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IBN CONCEPT OF IJM'
by
Muhammad Amin Abdul Samad
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A Thesis
Presented.to the Faculty of Graduate
and Research, University, Montreal,
in partial fulfilment of the require-
ments for the degree of
Master of Arts
Institute of Islamic Studies
1
McGill University
Montreal
1978
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Author
Titl-e of thesis
De rit
Degree
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ABSTRACT
Muhammad Amin Abdul Samad
Ibn 1 s Concept of
Islamic Stucties, McGill University,
Montreal
\
Mastet'Ilof Arts
This,thesis is an attempt ta study Ibn con-
cept of ijma' (consensus). Ibn was a Muslim scholar oi
Persian' origin, who revived the schobl in Andalusia
<t
(Muslim Spain) in the fifth/eleventh century. The
school was founded by Dawd in Iraq in the third/ninth cen-
tury. This sehool was known for its insistence on the lit-
inte,rpretation of the (divine, text)." I.jma' is ac-
eepted by flluslim jurists en masse as the third source of 18-
lamic law after the Qur' an land the Sunnah ,(practice) of the
Prophet. However, these jurists held different concepts on
ijma' to the schools to which they belon[ed. As
an exponent of the school, Ibn concept of
i8 qui te dif'ferent from those of other jurists. In defendirH-
his, c'onccpt and refuting those of his opponents, he based his
argument upon the literaI meaning of the
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RESUME
Auteur Muhammad Amin Abdul Sam(].d
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Titre do la thse
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Le Concept d'Ibn 0 l'I,jma'
,
Departement Institut Islamiqu
n
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Universit IkGlll
Maitrise en Arts
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fait l'objet d'une de concept
d'Ibn tlazm h l'i,jmiJ.' (consensus). Ibn fut un so.vanL
musulm(].n d'origine persanne 1 que ranimo. en
Andalousie (l'Espa[ne mU,sulmane) etU cinquime/onzime si0cl"_
L'cole fut fonde par Daw en Iraq au troisipmo/
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neuvime sicle. ette COle fut connue pour son insistancfl
11 l' entorprtation littrale du texte jlvin) .
L' i,jrn::i' (\;,t accept petr les en
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source de droit isllmiqtl,o aprs, le
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et la (let praticue) de Prophte. ces
jurisconsultes tinrent concepts l' i,jmJ' d'
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colos ils appartinrent. Corne un
,
repn;-
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sontant 'do l' cole le concept d'Ibn Hazm il l' iJmi'
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est de ceux des autres
En dfendant son concept et en rfutant ceux de ses adver-
saires, il base son argument sut la signification littral'?
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So, l' said: "qo they brame me for anything
except tha t l do ot uphold ra' y ([lor-
I
Gonal opinion in/religion), as there
discords in the ir opinion,
And that l
text), and
am in love with nass (divine
...:0..-, ,
l not lean upon other
(,
than it, nor shall l be weak in sup-
PC?rting i t'!
l l will no t
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incline towards (lny opin ion
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said in teligion; nay, the Qur,5n 8nd
the Sunan ( practices ,of the Prophet)
me, Il *)
Ibn Hazm


*) T - T T
, Sa' ld Il.I-Afp;hanl, Ibn Hllzm lll-Andn .LW:Jl \'Ir:'.
" --',
Ris3.1n LUIt fI al-Mufaqalo.h bo.yn al-
r/latba' ah" al-Hashimlyah, 1359/1940), p, lh2,
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ACKNOW(tDCEf.1EiIlTS
INTRODUCTION
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TABLE OF CONTENTS.
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Ch-pter
1. HISTORICAL BACKGRQUND
A. The Background of Ibn Hazm ..
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1. A Short Synopsis of Ibn Lire
2. Ibn Contact with Religious
Scholars . .
B .. The
ptblems of
the Defini tians and
the o currence of I,ima' . . .
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1.
of I,jma'
2. of I,ima' . .
Footnotes ta Chapter 1 .
" II.
JUDICIAL BACKGROUND
.
,A. Ibn View of the Basis of I,ima' . '.
1. 'Qur' an
2. Sunnah. 1 . \ .
JI Qiys.. .. , . . . , 1 .'. . . . 1
B. Ibn Hazm's View of the Types of Ijm3'
1. Ijma' on What is Known in Religion
by Necessity
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2. 1 Irjma' of the .", . . .
J. Irjma," of the PeoI?le a-f Madinah
, !/'
I,ima' where No Chall'enge is Known .
5
I,im' with One Challenge . . .',. . . .
.F
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footnotes ta Chapter II . . . . . . . . . .. .
CONCLUSION
GL'OSSARY
1
APPENDIX
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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SHOWlNG ANDALUS lA (MUSLIM SPAIN)
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l would li(\'[e to express m) sincere gratitude ta
Dr. Charles J. Adams, the Director of Islamic Studies,
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McGill University, and the staff, of this Instituto. Dr.
,
Adams helped me in many ways, especially in prqviding me
"
with a fellowship from the Institute for two years, and
.
in reading the draft of this thesis. Dr. Landolt gra-
, ciously and supervised this work. Dr. T.
Dr. I. Boullata, Dr. R.N. Verdery, and Dr. A.M. Abu-Hakima
aIl aid'ed me with their scholarship while l attended their
fascinating courses/lectures.
"
Among my fellow l wi&h to express my
gratitude nd appreciation to Mr. Karim Crow for cditing
the of this paper (as weIl as my other papers) "
.
and ta Nr. H.M. Naqib for his assistance and advice, espe-
cially in wri ting the second chapter of this thesis. r,ly
gra ti tude is also extended to Mr. Z. Rasheed .. f/l,\. A.
rf&wfiq, Miss L. Northrup, and Mr. S.A. Bashir. l appre-
, ,
ciate the help of the late Mr. M. Ali and Miss S. Fera-
hian in materlal for me which is not q.vailable
1
in the Library of the Insiitute. l also'wish ta thank
'Mrs. C. and Miss A. Wetham, admlnistratilrs ,in
the 'Institute. To those names are not mentioned
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here, but have contributed, in way or anQther, to the
>
,completion of tHis study" l express my deep thanks and
appreci"tion.
l would als'o like t thank the many' Canadan and"
U.S. families for their hospitality and kindness. Indeed,
,{ \ .
my direct contact with them, l learned ,much about
life in North America. lIn Canada, they are: Nfr. & Mrs.
,
R.D. Hammond of'Beaconsfield, Dr. & Mrs. G.C. Willis of

Westmount, Mr. & Mrs. Q. 'Mahmud of Aylmer, Mr'. 1 f.1rs. G.
Pasha of Verdun; and Mr. & Mrs. A.H. Mady of Lachute. In
.
the United they are: Dr., & Mrs. G.B. Davis Jr. of
Malone, N.Y., Mr. & Mrs. P. Seghers and Mrs. J: Robertson
of New York City, and Rev. Sunny Pek-Ho Oey of Burke, N.Y.
ln Egynt, my gratitude would also gp ta Dr.
al-Dln J:[usayn, the former gyptian Minister o;f Higher Edu-
cation, for providing me with a fellowship whicn enabled
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me to continue my study at Cairo and to my sis-
ter Syamsiah for her help in sending me materia'l for use
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in my study,at the Institute in general, and for this paper
in particular.
In Indooesia,' l salute the patience and
ing of my eIder brother, M. Ramly, my younger sister's,
Syamsudduha and Badriah, and my relatives during my long
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absence these past years. Finally, this thesis lS dedicated
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in sacred mernor;'[ to my beloved parents. There- are no ade-
quate. words to express my and'gratitude to my
parents who brought me up, encouraged me to seek knowledge"
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bore the of my education in Indonesia as weIl as
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my travel tQ Eglpt, and endured the, bitterness of nine
years' of separation from me until both of passed away
in 1967. May the Almighty reward them and may their souls
rest in peace.
IV.6'0-treal, June, 1978. M. A. S.
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INTRODUCTION
.There have beert severai attempts in secondary
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ta study Ibn (J84/994-456/1q64) and to his can-
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tribution to the development of Muslim +egal 'r The
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discussion so far,has focused upon variaus aspects relevant
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ta Ibn legal theory, with only a very broad examina-
tion of his concept of i,irna' (consensus). Since i,jrna' as in-
terpreted by Ibfl stands out as distinctively different
from the concept advocated by his contemporary orthodox ju-
rists, we found i t necessary to examine this conc,ept and de-
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scribe its definition, principles and implernentation. Here,
the secondary sources do not offer us a concrete understand-
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ing of Ibn 1 s concept of i,jma'._ Ibn Hazm refutes the
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arguments of his opponents in pis rejection of the types of
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i,ima' advocated by them" yet MuJ:1ammad Ab Zahrah, the dlS-
tinguished Azhari savant, does not give us Ibn posi-
tion exee'pt for a brief reference to the irima' of the people
of Madlnah.
1
Other scholars, like 'Abd al-Latif Shararah and
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Dr. Zakarlya Ibrahim, though they deal with Ibn as a ju-
rist, do not give us any illustration of Ibn concept
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of More study and congerning thls sub-
ject is necessary.
As we understand it, ijma' as postulated by Ibn
i6 any upon which there s no room for dis-
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agreement. both in part and as a whole. Indeed, he attaches'
sa mueh significanee ta this general agreement that he re-
gards it as a case parallel to the and the Sunnah
(t'he Fractice of the Prophet).J This position,\ Vie stress,
bath unique and'peculiar to Ibn and it possesses
number of differenees from the classieal concept of ijma' in-
herent in the legal of orthodox jurists, The rea"an
for this i8 the way Ibn l;lazm formula tes his concept and the
prineiples upon which it is interpreted. Through his
interpretation of the na99 (the divine text),4
texts daling wi th the com'pletion of the religion of Islam,
and through his observation of the natural diversi ty inhersn
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in man, h"e cornes to the conclusion that i,jma' can occur
if i t is, ba'se'ct on na99' His insistence' on unanirnity in i,jFlii'
compels him to acc,ep"\; i,ima' on what is known by necessity
(al-ma'lm bi al-garrah) and the i,jma' of the (com-
of the Prophet). This is because what is known in
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religioh by necessity cannat be denied by any Muslim as lon:.
as he remains sa.
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Moreover, the are those who
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nessed the teachings of the Pro.,phet. Ibn Hazm contends that
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the ir t\8stimony is 'accepted, because they are reliable and, 1='0'0-
. pIe promised Vii th Paradise. Ibn ljazm rejects the i,jma' of a latr::r
age because the reliability of 'people other than th f
must be ted, . Morover, Ibn ljazm does not believe
in the Mpossibili t)- of the occurrence of ijma' other than th,",;

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of the because the '1am8.' (learned people) of the
Musl1.m commu'ni ty' had become scattered outside Madinah in
varlous Mus1im lands.
This thesis, therefore, attempts to define' Ibn
concept of i,ima' and ta compare it to the i,ima" formulat8?- by
his contemporary'orthodox jurists. In order to develop
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theme we sha11 this thesis into two chapters: histor-
ical and jVdicial. The first chapter deals with the histor-
ica1 background of Ibn 1;fazm and the of u-
ma'. Thre i8 no need to write a chapter on life and
of Ibn has been done by MUf)ammad Abu Zahrah, Sa' l
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'al-AfghaJ;lI, ' 'Abd a1-Latif Shararah, R. Arnaldez, and others . .s
we shall provide a short synopsis of Ibn
-in order to 'better understand the legal issues relating ta
this thesis
. The second chapter of deals with the ju-
dicial background of Ibn view ,of ijma,. Unlike the
opinions of the majority of jurists, Ibn on1y accepts
the occurrence of i,ima' during the time of the l?g))abah, and
h insists that must be based on na,!,:" 'i. e., texts from
the Qtir'an and the unnah. rThe Qur'anic terses whiqh are
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used by jurists as arguments fITr the validity of' ijma' are
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'interpreted by Ibn 1;fazm as i,ima' based on The argumen-!:
of IbA 1;!azm in taking this stand is that sinee Allah reve'alf:d'
that He had perfected the religion of Islam " t t' follows that
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whatever Allah and His\Messriger did not mention (as some-
tl1ing forbidden) in the Qur' an and the Sunnah re,spect.1:vely
_, is permissible. Therefore, Ibn J:Iazm argues, any l;lukm (legal
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judgement) which iS,not based on but is the product of
qiyas (analogy), i8 an innovation in religion. Moreover,
, Ibn J:Iazm denies the existRnce of 'illah (caupe) for' the issue
of laws in religio,n. AIl these points will 'be discu8sed in
the second chapter, particularly in relation ta the
school.
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Footnotes
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Mu1).ammad .Abu Zahrah, Ibn 1;f9-zm: Jjayatuh:wa
Ar3.,uh wa Fighuh (Cairo: Dar al-Fikr al-'Arabi, n.d.), pro
J62-J. (Hereafter referred to as Ibn Jjazm).
2 T - -
.'Abd al-Lat1f Shararah, Ibn Jjazm: Ra'id al-Fikr
al-' Ilmi (Beirut: al-r.1aktab al-Tijar'i li :1h ,
wa, al-Nashr wa al-TawzI', n.d.), pp. 6J-76. (Hereafter rr-
ferred to as Ibn Jjazm al-Ra'id). Dr. IbrahIm, Itn
Hazm al-AndalusI: al-Zahiri al-Maws'i (Cairo:
. .
al-Dar li al-Ta'lIf wa al-Tarjamah, n.d.), pp.
180 ff. (Here"after referred to as Ibn Jjazm a,l-f
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lufakkir).
JSunnah li terally "eustom," "use." Aceordillf
to Muslim the Sunnah of the Prophet is his practicE,
including his statements, de'eds, and taeit approvals.
Sunnah also means "meri torious." In order ta make dic,-
tinction between these two' kinds of Sunnah we shall use
in this study the word "Sunnah" wi th a capital "S" to
,
indicate its first meaning, i.e., the of the Prophet.
Ibn Jjazm gives the following of Sunnah: "It lS ,
the sharI'ah (the canonical law of Islam)'itself. Its root-
meaning is 'the aspect and the external appearance of some-
thing al-shay' wa '" He classifies
Sunnah into five categories: far4 (injunction) 1 nadb" (recom-'
mended, which is the synonym of sunnah)" ibaJ:lah (permission),
karahiyah and, tal}rlm (prohibition). Ibn Jja7.m
contends that these five, categories of Sunnah had' been est2t-
lished by, (gad sannah) the Prophet from Allah. Ibn
al-IhJ<::am fi Usl ai-Ahkam, 8 vols. (Caira: Matba'at al-Imam,
--. . .-- . .
n.d.), vol. 1, p. 4J. (The volume number will not be omitte'd,
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eveh though the page numbers are continuous ili these volu'mes.
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HereaCter the book will be referred to as Itkam). In this
definition pf Sunnah Ibn Hazm stresses signification os
laws prescribed by Prophet through his deeds,
and approvals., , which were later ,accepted as legally
precepts. Ibn J:Iazm sometimes mentions Sunan (s inb' Sunnalt)
probably to indicate the of these five
of Sunnah, or as the synonym of tadlths. For other defini-
tions of Sunnah, see below, pp. 118-9, nn.
4 '
Ibn gives the following definition of
" It, is the word-mentioned in the Qur' an - or the
which lega1 judgement of things i8 proven (or reached), 8nd
which is nothing else thn the worcting of the text itself.
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may a1so be applied ta any (every) word quoter]
in the words of the one who uttered i t." Ibn J:Iazm,
ll;kam, vol. 1, p. )9.
5Sa 'Id al-AfghanI in his Book, Ibn '1;Iazm a1-AndalusI.
wa RisoJ atuh fI bayn al-Sahabah (Damascus:
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al-Matl1a'ah al-Hashimlyah. 1359/1940), pp. 9-150. (Hereaf-.
ter rof'erred to as Ibh Hazm'wa Ri8alatuh)l idem, "Ibn Hazrn
fI Siyar allat ( al- '
(DamaGcus, 1J60/1941), 'pp. 400 ff; Roger'Arnaldf:?z" "Ibn HazIrI,"
Encyclopaodia of Islam, 2nd ed. (Leiden: E.J. Brill;, London:
Luzac &eo., 1971), vbl. J, pp. 790:-9. (Hereafterreferred
to as "Ibn 1;Iazm," E. 1. 2) ,
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CHAPTER l
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
.
A. The Background of Ibn
1. A ShortSynoBsis of Ibn Life
Ibn was born in Cordova (Spain) at the end of
Rarnalan 384/7 November 994, at Manta Lisham at th>"
end 'Of Sha'ban 456/15 August 1064. His narne Vias 'AlI inn
j--
'Xon of) ibn Sa'id ibn ibn Ghalib Salih ihn
Khalaf ibn ma'dan ibn Sufyan ibn Yazid. The conversion of'
hi8 anccstor Yazld ta Islam ,dates back ta the time'of the
second caliph, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab. He was a Persian client
of Yazid (the eIder brother of MU'awiyah) ibn AbI
Sufyan. With the establishment of the Umayyad caliphatc ln
Andaiusia (Muslim Spaln), Khalaf, one of the greot
[,rand-f8lhers of Ibn moved ta that country with the
Uml.yya<l household, and settied at Manta Lisham. Later, SeP Irl-,
the of Ibn settled ln Cordova, wherp Ibn
1 - 2 - !,
Vazrn born. Ibn agnornen (kunyatuhu) - Vias Abu
Mul;ammad, but he was well-known (shuhratuh) as Ibn Hazrn.
'Ibn 1;lazrn was raisd in a prosperous and respected
family in Cordova. His distant great great
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hld been Umayyad po.rtisans, the rulers in their tImes. Hlo;
flther Ahmad was vizier to ibn AbI 'A.mIr und to
,his Gan <1l-I/Iu zaf far. He learned hlndwrl ting, W<1S tau[ht n'I
momoriwd the Qur' an and many poems by the women--maidr:; an,j
relatives--in his !Jouse. Ho admitted that the suspiciaus ChJl':"'-
tor of thooe women had, ta sornE"' extent, influencocl him. He vms :,u 1'1-
cious of his appanents in ceneral, especially thos0 who nt-
tlcbc'd bis views. 'l'his might. bo one of the C<1uces or UI'
antipathy that existed between Ibn Ho.zm o.nd the 'ulamil' al
tIme. This 0.130 m1Cht be one of the re<1sons for his leavlll
Jlalltics ta wrlte lnd to tf.:ach
This early phase a f Ibn l;iazm' G" life lactc,d until Jtr>
reached the <1ge of fourteen, when disturb<1nc8s
thr; country. Thore was civil Wlr, a stru/:':f-le for power l'''-
tween Andllusians, and SJavG which start0d in
1008. The? Umayyad caliph Hi:ilham II al-Mu' ayyid bi-Allah \"rlf;
only a nine year boy. The power was in the hands of l;iajlh
ul-fIlans0r ibn Abi 'Amir ta wl10m Ibn Hazm's father Ahmad t)r.-
. "'....,
Li-
corne the V1ZIer. Ibn s family compelleri ta mo'!!'
wcstword for safety, and they moved ta their houGe at
MuC;hi th. Hisham II was overthrown and replaced by
II al-M3.hdi. Ibn tIazm's father, AJ:tmad, who had plotted
3.gainst the Slavs ,'"was imprisoned, and his possssions V/pre,
confiscatcd the Slav general Although MuJ;lammad Il
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al-Mahdi was later assassinated and Hisham II retained lus
throne, it did not affect the fate of A J:un ad , who died in
1012, A year later, another disaster happened to Ibn Hazm,
The hous8 of hlS famlly at 13al8.1 Mughi th was dpstroyed by Hf'
Berbers, In the next year, (404/1013-4) Ibn Hazm refur
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in Almeria', He was then a young man of twenty, Thr8C
being suspected of making pro-Umayyad propaganda, he
,
f's jmprisoned wi th his friend Mul;tamm.ad ibn Isl)aq by the gov-
prnor of Lhe city Almeria, Khayrn, Khayran snd hi::; Cl Il 'f ,
'1\11 ibn l}ammd, had successfully overthrown the UmaYyrHl
cal iph, Sul ayman.5
Wi th hi::; friend ibn Ibn l;lClzm then
went to a town called A few months later
learned thrr t'Abd al-RaJ;tman IV al-l\1urtaHi, the lImtyyad. c.l J m-
o.nt to the caliphatc, had been proclaimed caliph of Valencirr,
and W3i; raising an anny against the Berbers in Cordov3, fi":,
0-'pro-Umayyad, Ibn Hazm and his i'riend fv1u)ammad lbn 13Q3.q
went Lo Valencia by sea and jo ined the apny of
Al-MurtfLla appo inted Ibn as his vizier, The ar.my m;lrch-
cd tow,lrds Granada, In the battle that ensued lletween zll-
-,
;U1lly and that of the Berbers, Ibn'1;!azm \Vas taken
prison(1[' and ther: released',
6,
In Ibn Hazm returned to Cordova, The calirh
t \ tha t time Vfas al'-Qas im ibn 1;!ammd, who was blcked by the
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Berbers. When he was overthrown by "Abd al-RaIjman V a1-
bi-Allah in 414/1023 Ibn was appointed a v.i,
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zier. Unfortunate1y for Ibn al-Mustazhir W[1;, murderprj
'''f\l"''r
seven weeks later, and he was agair
In 418/1027, at the age of thirty-four, Ibn Ijazm :11'-
peared at Jativa. He later became vizier again under Hish8m
III al-Mu'tadd bi-Allah. But when the caliphate l08t
its power for ever,in Andalusia in 422/1031 with the ass8ssi-
nation of Hishm III Ibn ijazm turned books and
t h
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eac Ing re l[;lon. He remained occupied with Lhi:::; work, d,-
fending hlS 0ahiri school and the Umayyad claim [gr the ca-
liphatc, and attacking his opponents in his writinfs and
teachings, for the rest of his life. More th an thirty
la ter, Ibn Hazm died a t the age of seventy-two in 56/1061}
at hic ancestral village Manta Lisham.
9
\ .
2. Ibn Contact with Religious Scholars
Ibn l}azm bcgan studying the rcligious sciences ai, [lll
early Fl,g8. He st'4died 1jadI th (Prophetie Tradi tian) 10 befa n'
"
he reached the age of seventeen. He used ta attond the S0S-
sions of the 'ulama', accornpanied by his tutor, J\b
l
'bn 'AITI al-F;r'l'sT
l
.l1
u Sinee Ibn lived in AndaluSla wher
p
the Miliki school was dominant, it was a matter of course
that he learned the figh (jurisprudence) of the f.1aliki school.
,.
1
11
He -studied Malik 1 s al-Muwa' H,' under 'Abd Allah il:]n Yal;tya
ibn a MalikI jurist in Cordova. Ibn Hazm aiso
1
figh',from the (judg.e) of Valencia, Ibn al-!'ardi.
12
. Ibn J:[azm was a truth seeker. He was not satisfied
with the ,teachings qf Malik. We are told that Ibn Hazm said
,
that he loved Malik, but he Ioved truth more. This may indl-
cate that Ibn Hazm had read al-Shafi'i's criticism af Malik.
Gradually, Ibn began ta lean towards the Shafi'i school,
until finally he a ttached himself to the Shaf i' i schooL 13 Henc8,
"
he began differ from the people of Andalusia in generRl
and their 'ulama' in particular.
Ta increase his knowledge of Islamic law, Ibn
read books written by Bcholars of different schools. He
, \
the book of Ibn Umayyah, a Shafi'i jurist, on laws of the
Qur'8n (!lI.d.m al-Qur' an) , and the Qur'anic exef)esis (tafsir
al-Qu r' an) 0 f Al 'Abd al-RaJ:lman Baqi ibn MukhIad, an 'aiim
,
Ca. learned mal1, k scholar( who did not attach himself ta any
madhhau (::choQl of law). This Qur' anie exegesis V/as
ered l)y Hm Hazm as the best of i ts kind. Ibn l,lazm also
the Zilltld book on laws of the Qur'an a ZahirI :gill, Ah
Mundhir ibn Sa' Id, and studied Zahiri 1 iqh under Ut"
jurist Ab Mas 'd ibn Sulayman ibn Mufli t. 1 il
Through further reading found himself lean-
i,ng towards figh based explici tly on tpe Qur' an and' the Sun-

