Shaykh Rabīʿ Bin Hādī: On Gaining Comprehension In Everything Connected to the Religion and the World, With Tawḥīd at the Head and Peak
tawḥīd fiqh comprehension
Shaykh Rabīʿ bin Hādi (رحمه الله) said: [1]
“To whomsoever Allāh intends goodness, He grants him comprehension (fiqh) of the religion.”[2] People understand from “fiqh” that it is the fiqh that relates to the branches (of the religion), when this word is used among people without qualification they understand it to mean the books related to the branches (of the religion) in jurisprudence. This is a deficient understanding.
Fiqh (comprehension) is firstly with respect to ʿaqīdah and Tawḥīd before everything else. This is the highest level of fiqh, because the nobility of a (type of) knowledge is through the nobility of its subject matter. The best and noblest of them are the sciences of Tawḥīḍ, those who teach people the Attributs of their Lord, the Attributes of His perfection, and call them to His Tawḥīd, His worship and making the religion sincerely for Him (alone).
So we gain comprehension in Tawḥīd from Allāh’s Book and the Sunnah of Allāh’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم), and from the comprehension of our Righteous Salaf. And we gain comprehension in all of the fields of knowledge. Comprehension in the lawful and prohibited, in (affairs of) worship, in dealings, in politics, in economics, in everything. All of that, and praise is due to Allāh, is abundant in what Muḥammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) came with.
So when (the term) “fiqh” is applied unrestrictedly, then everything that is connected to our religion and our world is intended by it, and at the head and peak of it all is the knowledge of Tawḥīd. The knowledge of Tawḥīd cannot be done away with (in any matter), it is necessary.
Notes
The followers of the Prophets and Messengers see Tawḥīd in every matter from both the affairs of the creation and the command (worldly sciences and religious sciences, law), “To Him belongs the creation and the command, Blessed be Allāh, the Lord of the Worlds.” (7:54-).
Hence, the foundation is Tawḥīd which is al-Rubūbiyyah, al-Asmāʾ wal-Ṣifāt and al-Ulūhiyyah, and from that comprehension springs the comprehension of all other fields of knowledge, religious and worldly.
For this reason, the people of Tawḥīd and Sunnah, their leading imāms, scholars and those who acquire knowledge from them, are granted success in sound comprehension of these matters, leading them to sound knowledge regarding Allāh, His religion, the lawful and the prohibited, the affairs of worship, dealings and interactions, legislated politics, sound economics, and all other areas.
This is in opposition to those who deviated in the affair of Tawḥīd such as the Jahmiyyah, Ashāʿirah and others for they are Jabariyyah, and deniers of reasons and wisdoms in law (al-ʿilal wal-ḥikam), deniers of causality within creation, and the Muʿtazilah, who are deniers of various unseen realities and aspects of law and guidance in the Prophetic Sunnah that their intellects do not comprehend, as they place reason ahead of revelation. These errors feed into other areas of religious and worldly knowledge, inclusive of what has been mentioned, the lawful and the prohibited, worship, dealings, politics, economics, and the physical sciences too.
Hence, comprehension (fiqh) is not limited to the branches only, meaning affairs of worship and dealings, but it applies to all areas of the religion of the world. However, it has a head and a peak, and has priorities in the way it is acquired and built.
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Footnotes
1. Marḥaban Yā Ṭālib al-ʿIlm (1433H) p. 243.2. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (no. 7312) and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (no. 1037).