Understanding Taqlīd, Madhabs, Ijtihād & Fiqh Methodologies
This course is for anyone who desires to have a better understanding of their religion and wants to know why they practice what they practice and follow.
This course will look at the issue of following a Sunni School of Islamic law/madhab – known as taqlīd – and other related issues. Is it necessary to follow a fiqh madhab when we have the Qur’an & Sunna? If all the Schools are correct, can we not pick and choose from them? Can we not just adopt the “strongest” opinion in each issue? What is independent reasoning (ijtihād) and what are its prerequisites? What is jurisprudence (fiqh)? What is the difference between a muhaddith and jurist/faqīh? Who were the four mujtahid imams and what methodologies/principles (uṣūl) did they adopt? How does the Hanafi School work and what juristic principles does it employ? Why are there differences between the various Schools? What is an authenticated (ṣaḥīḥ) and weak (ḍa‛īf) ḥadīth? These and many more questions will be covered during this course In Sha Allāh. A must for students of knowledge and anyone who wishes to have a better understanding of their religion.
Kindly Note: You will receive an invitation to the Google Classroom within 48 hours from registration and access to recordings for this course will end four weeks from the date of registration.
Course Includes:
- 10 Hours of Pre-Recorded Session
- Q&A via e-mail
- Detailed course notes
- On-Demand Course
- Google Classroom as Learning Portal
£20
About this Course
Course Description
• Why do we follow Madhabs?
• Picking and choosing based on convenience or strength of evidence?
• Understanding the differences between Madhabs/Schools
• Understanding Fiqh Methodologies (Usul al-Fiqh)
• Who were the Muhaddithun and Jurists (Fuqaha)?
• Authenticated (Sahih), weak (Da’if) and fabricated (Mawdu’) Hadiths
Course Details
This course will look at the issue of following a Sunni School of Islamic law/madhab – known as taqlīd – and other related issues. Is it necessary to follow a fiqh madhab when we have the Qur’an & Sunna? If all the Schools are correct, can we not pick and choose from them? Can we not just adopt the “strongest” opinion in each issue? What is independent reasoning (ijtihād) and what are its prerequisites? What is jurisprudence (fiqh)? What is the difference between a muhaddith and jurist/faqīh? Who were the four mujtahid imams and what methodologies/principles (uṣūl) did they adopt? How does the Hanafi School work and what juristic principles does it employ? Why are there differences between the various Schools? What is an authenticated (ṣaḥīḥ) and weak (ḍa‛īf) ḥadīth? These and many more questions will be covered during this course In Sha Allāh. A must for students of knowledge and anyone who wishes to have a better understanding of their religion.
Learning Outcome: Students will learn
• Meaning of, and balanced approach to, following a fiqh school/madhab
• Different levels of following madhabs
• How the various madhabs work
• Reasons behind the differences between the various schools
• When it becomes permitted to adopt the position of another madhab
• Whether it is permitted to pick and choose based on ease or strength of evidence
• Juristic methodologies (usul al-fiqh) of the Hanafi School
• Deeper insight into jurisprudence (fiqh) and the Jurists (fuqahā’)
• Deeper insight into the four major imam’s and their schools
• and much more…
Discussion breakdown
Session 1:
• Definition and nature/reality of following a fiqh school/madhab (taqlīd)
• Proofs on the permissibility/necessity of taqlīd
• Taqlīd during the era of the Companions and early Muslims
• What is the ruling (hukm) of taqlīd?
• What is Ijtihād and who is a Mujtahid?
Session 2:
• Following one particular mujtahid/school
• Picking from different schools based on ease/convenience (yusr)
• Picking from different schools based on strength of evidence
• Why the four Schools of Law?
• Different levels of taqlīd for different types of people
Session 3:
• Jurisprudence (fiqh) and the Jurists (fuqahā’)
• Definition of fiqh
• The fuqahā’ (jurists) among the companions and the successors
• The mujtahid imāms
• The Fuqahā’ as Pharmacists
Session 4:
Questions & Answers session
Session 1:
• The four major imāms and their legal schools
• Reasons of differences between the various imāms/schools
• An overview of apparent contradictions within narrations
Session 2:
• Differences between schools in methodology and approach (uṣūl al-fiqh).
• Detailed analyses of the reasons of differences, with examples.
Session 3:
• Meaning of “if a ḥadīth is ṣaḥīḥ, then it is my position (madhhab)”?
• Should the evidences of the Imāms always be from Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhari and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim?
• Why are weak (ḍa‛īf) ḥadīths cited sometimes as evidence by some of the schools?
Session 4:
Questions & Answers session
Course Instructor
Mufti Muhammad ibn Adam al-Kawthari
Shaykh Mufti Muhammad ibn Adam al-Kawthari is a traditionally-trained Islamic scholar who has studied the Arabic language and various other traditional Islamic sciences including Qur’anic exegesis (tafsir), Hadith and Fiqh in different parts of the world including the UK, Pakistan and Syria.
The Shaykh has taught many courses and lectured extensively on a range of topics, and continues to travel regularly teaching and lecturing both in the UK and abroad. Presently, he resides in Leicester, UK. He is a teacher of various traditional Islamic sciences, and Director and researcher at the Institute of Islamic Jurisprudence (Darul Iftaa, www.daruliftaa.com).
FAQs
We are using Google Classroom as our Learning Management Portal. Please sign-up to Google Classroom with same email address you will use during course enrolment. We will invite you to our course classroom.
Schedule for the classes is mentioned above under “Discussion and Breakdown” section.
You will be provided a recording of the session so you can catch up without missing any content.
We will be using Zoom.us. We will share zoom invite link with you on Google Classroom.
Yes. At the end of each session there will be long Q&A Session with Mufti Muhammad Ibn Adam.