l
i
1
,
1

....
!
12
! '
nah, which was also the figh of the school. Later on,
Ibn I:fazm became a reviving a vanisheq school founderl
by Ab Sulayman Dawd\in Iraq abput two centuries\before him,
By sa doing, Ibn Hazm became a jurist who did not share the
opinion of th-e 'ulama' 'in his time inside and outs'ide hf3

co
untry.1
5
As a jurist, Ibn Hazm was opposed by the
.:
in his time. His opponents at the theor:etical level were the
1;Ianafls, and ta a_ lesser degree, the Shafi' ls. This is becluse
tJ
he attacked the 1;Ianafls' upholding of qiyas and istiJ:lsan (prpf-
erence, applicat ion of discretion in a legal jUdgement) 1S the
bases of the shari'ah (the canonical law of Islam) in addition
.
ta an and the l;iadi th, and the shiifi' ls' Clssertion 0 f
qiyas. In theoretical and practical levels, his
were t e Malikis, the fo.llowers of the prevalent madhhab in
'" 16
Andalusia of his time. lVloreover, he denounced his opPQnents,'-
for their f911.owing their imams (leaders), "the founders ,of
, their sChoS1s, ty instead of the Qur' an and the 1;12:-
dl th. Ye t', he praised flnd prayed for these imams 0 f madhhats
'in his writings, though he attacked them on sorne
He said:;:

li t be' knov:,n that anyone who accepts as authori-
tatlve (qallada), adheres ta, or f,ollows r,1alik,
Ab Hanlfah, al-S afi'I, Sufyan, al-Awza'i, A0md ,
and Dawd; may Al ah be pleased wi th them,
they are innocent from him (mubri' na minhu) in
..
( .
,
, 1
,
( ;
1
"
, ....

1

t
i'\
, , ....
"
13
this the hereafter, and Day of Judgement where
wri tten certification be,came manifested (yavnn yaqm al-
, -) 17 '
lshhad .
Ibn was a notorious He attacked who-
,
ever disagreed him. He was accused of having an inso-
,
lent tongue (.iarl' al-lisan), and of n,eglecting ta examine
truth Qf the news which rea;hed him.
1B
The historian
- r '
sUl)'1t;l (d. 771/1370) denonced him for attacking Ab al-Hasan al-
Ash'arI (d. 323/935), the founder of the Ash'arI school of
theology.1
9
Ibn IJ;::.'zm asserted in his book tha t A r'll
\
al-IJasan al-Ash 'arI belie'{ed that Iman\ (fai th ,- belief) was
1 e xclusi ve-J-y knowing Allah wi th ono' s heart (ma' r ifa t Allah rI
cll-galb fagat)) though one expressed his being a Jew, a Chris-
t
' ' h k ' d f ' f' dl' t 2
0
lb , l -- l
lan, or any ot er ln a ln 1 e 1 y. n .IJ,azm s a -""a!?:...
,
was, consiq.ered by al-SubkI as one of the worst books which
should not be re,ad by peopl'e, due' to ts contempt of the main
..
. body of Muslims (ahl al-Sunnah), and i ts referring foolish words
to their 'leaders wi thout any examination. Ibn IJazm' s rash-
ness in'be1ieving the reports which reached him and his im-
mediate denunciation was one of many reasons for hls expul-
, .'
sion frbm his village by Ab al-Walld al-Baji and his fe1-
lows,21 with whom Ibn Hazm had held a debate.
22
.
Ihn J:fazm attacked his opponents 50 s,everely that his
language waq compared ta the sword of al-J:fajjaj.2
J
However, Ibn was not totally wrong in his
1\
.

1
}
,\
:
<
f'
i
.'
k

<-
i
' .
...
14
O.A. Farrukh said abot him as follows:
Ibn ijazm was a polemist by nature, and often right in
his contentions. . .. Yet, he ta blame for the
harsh language lie useq in his attacks on aIl religions \.
, . ,
and sects indiscriminately. On some occasions he at-
tacked even some of those who share. vfi th him the same
, 24
was often right in his contentions, he was
unable t his opponents and to bring them to his
,
side . teacnings' remained unpopular in his time.
are told that his writings were sufficient be a heavy
cam'el load (wigr ba'Ir) ,26 but most of them' did no't go be-
l'
-yond the gte 'of his village Lab+ah, due ta t0e aversion of
,the fugaha: (jurisprudents) towards them. Some of these
\
writings were burned and torn to pieces at Seville.
27
,
As a polemic writer who was defending his views,
, .
Ibn I;{azm often did not mention his ,opponents\ by name, but
rather the school to whic\1 they belonged'; Because either he
1
did not know their names, or when he did he was more- con-
cerned with refuting their
A 1'.
Moreover, sorne of/the
. '
contenti,ons were merely sUPP9si tions raisd and answered
Ibn himself.
28
\ - 1
1
As a who had studid the' difierent schools
t
4 and sects of ISlam, Ibn l;1azm' came to conclusion that, the
, 1
, ,
, 1
J
.'
..
. ,
,
)
t
<.
, ,
\
"
15 .
true school was the while the other schools were/false ,29
In his assertions, he never doubted the truth of his views
and the falsehood of that of his opponents. This attitude
was in contrast to that of other scholars who doubted the'
truth of,their views and the of their opponents.
JO
Moreover, Ibn J:Iazm 1 s fanatic1sm wi th r(i!spect to his own views
- 1
prevented him. from changing his and this diminished
his sinceri ty in seki'ng truth!l For hiIh, hoiding any drs:"
cussion or debate was merely a means to prove ,the truth' of
his views and the falsity of 'hat of His opponents, and not
a means of raching the truth.
J2
Ibn J:Iazm's fanaticism regarding his schDol
did not change his pro-Umayyad attitude. On the
through his orientation, he continued to struggle' for
the return,of the Umayyad caliphate. So, .ffi.lthough he left
politics in his late thirties, he did,Dot altogether abandon
it. According to 'Abd al-Lat1f Shararah, Ibn never
left poli tics after he became a vizier 1 of
Shararah says:
The whlch was not noted by tt:ose who wrote the
biography of Ibn and by those who spoke and
him later, waJ that Ibn did not leave
poli1tics a:(ter he became the vizier of al-Mustazhir .
l "
He did not stop thlnking :of it one,day, and he never
cl(ilased to hope. for the return of his family to i t, if
"
,
)
, ,
; .
: .
l'
!
1 .
f
1
1
i
( )
\.
16
\.
not himself, and particularly under the sovereignty
of the Umayyad throne.
J
)
In Shararah's view, Ibn choice of figh as his field of
work was because he intended "to bring back a dynasty af-
flicted with destruction (i'adat dawlah al-inhiya.r)J4
thrpugh moral soc ial consciousness (wa' y i,jtima' l akhlag i) .
Shararah further maintains that Ibn believed that the
weakness of the Umayyad dynasty was due to "terrifying moral
,
disintegration and obvious intellectual deviation, then the
, . ,
)
"'1 invented views and interpretations ,imposed on the an and
l' fi
the HadIth, and lastly, the controversy amohg religions,
se.cts, and fai ths. ,,).5 . ifJ
.(.)
Ibn cOndemns mystics and asserts that religion
has no inner meaning or secret. He maintains that the
had neveroconcealed a single of the shari'ah to the
people. There was never a single person among those who \'lare
close to the Prophet--as a a daughter, an uncle, a
cousin, or a !?.:.l)abI (a companion of the Prophet)--who ever
'. '. 36 b
what pe or she recelved from hlm. l n re-
the opinion of his opponents that al-rasikhn fi al-
, 'ilm (tholOie firmly established 1 in know the ta'-
'. \
wII (interpretation',' inner meaning)' of the, mutashab'ihat
biguous verses) in the Qur' an. They,'base their. view on the
l ,
Qur'arric verse which they choose to read in the following
"
,"
(\
Il
"
"
"
r
"
wy:
17
"
: l' none knoweth i ts explanation sfve Allah and
those who are of sound instruction. T ey say: we
Je
believe therein, the whole is from Lord ...
1
Ibn ijazm refutes their interpreta by the follow-
ing arguments: a} the word "those ... ho a e of sound inst,ruc-
tion" is not connected, to the word "allah" by
his opponents, but ratber it ie the sUbject of a new.sen-
,j.
tence. The !:@. in th,is verse jo ins two SPIl-
tences instead of two nouns.' The translation of the
readint; of this y,--et'se as maintained 'by Ibn 1;Iazm as, weIl as
/
the 'ulama' e

is the following:
He i t is hath revealed unto thee ,(Muhammad) the
Scripture wherein ar clear are
subf?tance of the Book--and othrs (which are) allegor-
tcal. But those in whose hearts is doubt for-'
, ,
sooth, that which is allegorical seeking (ta cause) dis-
sension by seeking to explain, i t. None knoweth .i ts
explanation save Allah. And those who are of sound
say: believe the whole' is from
39 '
our Lord'; but only'men of understanding really heed. ' ,
\
b) prohibited people from seeking thE ta'wil oJ the
\\
mutashabihat, thax those who and followjts
ta'wil are doubters and of fitnah (dissension);
\
c) If al-rasikhn fI'al-film \had known its ta'wil, they
L
. ,
"
. .;
)
f
, 1
1
1
(
18
would, have expla'ined i t to the people, because they are
joined by Allah to do so. Ibn refers to the verse:
1
en-
Those who hide the proofs and the ,guidance which We
revealed, after We had made it clear in Scripture:
such are accursed of Allah and accursed of'those who
r 40
have the power to curse.
If they,explained it tothepeople, Ibn 1jazm goeson to say,
it would not be ambrguous any longer, so that aIl people
1 \
would have the same knowledge .. Yet, this is not the
case, as mentioned in the verse in question. Should they.
\
conceal it, on the other hand, they would be cursed by Allah;
a) 'A'ishah reported that the Prophet, after reading the
vers in question, said:
If you see people who follow what i8 ambiguous [in. t[le
Qur' an] , they are trrose whom Allah called 'such [i.e.,
those in whose heart i8 doubtJ. Therefore, beware of
them.
41
According to Shararah and Farrukh the emergence of
the school in Iraq iR the century may
n
. be trac,ed. to a reaction to the f"llowing movements: the
Isma'illyah and the\ The Isma'illyah was an
esoteric movement among the shi (an which appears in
,
the second/e'ighth century. The members of this movement
called themselves Isma'Iliyah, they separated them-
\ ,
..
(
19
.' .
\
selves from. the Twelver shI 'ah in considering Isma'il (d. 14-6/
762), the eldest son of Ja'far (d. 148/765), the
sixth imam, as their imam, insteac}, of Msa {d. 183/ (
. ,
799) the seventh imam of the Twelver shI 'ah. This movement
had many nicknames. In Iraq it was al-Batiniyah (the
BtinIs), al-Qaramitah (the Qarrnatians), and al-MazdakIyah
,( the MazdakIs). In Khurasan i t was called al-Ta' IlmIyah (th!?
Ta' limIs), and al-Mull;dah (the Mull)idls). It was most Vlide-
ly known as (seekers ofthe inner or spiritual
meaning of the pe?ause they asserted,that every
(apparent state of a thing) had a bat in inner or secret
.
One example of this inner meaning was their state-
ment that i8 neither existent nor
knowing nor ignorant, because, intheir view, actual.affirm-.
atiofl, of the attributes of like Existence, Knowing and.
sa on, were shared by.other existing things, and this was
'tashblh of Allah). Therefore{ they ct.i ct
not base their 'judgement about Allah' s attributes
affirmation or absolute negation, but rather between the two.
They said that Allah was the Gad of two opposite thing?, thp
\ .
. Creator of two adversaries, and the Judge between tWo contra-
,
dictory things tilah al-mutagabilayn.wa khalig
wa al-l)akim bayn al-mutagadnayn).43 According to the Bati-
o
nlyah every Verse of the Qur'an,'not only the mutashabihat,
1
(
1
20
but even any abject, act, or person in it bas an inner mean-
t ,
ing. This inner meaning should not be imparted to the 'awarnm
(laymen), lest it would be misunderstood by thern. It shaulcl
be kept by the who know this inner
meaning) To a lesser degree, beside the
lIyah, _the terIn "batinlyah" was 'also applied by SunnI wri tel"S
..
ta those who, in their opinion, rejected the literaI meaning
f th
f f t \ 44
o e ln avour 0 l S lnner meanlng.
Anqther movement which the school was partly
a reaction against, was the Mu' tazilI theological school
which emerged in the beginning of the second! eighth centuryo
This school applied reason'and philosophy in ,
the instead of referring to its traditional
tion.
45
They called themselves ahl al-'adl wa al-tawhld

(the c'hampians of ivine Justice and Oneness) for their re-
jection of the doctrine of Divine predestination and His at-
1
\ tributes. 46 This Mu 'tazili school was adopted by al-Ma'mLm
as the official doctrine of the state.
, 0
In 'the third/ ninth century Dawd founded his
school in Iraq to counteract the Ba!inlyah, the Mu'tazilah,
and those who went beyond the traditional interpretation of
'the This school insisted on the, li taraI mean-;;-,
ing of the and keep,ing away from any interpretat'ion of
t 47
l
(
4

21
Al though the ZaJiiri school was in tl'\f'
1
and was replaced by the school in th,::; firth/
elr:!vl?nth cr:!ntury, Ibn t[azm revived it ln Andalu::na aS8 t',,-
actIon a[ainst the corruption in polltical and judlcial
l'.LCdds. The was violated and interpreted beyond i
"
, -
truc meaning. Qiyas, personal opinion, and biased
(al-ra taw3. al-mufhricfah) were being exerclsed. Ibn Hazm
was aware of how the people of Andalusia agreed ond pIed ,,1
aIleC;lance to Hisham Il al-Mu'ayyid bi-Allah in 365/976,
V/lio wos still a boy of nine ,years.
48
'Hc hoV/ V(II']')
in J99/1009 lgreed to transfer the offlce of the Caliph Il)
the non-Qurayshi' Abd b.l-RaJ:lman ibn [11an:,?ur al-' Amiri, wh il"
the Prophet had(decroed that the had tn
... -..,. ,,1
be Quraysh. 49 He realized that :,',-;1 thi:o poli
1rl,3LauiJ i ty and lo[,al coni'ur31on occurred as the outcome l'
. 1
applyin[, ta' wil, q iyas, (personal o,plnion) 1 and othi'j'
exc(!SSC s .ln the ma tters of sharI'ah. In his Vi8W 1 the Bah
remedy [or thlS corruPtion\was ta bring people 'back to' th0
Qur"iln and the tachings of the Prophet. He maintains thiJ t tl.';
Qur' [in iG clear, whi+e wha t i8 implied in beneral me .. (mu ,ll!l'l l) lS
(
explained by other verses and by the Prophet himself. '.J!t;lt-
ever Allah and the Prophet did not pronounce upon 18 per-
missible (mubal;l). This view of Ibn in upholdl:ng wh;-ti;
is apparent in the beyond it i8 purely
(
1
22
in nature. In other words, the was
seen by Ibn J:fazm to be the only solution fo r sav ing Andalus 1'1
\
from corruption and destruction". This i8 the reQson for !Li
strong attachrncnt ta this Bchool.
Ibn J:fazm's motive for reviving and
hirl school was both poli tical and religious. However, ln thn
second half of his life he confined himself to re,lig'iou8 ::11';-
tivity, for politicG was closely related to religion. Tho
,
es tilbllshmE}nt of the Islamlc society and the appointment oi'
:-ln imum who se du ty was to pro tec t Islam and to ::lpply i ts
teachings ln a11 of its aspectswere parts of reliion. Tr<'cli-
in: the 08.hirl figh to JVluslims and thej r leaders VIas :11f;O
polltic:: activity, becapse through this teach,in/:, they]:;'?-
\
came [uirled and controlled. They would know the ir duties HI
the li{'ht of the charI'ah.
Ilm l;iazm stressed the importance of fiqh tpilcltitl;":
it ta the people, and dedicated his life to thi3 purpose.
He 38.1cl:
. . . . And as WG are that the world if: no t an
pvrrlnsting abode, but an hbode of trial and testil"w
ami ;-) passing way (ma.ii.z) to the ,abode 0 f e tDrni ty,
;;0 it is true that there i8 no benefit (f;:i'ld::<h) in
this world and of being in it, except [inl kno0ing
what Allah the Almighty ('azza wa Jalla) has ordered
us, teaching it to the ignorant ones (ahl al-jahl),
and acting according to it. ,,50
-- ---
-.,.----,
2J
Ibn emphasizes his belier, not only ln
his thooJoglcal and legal but also in his
ThIS "iG shawn most in the followin[ linos.
A pprson blames me about someone whose beauty has en-
ctwnted me,
1
He prolongs his blame of me for [falling inj'lovp
and says:
'Are you a victlffi of [love on seeing] a face which ShOD0,
Lso thatJ you do not see other (than the face, i.e., th'"
rest of the body),
And you do not know how the body is7'
So, l Gaid to him: 'You have exaggerated in blaming L mn 1
unJustly,
And l have a long answer if you want [it].
Don't you know that l am a
And l [judgel upori what is apparent untll a daili
(proof, evidence) stands [against
Ip propaGating and defending the ?ahil'l vipw, Hm 1
rela.tion WI th other 'ulama' wes not amicable. His
schaol WRS cons idered intruding and shadhdh ,52 for
it was the revivai of a vaniehed school among people who hoJ
{"'"> '
already followed the school. His books destroy-
cd, bu rned, or forbidden to be read by common ,People, 'due tr
JUS attn.ck on leadlng sCholars, like Ab al-Ash' rtel.
Ibn on his side; attacked and them for their
following their imams instead of the Qur'an and the Sunnah .
.
,
"
....
(
..
----------- "..----
, ,
24
B. The Problem of the Definitions
and the Occurrence of
1. The DefInitions of
l is by Muslims, as the third ,source
of Islamic jurisprudence. However, Muslim jurists do not
agree 'i\ wha t i jma' is. ;hey gi ve different de fini tio ns
and inte\preta1tions of _
root meaning of i,jma' 13: "ta collect, "to brin!;
together,:' and "to draw together." A,jma'tu al-na}lb means
"1 collected the carnels together ,(taken ao booty)." The
Arabie idiom falat ma,ima'ah (mu,imi'ah or mU,Jarnml'ah) mearls
"an open Eround where people assembled fearing to be lost or
[from] ot'her [danger] ... 53
Ana ther root ffieanIng of 18
"ta Ajma'tu al-amr means "1 dpclde (dptermine) U!lOIl
1
the affoir." It is in this meaning that li is men"tioned in
the QUI" an: fa a,imi ' amrakum, which means/" so clecj de upon
your 1 course of action .'" 54 The Proppet al/0 meant this roo t
../
meaninG of i,ima' when he said that fasti was no t lega l .fn l'
one who h"d not decided (yu,imi') ta ras
r, ['
the ni:-h t before. - .
Another root meaning of irjma' 's: "to 8{ ree uponr"
It i8 an agreement between two or more) persons.
56
rrechnically, there are many deifinitions given by
Muslim jurists, based on their conceptions about.it. In
, .
1
'rt_ ft
f
\
25
this section we shall de al with Ibn definition of
ijma' and that of bis opponents among the majority of juris-ts,
as weIl as that of (d. froIT,l the Mu'tazilI
theological school and (d. 460/1068) among the
sect.
Ibn Hazm gives the following defini tian of i,ima':
I,irn8.' which is based or! };lU,jjah (proof) ln the sharI'ah
ls the matter rn which there is conviction that aIl ,the
may Allah be pleased with them, asserted and
adhered to from the.ir Prophet [MuJ:tammad], -peace be upon
hlm.
57
What Ibn by thiS ?efinition is that ijrna' is ex-
the unanimity of the whole Muslim community (laymp 1
as weIl as jurists) on what the ved and wi tne fo,:' d
fJorn the 'proPhet. In words, i tt is i,jma' based on
t ansmiss ion (i,ima' nag Il) .5
8
Ibn maintains tha t the n'
i no l.illlo.' in religion other than this i,ima,,59
In another' version of his 'defini tlCln of ljma', Ibn
zm elaborates his view as follows:
I.imi' is what is known and asserted with conviction
by 811 the of Messenger of Allah, and none
them disagreed. It is like our certainty that they
prayed with h,im1the prayers, as they [Le.,
the prayers] are in number of their ru](' (bowinf)
and sujijd (prostration), or that they knew that
,
..
-,- -
1
j
l'
(
-
1
26
"
prayed with people; likeWite 18 that aIl of them [i.e.,
the fasted wi h 'hl in [the mont.0 01'] Ramaq.ii.n
,in the city [of fnadlnah] fI and so are tho
rest of the shara'i' (sing. cananionl laws of
with similar certainty. He who does
not affirm them [i.e., the 8har'i'J i8 not arnong the
believers. This i8 ,what_ nobody di8agreed on i ts being
ijm'. They [i.e., the were at that time tt
whole bellevers. There were no be1ievers on earth
other than they. Whoeyer claims that ather' than this ie
irima', he has ,to prove what he c1aims (kullii'a al-burh3n
'aH. ma yadda' 1); and there is no way [for to [do'j
it.
60
i (
From these two d-efini tions of ijm' given by Ibn
we can
4
draw the following conclusions: a) I,jma' is the
unanimity of the on what they saw, heard, knew, and
received with certainty from the Prophet. It i8 the Sun-.
nah i tself. 61 b) What had unanimously agreecl
upon ,8h01110. also be accepted by aIl Muslims in later genera- ,l,
tions in arder for. them to remain
i
c) Ibn Hazm '
i
insisi.ed on the unanimi ty of aIl Muslims (jurists as w.ell as
laymen) in the occurrence of ijma'. Aq the time of .the
,bnh was the only time 8ccepted by Ibn J:fazm for the lccurrenc,e
of ijmo.', and as they comprised the totali ty of rvluslims at ;
that time, their unanimity,'which was the total ijma', occu:f-
red.
6J
d) Matters agreed upon by the are
\>
known by them. There 18 no Toom for doubt in thls matter.
64
.'
,1
1
l
1
1
(
\
. '
27
In \the foreging definitions ?f i,jma' Ibn J:fazm te!'.r!?
us one type of i,jm.', i.e., the li,jma' \of the 65 Ho'!,'-
ever, he mentioned two types of i,jma' in other places 'in hlS
\
writings. The first one is as follows:

