hadith, you said it is authentic. When I asked you about the other, you started to doubt, saying some authenticate it and some... I am asking you, what do you say about this hadith? I know the disagreement, but what is your opinion: is it authentic or weak?" He had no choice but to admit its authenticity. And here he fell. I said, "Do you act upon it?" He said, "No." I said, "Then you are making a mistake of Imam Abu Hanifah, who says that it is permissible to perform wudu' and there is nothing wrong with that, and he does not take the first hadith. The issue is for the one who performs wudu'."

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes, and after this, I continued with him with some advice, but of the heavy kind. I said to him, "I do not wish to meet with you, because it does not appear to me that you want the truth in reality. So I say, peace be upon you, if Allah wills." After a while, the man returned and said, "You have exposed a doubt that I had, so I want to ask you another question." I said to him, "I have no inclination, because the doubt that was exposed is still standing as it was. That is the point. If he does not get an example like this, no doubt he will find some hadith scholars who weaken the second hadith. So he will be perplexed as to how he can take the hadith that says one performs wudu' and the hadith that says one does not perform wudu'. May Allah have mercy on you. Either he performs a process of filtering and rests from one of the two hadiths if there is a possibility from the hadith perspective, or he must move from the hadith field to the fiqh field to reconcile the two hadiths. And this undoubtedly requires knowledge of the scientific usul rules. If the student of knowledge is of this caliber, the answer is that it is not obligatory for him to ask the people of knowledge, because we say in many of our answers and lectures that our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, in His saying, for example: , has divided the Muslim community into two groups: a group upon whom asking is obligatory, and a group upon whom answering is obligatory. There is no middle solution, no intermediate rank. As for the scholars of knowledge, they must answer. And as for those who are not scholars of knowledge...