Answered by Shaykh Hamza Karamali, SunniPath Academy Teacher
1.) Is it a prerequisite for one who desires to become a scholar to memorize mutoon besides the Quran (like in fiqh, qawaa’id, hadeeth, mustalah, nahw, etc.)?
and, 2.)Could one issue fataawa in the madhhab without having memorized a matn (verbatim)?
I ask this because I heard that Fakhrud Deen ar Raazi and other scholars considered the Qur’an to be the foundation of all knowledge and that everything else learned was to help better understand the Qur’an and I want to make the Qur’an the only thing that I really go out of my way to memorize verbatim, while at the same time sitting with shuyookh to go over books in fiqh, hadith, ‘aqeedah, and other topics and reading books over and over to a point where I master them, even if in meaning and not verbatim (unless I memorize them verbatim without trying).
Is this an acceptable way to become a scholar (i.e. without memorizing mutoon) and could one issue fataawa in the madhhab without having memorized a matn verbatim?
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate
assalamu `alaykum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh
Thank you for your question. May Allah bless you on the path of knowledge and clothe your efforts with success from Him. Ameen.
Memorization is not a goal to be sought for itself, but a means to a goal. The goal that a student of knowledge aspires to is not rote memorization, but deep understanding. A real scholar is someone with deep understanding of the disciplines that he has studied so that his knowledge becomes second nature to him.
Scholars of legal methodology (usul al-fiqh) mention, for example, that one of the conditions of a scholar who exercises ijtihad is that he be “faqih al-nafs”, which means that deep understanding of the intent of primary texts is second nature to him. They explain that memorizing all the hadiths and Quranic verses relating to legal rulings is not a condition of ijtihad. What is required of him is that he be able to refer to all the necessary hadiths and verses when necessary and that he have a deep understanding of the intent of these primary texts. (cf. Sharh Jam` al-Jawami`, Bab al-Ijtihad)
In the same way, a scholar of any religious discipline–whether Islamic law, hadith, tafsir, or something else–is someone who has spent years studying the discipline with teachers and immersing himself in the authoritative works of the discipline until knowledge of that particular discipline becomes second nature to him.
This is a difficult goal that requires both effort and talent. Our scholars tried to ease the way for us by authoring concise “teaching-texts” (Ar. “mutun”) that they suggested students of knowledge should memorize. The goal behind the memorization of these teaching-texts is to instill the most important points of the discipline firmly into the mind of the student in the hope that this will eventually lead to deep understanding and mastery of the discipline. Memorization is not a goal in itself, but a means to a goal. A scholar is not someone who has memorized a thousand facts rote, but someone who uses the facts he knows to arrive at a deep understanding of the discipline that he is studying. Not everyone who memorizes texts reaches the goal of deep understanding.
Although memorization is not the goal, it is an extremely important means. One’s level of understanding of a discipline is normally commensurate with the number of issues that one has at one’s fingertips. Teaching-texts are important to memorize, but the level of memorization that is required will vary from person to person and context to context. In addition to memorizating teaching texts, students also need to take other important means. For example, they need to go beyond the teaching texts and immerse themselves in the lengthy reference works of the discipline that they are studying. They also need to spend time in the company of an expert who can show them first hand how to solve problems. Once a student takes these means, then it remains for Allah Most High to bless his efforts with God-given success (tawfiq), which is the most important factor that determines the worth of one’s knowledge.
And Allah Most High knows best.
Hamza.