My brother is becoming an aalim through distance education. He has joined two universities.one belongs to ahle sunnah wal jamaat which is a branch of deoband.he has also joined iou which is being run by Dr.bilal philips.he has joined iou with an intention to know the inside story of ghair muqallideens and thus when he is certified as an aalim from the ghair muqallideen academy itself.. he would work against the faults of this group.he has been studying real hard and getting distinctive results in both the universities.however my concern is that he is getting doubts in his mind about the ijmah on the four imams.he says that books do mention the fault of other imams In many rulings.so either the first will be correct or the other.in some matters both cant be correct.
like either your wudhu nullifies if u touch a woman or else it doesnt.one has to be correct and the other must have made a mistake in understanding the nas.and several other such examples .so why not the head scholars of the 4 mazaahib gather and then choose one ruling which is correct ,agree upon it and deliver it to the ummah to act upon.let the shaafi be shaafi but change his previous ruling regarding a particular matter which is now officially announced as to be a mistake.i’ve tried real hard to clear his doubts but he says that it should be done in order to unite the ummah and not stick to a hanafi ruling just because he is a hanafi and likewise with other mazaahibs.
i tried to explain him that its no job of a layman to make his own choice according to what befits his understanding and said whatever its qouted in fatwa #25249,but he refuted it saying that’yes a layman has no authority to do so but the seniors of the 4 mazaahib have knowledge and are authorised in eradicating the differences and put a single hukm regarding many issues (if not all)infront of the ummah and ease their confusion.more over once he has cleared the misconception that touching a woman nullifies wudhu then why would his wudhu nullify according to shaafi.his wudhu is intact.
All he wants is that many masaail which are for sure according to a single mazhab and the other mazaahib made a mistake in understanding the daleel..why not then such masaail be discussed and ponder upon them and then fix a single rule upon which every follower irreverent of which mazhab he belongs to will follow(without stopping referring himself belonging to a particular mazhab).please help me out i am very much worried about this issue as its going against ijmah and what our predecessors have done.
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.
Your brother may contact us directly with his thoughts. We are happy to engage in academic discussions with him.
And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best
Huzaifah Deedat
Student Darul Iftaa
Lusaka, Zambia
Checked and Approved by,
Mufti Ebrahim Desai.