In the Name of Allāh, the Ever Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy
Question:
Is it permissible for a student of knowledge to introduce a new opinion that none of the scholars have previously stated, claiming that he possesses evidences indicating that opinion, and saying, “Consideration is given to the textual proofs, not to the scholars,” while knowing that this person is not among the scholars?
Answer:
Shaykh al-ʿAllāmah al-Muḥaddith Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā al-Najmī (رحمه الله): This is a false approach adopted by a person who seeks to fabricate opinions by which he departs from the statements of the scholars who preceded him. Not everyone is capable of deriving rulings directly from the evidences without giving weight and preference to the statements of the scholars. Whoever advances an opinion in which he stands alone, having no predecessor among the scholars, while not being from those scholars who have been properly qualified through learning the instrumental sciences, such as the principles of morphology and grammar, uṣūl al-fiqh, the science of ḥadīth terminology, semantics, rhetoric, eloquence, and other disciplines, then such a person has no right to put forth an opinion by which he contradicts the qualified scholars. If he does so, then he is misguided and is following his own desires.
Allāh (جل وعلا) says:
If only—(before spreading it)— they had referred it back to the Messenger and to those in authority over them, then those (of sound opinion and reason) who could derive the correct conclusions regarding it would have known it. Sūrat al-Nisāʾ, 4:83.
Students of knowledge are required to examine the statements of those who came before them and to choose from among them what accords with the textual evidence. The scholars of ḥadīth used to transmit the statements of those before them regarding issues, with authentic chains of transmission, and they would choose from among them what they considered to be in accordance with the truth. Look, for example, at Muṣannaf ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Muṣannaf Ibn Abī Shaybah, Sunan Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, and other works that devoted attention to transmitted reports and to the legal verdicts of the Companions and the Successors.
Therefore, a student of knowledge should first examine the Islāmic textual evidences, then examine the statements of those who preceded him, and only after that return to exercise independent reasoning if he is from those qualified for ijtihād. As for taking the texts and manipulating them according to one’s personal opinion, this is a false position and extremely far removed from correctness.
Indeed, Shayṭān has shown great ingenuity in misleading people. I do not view this person who claims that he does not look at the statements of the scholars, nor gives them any weight, and instead claims to take directly from the texts, except as an innovator. It may be that he speaks about the text in a manner contrary to its intended meaning.
Nothing caused the innovators to fall into what they fell into, such as the Jahmiyyah, the Muʿtazilah, the Qadariyyah, the Murjiʾah, and the Khawārij, except their lack of knowledge and their practice of taking from certain texts in a way that contradicts other texts which they do not know, and their inability to reconcile between the texts, and their ignorance of the statements of the scholars regarding them.
Finally, this position is false, and it is obligatory to beware of this person, to warn against him, and to refrain from listening to his speech. And with Allāh is all success.
Reference: Fatḥ al-Rabb wa al-Wadūd, Volume Two, page 326.
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