29. JURISPRUDENCE NEEDS ALL TYPES OF SCIENCES
It is desirable for the jurist (faqih) to learn a portion of each science (funn), such as history (tdriq), hadith, linguistics (lugha) and so on, for jurisprudence (fiqh) needs all sciences (‘ulum). So let him acquire an important part of each science. I saw a jurist who said, ‘Al-Shibli and Shurayk the Jurist met’, so I marveled how he did not know the many years that were between them . Another said in a debate, ‘The marriage of Fatimah and ‘All (radiy Allahu anhu) was singular for ‘All, which is why he gave her the burial bath.’ I told him, ‘Woe to you! Don’t you know he married Umamah, the daughter of Zaynab, who was the niece of Fatimah’, so he was speechless. I saw in the ‘Ihya ‘Ulum al-Din’ of Al-Ghazall some amazing confusion of hadiths and histories, so I gathered some of the crudest examples in a book.
He mentioned in his book, Al-Mustadhiri’ that he presented to Al-Mustadhir Billah, that Sulayman Ibn ‘Abdu’l-Malik sent for Abu Hazim and asked him, ‘Send me some of your breakfast.’ He sent him some fried bran, which he ate and then had intercourse with his wife. She gave birth to ‘Abdu’l-‘AzIz, who then had his child, ‘Umar.
This is clumsy because he made ‘Abdul Aziz the son of Sulayman ibn ‘Abdu’l-Malik, meaning that Sulayman is ‘Umar’s grandfather, when he was his cousin.
Abu’l Ma’all Al-Juwaynl said towards the end of his book, ‘Al-Shamil fil Usui’ that, ‘A group of trustworthy narrators stated that Al-Hallaj, Al-Jabba’i Al-Qarmatl and Ibn Al-Muqaffa’ agreed to overthrow regimes, spread corruption in the Kingdom and appease the hearts. Each of them went to a certain place; Al-Jabba’i went to Al-Ahsa, Ibn Al-Muqaffa’ went deep into Turkic land, and Al-Hallaj resided in Baghdad. His two companions judged that he would perish and fail to achieve the purpose because the people of Baghdad were immune to being tricked, and had insight and acumen
I said, ‘Had this man or those from whom he narrated from knew history, he would have realised that Al-Hallaj did not live in the same period as Ibn Al-Muqaffa’, because Ibn Al-Muqaffa’ was sentenced to death by Al-Mansur, and was killed in the year 144H. While Abu Sa’ld Al-Jabba’I Al-Qarmatl was born in 268H, and Al-Hallaj was killed in 309H. Therefore, the times of Al-Qarmatl and Al-Hallaj are close to one another, but that is not the case for Ibn Al-Muqaffa’.
It is thus necessary for every man of knowledge to encompass other sciences and acquire a portion thereof, because every science is connected to another.
How unpleasant it is when a hadith scholar is asked about a matter but is unable to answer because he was occupied with gathering the routes of transmission. Similarly, how unpleasant it is when a jurist is asked about the meaning of a hadith when he has no idea about the hadith’s authenticity or meaning.
We ask Allah Almighty for a strong resolve that is not satisfied with shortcomings, with His blessing and kindness.
(Source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)
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