It is everything which no Muslim doubts that whoever
l ,
does not assert it is not a Muslim, like: bearing wit-
ness that there is no go d but and tha t fflul)ammad
is the messenger of Allah, the injunction of the five-
prayers, the fasting in
l
the month"'of Ramadan,
prohibition against [eating] corpse, blood, or pork,
'the the Qur'an [as revelation], and the
zakah (alms tak) iQ general '(jumlat al-zakah). These
, ,
are ma tters whl"ch when they come to- 1 s ars and
he does not affirm them, he is not a Muslim. If it i3
so, then everyone who affirms them is a Muslim, So 1 i t
is true that they are ijma' of the whole followers of'
66
, Islam.
, '
This type of ijma' involves i'tigadat (articles of religious
-
fai th or practice) Which should be accepted bY. fduslims, and
, 67
things known by necessity (al-ma'lm bi These
re matters reported by Muslims' from the Prophet and trans-
mi tted by them l'rom one generation (:i. e. , of the 9!l08b811)
\
to another until the present.
,
The other type of- i .r:n' asserted by' Ibn HazI1 is as
follows:
,
It is something deed of the Messenger of Allah

\
\ ..... ..-.
1
" ,
(-
, ,
, .
"
. (
28
; :
1,\ 1"
h '. _ !'C. 1
(peace be upon him) , wi tnessed by"all qf the
may Allah be. pleased with them', "or known wi th convic-
tion by everyone of them, who was absent from him,
like: his deed at Khaybr, where he gave it li.e."
1
the land'of Khaybar], ta the Jews [ta be cultivated]
w,i th [the candi ta give the Prophet and the Mus-
1
lims] half of i-t's crops or, dates; the lVIuslims were ta
ve them DY. e., the Ji'VlS from 'the land of
whenever they wanted [tado soJ. There lS no dobt
,for everyo'ne about this [fRet], tha,t there would be
no Musl'lm left in lVIadlnah who had not wi tnessed i t, or
68
it reached him. This happened ta a group, of women,
children, and weak people. There would be no Muslim
left in Makkah and the remote land' (al-bilad al-
,
pa'iyah) who' hadnot known and spread it out (sarra-
bah). However. this kind of i,ima' was challe0ged by
(khalafah)P a group of people after 'the time of the
may Allah be pleased with them, de ta their,
misgivings [despite] their ,intention towards good
"1
(al-khayr), and due to their mistake in their exercising
i,itihad judgement.in a legal quest{on,
based upon the interpretatian and of thi
-, - ) 69
Qur' an and the, Sunnah ".
'<This type of i\ima' is not sa strong as the first o,ne, for'.
it is liable ta qe challenged and sorne people
,
.after the time of 'the dUe ta their lack of inform-
ation, or their wrong judgement drawn from their
i
However', this l.jma' was adhered ta by all of the
majority of people later generations, is
called ijma' of the
l
,
1
,! '
1
,
'ri

1
,
t

1
1
1

/' . ,
,
f'
'<ct>
,
1
1
,
1
"
'('{" 1
f1,
:
j
'1
,i
l,
1
1
f
"
l

,
( )
,
r
,

f
i
t
,
29
Although ,this ijma' is liable to be challenged by
- . '
1ater generations, this challenge will affect i ts posi-
tion as jma', because the challenger is not a
1!l
Otherwise" if the 'challenger is a his challenge
\
will be regarded, 'and the i.ma' will be' invalfd,
" '
lacks the' unanimi ty of the 'is one 'o,f i'1}the '.
COhdrtolons of i,jma'. lard down by Ibn' 'Jjazm. 70
We should bear in mind that the ijma' recognized
and adhered to by'Ibn and the schoo1 is the
ijma' of the 'in its broad meaning.
\
It comprises
the two types of ijma' we are dea1ing with, because both
:::: i:::
U
:::n::: t::
O
p:: ::e
This unanimi ty ,Of the Ijccurr,ed after the dea th 0 f
the Prophet upon the legal -julgement 0 f a certain issu'e they
. /
, ,-,/ 71 '
had received from the Prophet. Both types involve all
Muslims. The first involves the. and a11 Muslims in
al1 times in later ge.nerations. The second type, or thje
i,jma' ,of the in its narrow mean'ing,
sahabah who were all in their time .
. -.--,-
of ijma', the of
'the fugaha' assrt that i,jm'a' is the agree-
ment of a11 mu.itahidin, (sing. mu,jtahidl legists Vi ho' exe;rcise
i ,jtih.d) of the Muslim cOIT1Il}uni ty in a .particular time Oh the
. \
0
"
1
1
i
\ '
1
l,
. \
"
-
"
,
i
t

1
1
l ,
JO
legal jUdgement of\a particulr issue based on ijtihad
Jo.
after the of the Prorhet.72 TheY'also maintain that
ti1e occurrence of ijma' shotIld be in a particular time\ af-
the death of the Prophet, including the time of the
It is because they assert the impossibili of
the occurrence of the agreement of all Muslims in all
times (except on day of Resurrection where al1 people y
\'(ill gathrr and where i.ima' will r not be needed):
But like 'Ibn IJazm, they ma,intain that i,ima' during the time
'."f the Prophet was not needed", because the Prophet himself'
lWas the authority.7'J 'Ijma' which ls the product of ijtihad
...
as advocated by the majority of 'ulama' is not accepted by
'Ibn IJazm, 'because i,jtihad i8 falllble. 74-
The iirst event'which was later considered by Mus-
lim jurists as i,jma' based J q iyas is the e'lection of Ab'
Bakr as Caliph. As the Prophet had appointed to }ead
u the prayer during his '(the Prophet' s) illnes be fore his
0

./
. .
death, 'Umar nominated him to lead the community as Caliph._
This proposaI was accepted by the people, and Abu Bakr be-
"
came Caliph.
75
If>.
Ibn
counters this Vlew and maintains ,that the
\
succession of Abu Bakr was based on He cites two
l}adlths '1 'rach wi th'two sanads (chains. of narration). C)ne
of these l}adiths was reported 'by 'A'ishah, and the other
n'
.. ,
"
\ \
,
,\ '
o
..
,
.
,
i


".,
1
( \
, '
rtJ);
v 0
V
,
'-.
'.
,yi )1
. ,
1('
following of i,ima': "It is every author:,it.ativ;e
" 1
, r, .. '->/
statement ,. even of a single person' (kuliu q"awlin gmat
QU,j ,iatuh tlatt gawl al-wal)id)." 79 The example of i,ima'
as reportedly given by al-Nazzam himself is that if a per-
I
son is by a hause 1 sees the washing Df a
,
dead persan (athar ghusl al-mayiit), and hears an old woman
caming out of the house saying that so-apd-so {Julan) has
,died, this news, (report) is accepted as authoritative, and
I;J
th f
.. - 80
e re 0 re. as l Jma' .
A
seems to be contradictipg himself when
he re jects the authori ty of i.ima', while 'at the same time
he emphasizes its authority. ,But he means is that he
\ ".
is rejecting the authority of the ijma' maintained by the
majori ty of 'ulama', because i t is based on the l,r ijtihad
which ls, as mentioned before, fallible. In this case, his
81
vi,ew is parallel to that of Ibn 1;Iazm. On the other hand.,
emphasisJ2n the autharity a! ijma' indicates
nis skepticism on the occurrence af ijma' not based on an
autharitative statement. This statement, as we have seen
in the above example r. is what is known by necess i ty. Here,
again, has similar views w1th that of Ibn 1;Iazm.
Both and Ibn reject qiyas. However, al-
.
NaHam differs from/Ibn Ijazm by asserting that the
, ,
o ment of he infallible imam (gawl al-imam 'al-ma'l?m) is
Ir
(
,. )',
t-
32.
b
.. h 82\ B t f lb H th 1 th' f
a jUJ,]a . u \ or: n .azm, e on y au orlty a ter
the Qur'n is that of the Prophet.
There is an lndication that accepts the.
ijma' of the by as it is based
,.on !l:.!?9 Al-NaHam cctnsiders the ijma' of the on
the penal law of. an intoxicant drinker eighty lashes)!
as an error, for he asserts that the consideration should
be taken naf?9 and the tawgif (the teachings of the
ProPllEft), i.e., f.orty lashes.
8
] That may meah. that al-
accepts the ijma' of the based on as
valid and sound, while ijma' based on qiyasis rejected by
him. This is because, llke Ibn he rejects giys. In
, 1
this case has same view as Ibn
concerning' the ijma' of the
Acc,?rding ta al-rusI, the i,jma' of the ummah (MusLi.m
communi ty) is 'right and' jah, because the opinion of
'infallible imam must be included in this i,jma', It is be-
cause, al-Tsi'contends, there is not a single period of
c \
time which is fFee ,from an infallible imam who preserves,
the sharI'ah. The opinion 'of this imam is 0u,i.iah ta which
Muslims should return, just as they did with that of the
Prophet. An opponent may argue that the opinion of the imam
,
might b'e excluded from this i.jma'.
C _ T
Ta this, asserts
that whenever the opinion of the is supposed to be iso-
\
1 -
1
i
(
.
(
1
l-
i
t
l
lated .from i,jma", then this ijma' is not i,jma' at all, be-
l
cause of the absence of unanimity which is for the'
. ,', - 84
occurrence of IJma'.
What the o'f i,jma' and maintaining
that it is l)ujjah? According to al-Tsi, i,]ma' i8 a me ans
to kno'w the opinion of the imam which i8 often How-
ever, when the opinion of the imam is known, 'i t is accepted
as while others are disregarded. Ijma' is Qu,jjah
because i t embodies the opinion of the imam which is i tseli'
h
.. h 85
u,],] a
The i,ima' meant' by al,-'rsi is the unanimi ty of the
'ulama' of the shI 'ah sect. It is because, in al-'rsi's
view, the opinion of the infallible imam will be identical
with the frs. Should they disagree' upon the iegal .judgemnt
of a certain issue ,and divide themselves into two groups,
al-}si asserts that the opinion of the imam can still be
i
known. It is by f[nding any dalalah (indication) from the
1 .
Qur'an or a decislve Sunnah {sunnah maq!-' biha) which de-
notes the rightnels of one group among them. Once this
dalalah is found'/ the of the imam becomes known to
1
be w th that of group. Otherwise, if 18,
availabte, the.o Inlon of members of the group who are knovm
l' 1
in person and by lineage is rejected, becaGse'none of them
1
is the hidden
r
1
infallible imm whose opinion should be
,
\
l
1
..
'1
.()
Il
(
accepted. If both groups consist. of known and unknown 'ula-
ma' ',al-1'sI chooses any opinion of the twa, and treats, them
"
like two contradictory khabar, i.e., l)adiths on which no
preponderance i8 known. This aisa indicates the permission
ta choose any o..f the two 'oplions, because the opinion of
,
the imam is not with of the two. Otherwise, the imam
1 --
not remain concealed and silent any Iohger, for he has
\
to reveal himpelf and unfold the truth on the
\
, 86
ed.
concern-
Even thaugh al-Tsi does not give us the definition
of ijma' according,to the Shl'ah sect, the 'definition
red ta this sect i8: "It is the agreement which embodies th"!
o ,
views of the infallible imam and not merely the agreemeni
,the 'ulama' an an opinion. ,,87
Unlike Ibn al-Tsl does not limit the occur-
rence of i,jma' ta a particular time after the dea th of the
Prophet. ,However, he that i,jma' . is not l)u,i,jah pel'
,
...., and that the only i,irna' which iB l)u.i,iah is that of the
'ulama' among the shI' ah sect, because i t embodies the OpHI-
l { ...
ion of the imam. But like Ibn Hazm, he aiso re-
, .
. . - 88
Jects glyas.
, -
AI-Tsi, rejects the opinion of in accept-
ing the authori ty' of a single state,ment accompanied .!Vi th in-
dications of the truth of the ,statement. 0 'He contends that
(
1
1
l
; \
,
, .
,
J5' /
if we see a man tearing his clothes, slapping face (jn
lamentation), and states that the slck man who is with hlm
( h0.8 been dcad, this statement cannat be accepted as sorne th ill/
which oeces:;>i tates kr.lOwing (mjib li 0.1-' ilm). l t is
this man' s actlon can be jus.t pretentlon and was done for
many purposes WhlCh will be discovered later.
89
But al-Tsi
shares the view of in considering the of
.
the inLtlli ble
above.
90
imam 3:s I,tuj,jah, as asserted by al-Shahrastiioi
2. The Occurrence of Ijma'
, f
There 18 no common agreement among the rCf::>!:"'(j-
ing the occurrence of ijma', inclucling Ibn Hazm. The maJor-
i ty of the fugah5' among the Sunnis believe in i ts occur-
ronce. Hazm accepts its occurrence explicitly durinf
/ .
the tlTni" of the 9.:J:tabah, Le., after the death of the Prophpt
"while tlwy were 0.11 in l\1adlnah.
91
Outside of thj::; conte-xt,
.
Ibn l;Iazm rl::jects the occurrence of ljma'. He blsPs his 0.1'[\\-
ment on the following: 1) I,ima' would never and has neV8r
, ,
occurl'PL. other than in that particular age and ln that p::u-
ticulor because he believes that it has been
,
sible since that tlme for 0.11 Muslim 'ulama' ta gather to-
at the same time and at the same place. Following
the deatJ;r""lJf the Prophet and the ,time of the most
(
\
(
IY
of the 'ulama' sCattered ta widely separated points.
then they have never, and would never, gather together.
92
2) It i8 the nature of human beings to differ ln their O[.lln-
ions and characters, and this makes the occurrenC8 of
impossible.
9J
'Because of this Ibn 0azm, like many other
Iugaha', rejects the occrrence of ijma'. The evidence he
uses to praye hi8 posi tian is not similar to that used by
his opponents. 94 While he differs from his, oppoQ?nts in
the evidence he gives to support his stand, there is totnl
agreement on the acceptance of i,jma'.
Concerning the view of he believes in
[)ccurrence of i,jma', but not as 1;u,j,jah.
95
This is because,
seen from the view-point of persona1 opinion (min jihat 0.1-
he believes in the po\ssibi1i ty of the i Jm.' of the
ummq.h 0 n an e rro r. He asse rts tha t this i ,jma' 0 n an e rrq r
. . d i' t' 96
may occur ln any perlO 0 Ime.
Similar t6 the view'of asserts
the pOf;sibility of the occurrence of i.ima', but not as
jah, unlesG the opinion of the, infallible imam i3 includ8d
in the Like he a180 believe8 in the pos-
sibili ty of the occurrence of ijm.' in HiG argument
is that lt is possibie' that the Muslim community could fall
, into a shubhah (judicia1 error)'whenever they believe what
lis
T -
not dalll as such, and base their ijma' on it. This hap-

