Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume I — Page 101
! ! 101 understanding was most superior. This is their current state, although previously, people did follow the Holy Qur’ān as well the Hadith. Imam Abu Han i fa was one of the Aulia Allah [ friends of Allah , referring to Muslim saints]. ii. The Shafi’i is more inclined to wards intellect. iii. The Maliki School also emphasizes intellect , but compared to the Shafi’i School, give s more weight to the Hadith. Imam Malik’s Kitab al - Mawatta is an authentic book. iv. Compared to the others, Imam J an b al emphasizes Hadith the most. v. The f ifth sect is that of Ahl - e - Hadith. They only follow the Hadith and do not rely on intellect. They deem e ven a weak Hadith to be superior. Whereas, the reality is that it should be supported by the Holy Qur’ān , meaning that it should not contradict the Holy Qur’ ān, nor should it be rejected by intellect. c. The third science related to Fiqh is that of fatwa i. e. , edicts. Advantage is taken of the se edicts which various scholars issue regarding important matters. 5. Israr - e - Shariah [ Secrets of Shariah ] : This explains why we pray or fast. In short, Israr - e - Shariah exp lains the underlying grounds for Shariah. It also includes the extent to which Israr - e - Shariah can be understood or explained. 6. Usul - e - Shariah [ Principles of Shariah ] : It deals with the foundations of Shariah ; meaning was this knowledge re vealed by God or was it revealed by the Messenger’s insight into those principles ? T o what extent should they be revealed and to what extent is an explanation permitted ? In other words , in explaining the principles of Shariah , how much authority is vested in the Messe nger and how much is left to others? 7. Dissension among Religious F aiths: This deals with the types of disagreements between various Islam ic sects. What are the doctrinal differences among those sects? For instance, the Sunni sect include s Hanafis , Maliki s, Hanbalis, and the Shafi’is. S econdly there are Shias. The greatest disagreement between the Sunnis and Shias is over Khilafat , which leads to further argument s over whether Khilafat even exists. If there is