Dissecting the Shari’ah March 16, 2012

I begin with the Name of Allaah, the most Merciful, the One Who bestows Mercy

All praises and thanks are due to Allaah. May Allaah mention His messenger and grant him peace. Aameen.

Dissecting the Shari’ah

Looking Beyond the Text

Illusions (wahmiyyaat) consist of notions created by the imagination without any basis in the reality of the external world, such as the unfounded belief (tawahhum) by many people that there is something fearful or repulsive about a human corpse when one is alone with it. This kind of perception consists of both active (fi’l) and a passive (infi’aal) aspects, for we find that the mind acts and is influenced [by its own act] at the same time. It invents the idea and then perceives it [and is influenced by it]. In a similar category are the fancies of the imagination (takhayyulaat). They consists of ideas created by the imagination (quwwat al-khayaal) and helped by illusion with the combination of various sensible images stored in the memory, such as the prohibition of some kind of fish [i.e. capybara or water hog] just because in Arabic it is called ‘sea pig’ (khinzir bahree). None of these ideas is appropriate for Maqaasid al-Shari’ah, for God said to His apostle: “… for, behold, that in which you believe is self-evident truth” (27:79), meaning that it is truth free from all sorts of falsehood and corruption.

From a thorough examination of the Shari’ah, we have found that it rejects illusions and fancies of the imagination. Therefore, basing its commands on illusions is unacceptable to the Shari’ah except in need, which means that fancies of the imagination cannot be included as part of Maqaasid al-Shari’ah. It is narrated in Muwatta’ that the Prophet saw a man driving a camel which he was going to sacrifice, and he told him to ride it. The man refused to ride the camel and said: “Messenger of God, it is an animal that I am going to sacrifice,” and he replied: “Ride it, woe to you,” two or three times.

It is also reported that ‘Abd Allaah ibn ‘Umar shrouded his son Waaqid ibn ‘Abd Allaah, who had died at al-Juhfah while in ihraam, and he veiled his head and face and said, “If we had not been in ihram, we ourselves would have perfumed him.” Maalik commented: “A man can do things only while he is alive. When he is dead, his actions stop.” This comment was meant to highlight the abrogation of the tradition, according to which the Prophet said, concerning a man who had died because his she-camel had broken his neck while he was in ihram, “Do not shroud his face, and do not perfume him, for he will be resurrected on the Day of Rising in a state of talbiyah.” Some jurists said that this was due to some secret quality that God knew was specifically present in that particular person. In my view, the real reason was to prevent the people enshrouding him from touching perfume, which means that the prohibition was for the sake of the living people rather than the dead person. Thus, depriving the latter of perfume was made a reason for his resurrection in a state of talbiyah as a means to show the importance of the Hajj. Accordingly, the Shari’ah abolished the rules of adoption that had existed during the period of Jaahiliyyah and the early years of Islam, because adoption is not based on any reality. Therefore, whenever jurists are faced with the impression that an imaginary or illusionary idea is the basis of a Shari’ah command, they should think carefully to discard that illusion and discover the real meaning underneath, which has been associated with something imaginary in such a way that it has been hidden from the sight of the general public, which is usually inclined to follow fancies and illusions.

This can be illustrated by the prohibition of washing the body of a martyred person while fighting in God’s cause. In this respect, the Prophet is reported to have said; “He will be resurrected on the Day of Rising and his blood will be gushing forth, with the color of blood and the smell of musk.” Many people might think that the reason for not washing the martyr is to keep his blood in his veins so that he will be resurrected with it on the Day of Rising. The truth is far from this, for if he were washed out of ignorance, forgetfulness or even intentionally, this would not cancel his virtue, and God might create in his wounds a blood that would gush forth, testifying for him on the Day of Resurrection.

Accordingly, the reason for this recommendation is that people are so busy during the fighting that they cannot spare time for washing the martyr. Since God knew that the fighters would be heartbroken upon seeing their bleeding wounds and knowing that they would be buried in that state if they were killed, and since He knew that this would also break the hearts of their relatives and next of kin, He compensated them with a great virtue. Hence, there is a reversal of the cause, that is to say, the cause is the effect while the effect is the cause. Similarly, the command to cover one’s private parts while performing prayer alone is actually meant to emphasize that one should not take lightly good customs and manners as a means of strengthening magnanimity and habituating people to it. There might be some commands of the Shari’ah that are based on certain things (ma’aanee) for which we cannot find any interpretation, save that they are imaginary notions, such as facing the Qiblah on prayer, or substituting tayammum for ablution, or kissing the black stone during pilgrimage. These things must be acceptable as they are and considered part of the devotional category in which the Shari’ah objective is beyond our grasp… Other commands might be contingent on an interpretation that would exclude them from mere imaginary or illusionary notions, such as ritual impurity.

… You should know that imaginary things, though they are not appropriate as objectives of legislation, might be useful for achieving certain Shari’ah objectives. They can be used for inviting to Islam (da’wah) or to arouse people’s interest (targheeb) or fear (tarheeb), such as in the Qur’anic verse: “Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Nay, you would loathe it” (49:12) or the Prophet’s Saying: “Someone who takes back his charity (sadaqah) is like a dog swallowing its own vomit.”

[ Quoted Source: Ibn Ashur, M., 1946. Treatise on Maqaasid al-Shari’ah. Translated by M. El-Mesawi., 2006. London: The International Institute of Islamic Thought. ]