,. ,
37
pened ta ot"her communities. 97 \ The hadIths dealing with
tltZl t / 'Allah 1 S protecting the Muslim communi ty from error and
HiR hand i8 upon them are, in
(ln. ya:;;iJ:J:lu al-ta 'alluqu biha), because /they akhbar iil)arl
(sing. khabar waJ:lid, J:ladJths reparted by one chain of au-
thority) which do not necessi tate knowing i t (18. y,j ibu .
mo.n) .9
8
AJ:lmad ibn (d. 241/855), the founder of the
schooi of law which is close to the
in one report from him, that what is claimed to be i,jma' iG
a lie, and he who claim8 it i8 a because"people may
isagree, and this disagreement has not reached us.' This
view 18 similar to that of Ibn in rejectine the occur-
rence of i,]ma' other th an that 0 f the 92:.J:abah, However, in
another report from AJ:mad ibn J:fanbal, he accepts the, i.irnii'
of the majority, which is contrary to Ibn J:fazm's view. TheGe
two views as reported from AJ:mad ibn J:fanbal have been recotl-
eiled by the now scholar, ]YJukhtar al-Qa9I, when he
that AJ:lmad ibn J:fanbal does not make total agreement
<,
a condition of ijma', because ordlnarily it couJd not occur,
while i.imil' of the majority without challenge fr0m the minor-
ity could happen,99
We have seen in this section that the Ibn
J:fazm, the Mu'tazilI and the SbI'i hold
1
j ,
(
;. (
3'
similar yet different views on ijma
l
Ibn maintains
only total which occurred explic:i:tly during the tirnp
o
of the s8.habah, and the necessity .of basing ijmo.' on ml.ss .
-.---- 1
AI-NaHam emphasizes the authori ty of 'statement in ,
- 1 1
while' insists upoI1 the embodime,nt of the opinion 0 j'
the infallible imam in i,]ma'. AlI scholars share I;Jl('
same position in considering ijma' bas$d on i,itihad as 1'::11-
lible. Ibn 1;fazm and maintaiA that sinee i,i'tiho.d
is fallible, ijma' based on it must also be fallible. Al-
tsi tbat Muslims could fall into shubhah which
leads them,to i,ima' in error, while hadIths asserting the
, .
infal1ibili ty of the Mus1im communi ty are :.J:!ad which do not
necessi tate knowing them. AI-T'sI 'and hold the
same view in considering the statement of the infallible irW;Jl1
"as l."\u,i.iah, while Ibn ljazm acepts explicitly on1y the Qur';;11
and the ljudi th as J:!u,j ,jah. However, aIl three scholars sh3Tt'
the same view in rejeqting qiyas.
.'
. \
. \
\
Footnqtes to Ch<lpter l
1 Al-Dhahabi, T3.dhJrat "{Hyderabad: Hyder- ,
abad Prin<ting Press, 1376/1957), vol. 3, p. 1146. (Hetr;af',."t'
referred to as Tadhklrat);' Ab Zahrah, Ibn pp. 22-().
2Kunyah is the mune cons istil1g of Abu (father) or lirllli1
.
(mother) followed usulllyby the name of the eldest son or c1au;Ilt(;!,
3Ab Zahro.h, Ibn pp. Ibn Jjo.zm,
rq (Cairo: n.p., p. 50.
had llteady the vizier since 381/9?1.
Ignaz Goldziher, The Their Doctrine lnc1 The ir Hj :>
tory, trans. and ed. 1.'Jolfgang Behn (1eiden: E.J. Brill, 1 SJ/
1
),
p. 280. (Her&after referred to as
5c. van Arendonk, "Ibn l}azrn," :3horter EI1Cyclopo.C'
r
li'1
of IslrJJn, ed. H.A.R. Gibb & J.H. Krarners (Leiden: E'LT. Er"Ul;
London: IJuzo.c & Co., p. 148, (Hereaf'ter referred 'W
a::1 "Ibn r}o.zm," S. E. 1. ). R. Arn:llde z, "Ibn E, l .2.
Ab L':<mroh, I,bn J:[Clzm, pp. 95 fi'.
6
Ibid
.
7-
b
'd
1 l
8Ibid.
9It was also said that Ibn Hazrn died at the desprt
of Lablah (an old town on the Western part of Andalusia). Al-
Dh<lhabi, al-'Ibar, ed. Fu'ad Sayyid 3.1-
'ArabI, 1961), vol. 3: p. Ibn Khallikan, a{-
__ <!! ,A'y.n, cd. Mutlunrnad .',AbJd al-Jj,amld (Cairo: IV1a:k-
r
1
.
tabat al-Nahgah 1948), p. 15.
of
1,
. (
1
H)J:ladlth literally me,ans "speech," "narrative,"
j "report." The l;Iadlth of the Prophet is the Prophetie Tr:1rl.i-
1
1 tian, i.e., the written expression of the Prophet's state-
monts, deeds! and tacit appravals. However, a' l)adith (a tr<<ll-
tian) with a 'small "h" is also used in this study to inclCiltc
,the report of a partieular saying", or approval of th"
Prophet. A J;ladI th is ealled by Ibn J:lazm khabar, whieh Ji 1), l'-
ally me ans "a report," "a news," "'an information;" see ],,"lO\'I,
pp. 66 If.
11i\b 0ahrah, Ibn J:1azm, PP'
I
31-2. It ,WC1S reportrrl r':r
.Ab 1\1uJ;lammad 'Abd Allah ibn al-'ArabI that Ibn l;Iazm start"l]
leo.rninf, fiqh the age of 26, beeause he did not know hu','!
ta perform tattIyat al-mas,jid prayer, 'i.e., a prayt'?r pr:rful'rnl,d
by a fftuslim upan enterlng a mosque. Al-Dhahabi, To.dhkir' "
pp. 1150-1. This report has been rejected by lUr conterr!f'n[';;r'y
8cholars, Zahrah and 'Abd al-La tif Shararah. Fa r th, J r
, .
,1 Bee Ab Zahrah, 1Ibn l;Iazm, pp. 32-5, 02; A. L.
rarah, Ibn }.!azm al-Ra'id, pp. 6)-4.
lJ
Ibid
., p. )6.
14Ib id., pp. 82-5.
Ibn Muflit (d. 426/1035) was
teac.her who 'had greatest influence on Ibn l;Iazm. Omar A. for-
rukh, "Zilhirism," A History,of f,lodern
Sharff (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz,
(Hereaftcr referred ta as
Philo so ph,'z' , e d. 1\1.1,;.
"
1 96)), voL 1, p.' 2 1 , ,
15 -
A.L. Shararah, Ibn J:lazm al-F:a'id, p. 65. There i8 "
a similarity between Ibn Hazm ,and Dawd in their
, , . ,
studies. and in Dawd' s establishing and Ibn l;Iazm 1 s revivin/-;
1
" (
,.
4r
the school. ,Dawd was brn in Kufah in 202/817, Wh0Y'0
.
the school was dominant. When his family moved ,ta
1
Baghdo.d, he learned Shafi' i law as we Il as the He
attended the lectures of many jurists, among whom was the
Shafil'l. Abu Thawr (d. 246/860). Dawd became interested in
Shafi'I figh, and then shifted fromthe HanafI to the Shafi'l
sehool. Later 'on, hfi( went to Nishapur and stud:d under Ibn
Rahawayh (d. 237-8/851-2). After a study of Shafi'l'
figh, he became dissatisfied with it. He then founded hi:=;
own school, 1.i. e., the ZahirI, whieh was based expliei tly on
the Qur' an and the Hadith. Like Da'td, -Ibn Hazm also did' nu t
. , \.
,\follow the dominant school in i.e., the MalikI,'
but he attClched himself to the Shafi'I, and then ta the
rI. BOth Dawd and Ibn Hazm accepted the i,jm' of the
bah and re,jeeted qiyas, (personal opinion), istiJ:lsan,
and taqlld (decisions bo.sed on the authori ty of precedin- f'l'tl-
erations). Both Dwd and Ibn were prolific writers.
Unfortunately, pawd's works were lost, while sorne of thosp
a f Ibn J;iazm have reached us. Ibn refers ta Dawud in
works. The f igh of Dawd was collected by MuJ:lamrnetd al-Sha fl
(d. 1307/1887) baqed on the works of his (Dawd's) fol16we;s'.
O. A. Farrukh, "Zahirisrn, "J'pp, 176-7.
16R. ";b E. 1, 2 p. 795.
17Ibn J;iazrn, IJ:lkarn, vol. 1, pp. 89-90. See also ibid.,
p. 106; vol. 4, p. 531.
18The allegation of al-SubkI about Ibn acaept-
ance of brought to hirn without careful exarnination
t ,
of the truth of these reports might be true for the foilowit
'
{:
reasons: a) the suspicious character he inherited f:rom wamen
"
, \
. \
1"
(
,
r
,
" ..
4l
,. ,
in his Muse, see, above, p. 8; b) his acceptance of reports
, related by a s,ingle reliable persan, see pe,l,ow, pp. 71-2;
19A1-SubkI, rabagat al-Shafi'iyah 1st ed.
(N.p.: al-r,latba'ah al-Ijusaynlyah al-Misrlyah, n.d.), vol. 1,
p. 4J. (Hereafter ref9rred ta as Tabagat).
1
20 Ibid .; see 'also Ibn t1azm, Kitab'al-Fasl ri al-NJilal ':/a
al-Ahwa' \va 5 vols. (Baghdad: Maktaba t al-Muthann1'i;
Egypt: Ml!c'assasat al-Khanji, ,j1:'d.), vol. 4, p. 188,. (Here-
, after referred to as
,
21 T - '4
Al-Subkl, Tabagat, vol. 1, p.' J. 1
22Al-Dhahabi, Tadhkirat, vol. J, p. 1154.
1
2: A certain Ab al"' (Abbas ibn al- (Arif said: "Thp
,
tongu of Ibn aDd the sword of were two broth-
1
ers (kna lisn Ibn Ijazm wa sayS al-Ija,i.ja.i shagiqayn)," see
al-Dhahabl, Tadhkirat, vol. J, p. 1154; see also al-ZiriklI,'
al-A'lam, vol. 5, 2nd ed. n.p., n.d.), p. 59. AI-Ijajjaj ibn
Ysuf (d. 95/714) was an Umayyad statesman. When he ,was sent
by the Abd al-Malik as governor to the Iraq, he
... .
threatened, to ut off the heads of the Khriji mutineers. He
1 _ 0
\1 '
1
/
was notorious for his pi tilessness; se,e H. LaIl(Illens. "1;{adjdjad j b.
Ysuf," E[1cyclopaedia of Islam, ed. M. Th. et al. , lst ed. (Ley-
den: Late E.J. BrillLtd.; London: Luzac &Co.,1927), voL.2, pp. 202-4.
2L10.A. Farruk.h, "Zahirism," p. 286.
1 \ '"
sorne people of Majorca island 'followed him
during his stay there from 430/10J9 ta 440/1049., the majori ty
of them did not follow hirn, despite the fact that he was sup-
,\ ' 1J
"ported by Ab al-' Abbas AJ:mad ibn Rashld, the local geyernor
.'
of that island: Ibid., p. 281.'
/
,)
1
t'
\
,,'
t
f
,
,
t
o
Ibn son, said that, his father's
. "
containing about eighty
,
writings reached four hundred
thousand folios.
Tadhkirat, vol. j, p.
27
Ibid
., p. 1152.
..
28
The
term often used by Ibn questions
"
were: fa'in ... . .. ("if they said ... we
said . . . "; for exarnples, 'see ll:tkirn, vol. 4, pp. 532 'linp ,
'5, 533 line 9, and 544 line 18), fa'in ... gila Inhum
. . . (" if they said . . . i t was said ta thern . . . "; fo r
".1 ,exarnples, see ibid". vol. 1, p. 226 line 21,'vol. 5, p. 637
"
.J
lins 5, vol. 8, p. 115? lihes 4-5 and 6), fa'in qila . ..
q lIa' . (" if he [i .. e the speaker] said . . . i t
said ta hirn . "; for exarnples, see ibid., vol. 8, p. 1153
lines 8 and 13; "idem, vol. 1;' p. 107 lines 13-4).
This method of raising and answering .questions was cornrnon
among polemic writers.'
1
See, for example, Ab Ja'far
'Uddat fi al-Figh, 2 vols. Dutprasad
Press, 1318 A.H.), vol. 1, pp. 130 lines 19-21, and 136 lines
,
14- 5, ih' which he used the term fa' in gil . . . q lIa lahurn ,
" (Hereafter referred' ta as 'Uddat )J. 1
29
A
,1. aI-Ra'id, p. 72.
for exarnple" after gi ving his le,gal
judgement on a certain issue, was asked: "Is that tr\l th
where :i'E; no doubt of' i t?,. He answered:' " l do not ImoVl.
Perhaps it\is the falsehood where there is no doubt of it."
Ab Zahrah, l'bn p. 188. ' "
31Ibid.
,J2yet , this atttude was supjectively justifiable

, (
..
"
"
"
4.t

'"
}
" ,
j.
f

...
f

f
!
< 1

r
f
':;.
, .
1
(l
/' .
/ .
\
(
1
)
,.
t
.',
among Muslims when he argued wi th non-l.1uslim for
he was 'dbfending Islam which he the true ,reli&io'.
Ibid. '
1
JJA.L. Shararah, Ibn al-Ra'id, p. 64.
J4
Ibid
.
35 '. 6
lb ., p, 5,
j6Ibn Fal, vol. 2, p. 16 .
37Qur ' an, 7:3.,
J8Ibid . The translation ls based on the wording of
Tlloharpmed Y,Iarmadul'i:e Pickthall, The Meaning of the '3-lorious
..
Koran (New York and Scarborough: George Allen and" Unwin .Ltd. ,
" ,n.d.) .. , He transla,es al-rasikhn\ fI al-'ilm as "t,hase \',110
are of sound instruction. Il
,
39Ibid . rl1:1.1. Pickthall translates the ward mutasho-
bihat ap "ileg;r--ica,l" instead of "mbiguous, "
to Qur' nic verses and translation re'lating to them in other

places thesis are also
40 -' ,
2:1i9: the other verse "referred ta by Ibn

Ijazm is: "And (remember) when Allah laid. a charge on thosl? ':!ho
had received the Scripture (He said): Ye are to expau'nd i t
to mankind and not to hide it. ," .. If \ Qur'an, J:187 .
\ '\0
41 / '-0
Ibn 4, pp. 492-J.
42 - , . -
A.L. Shararah, Ibn al-Ra'id, p. 73; a.A. far-l
rukh, "Zanirism," p. 275. " 1
.'
, 43Al-ShahrastanI, l-Milal wa al..:Nil;taJ. (in the
of Ibn Ijazm's fI al":'Y.lilal wa fl-Ahw8.' Via ,"
. ,
, . f:'} ,
,,", ...
"
'\
1
i '
1 t
1

1
1
J
1
1
;
!
""
,
J,
r

,
1

i
(1 t
(
\
L.
\

3 vols (Baghdad: Maktabat al-Muthann13.; Egypt: MU'assasat al=-
n.d.), v9l. 2, p. 29. (Hereafter referred to as
Milal)i 'B. Carra de Vaux, 1 S.E.I., pp. 60-1.
41} . S - .
For further detalls, see l\']. G. . Hodgson, "Bat1-
niyya," E. 1. 2, vol., 1,_ pp. U98,-1100.
450 . A. Farrukh, p. 275.
46Por further detai:!.s, see MUaI','
'vol. 1, pp. 54ff: 'Abd iQn al-
Farq bayn al-Firag
i
ed.' & comment. MUQY al:Dln 'Abd
l3.1-ljamid (Cairo: Matba'at al-Madanl', n.d.), PP" 114-202 .
.. (Hereafter to as Farq).'
470 . A. p. 275: A.L. Shararah,
48.ee above; p. 8. Ibn 1jaz,m considered the electioll
of a boy for the position,of caliph as violation of the sn-
ri'ah. He ref,rred to a where the, Propl;let said that
a child isrlifted from the obligation of Islam he at-
tains puberty; se' Fasl, vol. 4, p. 166.
-.- <.J l '
49Ibid .; for further details", see A. L. 'Shararah, Ibn 1.
ljazm al-Ra' id, pp.
5
0
Ibn vol. 1, p. 8.
,-51 Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat el-A 'yan, ed. Mul;1ammad r.'Iul;1y'
al-Dln 'Abd al-Harold, vol. J (Cairo: Maktabat al-Nahdah al-
1
Ii1if'ir[yah j n. d. ) pp.' 14-5 In lyric poetry the poet often
\
the masculine gender of the feminine in referring
to hi's beloved, as in the above poem of, Ibn Ijazm when he put
':l1js\ beauty" of "her beauty" (l)usnuha).
J
...
J

,
,
j
, 1
1
1
,
1
\
t
t
,
.
..
t
/
4f.
52This was rejected by Ibn For him, shudhdh '
(deviation) was only being away"from the truth, and the true
.
school is the cf. below. p. 102.
53 Ab al- Ibn Arab (Be :
Bayrt li wa al-Nashr, 1375/1956), S.v. ,iama'a;
Edward William Lane, Arabic'English 1exicon (London and Edin- ,
burg: William and Norgate, 1863), s.v. ,jama'a.
54 -
Qur'an, 10:?1; M.M. Pickthall puts it in the
72, for he makes A .L: R. (alif ra') at the beginning of
the srah (chapter) as verse, whereas it is part of a
verse, verse no. 1.
Manzr, Lisa.n al-(Arab, s.v. ,iama'a; Majd 8.1-
, .
\
\
Dln:al-Flrzabadl, QamSs al-Mutlt- (Egypt: Matba'at al-Sa'adah,
1272/1855-6), S.v. ,jalfJa'a.
56Ibid. !
,57 Ibn 1jazm, ltkarn, vol. 1, p. 43.
58Camille Mansour, 'l' Atori dans la Pense lJlusulrpane :
la Concept (Consensus) et la
l'Autorit (Paris: LibTairiePhilosophique J. Vrin, 1975), P"
67, n. 2. referred ta as Autorit).
59Ibn Hazm" vol. 1, p. 43.
6 -.-
Idem, al-Muttal)a, Mul)ammad Shakir, 11 vols.
, ,.
(Egypt: 1347 A.H.), vol. 1, p. 54. \
61 This is what' Ahmad Hasan said: ". . " . roughly l
the middle the century of the jrah, Sunrah
remalned sa close to Ijma' that poth were used lnterchangeab y,
rather 'sometimes they' weJ;"e identified." See, "1 jma', an Inte-
(
t

f"
\ (,

j
J
ne Force in the Muslim Co.mmuni ty, Il' Islamie Studios' r,
(Dec 1967), p. 392. (Hereafte,r referred 'to as "Intee:ra U nr
3'orc$" )'- According to Mohammad Talaa t al-G hunairni "1 jll';; "
stands on the border line between primary and secondary f;0urces
in the Islamic law," See The I\1uslim Conception of Intern:1-
t ional Law and the Approach (The Hague: I,iaFtinus
Nijhoff, 'p. 117. (Hereafter referred to as r,iuslim (on-
,
,eeption) . The ijma' which i8 ,maintained by Ibn Hazin ls id111 -
tical to Sunnah and stands as the primary source of 1;;J "10-
ie law, while maintained by hi8 opponents, in our V1PW,
I-
I
stands as second one.
, '
,{{ 1
, 2As this type of i,jma' is identical to the l;adi th, r' ('
the mutawatir type ($ee below, pp. 66-9 on khabar
, rejecting it 'would mean denying the Sunnah and this would
lead ta nfideli ty. However, re jecting an ijm' which lC- t
,
relevant ta the fai th, like the faet that ,the Prnjl[ 1. t
imposed taxes on t.he. Jews of Khaybar cloes not le8d t'o ini'i-
delity, but rather indicates one's ignorance.
6JThis is also,the view of Ibn predecessar,
al-Shafi'i (d. 20-4/820) who maintained the total ijrna,!. :>p
N.J. Coulson M.A., A History of Islamic Law (Isllmic
,vol. 2 (Ed:i:nburg: Edinburg University Press, 1971), p. 59.
See also Fazlur Rahman, Islamie MethodoloCY ih History (Y;ll"l-
chi: Bipon Printing Press, However.
did first We should r'3rrtc>rn-
ber Ibn Hazm and Dawd, before they became Zahirls ,'\':ere :-:hi ri lis.
. .
6/1' '.
This is one example of Ibn l;fazm' s adherence ta tL.<:'
idea of rejecting., ?<.J1l! (doubt. conjecture. uncertainty.) ln
religion. see :J.l;kam, vol. 4., p. "531.
Ott _
---
.
.
"
( ,
65See also Ibn view on the nature of ijma'
al-ijma') in his Maratib al-Ijma' fI al-'Ibadat wa
al-Mu'amalat wa al-I'tigadat (Cairo: Maktabat 1357
A'.H.), p. 12. (Hereafter referredto as Maritib).
66
Idem, vol. 4, pp. 510-11;
1
,
see also ibid.,
67This is aiso the opinion of who main-
tained that there was ijma' in severai ordinances (fara'11)
which could not be unknown ta Muslims; sa that if we saiel
, ,
that people agreed upon a particular issue, no T,lu81im woulcl
abject ta i ts being irjma'. For example: the (afternoon)
prayer i8 (units), and intoxicant
bidden; see Jima' al,-'Ilm, ed.' Al)mad Mutarnmad. Shakir
Matba'at al-Ma'arif, 1359/1>940), pp. f5-6. Idem, al-Ri8ol:llt,
ed. and comment. AJ:lmad Shakir, lst ed: (Cedro.:
ba'at al-Babr al-HalqbI, 1358/1940), no. 1559.
. . ,.
6Sperhaps the words yaga' dhalik al-jama'ah
be read'yaqn' dhalik li-jama'ah as we have
above to gi ve sense to the sentence. Ibn Jjazm, ll;kam, "va 1.
4, p. 511.
691bid . See 8.180 ibid., pp. 530-1. The vrords 'alim2.-
wa fa'alah0 on p. 530 line 21 inverted and shauld be
read wa ta suit th definition given on p.
, )11.
7
0
See the defini tion of the second type of ijma' on pp. 2'7-
, '
8 above. The other condition of Uma' ls tha t i t should be
based on na99' see below, pp. 55 ff.
,/
\
)

i
1
r ,
,
.
, \ ....... --- - --
(
71MUJ:y al-Dln' ibn 'Arabi, the second treatise on
the Gchool, ri al-Fiqh, lst ed.
(Beirut: al-Matba'ah al-Ahllyah, A.H.), p. 29. (Here-
after referred ta as
72 1
fUmar 'Abd Allah, Sullam al-Wu9l' li-'llm 1
lst ed. (E'gypt: 1956), p, 198; Dr. MukhtJr
al-Qaql. al-Ra'y fi al-Figh al-Islami, lst ,ed .. (Cairo:
, al-Fikrah, 1368/1949), p. 169. (l-iereafter referre,d to
the word al-l'tibar on line 13 of this page is mis-
printpd 8nd be read la i'tibar to suit the meaning of
"
the sontence.
,
7J.This i,jmi' is called i,ima' u9uli. Camille IViansour,
p. 67.
1 p. 56.
75lbn J;iazm, IJ:kam, vol. 7, p. 982; Badran Abu a 1-
'Aynayn Badran} al-Figh (N.p.: Dar 1965),
p .. 216.
7
6
1n another ve'rsion, instead of "and the prophet:-;"
i t r80ds "and the believers," see Ibn J:!azm, IJ:kiim, vol. 7,
p .. 98 ]<or th other J:adlth see ibid., p. 981.1-.
77,The application of 9 iyas from far' to
J;iazm argues, is itself prohibited by the adherents of
For further details, see ibid., p. 986 ff.
Ibn
78 J\1-r:r s1 , 'Uddat vol. 2, p. 61).
rastanI mentions thirteen views of which ,differ
from those of other Mu' tazills: among them are his re jec tlon -
of ijma' and his of the imamah of 'Ali instead 01
Ab Bakr. For further details, see Milal, vol. 1, pp.
,
"
jl
, "t\ ...... ---
/
1
1
1
,
t
t ,
t v
;
1
7

1
50
j
al-Mustasf min 'ilm'al-Us01, lst ed,
(Cairo: al-Maktabah al-Kubr, 1356i1937) , vol.
1
1, p. 173. (Hereafter referred to as Sayf al-
Din al-AmidI, al.-I0kam fi U?0l (Cairo: Matba'at
Ma,' irif, 1914), vol. 1, p. 28o. (Hereafter referr'ed to as
al-Amidi).
SOAb al-Sarakhsi, Usl al-Sarakhsi, ed. Ab
al-Wafa' al-Afghani, 2 vols (N.p.: Matabi' Dar al-Kuttab al-
'Arabi, 1372 A.H.), vol. 330.
81
See above, p. 30.
82 - ..
" Milal, vol. 1. p. 72. In this
case is leaning towatds the, view of 'the shI 'ah
considering the statement of the imam as tjjah.
8J lbid ., pp. 75-6. According to Ibn
and eighty lashes are Sunnah and i,jma' of the
based on see below, pp. 133-4, n. 107.
84 -.. -. 64
AI-Tusl, 'Uddat vol. 2, p. .
85Ibid . Al-rsi maintains that if'time i8 sUpposed
to be free from an infallible imam, ijma' will not become
I:u,j,jah, because. there is no dalil indicating t'hat\it is 1;1aJ.-
,jah. Por further details on his argument in refuting the
dallls presented by his opponents among the SunnI jurists
for the I,m,i jlyat al-i,jma' (the authori ty of ijmiJ.'),' see ibid"
pp. 94-75.
86Ibid ., pp. 75-6; for further Details, see ibid.,
-1--
pp. 77" ff.
1
l
'1
/
/

(
51
1
trans. J. Farhat Ziadeh (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1961), p. 78.
Among the shI'I jurists, 'AlI al-MshklnI glves
us four types,of i,ima' according ta the Shi'ah, which c?rl';:
1 -
a) the agreement of the whole 'ulama' including the imam,
b) the agreement of sorne of thern including the ill18m, c) the
agreement of aIl of them excluding the imam, and d) the opin-
ion of the imam alone; for further details, see Ki tab
1
talaQat (N.p.: 1383 A.H.), pp. 29 ff.
.,
88por further
details on al-rrsI's argument ln refut-
-
,
ing glyas, see 'Uddat , vol. 2, pp. 89 ff.
89
Ib
id. "
1 , pp. 41-2.

