The Understanding of the Salaf of this Ummah is the Methodology of the General Iftaa' Department

 

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all the worlds, and may peace and blessings be upon our Master Muḥammad, the guiding and trustworthy Prophet, and upon his family and all his Companions.

Allah the Almighty, in His grace and generosity, has made us among the best nation ever raised up for mankind — the nation of His beloved, our Master Muḥammad ﷺ. He says (what means): "You are the best nation produced for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah." [Āl 'Imrān/110]. He made this Sharī'ah complete, comprehensive, and perfect, saying (what means): "This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favour upon you and have approved for you Islam as your religion." [Al-Mā'idah/3]. And He pledged to preserve it, saying (what means): "Indeed, it is We who sent down the Reminder, and indeed, it is We who are its guardian." [Al-Ḥijr/ 9].

Allah the Almighty chose for His Prophet the finest of creation after the Prophets, and blessed them with the companionship of the Prophet ﷺ. They carried after him the banner of calling to Allah, following his path through their sound understanding of the texts of the Book (the Quran) and the Sunnah, their methodology of deriving rulings from them, relying upon the soundness of natural disposition (fiṭrah), the Arabic language, the immediate practical application of the texts, and absolute submission to Allah and His Messenger ﷺ — without affectation or excess. Their understanding was distinguished by balance and comprehensiveness, encompassing creed, jurisprudence, and conduct. The Successors (Tābi'ūn) took from them, then their successors, and so on through a continuous chain (isnād). The Ummah reached consensus on adhering to their understanding and following their methodology — for they were the finest predecessors for the finest successors. As the author of Jawharah al-Tawḥīd states:

"All good lies in following those who came before, And all evil lies in the innovations of those who came after."

In order to safeguard the religion from the distortions of the extremists, the fabrications of the fraudulent, and the misinterpretations of the ignorant — all under the guise of following the Salaf — it became necessary to define precisely who the Salaf are and to clarify the landmarks and foundations of their methodology, so that it may be understood correctly and comprehensively, and then embodied in practice and application in a sound manner.

 

Definition of the Salaf: Linguistic and Technical

Linguistically: The root s-l-f denotes precedence and priority. The salaf are those who have passed — that is, those who preceded you from among your forefathers and close relatives who were above you in age and virtue. The umam al-sālifah refers to the nations of the past. 1

Technically: The term salaf has acquired a settled technical meaning in Islamic culture, referring to the first three generations of this Muslim Ummah. The basis for this is the saying of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: "The best of people are those of my generation, then those who follow them, then those who follow them. Then there will come people whose testimony precedes their oath and whose oath precedes their testimony." 2

Ibn Ḥajar states in Fatḥ al-Bārī: "This ḥadīth has been used as evidence for the uprightness (ta'dīl) 3 of the people of the three generations, even though they differ in their degrees of virtue. This is to be understood as referring to the majority and predominant norm, for among those after the Companions from the two generations there were some who exhibited the blameworthy characteristics mentioned — but rarely. This is unlike those after the three generations, for such characteristics became widespread and well-known among them." 4

Accordingly, the Salaf refers to the noble Companions, may Allah be pleased with them all, the leading Successors who followed them in excellence, and their followers. The Ummah has reached consensus that they represent the finest standard attainable by a Muslim in religious commitment, in understanding the realities of the religion and its foundational principles, and in the practice and application of its rites and laws. All that is good lies in the principles they relied upon for the interpretation of texts, their derivation, the foundations of independent legal reasoning (ijtihād), and the examination of principles and rulings.

 

The Temporal Boundary between the Salaf and the Khalaf

Regarding the temporal boundary between the Salaf and the Khalaf, the author of Al-Mirqāh states in his commentary on the ḥadīth of the three generations: "The meaning is that the Companions, the Successors, and their successors are these three generations ranked in virtue. The generation is the people of each era — an expression of the median span of lifetimes in any given age, derived from the notion of contemporaneity (iqtirān). It has been said that a generation is forty years; others say eighty; others say one hundred; and some say it is simply an indeterminate span of time. Al-Suyūṭī said: 'The sounder view is that it cannot be fixed by a specific duration. The generation of the Prophet ﷺ are the Companions, and their period extended from the prophetic mission to the death of the last Companion — approximately one hundred and twenty years. The generation of the Successors lasted from about one hundred years to approximately seventy. The generation of the Successors' successors lasted from then until approximately two hundred and twenty. At this point, innovations spread widely, the Mu'tazilites unleashed their tongues, the philosophers raised their heads, scholars were persecuted to declare the Qur'an created, and conditions changed drastically. The situation has continued in decline ever since — fulfilling the prophetic saying: "then lying will spread."'" 5

