Is it prescribed to disapprove in matters of independent legal reasoning?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Your Eminence, I read in some books the statement that disapproval in matters of independent legal reasoning...
The Shaykh : What?
The questioner : ...
The Shaykh : And what is it?
The questioner : ...is that there is no disapproval in matters of independent legal reasoning. My question is: what is the criterion for a matter of independent legal reasoning, when do I disapprove of someone who disagrees with me, do I disapprove of someone who disagrees with me in what I consider the stronger position in matters of Islamic jurisprudence, and how is the disapproval carried out?
The Shaykh : Disapproval means that a person rejects what another has done and does not excuse it. This is not done in matters of independent legal reasoning; there is no disapproval in matters of independent legal reasoning. For example, if we see a man eating camel meat and not performing the ablution for prayer based on his independent legal reasoning that camel meat does not invalidate the ablution, we do not disapprove of him. However, our not disapproving of him does not prevent us from discussing the matter with him, saying to him, "My brother, come, let us look at the Sunnah between us: does eating camel meat invalidate the ablution or not?"
As for matters that are not subject to independent legal reasoning, which leave no room for the intellect, one does disapprove of the one who disagrees in them. For instance, if someone speaks about matters of the unseen and denies something of the matters of the unseen about which Allah and His Messenger informed us, we cannot approve of that. This is because there is no room for independent legal reasoning in matters of the unseen. Yes.
The Shaykh : What?
The questioner : ...
The Shaykh : And what is it?
The questioner : ...is that there is no disapproval in matters of independent legal reasoning. My question is: what is the criterion for a matter of independent legal reasoning, when do I disapprove of someone who disagrees with me, do I disapprove of someone who disagrees with me in what I consider the stronger position in matters of Islamic jurisprudence, and how is the disapproval carried out?
The Shaykh : Disapproval means that a person rejects what another has done and does not excuse it. This is not done in matters of independent legal reasoning; there is no disapproval in matters of independent legal reasoning. For example, if we see a man eating camel meat and not performing the ablution for prayer based on his independent legal reasoning that camel meat does not invalidate the ablution, we do not disapprove of him. However, our not disapproving of him does not prevent us from discussing the matter with him, saying to him, "My brother, come, let us look at the Sunnah between us: does eating camel meat invalidate the ablution or not?"
As for matters that are not subject to independent legal reasoning, which leave no room for the intellect, one does disapprove of the one who disagrees in them. For instance, if someone speaks about matters of the unseen and denies something of the matters of the unseen about which Allah and His Messenger informed us, we cannot approve of that. This is because there is no room for independent legal reasoning in matters of the unseen. Yes.