9
0
See above, pp. 40-1, and 51
n. 82.
91 Ibn vol. 4, p. 502. It is possiblo
that people of different nature agree Oh matter on which thsy
have the sarne level of perception, uncierstanding, and bei .. nf
readily grasped, ,but this, Ibn l;!azm believes, is not i,jrna'
in the J'ield of the sharI'ah. Ibid.
92Some of thern are in Yernen, are in Sind and
the Kabul rivers, in the Western part of Berberland till
the frontiers of Armenia. Ibid.
93 Ibn Hazm says that sorne

others are hard-hearted; sorne are
sorne incliJe ta softness of life
tend ta roughness and toughness,
\
people are

powerful, others are weak;
and tend, ta lIu-l'ury, others
while sorne are moderate.
Due ta the differen,ce of temper, nature and inclination, i t
would be by ra rneans possible for all of the 'ulama' ta agree
in making a judgement wi th their own opinion. Ibid., vol. lj,
1
pp. 502-3.
!
//
1
1
(
\
\
52
94The opp'onents who accept i,jma' are th!? rnajority
ofe'ularna' among SunnI Muslims. For their argument in refpL-
ing the opinion, of Ibn Hazm and those' who ,re ject the OCCtll'-
"
rence of i,jrna', see Muhibb Allah ibn 'Abd al-Shakur 81-BJJliiI'I ,
Musallam al-Thubut, comment. 'Abd al-cAli ibn Ni?>am al-Dln
as Fawatih al-Ral)mut {in the lower part of (1.1-
Ghazali, lst ed. (Cairo:
riyah al-Kubr, 1356/1397), vol. 2, pp. 211-2. (Hereaftpr
referred ta as Musallam); MuJ:larnmad ibn' AlI al-Sh8'11kanI, Ir:-;!t;:-' rl
al-Fuhul (Cairo:_ Matba'at al-BabI al-l;lalabi, 1356/1S
1
17),
1 st ed., pp. 72- 3. (Hereafter referred ta as Irshad).
95.AI-BihilrI, r.lusallarn, vol. 2, p. 211. Ibn
,
(d. 861/1457) asserts that al-NaH8.m rejects the possibilit:!
of the occurrence of i,irna', see al-T:.J:lrlr fi U
9
ul al-Figh
(CairQ: Maktabat MU9taf al-BabI al-l;lalabI, 1351 A.H.), p.
399. (Hereafter referred ta as 'Tal:lrlr). But al-Subki (d.
771/1369":70) asserts tha t this' is only the vlew of sorne 0['
the followers of for he himself believes in tllD
occurrMle of ijmo.', see 'Ali 'Abd al-Raziq, al-I,)ma' rI 01-
Shari'ah al-Islamlyah (Cairo: Dar al-Fikr al-'ArahI, n:d.),
p. 10. (Hereafter referred ta as I,jma').
,
NaHarn in the 'possibili ty of the occurrence of i,jmil' in error
as his 17th scandal, ,see Farq, p. 143.
the of the communi ties
, \
who f;::tl'l into
,
a as given by al-TusI, is that Jews,
l '.
Christians, ;::md
other non-Muslim communities agree on the nullity of Islam
and.the falsehood of the Prophet inspite of tneir
greatness in number; for further details, see 'Udct.at
"
{
\
\.
( ,
,\01. 2, pp. 65 fL For the ShI'ah, the m,ajority'o.{ Mus1ims
had gone away,from th true path sinee the death of the
, - 1
Prophet, when they appointed and wrong ru1ers and
deprived the rightfu1 ones, "the descendants of tho Prophet,
\
of their right. This 8.180 indicates', according to the .. shi'a.h
point of view, the fa11ibi1ity of the Muslim ummah, except
. the shi' ah communi ty'.
v'
98Ibid., pp. 74-5; cf. be+ow, pp. 69-7
1
.
99Mukntar pp. 173-4.
1
/
".
".
(
(


l'
CHAPTER II
JUDICIAL BACKGROUND
A. Ibn Hazm's View of the
Basis of Ijma
t
,
Before looking into Ibn view of the basis of
(sanad al-ijma') it is necessary to mention that ijma'
came directly from individual authori ties, and was not a con-
troversial issue, until the emergence of rival schools of theo-'-
1 _
logy and law, when the
..
'ulama' 's assessment of the concept
of ijrna' began to be influenced by the stand taken in ac-
cordance with-the schools they adhered to. Until then,
had been a,legal process' to solve disputed problems
caused by the deth of the Prophet, who was the ul timate '
authority on these'problems. In context the aim of
i,jma' was to reach a decision based on the opinion of the \'"
c0mmunity presented by its leade,rs, who were not divided by'
legal and theological differenoes. While ijma' during the
/ rule the Prophet was not a necessary legal process, be-
cause he had the final to any problem, his death
, raised the issue, and the PPOphet' s tried to solve
it by seeking solutions in the Qur'an and in the Sunnah, even
\
,'{
\ /
j .,
1\
(
,
( "
.
though sdme of the problems to which a solution was sought
became fu'rther complicated, by the nature of the new emergin[
figh schools. In addition, once a decisian was reached by ,
the on a certain this decision did not
\ - '
became an ijma' unless it was of by the community.
Otherwise, "the _decision stayed t the stage of i\jtihad 1 and
\1
pers0n exercising it was called a muitahid (sing. mujta-
, ' - ) 1
\hldun .
As will be seen, \Ibn 1;[azm declines to accept th,is
kind of i,ima', because it is the product of i,jtihad whioh
he views as a concept faIIible in nature, whereas the genuin
p
i,ima', Ibn 1;[azm contends, is infallible.
2
Because of this
\
1
stand taken by Ibn Hazm, we need ta introduce ,the Qur'an
"-. ( ..
the Sunnah as sour'es for the study of i ,jma' .
.
,
The Qur' ar; for Ibn 1;fazm is important not only because
its 'texts provide proofs as to the yalidity of ljma'
jiyc;l.t al-i,jma'), but aiso because it provides evrdence to re-
fute i,jma t based on other than save for the i,jm' which
he propagates (i.e., ijma' based on whereas his op-
,
ponent
9
the Qur'anic texts as evidence to justify the
validi ty of i,jma' 'upon which they reached a dec is ion. J 't'he
yerses which Ibn 1;fazm uses to demonstrate his theme of the
basis of ijma' are numerous, and are preserved his warks
entitied al-Il;lkam and Suffice it ta cite a few
1 \
c':
Il
/
Cl\,
examples so that we may compare Ibn stand with that
1
of his opponents ,. e .g., :
1 1
And whos'o opposeth the aftet the guidance (of
Allah) hath' been manifested unto him,' and fol'loweth o,th-
er than the believerq' way, We appoint for him that unto
l '
which he himself hath turned ,'\ and expose him unto hell--
a hapless end.
4
One Interpretation' af this yerse is offered by al-
GhazalI ,(do 505/1111). Accarding to him the verse contains
Allah' s threat against those followa path other tlf,an tnat
of the believers, and this in turn shows its unlawfulness,

because the action is 'combi,ned wi th ,another thing 'l i, e" op- \\
posing the Prophet, which requires a punishment for the in-
dividual involved ,'5
Ibn view of this verse is quite,
He that the verse indicates that Allah dia not give His
promise -:-,(threat) to the follower of other th an the bel'ievers'
way, except for his against the of Allah,
and this came the guidance had been manifested unto him.
\ ' \
In there was no ather wai at aIl the believers
. "
0" ! J
except fa obey tlfe Qur' an and the Sunnah of the Pr'ophet I"while "
, l \ ,
creattng laws (i.l,e., without giving was the way
of infidelity,6 '
'.
Another Verse ced by the advocators of i,im" ta
\.
.\
,
Il
l,
, r
!
()
'\
\
1
,1
5'1
justify its validity, but interpreted by Ibn as ijma'
J
based on is as follows:
o ye who believe! Qbey Allah, and obey the rnessenger
and those of you who are in and if ye have
a dispute any it to Allab and
the messenger if ye are (in truth) believers in Allph
, 1
and the Last Day.7,
J
Once more al-GhazalI saw 'the verse as evidence to
indicate tha.t the unanimity of the community 18 right.
8
But
according to Ibn 1;fazm, this verse also proves that Lima'
should be pased on The community in the verse should
obey-lI al-amr (those who are in authority) if they based
l ' ,
,
their injunction on from the Qur,n and the Sunnah,
,
like praying and paying zakah.
9
,
Moreover, Ipn,1;fazm contends, following the li jl-
'.1!IT., if i t 1 were accepted as i.jma', th.ere are tw.o possibil'-
ities: either a} there i8 disagreernent among them, and in
1
this the opinion of sorne of them is not more entitled
tQ be accepted than that of others, or b) there is no dis-
1 1
agreement among themj in this case Ibn the
. f' . - . th b" f 1 0
0 out. any rom
\ ' - T
Who are the ull al-amr? Accordihg ta Ibn
r
1;fazm, they
are the umara' (sing. amlr, emi;rs, rulers.) and the 'ulama'
, 1
Q 11 .
who are the authori ties among the Muslims. '-.. They are obe:red
\
, 1
",
,
J
"
r.
\
,
!
\
i (}
(
".
(.
.'
!
i
(.J
t

""
- ,.
t
. ,
1
beeause of what Allah and the Prophet enjoined. It is also
important ta mention here that Ibn bases view dn
the fet that there is no explanation in the Qur'n as to
1
h th
-l'r 1 . d' h t 12 . 1
W 0 are e U l a -amr elte ln t e wo verses lnvo ved;
-, .
therefore, aecording to Ibn the al-ayah (the
e \, 1
t -'
",0 stensibJ.:e me"aning of the verse) should be accepted by the
Muslims, i.e., that the ulI are the rulers and the
'ulama,. However, Ibn argues further that sinee the'
Qur'an does not say that they,are the agreeing 'ulama' their
is'not ijma,.lJ
. '
\ .
'/ '
If} ,this i,nstanee, 'Ion Hazm does cit-8' the argument of
" 1,.
his opponents. whom he does' not ,mention by narne. HJwever, 'he
\ \ , .. -
, \
contends that his opponents 1 'stand is invalid if they mean
, ,
that: should ulI al-amr
,
be followed exclusivelyan what the,V
,
the Prophet, then Allah would mention
(the only' without mentioning '''lI al-amr". To
this, Ibn if it is o, hls opponents
1
also s,ax that if the' Propht should' be fo11owed only on wha+;
he' rece ves Allah, He would' mention Il allah" (Allah)
alQne, withPut met:ltioning "al-.rasl" ln the verse mentionea
abo ve .
14 l th . th tif d . th t l t
n lS, way e opponen s are ace WI wD,a er-
, , r ,
nativs beeause bf the foreg6ing argument: 1) if 4hey reject
1
the above. statment, then they contradict themselv.es; 2) if
they agree to H, then Ibn J:Iazm will accuse them of believinr
... ,
.....
,.
t
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., '
...
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1

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,\ ,
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Li

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t
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,-
.,
,ln the possibility of the Prophet bringing laws which Allah
has not revealed to him. Ibn Hazm mentions the verse,s in
which Allah confirms that the Prophet says exclus.ively what,'
\ .
15 -
'has been revealed to him, and those in: which Allah informs
us that the Prophet does not speak of his own desire
16
as
'd 't'" h' ,.' 17
eVl ence to JUS lS oplnlon.
One proof which Ibn utilizes to refte the view
of his opponents is tl:te occurrence of the reference ta al-rasl
and ll two 'terms of great importance in understand-
ing Ibn argument. First of aIl, Ibn contends
0
that the significance of' mentioning al-rasl and Mli al-amr
in the verse mentianed above is that if 'Allah commanded us
\
to obey Himself alone, sorne people would think that the only
obligation was what had been said by Allah in the,Quf'an,
what was said by the Prophet without na99 from the
Qur'an would not be obligatory. Then the injunction to obey
the Prophet removes th!s Ibn Hazm argues,
further that if Allah commanded us to obey Prophet--
..
1
after bbeying Allah without mentioning lI al-amr--some peo-
.ple would think that it would not be necessary to obey the
l' '"
. ,
Prophet xcept what heard from himself. But as
v .,;.
Allah commands us ta obey li ai-amr, the necessity to obey
l '
\
what'the"ulama' brought,to us from the Prophet
clear.
18
"
, ,f
1
"
L
A.
1
- 1
60
But this, as mentioned by Ibn-Hazm himself, i8 re-
... ...
jcted by his opponents who are not Still, ac-
co'rding to him, they that if i t were so, Hhat Allah
says: "land if ye
it to
as we should accept
matter whether it
his view, would f
concerning any matter, refer
r6m Allah and the nO
or disagreed. His opponents, in
to single out the diference between
Allah's command ta .obey ull al-amr and His cammand ta ref8r
to Allah Rnd His Prophet in case gf a dispute. Ibn Hazmcoun-
ters this argument and says tflat there 5 s no contradiction b:;-
...
tween the twa commands, as both mean ta obey Allah and the Proph'?t.
Allah forbids us from following the 'authori ty of a particular flcholar
or rather than the Qur' an and the Sunnah directly. 19
1
There examples which provide us with the
. -
same stand taken by Ibn Hazm on the quest10n of Qur' an
as'one of the bases of i,jma'. In these two examples we ho.vlj \
"
how us interpretation of the
verses of the Qur'an that sed by his opponents as
component elements of their argument. In the first, he re-
jects ijma ( based on other than and insists that the

way.is followingthe Qur'an and the Sunnah. In
the second one, he uses the notion, of ll al-amr as the au-
,
",
, thority who transmits the sharI'ah, and aIl in aIl, Ibn
,1'
1
i
f
t
,
f '
i
1
1
, 1
\
st
(
/ .
6 ,
in this context does not accept an i,ima' other th an his. own
namely, the
Wi th regard to the Sunnah referred to, by Ibn "s
1
opponents to justify ijma' based on'other than he
mentions three One of them is as follows:

There will remain a taJifah (a group) among my commu-
ni ty who knows the truth and who will not be harmed by
those who desert them, unti1 the decree of Allah cornes
to pass ya'tiya amr allah).20
Accarding ta Ibn this indi-
,
,. cates the justification of i,ima'. On the contrary, Ibn J:fa zm
contends that the indicates that the cqmmunity of the
Prophet 0il1 never agree in error, as there must always be
amang them those who will uphold the' truth. in
Ibn view, this also gives an indication of th
n

of disagreemeqt.
21w
.
Ibn 1;fazm also stipulates that as related ta the
\
QUT'n and the Sunnah must be treated as the sanad of i,ima'.
-
This position Ibn J:fazm shares.with the shI'1 schoal and Ibn
. ,
Jarir al-Tabar1 (d. )10/92)). Yet i t is contrad ictOI'Y ta
A
of the majority of Sunni jurists, who maintain the pos-
f
sibili ty of the occurrence 0lf i,ima' based on i,j tihad or 91.-
yas, whenever i8 not avai1ab1.e. 22 In arder ta scruti-
1
"
(
i
f


,
nize this problem, we shall first deal with Ibn con-
cept of the sanad of ijm', i.e., the Qur'an and the Sunnah,
and ]t with the view of his opponents among the
fI, Malikl, and Shafi'I schools. Then we shall study Ibn
refutatioh of giyas, which is advocated by his oppo-
nents arnong the of the three above-rnentionedschools
as one of the bases of ijrna'. Only then w can understand

the'nature of the issue and the posi-
tions relating to it, and Ibn in particular.
1. The Qur'an
, The Qur' an, as defined by Ibn J;Iazm, is "reyelation
established in the Scripture,,,2
3
also "revelation recited" and
arranged in sueh a way to account for its miraculous struc-
ture. ,,24 The text cantains divine laws intended ta serve the
humn race (chiefly the community) , but not all of
the verses in the Qur'an are fully explained in detail. Sorne
of thern are of the mu jrnal
25
type, that' i8 largely and
undefined rules'. As an illustration, Ibn J;Iazrn notes the in-
junction to Muslims ta pray and ta pay zakah. Ibn Hazrn oon-
tends that these acts require explanation' as ta haw and when
the MU81ims should perform them.
26
But the required
, 27
tion i8 available in the Sunnah.
II'
This position of Ibn Hazm, that the Qur'an l8 one of
. . .
\

,.,
1
.
...
c
"
...
a
...