 

The Status of the Four Followed Jurisprudential Schools within the Salaf

Based on what has been established, it becomes clear that the founders of the four jurisprudential schools — Abū Ḥanīfah al-Nu'mān ibn Thābit (d. 150 AH), Mālik ibn Anas al-Aṣbaḥī (d. 179 AH), Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfi'ī (d. 204 AH), and the last of them to pass away, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (d. 241 AH), may Allah be pleased with them all — all belong to the Salaf of this Ummah both in time and in methodology.

For this reason, the Ummah has agreed that the jurisprudential schools attributed to them are the schools of the Sunnah and the righteous Salaf. Their relied-upon and adopted positions carry two rewards for the one who arrives at the correct conclusion, and one reward for the one who errs. Whoever acts upon the adopted fatwa within these schools is saved before Allah the Almighty, and has righteous predecessors from among the Salaf — who are the best of generations after the Messenger of Allah ﷺ — to follow in that regard.

All four of these Imāms therefore fall within the righteous Salaf, from whom the Ummah received knowledge and which it accepted with approval. They became a practical and methodological reference for the application of the Book (the Quran) and the Sunnah. Just as the mutawātir recitations of the Qur'an are the means of transmitting the Book of Allah, and the chain of narration (isnād) in Prophetic tradition is the means of transmitting the Prophetic Ḥadīth, the jurisprudential schools are the means of transmitting jurisprudential opinions and legal schools from the time of the Companions.

True adherence to the understanding of the Salaf means adherence to their methodology in dealing with the texts of the Qur'an and Sunnah. Whoever adheres to this methodology is a follower of the righteous Salaf, even if they live in the final centuries of the world's life. And whoever abandons it has departed from their following, even if they lived in the first century of Islam. Allah the Almighty says (what means): "And the forerunners — the first of the Emigrants and the Anṣār — and those who followed them in goodness: Allah is pleased with them and they are pleased with Him, and He has prepared for them gardens beneath which rivers flow, wherein they will abide forever. That is the great attainment." [Al-Tawbah/100]

 

Scholarly Texts on the Obligation of Following the Four Jurisprudential Schools

Many scholars have explicitly stated the obligation of following the four followed jurisprudential schools to the exclusion of others, and some have even transmitted consensus on this matter. The author of Al-Marāqī states:

"What is agreed upon today are the four, And following others — all scholars have forbidden."

Meaning that consensus has been reached today on the obligation of following the four schools — the Mālikī, Ḥanafī, Shāfi'ī, and Ḥanbalī — and that all scholars have prohibited following the school of any other mujtahid. 6

Al-Nafrawī transmitted consensus by saying: "The consensus of Muslims has been established today on the obligation of following one of the four Imāms — Abū Ḥanīfah, Mālik, al-Shāfi'ī, and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, may Allah be pleased with them — and on the impermissibility of departing from their schools. Following any mujtahid other than these four has been deemed impermissible — despite all of them being upon guidance — due to the loss of their schools, the death of their adherents, and the failure to record and preserve their positions." 7

Al-Zarkashī confined the truth to these schools, saying: "Agreement has been reached among Muslims that the truth is contained within these schools, and that it is therefore impermissible to act upon other than them, and that independent reasoning may only take place within them." 8

Ibn Rajab explained the reason for following them to the exclusion of others, saying: "If it be said: we accept the prohibition on the general public from pursuing independent reasoning, due to the great corruption it would lead to — but we do not accept the prohibition on following any established followed Imām from among the mujtahids other than these well-known Imāms — it is said in reply: we have already pointed to the reason for this prohibition, which is that the schools of others have not become widely known nor systematically recorded. Thus, they may have attributed to them what they did not say, or their meaning may have been understood in ways they did not intend. Their schools have no one to defend them or draw attention to errors that may arise within them — unlike these well-known schools." 9

