In the 9th century, al-Shafi’i formally laid down the rule that Ahadeeth must be the 2nd source of the Divine Law. However, the resistance from other jurists lasted a few centuries.
When the Hadeeth (after methodically teasing out their trustworthiness) were accepted as the Divine Source universally in Muslim lands, further Secondary Sources were added to reach the truth, and find solutions, by the Ulema of the 9-10th centuries.
But Who Gave the Ulema (Scholars) the Right to Guide People’s Lives?
In summary, the Qur’an gave them that right:
O you who believe, obey Allah and obey the Messenger, and those charged with authority among you. If you differ in anything among yourselves, refer it to God and His Messenger, if you do believe in God and the Last Day. That is best, and most suitable in the end (An-Nisa, 4: 59).
So, Who Has the Authority?
A brief political history will reveal the flow of this authority since the early times:
Khulafa-ar-Raashidoon
The Khulafa-ar-Rashidoon, who spend their lives with the Prophet, interpreted the Qur’an by their own reasoning, in keeping with the wider principles of the Qur’an.
For this reason, the Akhbari Shi’a (today a minority Twelver-Shi’a, who do not believe in Ijtihaad) charges ‘Umar al-Khattab as the first Ijtihaadi.
Umawiyyah Khilaafat
The Banu Umayyah (661-750 CE) did not follow the Ahadeeth in the way we understand it today. Though many were bereft of Prophet’s company, they claimed the rights and authority of the Khilaafat anyway. Might was right then.
During this period, the court of the Khaalif was the final arbitrator for many of the issues of the day. However, the Khaalif’s authority was repeatedly challenged by many. The Shi’a claim that they were persecuted exclusively is an example of glorification of victimhood.
The individual weakness of the Khaalif, in reality, had become a systemic problem in dispensing justice. Unable to follow the Law and unable to justify their actions eventually led to their downfall. In fact, the Andalusian Umawiyyah were driven out of Spain, slowly and painfully, primarily because of the same reason.
Abbasi Khilaafat
When Abbaasiyyah Khilaafat took over, within a few decades, consolidation of knowledge from West (Mediterranean) and East (Asia) began. This was the time of intense intellectual activity in the Muslim world, patronised by the Khaalif.
► Ahadeeth began to be collected: the Six Authentics were written down in the 9th century, validated by the process of Ilm-al-Rijaal.
► Al-Shafi’i’s methodology, laid down in his ar-Risalah, did not gain traction. Mu’tazilah had other ideas; al-Shafi’s time had not come yet.
► Ilm-al-Kalaam, developed by Mu’tazilah, attempted to integrate Greek Logic as one of sources of Sharia. Hoping to bring some order, they only fuelled the confusion.
Division of Mind: Emotion and Reason
The ideas and the rivalry of this age can be divided into those of Aqa’ed (Creed) and those of Fiqh (Jurisprudence).
Aqa’ed issues were few and erupted far between: Qadariyah vs Jabariyah, issues of anthropomorphism (from an Islamophobic website), the creed of various Shi’a subsects.
Fiqhi issues were dominated by two groups: Ahl-al-Ra’y (largely Hanafi) and Ahl-al-Hadeeth (Shafi’i, Hanbali and others); later, each branch of Fiqhi School was called a Madh-habb (School of Thought).
As debates raged and disputes arose, the court of the Khaalif became the final arbitrator, and was agreed as the ‘Authority’.
The Political Turmoil
Late 9th century: With too many religio-political feathers ruffled, the Abbasi Khilaafat began a slow dissolution. As the khaalif weakened, sultans propped up claiming ‘Authority’.
10th century: The hammer came down heavily when various Shi’a sects defeated local sultans of the Abbasi Khilaafat, splitting the Khilaafat: the whole of Maghrib went to Fatimiyyun, the Fertile Crescent to the Ahl-al-Buyi, while the Hijaaz was plundered by Qaramitah tribes.
When the ‘Authority’ was claimed by the Fatimi rulers, while the Umawiya ruler in Spain declared himself the real Khaalif, to oppose the Fatimi domination in the Mediterranean Sea. The Khaalif in Baghdad insisted his divine ‘Authority’, making the 10th century the most chaotic century Islam had faced thus far.
The Crisis of Authority: the Shi’a rule, and the Advent of ‘Sunni’ Islam
In the 10th century, almost all of the Middle East was ruled by the Shi’a sects.
This was also the time the Crusaders, under the influence of Catholic Church, began invading Arab lands from Europe – the good Pope had simply diverted the ignorant, bulging, northern populace of Europe further south: across the Mediterranean Sea. Human history is replete with stories where internal dissent gives rise to political disruption or external invasion. Many a time, none can stop that flow of history – despite the known knowns. Hand of God?