;
63,
the bases of i.ima' is undisputed among the j,urists. The dis-
agreement lies in the matter of the clearness or ambigui ty
of .. the verses of the Qur' an. According to Ibn l;!azm the
verses of the Qur'an are clear, except for sorne ambiguous
ones. But Ibn Hazm contends that are considered muta-
- - 28 T
shabihat by the Sunnls and the Mu'tazills have been ex-
< 1
plained either by the Qur'an or by the Sunnah, except letters
at the beginning of sorne srahs in the Qur'Qn, like A.L.M.
(alif lam mlm) at the beginning of srat al-Bagarah (chapter
2), and Allah's oaths in the Qur'an, like: OlBy the morning
1
.i
hours, and by the night when i t is stillest" at ,the 'beginning
of srat al-QjlJ;ttl (chapter 9J). 29' According ta Ibn J:Ll,zm" seek-
ing and follawing the ta'wll of what he calls mutashabihat
J
O'
is forbidden.
<. Among the examples mentioned by Ibn J:fazm, wh,ere mu,j-
mal verses in the Qur'an are explained
31
by other ones, are
those qealing with divorce. These verses are clarified by
verses'in srat (chapter 65) .3
2
, With regard ta the Qur'anic verses which are
ed by the Sunnah, Ibn l;!azm mentions many examples. One of
them is the injunction ta pay zakah. The Qur'an does mention
it times, but it daes not give us any specification
or detail. It lS the Prophet who teaches us in detail how
to
p,?-y
it, what kinds of pro pert y are liable to it. and many
..
a

r

(
(

; ct
F'
t d l' wl'th 'l't,JJ ques lons ea lng
In spi te of all these explana tians, the level of thr>
'ularn8' insight in understanding them di:ffers and depend,:
upon their ability ta grasp them and upon the gUldance of
Allah, fi verse might not be clear to one 'alim while l t, i;;
clear ta a thers. Among the examplep giv8n by Ibn J:!azm iiS tl\('
verse dealing wi th the kalalah (a deceased persan Vlho has nC' J,-
ther parents nar children ta gi ve his tance J4 which
nderstood by the except 'Umar.
J5
The Prophet ro-
proaches him and tblls 'Umar that to understand ,the meaninl
\'
of kala10h it i8 sufficient to refer ta the verse revealed
, 'J6
in summer.
2, Sunnah
J:!azm's view of the Sunnah complements his vicw
.
of th8 Qur'an, although his assessment of the Qur'an under-
linos sorne parallels with the Sunnah. Like the Qur'an, the
Sunnah is a revelatlon, Ibn J:!azm contends that thp
cxplanations of th"e Prophe't have a value equal to that of'
the on basis of the contained in the
verse: "Say (0 Muhammad, unto mankind): l warn you anly l',v
the Inspiration t "J7 and because the Sunnah provides us witli
,
the essential details relevant ta th injunc'tion which Alll!!
gave ta His-servants. But unlike the Qur'an, the Sunnah is

, l,
(
revelation not established in the Scripture , be'cause i ts essence
rl presents basically r'epo'rts and transmi tted prophetic rcve-
. ,
, 38
lation. He also defines the Sunna'h as an uncomposed tex 1.
containinr: no miracles in its structure. Where18 the
depends on the notion of reciting its verses, the Sunnah
bcks this, attribute, and revolves around the notion of
ing Ibn" l;Iazm sticks ta his stand on the two kinds of
text as the sanad of ijma'.
,The division of the Sunnah based on the l1umber 01' i te;
chains of transmitters into khapar al-tawatur ,(wut'awatir, ,1
t.lad! th handed down by many,chains of unimpeachable transmi tters)
and khabrrr al-waI,lid .,l)ad, a I,ladi th repo rted by one chai,n n f'
tranSITll tters) also has a be21.ring on ibn l;iazm' [3 assessment 0['
the sadad of i,ima', While ther:e is no dispute on the acceptancr:>
or khabo.r (11- tawa tur as a re1iab1e I,lad l th amo ne, the 'u18 tll,1' ,
the statw3 of khabar al-wa1;id is disputab:Le. vJhile the T/lu't;l-
"
f
zi1lc are Gceptca1 of it on the one hand, Ibn as a
hirl, accorts it totally, Ash'arI-SunnIs stands in thp
middle, They accept it as a 1;ujjah (probable
"
dence) , In ot'rder to clarify Ibn Hazm'!'s 'position on these
, '.
twd kindH of J;tadiths and their relation to the Gal1ad of.Li-
ma' 1 we sha11 dea1 with them in sorne detai1,
a, Khabar a1-Tawatur
Ibn l;iazm defines khabar al-tawatJr as a report con-
1
1
i
(
tinuously transmi tted by the masses from one ge neration to
another which traces i ts origin to the Propnet. Tt is a
hadIth relo.ted by cons8cutive testimonies ,so tho.t there if:
no room for doubt', and no Muslim disagrees as ta i ts acc8pt-
ance; for examp1e, the report that the was revealpd
to the Prophet, and that there are five daily pro.yers en-
r
. , '1' 40
J01ned upon Mus 1ms.
'r
One problem relating ta the credibility kind
of I,ladI th is the exact number of its chai.ns of transmi ttprs.
Ibn ljazrn says tha t Muslims differ in eva1uating khabar al-
tawtur and the exact number of chains of transmitters re-
lating to i t. While sorne? juris's whom Ibn ljazm does not
specify say that khibar al-tavratur must ,be transmitted by
. numeroys people l'rom the East and West, others say that thr
41
number of must be uncountable. 30me say that
they mus t not oe less than three hundred or so, as is t.ho
, \
.Acase in the example of the number of NIusllms who fough t at
the battic of Badr.
42
But this opinion as applied to a limi ted n'umber of
, 1
transmi tters is re jected by Ibn l;!azm, because the Qur' an del
o
::;
. not Iimit the number of transmitters the of
0adlth. Ibn also contends that
make a distinction between
it is not reasonable ta
,
reported by seventy
and that by sixty-nine, so to What Ibn is con-
r 1
"
11 __ ---------------------
l '
'. \
-v
1
,
i
1

cerned about is not the gross number of transmitters.
\
Rather,
i t is the transmi tters' 'action in in fbrging a
ryadlth (al-tawatu' 'al al-kadhib) which- designates it as

\ khabar al-tawatur. Here, a+-Sarakhsl (d. 490/1096) from the
HanafI sehool shares the view of Ibn in his rejection of
any limitatj,on to th number. of transmitters in khapar al-
- 44'
tawatur. Ibn thinks that it is highly important to
investigate and to verify the 0redibility of the transmitters
f,
as the primary concern of an 'alim, regardless of the number
of transmitters. In addition, a person or a group of people
\
could agree in telling a lie if they had gathered together
to fabrieate a ryadlth and if there were any motive behind the
act of lyingj for when the people involved were
rughibu (offered worldly matters) or ruhibu (frightened).
Ibn excludes 'from the occurrence of such cases.
Ih addition, he thinks that such contemptible means are de-
tectable thr'ugh the use of garurat al-Qiss (essential
ing of ,something by means of sense power).45
However, Ibn Hazm points out that a repo-rt given by

two or more reliable transmitters can be as khabar
.
al-tawatur on condition that the Qadith had to be verified
through the foregoing investigatory means. In fact, we should
r
make sure that the perpons relating to the chain of trans-
mitters (say two or three) have never met before, and the
"
(
absence of .any indication rgarding deception and lying. In
addition to that, the transmitters must give their report in
different places long narration, so that no other people
can, produce any statement similar ta it. Ibn ,ljazm gaes onto'
add that th,e transmi tters must have received tht rport in
the same way they did, as' a 'prgvention against *h possibll-
'ity of their receiving false J:tadlth. Such repoits, in a 8ill1-
\
ilar way as above, happen in our daily lives. To illustrGto
this, Ibn ljazm cites several examples, such the report
someqody's death, birth, and many others.
examples, the number of transmitters involved is two or
46
more.
Ibn ljazm defines lchabar al-wal:lid as a hadI th
primarily by one who traces his hearing of the
to the Prophet himself. But to accept authority
of this of Ibn ljazm contends that the transmitters
must be reliable linformants (transmi tters) . Once this stipu-
lation is fulfilled, then the J;tadlth, Ibn contends, i8 n
sound and acceptable one. The Muslims should act accordin[':
to its content and should know its soundness with certainty
""\
(wa,jab8. 'amal bihi wa wa,iaba al-ilm aygan) .In
Contrary to the opinion of Ibn ljazm, al-BaqillanI
, (
(
, \
.
, t,
. 1
(d. 403/1013.) reports that khabar al-waJ;d according ,to the
fugaha' and mutakallimln (Muslim theologians) ls ary th
, '
.
which lacks the necessity of knowing_it with certainty,

,though it is reported. by more than one transmitter. Yet,
the content i8 valid and should be acted upon if the tranSr
mitter is reliable 'and if the itself is not contra-
48
dictory to any stronger one.
/
Ibn reproaches those who maintain that the sound
\
khabar does' not knowing i t wi th cer,tain-
t'y, though they accept its content as vid. They are, in
Ibn view, the the Shfiris, the Malikis en
masse (.jumhr al-malikiyln), aIl Mu' tazilis and
(
Ibn contends that it is'impossible for the laws of
"
re l ig io n to be 10 st through the pass ing '0 f t ime, so tha t the -\
haram (prohibited) and the fard (command) will not be known
._- . .--,
wi th certainty and that Islamic laws will become mixed up
with invented ones.
50

ibn argument regarding the reliability of the
khabar is based on several Qur'anic verses 'and \0g-
"
dlths, and he alludes to the view of his opponents,
t'he\ nature of their argumQnt 18 not fully stated.\ However,
Ibn s position is clear, namely' that sound re-
PQrted by one transmi tter is preserved by Allah, because H\
is part of revelation. ,
, \
l ,
, .. ' ---
1 \
(
,
1 t
(,'
.-'
,
70
Ibn first the reliability of
is the following verse of the Qur!an:
A band frorn each community should stay behind to in-
struct thernselves in religion and admonish their men
when they return, so Ithat may take heed.
52
, \
According to Ibn 1;Iazrn, the word "taJ'ifahtl Cl;!. group,
a band, a party) in Arabie applies to one as weIl more
than one persons, is also the opinion of al-Sarakhsi.
53
Therefore, +bn 1;Iazm rnaintains that the'verse above indicates
that the warning of those who stay behind,. even if is only
l ':5Lp
one person, should be accepted.
AI-rusI us a different view the verse in
, ,
question. He rnaintains that the. verse does.not indicate that
the Muslirns should accept the warners' warning. Instead, it
en'jained a group of people ta give warning. Those who
,
are warned should investigate the trutnfulness of the warners
through rationalcevidence (adillat al-'agl). The case is
the\9arne with the injuction to tHe Prophet to warning
peoble. warning i$ npt be accepted by them unless
they
, . " \
have,strong evidence of hia truthfulness (illa dalla al-
,
, ,
"
.' \\
J
1
t
l,
j
. ,
'al
l '
. "
'The second p'l'oaf i's based on the Sunnah, namely, the
, (,
, '
to,the messengers whom the Prophet ta f;
1 neighbouring rulrs and kings. The SunQah shows that he sent
l'
, '
,J
, '
\
, /
(
,r
( l'
1 -
1
i \,

7/
one envoy to every whether Christian or Arab.
56
Atten-
tion should be focused on the of a single messen-.
ta each corresponding king. To Ibn Hazm thrs also indi-
cates that a single report should accepted,57
. ,
third proof which Ibn ta assert the
necessi ty of accepting khabar is the story of Moses
" as A the Qur' an. When someone rJnning from the
1
. ,
ot1l.er end ,of the city telling him that the chi-ef'tains were
plotting to kIII hilli (Moses), he belxeved him.
58
when
Moses arrived at Midian, one of the girls ,sheep had -
been watered by him told him ,that her father called' him ta
receive a reward, and he believed her.
59
, - In aIl thege examples, Ibn points out the n-
"
cess i ty of -acc_epti'ng t,he report of a t;rusworthy, persan" es-
, ....
pecia,lly,the ttadlth which belongs to It

follows that this k'ind of l).adlth must be known as authori-
tative' antl 'be as valid/
60
What gives this kind
of an important status the fact that Ibn ijazm coo-
l
\
siders it, as weIl as the \khabar al-tawatur, of rev-
elation;
To sum up, Ibn Hazm's stand in accepting the khabar
(1 li
reported by a reliable person as positive evidence
.
rn Islamic law is one of his and the differences
)
from gther 'ulama' of other schools and sects. This i be-'
"
1
"
l'
\1
.
,.
1
)
, '
\
,"
1
)
72
'.
q 6
cause he re,jects the occ;urrence of in religion. As
, !
for the khabar' a I-tawa tur and the khabar' al-wahid, Ibn Hazm
.'
c;tccepts bO,th knds, as the second SOurce of 'Islamic law and
\ "-
as first being As
who, believes in the literal meaning of the nass, he believes
-II 1
. t1;tat the Sunmih is the tion 'of the Qur"an, ilnd he
, . .
stresses that 10ss of any eitfler khahar al-tawa-

, tur or khabar :l-wal;id, _ met the ioss
This', ,in Ibn Jjazm' s view, \ would
c
, mea'n
part 'of the
(
the destrucjion
, of wilich is. ,):0 s
He has promised to 0 and to
'.. ) .
gl,lard the na?? be ing 10,st: gh accepts
'" .. 6 ll\
khabar. as the sanad of i,j 2 ,bes' de the 'khab'ar al-
s_ ..,..-!" 0
tawaiur', khabar al-wahi'a. 'cannot be ma (lum' bi ex':'
.- i
, \.' 'd' ... ,' f b : 63
cept very rarel!;r., when there, lS an ln lcatlon ) elng ,so.
Having' reviewed Ibn Jjazm's view ofthe Sunnah and
il
i ts types- on transmission, we now \n'ention his view on .
. , \
the types of Supnah based on its Our purpo,e in
'1
this will be determine if aIl thse kinds are capable of
being considered t() be sanad of Lima (t and we shall- 'see l'lOVi
Ibn l;lazm applies his them. These types of
Sunnah are :s follows(: _
a. Qawl (the statement), of the Prophet
to Ibn\ ljazm a JJaw,l o,f the Prophet is a

. '
..
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f1
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.
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1
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. ..

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. \
0
f
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73
whieh can serve as sanad of ijma'. This isthe sarne
of the leading SunnI,jurists. His orders are incumbent
, ,-
upon Muslims, as long as is no indication that they
outside the category of commandment, like al-nadb (recommend-
ing) .64 This is becau8e he i8 ordered /by Allah to explai1n
/
what has been revealed to him, fOr the deal-
ing with zakah, where he explains when and how it should.be
paid. "
.;.
..
" ' ,
b. Fi'l (the deed) of the Prophet
,l
Ibn as the says that the .
et' s deed is not incumbent upon Muslims, but i8 recommended
. , ..
(mandb) . The of the Prophet is only a model" (uswah)
.
"Ifor the e;?Ccept. if i t is
or there is an indication of its
l th
' . t b h .. " 66
'n lS case l ecomes .Ut.1 Jau, .
aeeompanied with is
being obllgatory (wajib}.65
For example, a
\
deed is intnded to execute a certain injunction, then it
, . ""\
cornes wajib, ,as it i q in the case of the Prophet's prayer,
1 .'
for De says: "Pray the way you s'ee me praying," and the
, ,\
Prophet's intention to burn the houses of those who failed
attend the congregational
The view of Ibn in considering the Prophet's
deed as uswah is the application of the literaI meaning of
the, Qur' anie verse:
.,
_\
r'
1
1
,
j
1
'-
t
(
;
,
..
Verily in the messenger of Allah ye have a good.exam-
pIe for him who looketh unto Allah and the Last Day,
and remembereth Allah much.
68
Ibn l;Iflzm says tt).a,t the word "lakum" (for you, i. e. , you have) in
the above verse indicateyermission to leave i t fwhile if the pro1ph-:.
et's deeds were an injunction to the verse'would
"'alaykum" (upon you). 69 Ibn Hazm supports this t
\ .
,
by a th mentioned by him where the Prophet took
off h,is sandals whtle he was leading a prayer. The
who were praying behind him did the same. the prayer
the Prophet asked them why they taken Qff their sandals .
.
When they told him that they thought taking off the sandals
was an injunction during the prayer, , the Psophet said that
he took his sandals off because Gabriel came to him and told
him that his sandals were dirty. This is an indication, Ibn
Ijazm contends, that the deeds of the Prophet enjoin-
. 70
the r,1uslims. 't
Ibn argues further, if the Prophet's deeds
an injunction upon the Muslims, this injunction would
be unbearable, as nobody could do. the same as the Prophet
\
in everythingj
\ '
their h
1
nds, walk, and in the place, way, and direction
ample, Muslims would have to put
\
as the Pr0phet did respe tively,7
1
The view of Ibn in considering' the deeds of the
'1(
..

.
j
... .. .... _J r ... .. , ..
..
-..... .

(
; \
,
"

" 1
7'5
Prophet as merely uswah iB parallel to that Of som Shafi-
'1s. it is eOfitrary ta that of sorne who
,
consider the 'Prophet' s deeds stronge-r than his orders (akndu
min aWGmirihI), sorne MaliKlp and consider
like his orders ka al-awamir) .72
c. Tagrlr of the Prophet
While Ibn characterizes the deeds of
et as actions conditional valu, not
'"
always representa ti ve of of "
rlr, 'like his gawl, has an ov:erall value.
the Prophet's tag-\
still. there iG
difference between the two, in that Ibn Hazm considers the
. .
l '
'gawl as !;lu,j jah, while he denies tag rir a similar status. ln
his view, tagrir lS no more than permi tted ,aet (mubah), bu t
the act itself implies no !;lujjah at aIl. This view is con-
trary to that of the Sunnl 'ulama" who contehd tht tagrlr
t
l)uj,jo.h. By doing sa, those 'ulama' related l)u,i.jah ta .li-
ma'. Ibn opposes this view. argument is that sinee
, "
the dut Y of the,Prophet is tablIgh (eonveyanee of, the message),
he would never keep silent if,he saw or knew of any munkar
,
(reprehensible This means, in Ibn
"
that anyth,ing whieh the does not disapprove of i8
r \
perrnissible. The example given by Ibn i8
1 listening ta the singing of twq girls (jariytayn) in

II,
"
-
.
Il'
t

-Jt.
-;t
,

"
\ , '1
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f
1 -
7'"
his house, and his disrleasure with the disapproval of Aq
'14
Bakr.
J. Qiyas
. '\ /
/
Essentially, Ibn rejects the idea of on
\
the groupd that an .ct of this nature is false and prohibi t-
ed.
75
Yet, those who apply it in their ijtihad
are, in Ibn Hazm's rna'dhr (excused) and ma' jr (re-
wardcd) as long as no hU,j,jah has ever reached them. The
. . .
proponents of giyas are aIl of the Shafi'Is, groups among ,
the and MalikIs, as mentioned by Ibn' Prior
ta his conversion to the sehool '; Ibn Hazm, let us elTl-
"
phasize, was a mernber 01 the Shafi'L sehaol and studied Sha-
-
fi' l :figh.
In rejecting the view of al-Shafi'I
notes that istil)san is outside the realm of the Qur'an and
;;, the Sunnah, and does not have any legal authori ty. Ibn J:!i'.m
\ in turn llsas al\-Shaf'i' i 's c:-rgument on ihe question of istill-
ta assert that the sarne is also true about qiyas, i.e.,
like qiyas i8 bound ta be out of the realm of 8JW-
T 78
rl'ah. As we noted above, Ibn argues at length on
this issue, because he regards qiyas as an innQvatioh and
which therefore needs ta be strongly refuted.
One of the many examples given by Ibn l;Iazm in refJt-,
(
, 1
(
77
ing is the opinion of Jd. 150/767) that
the flow of blood from the body rl'ullifies (ablution),
This opinion is the resul t of the application 0 l' q lyas. 111
"'
Ab view, sinee the discharge of urine and stool
from the/bOdY \'{hich are two dirty things (na,jlsan) nullify
_,1
the flow of blood whieh is also a dirty thing (na-
jis,,79 according to him, also nullifies .80

As a who refuses as one of the
of lslamic law 1 Ibn re jects this view, because he
" - lT181 t' th t
has never knovm any l,lma', or da l sta Ing Cl
- ) the flow of blood nullifies wuqli' , ' '
Judging by this example it is fairly that
Ibn wants ta prove two things: a') that giyas i8 not o111j
,
but even 8upsrfluou8 to religion, because reli-
f 83
gion has been made complete; b) that- the application of
1
9 i:yas i8 wrong, because i t is based on the idea of 'illa11,
and Ibn
1> ' 8
4
'--
rejects it.
/
B. Ibn View of the
Types of I,ima'
-
Primarily, ijma' can be divided into many types,

pending on time
c
, place,. and the people who exercise i t.
Of '
,
these types, the most common ones are the following: 1) ijma'
\ -
-.'
(
(
.,.
l'
7t
on what i8 known in religion necessity (al-ma'10m hi GI-
n
'larurah) , tfor example, the t
1
]:ljunction of f,ive-daily
Y'
'"
f.or Muslims; this type of i,jma' is "as strong as the i t-
self, and no Mus'lim will disagre,e to i ts be ing 0Ll:J ,jah i
2) i,jmo.' 9 fi, the sahabah is unanimo,usly accepted 9Y the ad-
.-.-- '
vocators of i,jma' 1 and there is no disagreement between Ibn
and his adversarie8 on its nature, validity and signif-
icance; J) ijma' of the people of Madinah i8 advocated by tho
Maliki sehool al?ne, but it i8 not so important as the pre-
- - '-.
vious types of ijma', and most of the 'ulama' outside this
school do not attach any to it and do not con-
sider it ijma'i 4) ijma' where no challenge is known assumes
tho otatUG of ijmo.' 1 bocause of the absence of any dispute
'"
its nature,i'5) ijma' with one challenge; although
this type of i,jllla' is considered by its exponents to have
t the status of i,ima', i t Iack,s unanimi ty which i8 one of the
basic conditions laid down by Ibn for 5udging the valid-
ity of ijma'. Of these types of ijma' Ibn recognizes
only the first and the second ones, and this recognition is
in harmony with hi8 vie..w of the Qur'an and the Sunnah as thr>
\ -

sources of Islamic Iaw. 1
?
Having outlined Ibn view of iJm' and the dpf-
inftions covering this concept, shall foeus on each of the
above five toncepts, anaIyzing their nature, significance and
\ 1
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f -