He also stated elsewhere: "Likewise, in matters of legal rulings and fatāwā on the lawful and the unlawful — had people not been regulated in such matters by the positions of a defined number of Imāms, it would have led to the corruption of the religion. Every foolish pretender whose soul sought leadership would have counted himself among the ranks of the mujtahids, inventing a position and attributing it to some predecessor — perhaps through deliberate distortion, as has occurred frequently among some of the Ẓāhirīs — or perhaps that position would have been an aberrant slip of some predecessor that the community of Muslims had collectively abandoned. No better outcome could have been decreed than what Allah has willed: gathering the people upon the schools of these well-known Imāms, may Allah be pleased with them all." 10

For this reason, Ibn Nujaym in Al-Ashbāh wa al-Naẓā'ir held that whatever contradicts the four schools contradicts consensus, saying: "Whatever opposes the four Imāms opposes consensus — even if there exists a contrary opinion from others — for it has been explicitly stated in Al-Taḥrīr that consensus has been established on not acting upon any school that contradicts the four, due to the systematic preservation, widespread dissemination, and large number of adherents of their schools." 11

Al-Mardāwī similarly explained this consensus in Al-Taḥbīr, saying: "The foundation of Islam and the reliance of its people has remained upon these Imāms and their followers. Their schools, positions, and actions have been systematically recorded, verified, and transmitted without any doubt — unlike the schools of others, who, even if they were among the relied-upon Imāms, were not recorded with the same complete precision. Even where some of their positions have been soundly transmitted, they are too few to suffice — due to the absence of adherents. Moreover, their positions are either in agreement with one of these four Imāms and their followers, in which case the objective is already achieved and those positions serve as corroboration, or they diverge from them, in which case they are generally aberrant positions that cannot be relied upon." 12

Thus, Allah the Almighty willed that the four jurisprudential schools would spread and earn this level of confidence from scholars, and that the Ummah would receive them with acceptance — as a direct scholarly and jurisprudential continuation of the knowledge of the Companions and the Successors. Their Imāms formulated their jurisprudence on the basis of a sound understanding of the Quran, the Sunnah, and the narrations of the Companions, transmitting it in a refined and detailed form, relying upon sound and clear foundations and principles. Their unbroken chain of transmission back to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ testifies to this: Abū Ḥanīfah took from Ḥammād ibn Sulaymān, who took from Ibrāhīm al-Nakha'ī, who took from 'Alqamah al-Nakha'ī, who took from 'Abdullāh ibn Mas'ūd, may Allah be pleased with him — a direct student of the Prophet ﷺ. Mālik studied under Nāfi', the freed slave of Ibn 'Umar, who took from Ibn 'Umar, may Allah be pleased with them both, who took from the Prophet ﷺ. Al-Shāfi'ī took from Mālik, and also from Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī — a student of Abū Ḥanīfah — and in Makkah he took from Sufyān ibn 'Uyaynah, who took from Ibn Jurayj, who took from Ibn 'Abbās, may Allah be pleased with him — the scholar of the Ummah and the great interpreter of the Qur'an — who took from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. And Ibn Ḥanbal studied under al-Shāfi'ī, may Allah have mercy upon them all and reward them on our behalf with every good.

 

The Importance of the Chain of Transmission in Conveying the Knowledge of the Salaf

Muḥammad ibn Ḥātim ibn al-Muẓaffar stated: "Indeed, Allah has honoured, ennobled, and distinguished this Ummah with the chain of transmission (isnād) — and none among the nations, ancient or modern, possesses such a chain." 13

The isnād derives from sanad — that which rises from the ground toward a mountain or valley — meaning that which is relied upon. 14 Al-Zarkashī stated: "The isnād is derived from sanad, meaning what is elevated and high from the mountain's slope, because the one who traces a transmission raises it back to its originator. It may also be derived from the saying: 'so-and-so is a sanad' — meaning a reliable authority — so the act of reporting a textual transmission through a chain was called isnād because critics rely upon it to establish soundness and weakness." 15

