Why do we need a madhab?

[USResident]

@psyah

Peace All

First, to clarify the wars were not a result of the factions, but rather some factions formed as a result of the wars.

Never has there been a war of any of the madhahib against one another. The wars were political and later due to the factions the alienation became pseudo-religious, but the motives have always been to control people and their allegience so the answer is the blame goes to the political arena.

Next … the purpose for having a madhab is so you don’t have to live in a life of contradiction. The religious scriptures are a sea of various waves, although the sea current is travelling in a general direction, some waves crash against each other. To sail across these waves you need a good navigator. To sail it across yourself you need to be a good navigator (mujtahid mutlaq) … otherwise you will get caught out by the crashing waves.

So a madhab is a strong ship with a good navigator that will sail across the sea without meeting a crashing wave. Each ship will need to sail in its own way to get across.

So diwana there is nothing wrong at all with taking the best from each and making your own way, but according to the people who follow madhabs you need to be a mujtahid mutlaq to qualify.

I hope this thread charts a good course. I am also one who is not an adherent of one particular madhab. I simply do not find the need to be one either. Like you said, if the objective is to get around the rocks and multiple navigators are capable of doing it with different ships then you can set sail with either one.

I do disgaree that each person requires to be a mujtahid to make a sound decision. Wisdom is not subject to knowledge though knowledge helps it. Wisdom is to make the best decision based on your circumstances rather than having the knowledge of all possible circumstances. We’ve only overcomplicated and shutout peoples normak day to day ability to make wise decisions in terms of religion. We make more it more complicated than it really ever gets in ones normal life.

My personal opinion is madhabs were based on shifting sands. They have a lot of overlap but also differences atrributable to different evidence. The Imams expanded on issues encountered during their times for which clear evidence did not exist. They did the most comprehensive job, which is why they are famous. Our times have different issues and many similar ones as well. I think one who understands the fundamentals properly and has done a reasonable amount of research on certain controversial issues can live through most circumstances satisfied by their own intellect.

Our problem is we look to scripture for too much and hesitate to use out God given intellect. The point of the scripture is to understand out bounds and operate within them with wisdom.