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/
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1
1
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validity, all wi thin the framework of Ibn l;[azm' s wri tings,
,
Ibn accepts only two of the above types, his

argument in relationship to the remaining types is also irn-
.{
portant. For this reason we shall study them as well. We
\ shall try, when possible, 'ta elabarate on the Vlew of Ibn
opponents an the evidence used for supporting thir
arguments.
,
_ 1. on What is Religion by Necessity
This type qf is the agreement of aIl of the
"
Muslims upon what has already been 'stated by clear
,iaIi) and what is known in religion by necessity. Ibn l;[87.m
a ffers many example s for this of i among whidh i8
the MusIim's witness that there is no gdd but"Allah and Nu-
hammad is the Jv1essenger of Allah.
85
Beside iik being stated
by a clear this type of i,jma' i8 ttE-'d by the
whole MHslim one age to anothcr. eP That i t
is tho strongest type of i,jma' is indicated by the s.treng;th
of its which is de,rived from evidence preserved in the
,-
QJlr' an and tnl Sunnah of the type. Accordinf, ta 0
/
\ Ibn J,Iazm. Tyone who denies t is basically an infidd. 87
tnis type of ijma' is not considered ijm' by
, - - \
Ibn opponents, namely the jumhur al-'ulama' (the 'ula-
,
ma', en masse ).... They maintain that the on what i8 kno\'ln
\ ...
by necessi ty i8 no more th an a mere agreement on' the
:'
, '
'/
"
-80
i tself . The example;s which they cite are no t dif.ferent \ from
those ciied by Ibn for instance, those given b1 al-
Shafi'I.
S8
In addition, al-Nazzam, who was hotorious for
, \'10 /1
his rejectionof the occurrence of ijma,8
9
and its validity,
"is n,:t CO')1sidered:s an infidel by Ibn f,1oreover,DJ-
aclepts i,ima' whicn is on an 8..uthor-
itative statement, like the statement of the waman about th0
q1
'death ot a persan w{th some indications of her truthfulness.
Obviously, il:; known by necessi ty' is i tself an authori t;l-
ti ve statement, . Therefore, may indicate"" thl t al-NaH8In
,
accfPts this type of ijma' .
. - Ta sum up, the position taken by Ibn and Ibn
Taymiyah lre basically the same, that the agreement
on what s known in religion by necessi ty is ijma:, but thU
i8 not in accordance.with the view of the 31-
'ul,ama' 1 because this type of irima' according to them is
identical to 92 However, the fact tha t Ibn
approves of I@n Hazm's position indicates sorne stand
. .
lJ
/ ,
among the the regarding the
.
But it is certain whether the position taken by Ibn
- .1 'T 1
and Ibn Taymlyah reflects the views of the and. the
1 '
schools as a whole.
93
2. Ijma' of the "',
This i,ima' as formula t'ed by Ibn cnters on the
.,
..
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1
"

1
Y
.
1
1
, Il
(
and semantical arguments put Sorward by the'pro-
"", '
poneni7s and the opponents of i,im' j amang the leading rnembpfs
of the former are Ibn J;Iazm and the ,jumhr al- 'ul:1.ma'. Two
,
concepts are central ta the ir positions, namely, th!'
exact definitj,on of the and the concept of tawqlr
(the teaehing of the Prophet). the differenees, the
general trend among both groups i8' their approval of co 11-
eept and its validity.
Ta begin with, Ibn IJazm. as. weIl as the
links this type of i,jma' to a particular era, namely, the
period eoveririg the lives of the Henee the cone0pt
. 94
eenters on the ' This .. po8i tian i8 accepted by Ibn
\
Ijazm 1 s i. e., the ,jumhr 0.1- 'ulama' , but i t i8 nU,L
\ \ Il
certain how far they agree on the details Gf the cO,nditionc:
\
relating ta it. Iri the instance of Ibn Hazm,. he
,; ,.. "
that sueh an i,jma' of the had the status of i,jm'
only when they were living in ,Madlnah and before the1i had
been setLttered in the dar (Muslim lands). r In e'8-
sence, th'e as defined by Ibn are the Prophe t 1 S
contemporaries who saw him once or more than oncp, 011y
of those'who heard him something; neither OppOSltl(::
him nor 1'e jecting hi8 prophethood. 9? i8 also the apilL-
ion of the jumhr al- 'ulam' Jn which they assert that the
are those who believe in the P1'ophet and met him,
'1
Saif ul Haq
(
,
J

evel) though the meeting may have lasted only for Cl short
time Whether they report about him or not is not
a comli tian. Ibn l;fazrn re jects the opinion of those who ma Ul-
tain that there would be a limi t of time and nUVlber in SCf'-
1
ing the Prophet and being in company with him to as
Ibn J:[azm also maint8.i
l
'jls that since there is nlo
7,
such limit available, this i8 crucial to the acceptance of
the concept. Moreover, Ibn argues, the origin of the
\ '
ward relates to anyone with whom 8omebody has 8.
. certain matter ma) ,and on account of this, he is
considered to have accompanied him. As for anyons who has
f
seen the Prophet and nei ther opposes him nor _ denies his prorll-
- .,. u6
ethood he deserves ta be called a sahabl, in Ibn Hazm' s vie':,.'
.-.--- "
On the basis of this argument, Ibn l;fazm re Jects the view r(l- ....
'of
ported by Sa' Id al-rliusayyib
97
which imposes the condi -cio n
of living with the Prophet for at least one or joini'n{,
hilT\ in ono of his campaigns in order ta be considered a '\"
- T 98
hab 1.
'--
According ta Ibn Hazm aIl of the were 'udl
. "
(sing. 'adl, honest people), faq.il (eminent) and m'in ahl al-
1
\
jannah (among the people of Paradise). He bases tlUs vie,w
on five Qur'anic verses and one J:1.adith. One of the Qur'Gnic
verses i8 the following: 8
Muhammad .ls thf messenger of Allah. And those with him
1
1
r
l'
i
1.1
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83
[i. e., the are ha rd against the disbelievers
and merciful among themselves. Thau (0 Muhammad) see:=;1;
them bowing and falling prostrate (in worship) , ,seeking
bounty from Allah and (His) acceptance. The mark of
them on their foreneads from the traces of
tian. Such is likeness in the Torah and their
likeness in the Gospel--like as sown corn that sendeth
forth its.shoot and strengtheneth it and riseth firm
upon its stalk, delighting the sowers--that He may, en-
rage ihe disbelievers with (the sight ofJ them. Allah
has promised, unto such of them, as 'believe ' and do good
works', forgiveness and immense reward. 99
'The tadith upon which Ibn his view of thp
good reputation and eminence- of is that the
Prophet said:
Leave for me (da' 11) my For if any of you
had gold as big as Mt. Utud ,and you spent i t in othe.
path of Allah, it would 'Dot reach [the reward, or the
merit of] one mudd
100
[of barley or 'dates] or a half
of i t [spent by them in the path 'of llaJ1] ,1
01
,
As the are the only people whose salvation
,
was guaranteed by Aliah, Ibn contends that they
'reltable people. Their 'pdalah (honesty, honorable record)
\
does not need investigation, and their repOr\q'ShOUld be ac-
cepted without any Unlike the people
\
of the fol1owing generation (tabi'In) and of further gener-8-
,
?, . ,
-,
,
\
l
;
i
l
j
j \
..
8'+
tions do not have such a guarantee of salvation, and there-
fore, in Ibn ljazm's view
l
their 'adalah should be investi-
10J
gated.
,
.
Another concept which iS
o
8ssential or assess-
. '
ment of i,jma' of the f{.))abah i8 what Ibn I;!azm called tawqll'
104
\ which means "teaching from the Prophet". It is directly
Q
received by the alone, and this is the ijma' of the
, '
ln Ibn I;!azm's view.
105
,To this, the ,jumhrJal-

'ulama' are in agreement with lbn opinion. The
agreement lies iri the ,jumhr' s insistence on the i,ima' 0 r
thE) ?eyond the tawg If 1 i ',e. 1 'i..jma' on q iyas
and i,jtih,ad. They contend that there are many examples wherr.,
+h h-b . h'" "- b . 't"h-d 10,6
ah t elr lJma' ased on 1,1 ya . o m.'
of these examples ci ted by the jumhr'- 11 the agreement of tJ1
upon the election,of Ab Bakr through i,jtihad
- _. " 1;
The ,jumhur add that the malntaln that as the Fraphet Via:::;
pleased v;i th Ab Bakr for the s'ake of their religion i they' should be
pl'eased wi th him for the sake 0 f their ma tters .10?
This opinion i8 rejected by Ibn two points:
\
a) He maintai,ns that the election of Ab Bakr as khallfah
(caliph) through qiyas was held by anyone at that time,
1
1
but this opinion is adhered tO,by people of a later genera- l
l
,
.
"
t
,
tian the followers of, qiyas aV ,t
" ,
l
,
\
1
Qab al-giyas) r-rho used whatever they. could find ta' defend
\ !
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-
,
o
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81'
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their opinions; b) Evan,if is supposed to be
, 1\
its application,in tbis case is faIse, because the 't
I1ah
\
of as lbn argues, is different from of
prayer. This Js becaule an Arab. whe;her a master ,'of a
slaye, who nd knowledge of the military
ruling the country can Iead a prkyer, while the ,man IhO
l' Il
takes 'the positio;'af khallfah must be of the tribe.
' \ i
furthermore, iwamah, i. e., khilafah lS an asl (basis,h while
-.- r
, , 108
prayer i8 one of i ts furu "1 (branches). Abu \Bakr as ,
in Ibn J:Iazm' s view, 'through from th P ophet.
Ibf J:Iazm to a Qadlth where the Prophet in his illness
before his death asked 'h'ishah to call 'Ab Bakr and her
.. -
l '
brother, so'that he write a kitab (a document, a mes-

,for- the succession o,f Ab Bakr.
109
In fact, Ibn J:Iazm sqmetimes only one type
'-
of which he advocates,' nmely, ijma' in what is con-
firmed that the whole say know, and have no' Idis- .
about. The "'xampl(:?s by Ibn !th,ings
krown feligion by necessi ty, .... e .g., that the t:J:ba:h
" . !
with the Prophet, or that they knew that the, Prephet prayed
\
with the people. Ijma' also includes things which no Muslim
, 1
would rmain a be1iever if he does not in it, e.g.,
th f
' d '1 110
e Ive- al y prayers .
....
1
Abu Zahrah
, .-

view on this when he mentions. 6nly one advocated Iby,
\' -
1 Q
. \
,1
j
l'

1 -
1 -
, .
(
,
Ibn l:fazm, 'and whert he says that the essence of i,;ma' in Ibn
, 1
l:fazm's view is what is known in religion by neqessity, while
Itheloccurrence of is only during the period of the
l')abah.
11
inta' tW0
Ibn Ijazm
mentions

...
makes us divide the ijma' by Ibn l:fazm
types is ,that": aj in places in
himself mentio'ns two typ,es of i,ima' ;112 b) Ibn J:fazm
. t '
three ways of; the transmission of laws of religion ')
al-dln), which includes They'are: 1) laws
transmi,tted by the whole community from qne age to another,
, '
belief (iman) l' prayers, and fasting, Ibn Ijazm main-
r
tains that there is n6thing disagreed upoh in this cate'kory.
This we calI what is known in religion by necessity, and we
put it as the first tyPe of i,ima'j 2) laws transmitted by
,1
way of like mny (practices) of. the Prophet,
some of, which are agreed upon, and others are disagreed upon.
,
However, the disagreemertt does not come from the
but ratDer, from people of later generations.
ll
) The exam-
l ,
pIes are: the prayer of the Prophet in sitting, wi tne'ssed by
the who were present at that time, and that the
Prophet levied tax on the Jews of Khaybar, for .half of the
crops of the land they were cultivating. These deeds of the
Prophet are legal actions, as they,are the execution of cer-
tain injunction,s, , i. e., prayer and the ta,x levied to the Jews
o
1
(
. \
. '
(
\ .
of Khaybar. Therefore, they are J:lU,jjah and sanad of i.;ma' .114
This we call the i,ima' o( the and we put i t as the
second type of ijma'.advocated by Ibn I:fazml 3) laws _
by one reliable 'person the,authority_oi
(naqalah thigatun 'an thiqatin), i.e., khabar
of these laws are upon by people in later gen-

erations. I,jma' of this type is very rare .115
Apart from theseCtwo typ'es of i,jm', Le.', the ,i.ima'
,
'on what is known in religion by and the ijma' of
the sahabah', Ibn 'Hazm does not see any reason to calI the
.-'----, 1
remaining types
.. -,
1,1ma , they are based upon
1
and accurred at an era other than that of- the
l;tabah. We shall discu,ss briefly sorne of these' remaining
, ' ,
types of ijm', focusing on the why Ibn I:fazm refutes
the legal arguments of those who adhere to
,1 j'ma ' of the Peopie ,of Madlnah
\
Ibn Hazm was a leading opponent of this type of li-
t
. '
m' which had been p;imarily advocated by Malikf jurists.
Although Ibn Hazm was a leading opponent of this type df li-
. . .
ma', he was not the first, ta reject it. Severalleading
- - T 116 . 11 7
'ulama', sueh as al-ShafI'I ,and al-Lay th Ibn Sa'd pre-
cedecl him in this respect. This ijma' was also by
the HanafI'jurist al-SarakhsI. The'legal history of, this

1
1
1
)
1
1 1
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i
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1
..
-,.
ijma' and the arguments supporting it ned not be studied
, here in detail. as long as the notion has been disapproved
by Ibn I;Iazm. Rather, we shaH concentrate oh why Ibn
this type of ijma', accounting simultaneously
for the opponents' argqments.
It is not known whether s reject'ion o,f this
1
ijma' was influenced by the view of his predecessors in this
field. We know only that he refuses the ijma' of the people
of Madlnah and virtually any agreed upon by scholars
of a given Muslim city. The MalikiS, as we know from Ibn
propagate the ijma' of the people of and their
1
1 arguments presented by Ibn Hazm are as follows:
a. They maintain that Madinah is the best city in dar al-
Islam by virtue of several.?adlths mentioning the merits
of that city. J They also maintain that Madlnah is the
l
place pf the of revelations, xhe land of
tian, the gathering plce of the sahabah, and the resi-
'-'--1
b.
denee-place of the Prophet. Since rival ci ties had
no such status, they do not hsitate ta $ingle out MadI-
\
nah wi th the privielge of i.ima'.
.,
They also claim that the people..of Madlnah have more
knowledge and are more familiar with the ahkam (laws) of
-'--
the Prophet th an the people of any other city. )
c. ,The people of Madlnah were eye-wi tnesse of the
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deeds of the Prophet, and.they know the
tive) from manskh (abrbgated).
ing is important because it gives
,
informat1.on about the latest laws from the Prophe t
which' shoula be followed by l\1uslims.
d. The of the Prophet i8 known by the mo .lori ty rather
than :the minori ty of the $.J)abah. Since the' majori ty in
;
\ ...
this instance are the people of Madlnah, and since thor8
are few followers of the Prophat in other ci ties, thcy
(the majority) had a better knowledge of the hukm and its
,--
imlcation.
<
On the bass of these four arguments -they claim the i.ima 'f of
the people of as 0ujjah:119
Ibn 1;Iazm re j ec ts aIl the se arguments. Regarding Ma-
\
dlnah and its,status, he disputes the uniqueness of the city
and. contrary to this, he maintains that Makkah is the best
120
city, because it is confirmed If Madinah were
th\" rlcst ty, Ibn 1:fazm would say that there will be no vmy
1
Lo 1l1:Lt lllO O1'\jL:t }luupl'" il: .L1.!!.0:. 'j'"
port this view, he cites two Qur'anic verses which mention
of hypocrites in Madlnah and thatthe hypo-
crites
\
-, 12 1
will be in the lowest deeps of Hell. Further-
Ibn 1;Iazm contends that there are bad people in Madinah
as weli as in other For instance, he maintains that
1
1
,
J
(
{'
90
, .
. in his time Madah was inhibi ted by .the-3Jl,t:el'li st' RaViiiiid
(Deserte.fs) Based o.n this 'contention, the agrf'emeJnt of
this ldnd of people could be accepted, in Ibn Ho.zm l,'
{lie,,:, in spite of their living in r,1\dlnh. As for the' '1,'1J id-,
1
i ty of good people 'li-ving in Madinah, who the I\1lik.is. o 1.'1 im'
1
to ho.ve ial privilge, Ibn Ijazm ae;ain refuses this sto.nd
"
and wonders whete they.got privilege which was not o.voil-'
,
-able to the people '0 f 0 ther ci ties. 123 Just as he refutcs
t the first argument. aqvanced by the MlikIs, sa he does wi th
1
the argument,s. Ibn l{azm maintains that the 9,;lJ:\i.bah
knew more about the .:l)kam (sipg. J:lukm) put forward by the
than the people of Madlnah. They knew the Prophet's
last deeds, they the and without afly
whether they lived inside or outside Madlnah. Ta
refuie the ide a that any l)ukm could not be unknown to the
people of Madlnah who were the majori ty: of 9.:.l)abah ,2bn
1
Ijazm contends that this could only occur if his QPponents
find an issue reparted by'al1 of the wh,o were in ,Ma-
dinah,' and everyone of them gave his legal\ opinion on i t. '
This, in Ibn Hazm's view, did not happen. There were legal
1
1
opinions given by sorne of them. In this it is possible,
according to Ibn Ijazm, that a given by the Prophet was
not known by a group of but known by one 'r more
among them. This 'is significant, because the e1ement of
'1
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majority 0) actualized and cannot be applied to Mablnah
, j
, h h- h . J . l '1In'" h 126
alone. Moreover, t e, a:ba mlgut stay ln or eave lYladlna . ,
Ibn conterids further, that the above. i,jma' is based e,ither
il'!. '
on ijtibad or tawqlf. from the Pro.phet-. ' If it were i,jtihad of
/" <
,the or the people of Madlnah, Ibn J:Iazm re jected i,ima'
based on ijtihad. It'i t were based on tawg if, Ibn l;fazm ar.-
gues that should a 0ukm known by sorne inside Madi-
1
nah, they must have people outside the city, sa that
the knowledge of people inside and outside Madinah becomes \
- \\
equal. 'Had not they done sa, then their 'adalah become '
nullified, and they wou'ld b,ecome sbject to the curse of
Allah.
125
j Since Allah protects them from this character, Ibn
J:Iazm contends,' the necessi ty .of i,jma' of the peo.ple of Madi-
\'.
nah becomes void.
126
l;fazm rejects the argument of the
Malikis and maintains that the Mlikis are ft because
, / they adhere blindly to, the opinion of thir imam,' i. e., Ma-
- f,
. 127
lik ibn Anas (d. 179/795). 1
l' -Pt should be noted that al-Sarakhsi, like Ibn Jjazm,
rejects the position MalikIs on the same grounds.
Though al.Sarakhsi apcepts the merits of Madinah as mentioned
in the J:1adlths, yet he maintains that these apply
exclusively ta the age of the Prophet. As for the other
the merits of its ,people. He maintqins
that in his time there is no place in the Muslim lands where
1
(
people have so less know}edge, are 80 ignorant, and sa far
removed from the motive of goodness than that of Madinah.
The ths mentioning. the rneri ts of Madinah, in al-Sarakh-
)
sI's vie,w. refer to its condition in the time of the Prophet
when
the
(18.
th,e pilgrimage

c i,ty, while bad
, J,
irruna 'fiha).
was enjoined, where Muslims gathered in
people and apostates did not settle there
-
Al-Sa'rakhsl argued further. that the'
place could be protected though the people who were living
in/it were not on the ('al ghayr al-1;t:9.gJ. The
ex'ample given by al-SarakhsI was the condition of Makkah
during the Year of the Elephant, when protected the
city from the invasion of Abrahah and his troops, though its
1
1 128
inhabitants were ldolators.
In spite of Ibn attack on this type of ijma',
the opinion of th'e people of Madlnah on the exact rneasure of
- 1'29 ' - 1JO
mudd and is accepted unanimously by the whole 'ulama'.
Ibn that it is not ijma' of the people of
l ,
Madlnah which is accepted in this case, but ,the Qadlth which
goes back to the Prophet transmitted (bi al-
tawatur) which there is'also disagreement thern.,
,
"
'A Madinese, Ms ibn Talhah ibn 'Abd Allah was reported to
. ..
)
have a different opinion on this issue. On the hand,
,
Ibn contends that if the acceptance of this issue should
be extended to
otherSChe ovinion of
'. 0
the people of Makkah
..
. ,
(
93. '
would more deserve ta be accepted. This io lJecauGG the V/hole
MJslim cornrnuni ty agree ta, accept the ir opinion upon tltl J OCl.-
tiOI1;; of 'Ar2fah, r,luzdaiifah, Mina, etc.
1J1
r,;oroovcr, the:
opini'll1 of the people of r.ladlneth on the 0 l' lmldd ,,11<1
f?i.' if', accepted by Ibn not because iL tJl'_' 0 pj nj (m 0 f
the pf"ople of TI1adlnah, but because i t is the mj niDiurn' rn,.';)-;UrC
mentioned in the controversy. Sorne people, wLom 'Tbn K17,J(t did
0/
not mme, held the opinion that one y 3:. , equn.l;; 0irrht pound:;,
others assume that it is more than thn.t, whUe the 1 pc.:o]Jl pf
Madinah maintain that it is five'pounds and more;, Thcr(;/"o}'C',
i8 no disagreement among the in the acceptancc
of this minimum measure of
In s]Jmmary, the Maliki8 as we have snen etre the ad-
,
vocators of this type of ijma', and the posi tian to which 0
they adhere is in sharp contrast with Ibn Since
,
Spain during Ibn time adheres'dominantly to
sehool, we Viander why Ibn Hazm rejects the MiilikI position.
The' answer to this question lies in the doctrinal and polit-
ieal rivalries between and doctors, Doctrinal
rivalry, beeause Ibn the Ziihiri sehool and,
i tfE known that the adhere ta th"" as trle .only
1
source of 'law in religion.
1
,POIl tlcal rlvalry, because his
motive is ta demonf,ltrate ta the people and rulen. "in 11is time
the ffaise-hood of the MaIikl jurists in following the ir imam
r
i
\
. ,
-------
9
...
ibn Anas, instead of the Qur' an and the Sunnnh. This
. '
cri tic ism be interpreted to rnean that Ibn l,fcl ZIn Vlafl
ally denouncing r.lal;ild judges and rulers theJrisel-vols. - In ,3rnin
"
the of wazlr (vizier, rninistcr) 8.ntl ailSl! 'l'le l't' 111l)J,lr-
tant ones and the I,1aliki jurists did i'ndeed occupy th8sf' ]>0-
, '.
si tio:s. This was becal,lse the official rnadldl8.b L Viftlch LIli'
of Spain adhl?red durinc; Ion l;Iazm's _ timc W0.S the 1"1:::1 i 1:1.
rnadhho h'. In the meantime the rulers preve nted rI jUr1
like :1'n l;Iazm from occupyinf, judic ial and no 11- Jud ic 1zll Jill" 1 -'
< ?
'tians in the government, bc:mse the l mClclhhnb was f,
ta th'?l'1. {BY SO do ing., Ibn Bazm was express his cri tici sm
th. relifious orientation of his contemporary rulers.
and the :.1 likI jurists who t0.q1id
133
iD8tead dl il-
tihd.
4. Ijwa' no Challenge is
.,
.
According ta Ibn, Hazm, Othis type 0 f ijmil' V/as advo-
...
cated by the fol10wer8 of the l;Ianafi, and
Unknbwn of these schoo1s waintain if
le[a1 dgement of a particular issue was put forward hy a
has
tV/a
'D'lama', it becornps i,jrna(, provided that no 'ii.lim
) .
1 '] i}
its 1egal authority. J Ibn Cit8S
for its lega1ity: '1) the attribute of virtue,
involved in the "to the
i. e. ,
peo- )"t
s
l)lama'
le\of [race and religion (ahl wa al-dln) 'I,horn Allah
, ,

