It is necessary to refer all matters of disagreement between Muslims to Allah
and His Messenger, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam. This is important for the
Muslim to know and implement because it indicates the complete submission to
Allah without which one would not be a Muslim.
Allah says, " If you differ in anything among yourselves, refer it to Allah
and His Messenger, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day. That is best and
most commendable in the end" [4:59] also, He says, "And whatever you disagree
upon, its decision is with Allah" [42:10]
Ibnul Qayyim said, "Based on these verses, scholars have agreed that
referring to Allah means referring to His Book, and referring to the
Messenger, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam, means referring to him in person when
alive, to his Sunnah after his death." The first verse of surah an-Nisaa
(surah 4), is also proof that the Shari'ah has been perfected and completed.
Ibnul Qayim commented on this verse, "It covers everything that the believers
may disagree upon concerning their religion, from the smallest to the
greatest, whether hidden or evident. And if there were not a clear solution
to their disagreement in Allah's Book and His Messenger's Sunnah, or if they
were not enough for that, then He would not have ordered us referral to them."
Shari'ah is the Judge and is not to be judged: This is its power and its
role. This means that the Shari'ah rules and judges whether people's sayings
and doings are correct or not. It judges between them when in conflict and
disagreement. It confirms the right and abolishes the falsehood. This fact
sometimes is violated through some wrong practices:
Fanaticism: The fanatics in the different Madha-hib, schools of thought,
judge the Qur'an and Sunnah by what their Imam say. For example, Abul Hassan
al-karkhy, a prominent Hanafi Imam, said, "Every verse 'in the Qur'an' that
differs with our Madh-hab's understanding is either wrongly interpreted or
abrogated, and the same applies to every hadeeth as well."
Democracy: Today, one of the ugly examples of people taking the Divine
Shari'ah into their own hands, is the one related to the so-called democracy
by taking people's opinion, directly or through their parliament, about
implementing the Islamic Laws. The essence of this is subjugating the
implementation of the Creator's Shari'ah to the will of His creatures or
rendering it to a mere choice like any human-set constitution or laws. This
is total and clear disbelief, Kufr.
