The Foundations of the Religion, the Lawful and the Prohibited Are Clear In the Book and the Sunnah
lawful prohibited doubtful
Isḥāq bin Manṣūr al-Marwazī (d. 251H) (رحمه الله) said:[1]
I said to Ishāq [bin Rāhūyah]: The explanation [of the ḥadīth]: “The lawful (ḥalāl) is clear and the prohibited [ḥarām] is clear.”
He said: “[As for] what has come from the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم): ‘The lawful is clear and the prohibited is clear.’ He says: What Allāh (عز وجل) made lawful in His Book and His Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) made lawful, then that is clear and it is not pemitted except to hold fast to it. Likewise, the prohibited is clear in the Book of Allāh (سبحانه وتعالى), and the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) explained the wish (irādah) of Allāh (سبحانه وتعالى) regarding that so that people may withhold from it.
And between the lawful and the prohibited are ambiguous (doubtful) affairs that are hidden to the people of knowledge, and they are unsure as to whether they should proceed towards them or hold back from them when they do not find in the Qurʾān or the Sunnah of Allāh’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) a clarification of the lawful from the prohibited with respect to them. So here, withholding is better than rushing into them, as they are difficult affairs…
… As for the doubtful matters such as these affairs which we have described, they are dubious (unclear) to the people of knowledge from the Book and the Sunnah when knowledge regarding them is unspecified [in the texts]. Hence, they need to compare them with established principles, but find no way to do so.”
Notes
01 The lawful and the prohibited in affairs of worship, dealings, food, drink, clothing, relations, trades and so on, have been made clear in the revealed texts, wherein there is no ambiguity. Even more so, the foundations (uṣūl) of the religion have been made clear, there being no doubt of ambiguity regarding them, and Ahl al-Sunnah are united regarding them.
From such affairs are the pillars of īmān, the greatest of which is the Tawḥīd of Allāh and His Names and Attributes, and other pillars and foundations of creed, such as īmān being belief, word and deed, and loving the Companions (رضي الله عنهم) by way of example. Likewise foundations in methodology, from them, warning from the Innovators, separating from them and boycotting them, and hearing and obeying the ruler, and fighting the Khārijites and rebels under his authority. All of these affairs, alongside the lawful and prohibited, are from the most clear affairs which return to clear, explicit texts, devoid of ambiguity.
02 Then, in between the passages quoted, Isḥāq mentions various types of ʿīnah transactions that are designed to bypass the clear prohibition, and likewise practices involving gold and silver (dīnār and dirham) in currency exchange. These are schemes used by people to make the prohibited lawful, but which in reality do not make the prohibited lawful. These are affairs from which a Muslim must refrain.
03 Then he mentions that these affairs may be unclear to the people of knowledge in terms of their ruling in the Sharīʿah (prohibition, permissibility etc.) and for which they need to make a comparison (analogy) with established principles, but may not be able to do so, because these affairs are unspecified in the texts.
04 He (رحمه الله) is referring to the ways in which people try to obfuscate the ruling upon something (such as types of trade, or types of drink etc.), attempting to make the prohibited to be lawful, but no analogy can be found for it through established principles, so it remains from the apparent doubtful matters that is to be avoided.
05 By implication, he is referring to the existence of affairs which have no specific mention, in terms of ruling, in the Book and the Sunnah, and in which the scholars strive to find a ruling for them through established principles, such as the nawāzil fiqhiyyah, the newly-occurring affairs that required ijtihād for the ruling to be derived for them and made clear for the benefit of the Muslims. However, this category is different to those matters whose rulings are very clear in the texts.
06 Some people have tried to confuse the clear matters, such as affairs of belief and practical affairs of methodology with nawāzil in the sense that these are confusing affairs which must be returned to scholars for extraction of a ruling. However, these affairs do not need any new ruling from ijtihād, the rulings are already sufficiently clear. All that is required is verification of the reality to which these clear foundations and rulings apply.
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Footnotes
1. Masāʾil al-Imām Aḥma bin Ḥanbal wa Isḥāq bin Rāhūyah (9/4742-4747).