Technically, isnād is defined as: "raising a ḥadīth back to the one who said it." 16 If the isnād in the era of narration was the chain of transmitters leading back to the text, then the isnād with respect to the understanding of the Salaf is: tracing their statements back to their sources and transmitting them through an unbroken chain — constituting the fundamental pillar for authenticating the religion, preserving it from distortion, and guaranteeing the transmission of the Imāms' positions through a connected chain by which one may judge the soundness of attributing a statement to its author. Without it, anyone could say whatever they wished. 'Abdullāh ibn al-Mubārak stated: "The isnād is part of the religion — were it not for the isnād, anyone could say whatever they wished." 17 Knowledge is therefore taken only from those who received it from recognised scholars, who in turn received it from their teachers through a chain connected back to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. The isnād constitutes a testimony from scholars for their students that they received sound knowledge and correct understanding, and authorisations through which that knowledge is transmitted afresh to those who come after them — protecting knowledge from the distortions of the extremists, the fabrications of the fraudulent, and the misinterpretations of the ignorant. For this reason, Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn stated: "Indeed this knowledge is the religion — so take care from whom you receive your religion." 18

 

The Methodology of the General Iftaa' Department is The Methodology of the Salaf

The methodology of the General Iftaa' Department of Jordan is built upon providing balanced and objective fatāwā that adhere to the Shāfi'ī school as a foundation, while remaining open to all four recognised jurisprudential schools — in order to fulfil its mission of conveying the message of Islam as it reached us from our Master Muḥammad ﷺ: the mission founded upon conveying the message of Allah the Almighty by clarifying the legal rulings of the Sharī'ah, entrenching the concept of Islamic jurisprudential authority grounded in balance and moderation, resting upon the recognised jurisprudential schools, and calling to act in accordance with them.

The Department has articulated its methodology with clarity, stating:

"The issues of Islamic jurisprudence are numerous and diverse, relating to all spheres of life and human practice. Muslim scholars have left us an immense treasury of rulings and legislation that illuminates people's lives with the light of divine wisdom, building its jurisprudential and legislative choices upon a sound foundation drawn from the recognised sources of legislation: the Qur'an, the Sunnah, consensus (ijmā'), analogy (qiyās), and considerations of public interest (maṣāliḥ mursalah).

This jurisprudential heritage has been preserved in four recognised schools: the Ḥanafī, Mālikī, Shāfi'ī, and Ḥanbalī. Consensus has been established on their adoption and recognition as pathways leading to the attainment of Allah's pleasure and the preservation of the interests of the land and its people.

Since the General Iftaa' Department is one link in the scholarly chain of the broader jurisprudential movement, it has chosen to adopt one of the four jurisprudential schools as its point of departure and foundation for the jurisprudential choices it adopts in its fatāwā — so as to realise through this adoption what the jurisprudential movement has achieved throughout Islamic history in terms of great benefits and interests, the most important of which are:

1. Safety before Allah the Almighty on the Day of the Great Reckoning — neither altering nor changing in the religion of Allah what He has not permitted.

2. Realising the principle of balance (wasaṭiyyah), which is among the foundational rules of Islamic law and one of the distinguishing features of the immense jurisprudential heritage.

3. Safety from contradictory positions and aberrant opinions that cause disruption in intellectual and practical life.

4. Achieving consistency and regulation in fatwa, and reducing disagreement — where it serves no benefit — to the greatest extent possible.

5. Assisting muftis in identifying Sharia rulings through the easiest path — for an entire lifetime would not be sufficient for a mufti who sought to engage in complete independent reasoning on every matter presented to him, making reliance upon the findings of previous jurists an indispensable solution.

The General Iftaa' Department has chosen the Shāfi'ī school as the foundation and point of departure for fatwa in our blessed country for two reasons:

First: It is the most widely prevalent school in our country throughout history, and consideration of the majority is a Sharī'ah objective.

Second: It is a balanced school that brought together the principles of both the school of ḥadīth and the school of legal reasoning (ra'y), producing jurisprudential conclusions that have been and continue to be a means of realising the interests of the Ummah and uniting its word. This — although present in other jurisprudential schools — is a quality in which the Shāfi'ī school has taken precedence.

The Department's commitment to the Shāfi'ī school does not entail complete conformity with the independent conclusions of its jurists. Rather, the Department holds an advanced vision in how to benefit from all components of the jurisprudential schools within the following parameters:

1. If the matter involves a contemporary issue not addressed in the conclusions of previous jurists, or if it is a general matter affecting the entire community or Ummah — whether in financial transactions, medical questions, or otherwise — the Department must prepare specialised research to study the matter in light of the legal evidences, jurisprudential principles, and a weighing of interests and harms, from which it derives a legal ruling to be presented to the Iftaa' Council for deliberation and discussion, before reaching a specific decision on that matter.

