Did he betray me?

 

 

The four madhabs did not exist at the time of The Prophet, nor at the time of the sahaba, not until about  two hundred years after the death of The Prophet in the third century of Islam.

 

As a former Christian I find that any talk of blind following makes me extremely uncomfortable. Imams, scholars, even The Prophets were just men. To raise any man to a point where you give him blind obedience without any question is a dangerous path. That is how The Prophet Jesus became divine, and how other religions have gone wrong.

 

Allah has stated numerous times in The Quran that we should seek knowledge, that we alone are responsible for our actions, and from the Ayat above that we should not blindly follow.  Why would any Muslim still choose to do so?

"In the 3-4 century AH Some knowledgeable scholars lifted the burden of individual ijtihad from the shoulders of majority in the ummah, by forming schools of thought."

 

Sister, I am not sure where Allah gave these men the right to take individual ijtihad from anyone's shoulders when The Quran made it very clear that each individual is responsible for their own actions.

 

Before the madhabs existed Muslims studied and learned and gained knowledge of their own accord. yes, they may have asked questions of someone who had more knowledge, but that person did not make up their minds for them. Nor were they dissuaded from searching and reasoning on their own.  During this period Islam and Muslims flourished in the sciences, literature, mathematics, critical thinking. Muslims were encouraged to have their own thoughts, not restricted within the limitations of those who thought for them.

 

To say that the only thing that is new is a challenge to the madhabs is incorrect, as the madhabs themselves are an innovation that did not exist at the time of The Prophet, nor is there mention of them in The Quran.

 

Sister Nausheen, when you say that I am mixing concepts I beg to differ. I see little difference in being told that all I have to do is believe Jesus died for my sins and Jesus will take responsibility for those sins, and being told that the madhabs will tell me what to do and all I have to do is follow, the sin if they are wrong falls on them.  Both take away personal responsibility and suppress freedom of thought.   

 

So many times I have heard Muslims say, indeed post here, that there are no middle men between man and Allah. That Islam teaches that we will be paid for our own deeds, good and bad. Yet, you are saying that the madhabs have taken the responsibility for our ignorance from us and by merely following them they will accept the payment for my sins if what they told me to do is wrong. Where is my responsibility in this equation? If Allah told all Muslims to seek knowledge, read, learn, be responsible for your deeds because you will be answering for them on the Day of Judgement, how can I claim ignorance and blind following as an excuse?

 

There is a huge difference between learning from someone, a scholar, who has more knowledge than you, the concept being that once you learn you will use that knowledge to make up your own mind, and allowing a scholar to tell you what and what not to do and you just doing what he says without verifying that what he has told you is correct. Especially since we have the means and the ability: intelligence and common sense, to verify its validity.

 

Perhaps I am rejecting the madhabs, I am certain I am rejecting the notion that I can choose to blindly follow someone yet not be held responsible for that choice if what they tell me is incorrect. I have still made the choice of blind obedience when I could have just as easily chosen to research and verify.