Ikhtilaf

Ichtilāf Arab إختلاف, DMG is ihtilaf a technical term of Islamic jurisprudence and refers to the dissent, that the disagreement among legal scholars both within the law school as well as between the different schools of law in Islam. He is the antonym for ijma ʿ, the consensus of the scholars, which is the third source of legal discovery.

The term is used to mean " variant ", " diversity" in other Islamic disciplines used: " ichtilāf al - Qira ʾ at" ( read variants of the Quran ), " ichtilāf ar - riwāyāt " ( variants of the hadith tradition ).

The evaluation of Ichtilāf in the Quran and Hadith

In the Quran the term Ichtilāf is always negatively and especially to the divergence of opinions among the Ahl al - Kitab, ie Jews and Christians understood ( Sura 2, verse 213, Sura 3, verse 19). However, it also stated that the discord corresponds to the divine plan of salvation: "And if thy Lord had willed, He would have made the people (in fact ) one community ( umma Wahida ) But they are still at odds ( muḫtalifūn ) - excluding those. those on whom thy Lord has mercy on ( Rahima ). purpose he has ( just ) created " (Surah 11:118 f).

The steady growth of traditions as statements of Muhammad and his companions in all the spiritual centers of the Islamic world in the 8th and 9th centuries favored the emergence of controversial doctrines in both Fiqh and in the interpretation of the Qur'anic text. Already in the first major collections of traditions traditions are recorded that warn of such a development in the Islamic community. Alarmed by the disputes about the Koran text, can be a companion of Muhammad Uthman ibn Affan as Caliph speak as follows:

" Do something in this community (Muslims ) before they are at odds over the font, such as the ( earlier) was the case with the Jews and Christians. "

The prescribed in the Koran negative connotation of the term Ichtilāf also comes in one, the Prophet Mohammed saying ascribed to the expression to have said:

" My community will not be a mistake of the same opinion. Wherefore, cleave unto the great majority, if you see that there is ihtilaf! "

The position of the Ichtilāf in legal theory

Originally, different doctrines and interpretations of the law in the law schools in the centers of the Islamic empire - inter alia, Medina, Kufa, Basra, Baghdad, Fustat, Kairouan, al -Andalus - arose in the 8th and 9th centuries, is possible. However, they were only allowed if they were justified in ijtihad, the independent interpretation of the Qur'an and Sunnah. If this interpretation is not universally accepted document ( Arabic: Dalil ) before, thus saith the legal doctrine of Ichtilāf but of " Chilāf " contradiction deviation.

" Without this, it would be hard to understand how in the II century both in ritual and in legal issues in the various Orthodox Maḏāhib, even within one and the same madhhab, distinct teachings could come up with which then the harmonizing theology otherwise knew to begin than to see them as next to each other on an equal footing, or even to explain their diversity as a blessing for the Islamic community. "

Already the Umayyad caliph ʿ Umar ibn ʿ Abd al - ʿ Azeez († 720) is said to have sent an edict to the provinces of the Islamic empire with the statement that everyone has to adhere to the teachings of the local jurists.

Islamic law the controversial doctrines since its beginnings were thus already no stranger; to determine the law through ijtihad, by the desire to derive new legal standards in compliance with the Qur'an and Sunnah, but only resulted in applied deontology ( Furu ʿ ), but not in the fundamentals of fiqh ( usul ) to controversial doctrines. Is undisputed, for example, the duty to perform the five daily prayers prescribed by law; as they are carried out as part of the prayer ritual in detail, however, can vary depending on the legal and permit Ichtilāf school.

Through the institutionalization of Ichtilāf and mutual toleration controversial doctrines was " an intra- Islamic or at least within the Sunnis recognized pluralism. However, it is essentially limited to the right, and within this range and large on the material of the four legal schools that have prevailed over time and now also acquired equally valid ... For the basic truths of the faith can not ihtilaf considered because they are undisputed public domain. "

Over the centuries it has considered the diversity of opinions, including from a legal point of view, in a positive sense. Because Ichtilāf proved to be a possibility of legal doctrine to gain flexibility. Even the acting in Kufa Sufyan ath - Thawri († 778 ) who taught later jurists, according to:

" Do not say: The scholars are in the and in the case become at odds ( iḫtalafa ), but says: The scholars have given to the community in which and the case room. "

Ichtilāf as God's grace

To justify the incurred in the course of ijtihad differences of opinion we have referred early to an alleged prophet's words: " The dissent of the community is a mercy " ( al - umma Ichtilāf Rahma ). Josef van Ess has indicated that it is composed of the core concepts of Sura 11:118 f and to a certain extent represents an interpretation of the Koran place. This principle is also attributed to the founder of the Hanafi Imam Abu Hanifa as a commitment set. A variant of the sentence, which placed the emphasis more on the early church, was: " The disagreement of my Companions is a mercy " ( Ichtilāf aṣḥābī Rahma ). Both versions of the set have later found in recording hadith collections.

Due to the Koran - and there negative - meaning of the term Ichtilāf and its application in the hadith literature, the word " Rahma " has been interpreted by " indulgence " in this sentence true sneaked first in the senses: "If disagreement occurs within the community of believers, God allows grace place of justice. Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje took the view that here originally " a concession from God, because of human weakness, meant " was. Over the centuries, the word of the prophet, however, has experienced a positive reinterpretation of dissent as God's grace. Ignaz Goldziher sees in accordance with the above saying the term rahma as " emanation of the Divine Mercy"

However, not all scholars agree with this sentence. Al- Jahiz, for example, let it out of his mockery and said: If the opinion Verschiedenheite would be a grace, it followed inevitably that the consensus was a punishment. But this was far-fetched. Against the alleged prophetic word al -Bukhari is also in Saheeh cited the testimony of ʿ Alī ibn Abī Taalib regarding a specific legal question, " Decide as you have been chosen, because I do not love the disagreement, so rule among the people keeping. " When assessing the legitimacy of the admissibility of controversial doctrines is thus likely already in the earliest history of the jurisprudence of various mutually conflicting currents.