2. If the Shāfi'ī school's position on a particular matter is not suited to changes in time, place, and circumstance surrounding the questioner's situation — such as where it leads to severe hardship or significant difficulty, or the underlying rationale upon which Shāfi'ī jurists based their position has changed, or new information and scientific facts have emerged requiring reconsideration of the jurisprudential choice — the Department in all such cases re-examines the matter in light of jurisprudential principles and the objectives of Islamic law (maqāṣid al-sharī'ah), drawing on the conclusions of all Islamic schools to arrive at the legal ruling most closely aligned with the objectives of the Sharī'ah.

3. As for matters of personal status — such as marriage, divorce, custody, and inheritance — the Department relies in its fatwa upon the Jordanian Personal Status Law and does not depart from it, so as to prevent any conflict between fatwa and the Sharī'ah courts of the Kingdom. This law is derived from the conclusions and positions of Muslim jurists, selected according to sound foundations and Sharī'ah criteria by specialised committees.

This is how the honourable muftis deal with the matters submitted to them by the public through various means of communication — within a graduated and meticulous process that begins by identifying the type of matter at hand from among the foregoing categories, and ends with the answer reaching the questioner as swiftly as possible. If delay occurs, it is due to the detailed study the Department undertakes of tens of matters daily. When the mufti knows that he is responsible before Allah the Almighty for every word he writes, he will undoubtedly favour deliberateness and care over haste. And Allah is the Giver of success." 19

The General Iftaa' Department's commitment to the fatāwā of the righteous Salaf and its adherence to their methodology in understanding the texts of the Quran and the Sunnah, and its return to their principles and foundations, has earned it a high degree of trust among a great many Muslims across numerous Islamic countries.

Footnotes

1. See: Ibn Fāris, Mu'jam Maqāyīs al-Lughah, 3/95; Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-'Arab, 9/158; al-Zabīdī, Tāj al-'Arūs, 23/455. ↩

2. Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Kitāb al-Shahādāt, Bāb lā yushadu 'alā shahādati jawr, ḥadīth no. 2652, 3/171. ↩

3. Ta'dīl linguistically means rectification, balancing, and commendation. Among the scholars of ḥadīth it refers to describing a narrator with characteristics that render his narration acceptable. The ta'dīl of the three generations means: their commendation and the acceptance of their narrations, understanding, and knowledge which they transmitted from one another. ↩

4. Ibn Ḥajar al-'Asqalānī, Fatḥ al-Bārī, 7/7. ↩

5. Al-Qārī, Mirqāt al-Mafātīḥ, ḥadīth no. 6010, 9/3878. ↩

6. Al-Shinqīṭī, Nashr al-Bunūd 'alā Marāqī al-Su'ūd, 2/352. ↩

7. Al-Nafrawī, Al-Fawākih al-Dawānī, 2/356. ↩

8. Al-Zarkashī, Al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ, 8/242. ↩

9. Ibn Rajab, Al-Radd 'alā man Ittaba'a Ghayr al-Madhāhib al-Arba'ah, 2/626. ↩

10. Ibn Rajab, Al-Radd 'alā man Ittaba'a Ghayr al-Madhāhib al-Arba'ah, 2/625. ↩

11. Ibn Nujaym, Al-Ashbāh wa al-Naẓā'ir, p. 92. ↩

12. Al-Mardāwī, Al-Taḥbīr Sharḥ al-Taḥrīr, 1/128. ↩

13. Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Sharaf Aṣḥāb al-Ḥadīth, p. 40. ↩

14. See: Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-'Arab, 3/221. ↩

15. Al-Zarkashī, Al-Nukat 'alā Muqaddimat Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, 1/405. ↩

16. Al-Suyūṭī, Tadrīb al-Rāwī, 1/27. ↩

17. Al-Tirmidhī, Sunan al-Tirmidhī, ḥadīth no. 4053, 6/235. ↩

18. Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Muqaddimat al-Imām Muslim, Bāb fī anna al-isnāda min al-dīn, 1/14. ↩

19. https://aliftaa.jo/content/47/منهج-الفتوى-المعتمد ↩