Thursday, 10 March 2011

How to deal with modern issues, in terms of their religious ruling?

Further to the posts made earlier which showed what to do when faced with an issue for which you do not know the religious ruling as well as the general rule that everything is halal untill proven to be haram, nevertheless, this question keeps popping up now and then as to how to deal with modern issues especially ones which are not explicitly mentioned in Qur'an or ahadith. So how does one deal with them? Should we make up our own rulings using our logic and common sense, or should we refer to a marja' who will "derive" (are they an exception that they can derive rulings through their logic and rationalizations?) the ruling through "ijtehad"(rationalizations,qiya,ra'ay,dhann,istihsan,maslah etc)? Or perhaps, refer and hold on to the commands handed out to us by the Infallibles(as) about 1000 years ago and preserved in the form of ahadith? But...but..aren't they too old, don't we need to "adjust"(manipulate) the laws as per current times?
Let's see what ahadith say:

Kamal ad din wa tamam an ni'ma


حدثنا محمدبن موسى بن المتوكل رضي الله عنه قال: حدثنا عبدالله بن - جعفر الحميري، عن أحمد بن محمد بن عيسى، ومحمدبن عيسى بن عبيد، عن الحسن ابن محبوب، عن يونس بن يعقوب، عمن أثبته، عن أبي عبدالله عليه السلام أنه قال: كيف أنتم إذا بقيتم دهرا من عمركم لاتعرفون إمامكم؟ قيل له: فإذا كان ذلك فكيف نصنع؟ قال: تمسكوا بالامر الاول حتى يستبين لكم

Told us Muhammad b. Musa b. al Mutawakkil (ra) said: Told us Abdullah b. Ja'far al Humairi, from Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Isa, and Muhammad b. Isa b. Ubaid, from al Hasan b. Mahboob, from Yunus b. Ya'qoob, someone from him, from Abi Abdullah(as) that he(as) said: "How will you people be when a period from your age would be left nor know your Imam(as)?" said to him(Imam(as)): "So when is (like) that then how do we make out(what to do)?" (Imam(as)) said: "Hold on to the first affair till shown/made apparent to you people."

2 comments:

  1. Salam alaikum,

    Brother, I am unclear as to what this hadith means. Can you, perhaps, frame what is being said in your own words and explain it to me?

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  2. @Hussain: Wasalam,

    There is another similar hadith which says during ghayba we should hold onto what is already in our hands.

    There are further ahadith which provide explanation upon this. Imam Mahdi(as) instructed us to refer to the narrators of ahadith (not some marjas, since the institution of marjaiyyah didn't even exist much earlier). Imams(as) also instructed their companions to write down the ahadith they hear from them since the upcoming generations would require those books (and the companions did write down the ahadith into their books which form the usool).

    So basically, we have to follow the ahadith by referring to the books of ahadith compiled by the narrators, which have still survived and are in our hands now, instead of resorting to guesswork and making up our own rulings.

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