In Defence of the Four Imams
Author: Ibn Taymiyah
Translator: Abdullah bin Hamid Ali
Publisher: Claritas Books
Year of Publication: 2018
Print Length: 164 pages
Genre: Islamic Studies / Theology, Ethics and Philosophy; Science; Essay; Non-Fiction / Religious Studies
Topic: Islam, Muslim World, Religious Authority, Scholarship & Knowledge; Law, Jurisprudence, Legal Theory, Muslim
Why did the distinguished jurists of early Muslim history differ? Why do some of their views apparently contradict authentic scriptural texts? And why do their followers seem to prefer their opinions even when they outwardly contradict sound prophetic traditions?
In this unique work of Ibn Taymiyah, his primary aim is to present cogent answers to these questions, as he displays a humble deference towards his predecessors. He begins his work by mentioning three excuses for why the eponymous four Imams (Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Malik ibn Anas, Imam Al-Shafi’i, Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal) sometimes contravened the import of sound prophetic traditions, and then proceeds to explicate ten things prompting them to adopt one of the three aforementioned excuses.
Table of Contents
Translator’s Introduction
Introduction
The First Cause: He was unaware of the hadith
The Second Cause: He was aware of the hadith, but it wasn’t sound in his view
The Third Cause: He believes the hadith presented by those differing with him is weak
The Fourth Cause: He Stipulates Conditions for the Reports of Reliable Narrators that are different from other scholars
The Fifth Cause: He knew the hadith, considered it to be genuine, but forgot it
The Sixth Cause: He did not know what the hadith meant
The Seventh Cause: He believes that his opponent misconstrues the hadith
The Eight Cause: He believes that the interpretation conflicts with something else that shows that the intent is other than what his opponent says
The Ninth Cause: He believes that the hadith is contravened by something that indicates that it is weak, or it is abrogated, or its meaning is figurative—if it is subject to being taken figuratively and reassigned a different meaning by something accepted as valid by consensus, like a Qur’anic verse, another hadith, or scholarly consensus
The Tenth Cause: He believes that the hadith opposes what proves that it is weak, abrogated, or reassigned a figurative meaning while other scholars do not share his view. Or the category of what is mentioned in the hadith is in opposition to something, or it is really not in opposition to anything. Rather, it is weightier.
Appendix
Notes
Biography
Ibn Taymiyah / Ibn Taymiyya is Islam’s 13th century theologian and jurisconsult of the Hanbalite school. A member of the Ḥanbalī school founded by Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, sought the return of the Islamic religion to its sources: the Qurʾān and the Sunnah, revealed writing and the prophetic tradition. He is also the source of the Wahhābiyyah, a mid-18th-century traditionalist movement of Islam.
Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ibn-Taymiyyah
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Abdullah bin Hamid Ali is a scholar of Islamic law with field specialties in Islamic Theology as well as Race and Blackness Studies in Muslim History. His research interests include the interconnection between law and identity formation, comparative Islamic law, and Islam’s role in the modern world. He teaches Jurisprudential Principles, Family Law, Inheritance Law, Commercial Law, Prophetic Tradition, Creedal Theology, and Islamic Virtue Ethics at Zaytuna College, Berkeley, the US. He received his BA or Al-Ijazah Al-‘Ulya from Al-Qarawiyyin University in Shariah in 2001. He received both his MA and PhD from the Graduate Theological Union in 2012 and 2016, respectively.
Source: https://zaytuna.edu/faculty-details/Abdullah-Bin-Hamid-Ali
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