Though the Khaalif was safe in his surroundings of Baghdad, the authority of his institution was badly dented. The Ulema were on their own in dispensing justice, in lands ruled by Shi’a sects – all three Shi’a sub-sects believed in different Imaams, and had no consistent method in deriving rules.
Rise of ‘the Sunnis’
By the 11th century, the Shi’a and the Crusaders were challenged by the new force that came from the north-east, called Saljuqs. Many of them accepted an Islam that was practised by the opponents of the Shi’a.
This Shi’a opposition, along with the Saljuq warriors, began calling themselves ‘Sunni’: ‘followers the Sunnah of the Prophet’. Within a few centuries, the Shi’a were relegated to a meagre minority of Islam.
The Shi’a believed in the whims of their leaders despite obvious facts, which were ignored. The new tribes naturally gravitated to the Shi’a opposition who were consistent, and told the truth while accepting its imperfections.
Consolidation of the Creed
There was no demand for the Creed from the early Muslims. They listened and they followed.
200 years later it was a different matter. The new Muslims came from distant lands, while old Muslims were exposed to the wider world and new ideas. Since Qur’an and Sunnah are not specific on many issues, the Ulema worked hard to search both of these sources to come up with some conclusions.
Ahmad Tahawi (d. 933), a Shafi’i who later became an Hanafi, laid down the formal framework for Aqeedah, now called as Aqidah Tahawiyyah. However, the group that really worked hard to safeguard the Aqeedah of the Ummah were the Hanbali, under Ahmad Hanbal (d. 855). Tahawi managed to provide a rationale and intellectual backing to an already popular view, spear-headed by the Hanbalis.
Jurists Became ‘the Authority’: the Development of Shari’ah
With the clarification of the Creed, the Ulema now concentrated on the Fiqh: Ahl al-Ra’ay and Ahl al-Hadeeth had to be reconciled.
This individual urge and effort, and the collective will to invent processes and follow them, aiming to achieve clarity and consistency on any subject, was missing amongst the scholars of Andalusi Umawiyyah (Sunni) and Shi’a sub-sects. They imploded into silly kingdoms and sects, and got scattered.
In the 10th century Baghdad, al-Ashari (d. 936), a Mu’tazilah scholar, found holes in the Greek Logic. This was the time the Shi’a scholars, ruling the Muslim lands, began collecting their version of the Ahadeeth.
Al-‘Ashari soon applied the principles of Ilm al-Kalaam to al-Shafi’i’s proposals in the area of Fiqh. The idea was to use human abilities of dialectics, debates and arguments to further the goal of Quranic principles. Apart from Tawheed, these principles included justice, responsibility, fairness, etc.
Thus, Ilm-al-Kalaam began consolidating the Usul al-Fiqh.
Origins of Fiqhi Madhaahib (Schools of Thought)
Shafi’i School welcomed the Mu’tazilah into their folds. Within a hundred years, the Mu’tazilah were gone, assimilated into the Madhaahib.
► For the next two hundred years, many great scholars of Islam were from Shafi’i School; and almost all of them used Ilm-al-Kalaam’s dialectical arguments.
► Of the many Madhhabb of that era, Shafi’i School demanded protocols and methodology to reach conclusions and truths: only Hanafi, Maaliki and Hanbali Schools survived the ‘Stress-Test‘. Others schools were relegated to the dust-bins of history, for not providing consistent and cogent arguments.
The outcome of that particular enquiry/research was not expected to be similar across the Madhaahib, but it was imperative that a Madhhab will follow a Set of Rules consistently (in today’s parlance, it is ‘Rule of Law‘).
While Sunni Fiqh got consolidated, refined and sophisticated, the Shi’a were still attempting to find Ahadeeth that justified their intellectual existence. It would prove to be a difficult job for them.
Era of Taqleed, and slow Muslim decline
13th century: The non-Muslim Mongols followed their Turkish brethren from the north, again. The new invaders were not interested in the culture of Islam – Shi’a or Sunni. They had their eyes fixed on Islam’s worldly riches.
In 1258, the Khaalif of Islam was rolled in a carpet and clubbed to death by the Mongol army. The newly formed Dehli Sultanat in India was in doldrums without a Khaalif, whose court used to be the arbitrator of their disputes.
The Abbasi Court fled for Egypt where they will rule for another 300 years. The Shi’a and the Crusaders were scattered or accepted Sunni Islam. The Mongols ruling at Baghdad solidified the rent between the east and west of geographic Islam.
It was in these tumultuous times, the doors of Ijtehaad were closed. The Khilaafat was gone, and the lands were fragmented; rather than risk patchy evolution of Sharia, the Ulema preferred the status quo: they felt whatever needed to be researched, had been researched.
That was the bad decision, though understandable. The lack of ‘search of truth’ allowed Muslims to slowly descend into a world that was full of superstitions and contradictions. Islam had come to banish these same behaviours. When they became complacent, the mandate was taken over by the thinking Europeans, in the form of Protestant Christianity.
