Jimāʿ al-ʿIlm - Al-Shafi'i - (32)

Jimāʿ al-ʿIlmAl-Shafi'i

283 – Likewise, ʿAṭāʾ transmitted from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh a report traced back to the Prophet ﷺ concerning mukhābara (a share-cropping arrangement). He acted on it, even though others disputed that position.

284 – Al-Shaʿbī narrated from ʿAlqama, from ʿAbd Allāh, several rulings traced back to the Prophet ﷺ. He adopted them in practice, yet people—both in the present day and long before—have differed with him over them.

286 – Al-Ḥasan transmitted, through a single intermediary, a number of rulings from the Prophet ﷺ, applied them, and again found opponents—people today and earlier—who disagreed with him. Indeed, they have reported to you that these scholars lived while espousing opinions in which each one’s legal judgement contradicted that of his companion, and they remained so until their deaths.

287 – He replied, “Yes, that is exactly what has been narrated about them.”

288 – I said to him, “So then, you have made these men leaders in the religion and claimed that whenever you find their actions in agreement, the public is obliged to follow that consensus. Yet you have also related from them a wide range of practices: each of them accepted solitary reports and allowed ample room for disagreement. After that, you censured what they had all agreed upon without any doubt and opposed them, declaring: ‘A solitary report should not be accepted, nor should disagreement be permitted.’ You further imagined that they relied on analogy and therefore maintained that no one may abandon analogy or speak except on the basis of what he personally knows.

289 – “In saying that this is consensus, you are contradicting consensus itself—for you asserted that they never remained silent about anything they knew, while they all died without a single one of them ever saying, ‘We have ascertained consensus.’

290 – “Consensus is the loftiest form of knowledge if it truly existed where you claim. Or is it not sufficient criticism of your alleged consensus that, after the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, no one ever reported any claim to consensus—except on matters where absolutely no one differed—until people of your own generation began to do so?

291 – He responded, ‘But some of them have, in fact, claimed it.’

٢٨٣ - وروى عطاء عن جابر بْن عبد الله عن النبي ﷺ في المخابرة شيئا وأخذ به وله فيه مخالفون. ٢٨٤ - وروى الشعبي عن علقمة عن عبد الله عن النبي ﷺ أشياء أخذ بها وله فيها مخالفون من الناس اليوم وقبل اليوم. ٢٨٦ - وروى الحسن عن الرجل عن النبي ﷺ أشياء أخذ بها وله فيها مخالفون من الناس اليوم وقبل اليوم ورووا لك عنهم أنهم عاشوا يقولون بأقاويل يخالف كل واحد منهم فيها قضاء صاحبه وكانوا على ذلك حتى ماتوا؟. ٢٨٧ - قال: نعم قد رووا هذا عنهم. ٢٨٨ - فقلت: له فهؤلاء جعلتهم أئمة في الدين وزعمت أن ما وجد من فعلهم مجمعا لزم العامة الأخذ به ورويت عنهم سننا شتى وذلك قبول كل واحد منهم الخبر على الانفراد وتوسعهم في الاختلاف ثم عبت ما أجمعوا عليه لا شك فيه وخالفتهم فيه فقلت: لا ينبغي قبول الخبر على الانفراد ولا ينبغي الاختلاف وتوهمت عليهم أنهم قاسوا فزعمت أنه لا يحل لأحد أن يدع القياس ولا يقول إلا بما يعرف. ٢٨٩ - إن قولك الإجماع خلاف الإجماع بهذا وبأنك زعمت أنهم لا يسكتون على شيء علموه وقد ماتوا لم يقل أحد منهم قط الإجماع علمناه. ٢٩٠ - والإجماع أكثر العلم لو كان حيث ادعيته أو ما كفاك عيب الإجماع أن لم يرووا عن أحد بعد رسول الله ﷺ دعوى الإجماع إلا فيما لا يختلف فيه أحد إلا عن أهل زمانك هذا؟. ٢٩١ - فقال: فقد ادعاه بعضهم؟.