The substantiated in the above, the Prophet Muhammad ascribed to spell teaching on the admissibility of Ichtilāf as God's grace and his indulgence towards the Islamic community has to modernity their opponents. In particular, this included the representatives of the Manar School, Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida. The proof that the saying is unauthentic, delivers its opinion, the Qur'an itself: "And this is your community, it is a single community, and I am your Lord and Me (alone) shall ye fear, but they fell into different. .. . groups apart " (Sura 23:52-53 ).

The Ichtilāf literature

The oldest writings that contain the controversial doctrine and the refutation of the legal teachings of the " other side ", derived from Abū Yūsuf, a student of Imam Abu Hanifa, from the 8th century. They are not originals, but in parts of Ash- Shafi ʿ ī and with his comments in the tradition of his students in Kitaab al - Umm, the main plant Ash- Shafi ʿ īs obtained. These tracts has undergone a critical analysis of the Orientalist Joseph Schacht. Ash- Shaybani, a contemporary of Abū Yūsuf, Kitāb al - treated in his Huddscha fī ichtilāf ahl al- Kufa wa - ahl al- Madina كتاب الحجة في اختلاف أهل الكوفة وأهل المدينة / Kitaab al - Ḥuǧǧa /, The book of evidence about the controversial legal doctrines between the Kufensern and Medicare Ensern ' the Ichtilāf between the Maliki school of Medina and the teachings of his master Imam Abu Hanifa. It is the oldest extant work in this genre of legal literature.

Ash- Shafi ʿ ī evaluated the ichtilāf works his Hanafi predecessor not only, but also wrote a treatise on the controversial doctrine between himself and his teacher Maalik ibn Anas, in the processing and transmission of his student ar - Rabī ʿ ibn Sulaimān al - Muradi ( † 884 ) under the title is also obtained Ichtilāf Maalik wa - al- Shafi ʿ ī / اختلاف مالك والشافعي / ihtilaf Maalik wa - ʿ ī aš - Safi in his Kitaab al - Umm. His work entitled Ichtilāf al - Hadith about controversial doctrines in the interpretation of the Hadith is dedicated as sources of law from the analysis of those Prophetenhadithe that have been interpreted differently by the law schools for the purpose of justifying their own interpretations of the law. The book is therefore arranged according to the chapters of Islamic jurisprudence.

The analysis of the Hadith literature by legal scholars was necessary because even with incomplete Hadith Isnaden and notwithstanding anything to the judgments of Hadithkritik as a basis for argumentation ( huddscha ) could be used in legal theory. Among the Aryans tradition especially at- Tirmidhi († 892 ) showed interest in it, attributed to the traditional in his work Hadith as sources of legal argumentation the law schools in question. Thus, its tradition collection offers very good insight into the handling of legal scholars with the writing traditional Hadithmaterial.

Among the oldest fully preserved works of this genre of legal literature is one of the Kitāb ichtilāf al - ʿ ulama ʾ كتاب اختلاف العلماء / Kitāb ihtilaf al - ʿ ulama ʾ /, the controversial doctrines of the scholars ' of Muhammad ibn Nasr al - Marwazi († 906 in Samarqand ) which was mainly known through this book in the Islamic East. The work is compiled according to the chapters of fiqh, in which the author represents the controversial doctrines of the four schools of law systematically, without putting his own views in the foreground.

One of the most important works written in this area, al-Tabari († 923 ) are present under the title ichtilāf al - fuqaha ʾ / اختلاف الفقهاء / iḫtilāfu ʾ l - fuqaha ʾ /, the controversial doctrines of jurists ', of which only a few fragments. In its present form the work today regarded as a meticulous summary of the controversial legal doctrines of his predecessor, the representative of the jurisprudence in the Umayyad period of the late 7th and early 8th century.

Exclusively at the Hanafi jurisprudence orients itself of at- Tahawi († 933 ) wrote Ichtilāf al - fuqaha ʾ / اختلاف الفقهاء / Iḫtilāfu ʾ ʾ l - fuqaha /, controversy doctrines of jurists '. The author represents the prevailing between the four orthodox schools of law doctrinal differences

The law school of Maliki brought forth a relatively late Ichtilāf - work, which is strictly limited to the madhhab internal doctrinal differences. The author is the Andalusian scholar Ibn ʿ Abd al - Barr ( † 1071 ); of his work under the title ichtilāf aqwāl Maalik wa - ashābihi / إختلاف أقوال مالك وأصحابه / ihtilaf aqwāl Maalik wa - aṣḥābihi /, controversy doctrines of Malik and his followers ' is only the first part will receive.

Ichtilāf and Fatwa

Controversy doctrines are mainly in the Fatwa essence of Islamic jurisprudence, the legal opinion of the Mufti, covering all areas of religious and secular life of the Muslim, as usual. Even the prohibitions documented in the Koran can be interpreted differently. In a survey of ʿ Alī Efendi († 1692 ) - according to the Hanafi school of law - it is said:

"Is that known as višnāb (sour cherry brandy ) dazzling Süßgetränk allowed if it is not drunk with the intention to amuse himself and in a non- intoxicating amount? - Responsum: The Greatest Imām Abū Yūsuf and Imām in which it is allowed, at the Imam Muhammad are prohibited. In our time prefers you to decide an expertise and the words of the Imam Muhammad. "

What is meant as "the greatest Imam " of the school's founder Imam Abu Hanifa; of Imam Muhammad al- Shaybani is, a significant representative of the Hanafi school of law in the 8th century.