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..
1
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enjoins the believers ta obeYi 2)- the""ulama"8 acceptance, of
the decision of the jurists involved in th judgement. There-
fore, the advocators of this type of i,jma'" as stated by' "Ibn
Hazm, maintain that the absence of any indicates
. "
. 13'5
common agreement.
"
ut Ibn Ijazm refuses to interpret t,he .bsence ot chal-,'
. '
1
lenge of an 'alim to the judgement of the lnvolved as
1
an indication of 'common agreement. There are for think-
, - . \
ing that Ibn' Hazm totally re jected the' legali ty ofl this type of
i.im', i.e. f the i.im' where no challenge i8 known. The ground8 for
this are comprised of historical precedent, the use of
as the basis of ijrna', and the tendency arnong rnankind to dis-
agree in theii daily life. Ibn Ijazm is also uncertain whether
the le gal judgement' involved, in effect, spread out among the
'ulama' , because they have been scattered through dar al-Islam.
,
.
Since this is the case, the absence Qf challenge, Ibn con-
tends, is highly unlikely to oceur. Moreover, Ibn Ijazm is also un-
certain whether the absence of disagreement can be interpretd
_ 136
as pOS l tl ve agreement among the lnvol ved\ 'ularna' . For Ibn
IJazm, the absence of disagreement in, a legal context can also
.
be viewed as a legl timate disagreement in the sarne context',
One historical precedent which'Ibn cites,is the example
concerning the experience of the Abu Ayyb al-Anf?ari. 1J7
During the caliphate of 'Umar he stopped performing two rak-
.
, .
. '
Jo,. 1"IfIiiWo.l.
"
,
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'ahs after the lasr (late afternoon) prayer, while prior to
that calipnate, he had been these two

ra.k'ahs. But after ,the death of 'Umar he rturned to his pre-
vious practice., When he wa,s, asked why he s'topped practic ing;
,
the two rak'ahs during the time of 'Umar, out rsumed it later
on, he said that he did so because 'Umar beat people who per-
formed'it.
138
Ibn l;[azm interpreted this example as a proof
that the fear cl3.Used by 'Umar' s beating was responsible for
Ab Ayyb's suspension of that prayer, and with the absence of
such fear, he resumed it. It follows that his fear is also
the cause of hii::i 'silence in concealing his disagreement wi th
139 ..
'Umar in the matter of the two r'ak' ahs after the prayer.
Ibn also dispute the meaning of agreement or
. --
,
disagreement on the basis of textual consideration. In his
view, a is the key for deciding whether or not the ijma'
has any validity of its own. According ta Ibn l;[azm an ijma'
based on nass is undoubtly a valid one, because it involves
yaq!n (cettitude). Other than the element of yaqin, any ijma'
, based on notionls such as and have to be re jected. Ibn
cites verses from the Qur'an which indicate the invalid-
i ty of One of them is as follows: ". . . . and ye ut-
tered wi th your mouth that whereof ye had no, knowledge.
.,140
. . "
,
Ibn trazm contends that assuming the occurrence of i,jma' on a
- particular issue simply because no challenge is known is a
-II' -
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kind of Therefore, ijma' based on zann is also based
on what someone has no of. This prctice is for-
1
bidden by Allah, and therefore, 'this type of ijma' has no
'\, , 141
legal value.
In addition, the same thing is true aiout human na-
ture tendency to disagree on a issue. In Ibn
view, disagreement is inherent in man and more dominant
in him than agreement is. This means that Ibn Hazm does not
wholly believe in the absence of disagreemnt in the ijma' ,
where no challenge is known. To support this belief Ibn Hazm
cites the following Qur'anic verse: "Yet they (mankind) cease
not differing save him on whom the ir Lord hath and for
that He 'did create them.,,142 This verse indicates the natJl-
raI tendency of mankind to disagree with others. So far, Ibn
belief in the nature of disagreement among mankind
leads him to reject any ijma' based on other than nass. The
reason for his thinking so'is that a Muslim cannot disagree
'143
to the ,
Ibn argument refuting the ijma' where no chal-
lenge is known indicates that he consistently takes into ac-
count the as ;the only basis of i.jma' that' he' insists
on rejecting anything in religion based' on Moreover,
through his observation of man's psychology and the Qur'anic
verses dealing with human nature, he'is convinced that there
..
()
, \
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is not a singl agreement without any challenge except ijma'
,
'ba:?ed on because ,disagreement is natural in man. As
a historian, he gives us which proye the invalidity
of his argument.
So far, we been discussing Ibn yiew of
ijma' where no challenge is known. Now we shall look into
his yiew of ijma' where one challenge is known. This typeof
ijma' is considered as fjma' by its advocators, in spite
the existehce of a challenge to it. Ibn opposes this
.
type of i,jma'. Compared to the type of i.ina
"
this
-----,.--
1
type is less important, due to the existence of one challenge. '
'.
Moreover, it had been dealt with and rejected by 'ula,-
ma' before Ibn Ij,azm ,- like al-Shafi '1 (d. 204/820). But i t is
"",
still important to know the argument for rejecting this type
of ijma' from the ?ahiri point of view as presenteft by Ibn
1;Iazm.
5. Ijma' with One Challenge
/'
We shall deal in this section wi th the type of 'i,jma'
. . ..:. 144
WhlCh lS challenged by one 'allm. The advocates of this
,
,\ype of ijma' disregard the and insist on its
1
legality, because they consider the one challenger as an
'\ . .
lated from the opinions of the 'ulama' in general'.
Ibn 1;Iazm, it-will be seen, rejects this opinion and insists
1
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that a single challerge is itseIf a on the ground_
that there': is no unanimi ty of opinion which cansti tutes the
Moreover, the challenger, co.ptrary; ta the emerging
view pf the 'ulama', might very well be on the true side, for
1
Ibn contends that religious truth does not depend the
number or numbers of its adherents.
Ta Ibn rqises the prob1em of this
.
Itype .of i.ima' in the context of a statement by the HanafI
p
1..
a1-'Azlz ibn 'Abd and the hist;- di Ab Hazirn 'Abd
.- .
rian Ab Ja'far Mul;ammad ibn Jarlr on the disagree-
- ,
ment of 1?:1;IbI ,Zayd ib'n :'hbi t wi th the four
, 1
a$ to what "ta do:with the remainder of the inhrtanc 1eft by
, ,
a dead person. Unlike the four'caliphs, Zayd ibn Thbit thinks
that this remainder of the deceased should go to bayt l-ml
"
'(public treasury) .146 But Ab Hazim disregards othis view be-
.. J
cause he aboI'ishes the law of giving the bayt al-mal a share in
land -dheres ta' the opinion of the' calip.hs.
147
Al-
TabarI's not stated. We only know that he disregards
single cha leriger in ijma' .14'8 S ince Ibn treats the
two, eminent cholars to<gether, ,we assume that ai-Tabari
bably shared with Ab Hazim the same view .
Ibh does not tell view on the issue of
the remainder of the tnheritance. Nevertheless; there is
.
ta indicate that'pe disagrees' with Ab
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100
.
1
and al-iabarI and those a shallenge in
,
the occurrence of' i ,jma'. He 'offers us three arguments by his
L _ 149 '
opponents defending this type of ijma'.: One, the opponents
of Ibn Hazm claim th8;t a si'ngle challenge of ijma' is shudhdh
(devjation) and, madhmm (reprehensible.), while following the
opinion of the community is desirable. Two, a good numbe'r of
'\ ' \ -
l}adiths indicate othe infallibility bf the Muslim ymmah (nation,,'
'\
people) and the injunction to the to adhere te the ma-
jority. Three, through the application of reason they (i.e.,

the opponents of Ibn Hazm) are uncertain whether or.not a
. .
single challenger of ijma' belongs to the jama'a'h (community).
Whi'le they do, not doubt \ that those who are by the .
, '_\ \ \ . - .
single challenger belong tu tlle 4ama'ah, lt i8 rea80nable
1
them to follow the ty who,m they 1 are sure belong to the
, 1
li ama' ah' rather th an th: single challenger, who has no sueh
distinctiorr. This is because they tannot acept the idea that
,
-
la single persan cpuid consti tute a .. iama 'ah ..
Why is a single challenge shudhdh and madhmm?
According to Ibn Hazm's appanents who advaeate this type df
. . -
ijma', an 'alim who stands alone in the jama'ah
i8 considered by them as deviating from i t. Therefore, a
single opinion whieh challenges that of the ,jama'ah, is con-
s idered deviation and something reprhensible, as shudhdh {n
r:'eligiou8
p
defini tion i8 meant ta embrace deviation from thejama' ah 1
\ . "
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which is forbidden in matters relevant to the sharI'ah.
150
Ibn l;fazm rejects this' view by ,statiDg 'that the shu.:.
dhdh is not altogether matter of' deviatien from the jam'ah.
Rather, i t means, mukhala'fat al-l;t&9.. at 'the ex-
pense of religious truth) , and anyone who disagrees in the
,realm of religious truth is himself shadhdh (a deviated oppo-
\ , 15
nent). 1 Why does Ibn l;fazm see shudhdh in the contxt of
trth alone'l For him, the justification"for not defining shu-
dhdh merely as the deviation of one 'alim from the rest of
, ,
'ulama' a:rises from the idea that the one 'alim might be c,orrect,
and truth cannot b-e shadhdh. lr52This is als.o indica ted by his _
rJjectiop of the claim made by his opponents in the context of
\, ,
a series of unlimited numbers of shudhdh, suggesting that:
leither theYlshould stick 'to the provision o limitation, or
they should not give such l,imitation .. Ibn_ that
if it were the former, then they would give false statement
without introducing any dalIl (faya'tI bikalam fasid la dalIl
'alayh), 80 that they themselves would become shadhdh from the
truth: On the other han.d, i it were the latter, \then the
\
number of 'shudhdb would be extended until they turn away from
\. .
al-ma'ql (the reasonable) and the ijma' of the communitYi
again the; themselves would become shadhdh from the truth.
15J
This view of Ibn Hazm on the position taken by his
. \:
opponents is linked with)another i.e., the\use
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of as reliable grounds to prova the infallibility of
the Muslim communi ty, plus the injunction of' the Prophet ta
th
l' h 'h" 15,h. .
e iillS Ims to ad ere to t e maJorlty. Sa Important 18
this considertion that it largely accounts for Ibn Hazm's
, .
challenge t his opponents on this matter. As illustrative
examples we shall mention two,Qadiths.
J'
The first Qadlth says:
\
The community of Muhammad will nver agree 9n an error
(dalalah), FollGW the (al-sawad al-a'zam)!
. .
He who goes Dis own
hell.! 1 >5
wy will also go his own way to
1 .-
The companent e,lements of the 1;adlth foeus on the relationship
of shudhdh to Ithe overriding nature of errors and judgement
, \ \
by. the majori ty. The ,opponents of Ibn Ijazm ,judge the cont811t3
of this 0adlth by responding that the 0adith actually refers
to the infallibility of 'the community. This community by in-
ference represents the majority Qf its members, whose agre8-
ment ilS in effect ah i,ima" .156 Any opinion which isolates it-
selffrom that of the majority (which is infallible) is auto-
and shauld be disregarded. "One view which
agrees to the interpietation of Ibn Ijazm's opponents for the
tadlth i8 preserved by al-midI. They give an example that
if we say that Ban Tamlm protect their neighbours and give--A
ta their guests this statement is to be interpret-
ed ta indicate that,tpe majority of the TamlmIs follow this
(
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:;
,
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103
,
and this by inference applies to the tribe
t
s
a who le", 15'7
This view is'not accepted by Ibn tecause he
T ,
throws doubt y.pon the veracity of the 1;lad.)..th by disputing tIlt"
reliabili ty of one of Hs chain of narrators,_ al-I,ius'ayyib ibn
by name. Ibn 1;Iazm contends tnat al-Musayyib is not a
reliable transmitter, because he falls into the category of
munkar (a tradi tionist whose l;tadi th no recor-
. t' ) 1)8
nl 10n .
... '
Ibn Hazm asserts that even if the-above Dadlth were
sound, 'i t Would be irrelevant 'to the issue of an i,.ima' based
on the opinion of the majority, sa long as it the
necessity for'Muslims to fQllow the truth, ,The reason for
underlining the truth as the implication, is that ,Hill
Hazm intkrprets the words man shadhdha ,(whoever ates) in
the l)adI th as man shadhdha .' an (whoev!9r devis. tes froJ:1
the truth), though the truth embraces one person,l'59 But th' .
, ,
f irst part of :t;his th which has a similar verse and con-
"
sti tutes a l)adi th in i tself' (i "My community vlill' not aCr8e
on an, error" ) 'has bcen re jected by several leadin; oriental-
.... '
1
ists, on the ground that al-Sha.,fi '1 did not cite i t as an
.
arQiment for the validityof ijma,.' Al-Srafi'l did'not,cite
- ,
i t ei ther because he dd not krl9w it ,(as by Schacht) ,
J
. or he knw it, but he did not consider it genuine, Watt
\ .
1 1;
1
1

. .
f
i \
t
, l
\
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.".
4:
asserts that sorne VJestern cri tics consider i t to "Q8 a lor[ed
l)ldltlt to justify the validity of i,jrna' ,161. In thb
ins;tance Ibn 1;Iazp's judgement in doubting the authenticity oi
tl18 above l;tadi th cannot be totally ignored.
The second l;tadith cited by Ibn, I:Iazmts opponents
o people, honour my 9))abah, then the following gener3-
tion "Ci." th'e tabi'ln] , then the 'following 'of the fol-
lowing generation Ci. e. , tabi'r al-tabi'In'1; aftervmrds
falsehqod will appear, so a man would swear
be :l.8ked and would bear wi tnyss bfore be ing asked;
whoever arnong you seeks the pleasure of Paradise, he
should follo\'{ the ornmunity (fa'alayh bi al-,jama'ah);
;;
a man should not be alone with a wornan, , for Satan would
be the third of the two; Satan can pursue one pdrson, hut
stands f(1r away from two; whoever is displeased wi th ll.i"
b d d l d
th h' d' .' b l' l 6'2
3 ceds and p ease Wl lS goo ones a e lever,
Accorcting to Ibn l;!azm's opponents, this hadith justifies th"
validity of i,jma', "with one challenge, because it enjoiped the
<..' ;
\I1uslims to follow the jarna'ah, Moreovert", one challenge in ii-
mii' cornes from one person wnGm Satan can' pursue, wlle tHe L-
ma'ah 18 protected by Allah, because His" hand/is upon them .

Again, 11)n Hazrn is not sure "of the soundness of this l)adI tn,
becausc he asserts that it has not reported by any tradi-
tionist who rnakes 'the soundness of J hadith the condition
1
of reporting i t (hadha: al-khabar lm yukhrijhu aJ:tad' mimman

..
(
ishtarata But ADmad Shakir,' the Egyptian qigl,
asserts that Ibn contention is false, and cla+ms tpat
the of this 0adith were thigat (reliable author-
't' ) .163
Iles .
Like the example, Ibn Hazm sees no felation-
ship between the implication of the hadith and the acceptance
of i,ima' under discussion. rnoreover, the above 0adlth
has no bearing on religious questions (lam yurad
dhalik al-dln) and '- should not be iaken in i ts wider con-
'j
text (laysat 'al 'ummiha). Ibn Hazm adheres to this view,
because he arr,ues that by the reference to Satan in the abOY
the would not mean that a person who resides
alone at home would be accompanied by Satan.
lb5
Furthermore,
Ibn interprets the word ,iama'ah in the 0adith as a refer-
ence to the jama'at (the community of the truth) \
This jarna'at al-l;l:.llil, in Ibn view, has no relation with
t
strength of i ts numerical order,' In equating the ,iama'ah
with jama'at Ibn insists that they constitute
,the mlnori of people. He cementz. his argument wi th: 1) 'his-
torical evidence, like the. conversion of the Propht 1 s wife
Khadlj"ah to Islam; 2) na99 as bas,ed on the Qur' an and the
Sunnah, aIl indicating that the believers constitute a minor-
l "
i ty and that though they ,are small in number, they belong to
the jama'at J) as exemplifiea by the non-
.'
--,
10 "
believing cammunity, or by the Prophet's relationship ta his
awn cammuni ty.
Ta be precise, the historicai evidence ciled by Ibn
,ta prave that the j3ma'ah intended in the second hadith
1
is the ,iama' at al-J:l&Q.. and that they belang ta ,a minari ty is
the state af the Praphet just after he was chasen as a prophet
by Allah. At this time he was the only person beloneed ta
the truth. The rest of the world were in"falsehood. In this
case it was the Prophet alone wham peap]A follow, al-
though' the people of his.cmmunity were unbelievers and con-
stituted the majority of people.
166
There are a good number of Qur'anic verses and proph-
etic traditions which Ibn uses to support his contention
that the" jama'at belongs ta the minority. In the
1
course of hls presentation Ibn 0azm cites four verses and seven
J:tadiths. Of this total, the verses re,valving around the term
mU'minln (believers) and the J:tadlth, equally relating tG it
the focus of this argument. We shall first cite
present the analysis. One Qur'anlc verse
accurs in surat Yusuf (chapter 12) verse 103. which belongs
the MakKan pe\iad and relates a group of people (nas) ta the
term mU'minin. and does not refer to jama'at This
verse runs as follows; "And' al'though thau try much, mast men'
will not believe." 167 Ibn Hazm' s comment on this verse is
"
i
,
(
- - - - -------- ... ...----
4 ; )
10 '1
\
limiteA points: 1) that the believe'rs are meant to be
2) that the latter, in turn, constitutes
-
- 'a This lview of .Ibn Hazm ois shared by giidI '1\bd al-
rpi""', 1 ._
Jabbilr (d. 415/1025) 'maintains that the grGatness in ,num-
1 /;,
Iber of the of an opinion does not indicate that it
is true 1 nor t, at the smallne,ss in number indicates i tg false-
hood.
168
Ibn Ha m defines jamafat as people who follow
the Qur' aCd' hadIths of thc Prophet (wa lirn
'an,al-nabi). \I1m 1;Iazffi means that believers who mictaken-
ly follow a forged or an unsound !)Rdlth do not belong to the
.i ailla' at al-l;&9.., and.., therefore, they should
by other believers,1
6
9
not be
(,
The hadIth which Ibn Hazrn cites
.
as a proof
fol1owed
to support
his stand revolves around the key-word mu'minln and jamafat
al-0.illill' Moreover " Ibn l;iazm believes that the l;adi th as
gives credence te the meaning derived from the verse. This
l;adlth states:
}he Doomsday will not come upon S8rneone who says 'there
no god but Allah ('al yaql la ilaha illa allah)'
[
" l17
i,e., a believerJ.
\ ,A
From this hadith Ibn extracts two points: 1) "a believer
,
belongs to jama'at al-l;:.9Q., and 2) this jama'ah belongs to a
as the number of believers will diminish before
DoomsdaYi and during that day, there would be no believer.
171
\
(
J
As for his reasons, Ibn argues that the only
.
possible meaning of the jama "ah whom the I\1uslims should fo1lo\'.
is the ;jama'nt al-l;1il9.., i.e." the Muslim community in its [0n-
eral meanng, because non-believers which are also ,jama' at
(sing. jamii'ah) shou'ld'not be followed bY'I!luslims, though ,t1I
P
2/
constitute the rnajority of people. In its particular meanln{
,jama'at ',al-1)flli.9. means any group that follows the Qur'an and
the eenuine 1)adl ths of the Prophet, because Muslims thems81'JGs
are divided into lama'at. The heretics among them are eNclud-
eq. from the ::1l-l;1:9.9., while the Sunnls are divided in-
,
to many at, i. e " the Malikl, Shafi' i, and Han-
1
baIl ,schools, as weIl as the people of Tradition (ashab al-
( -,.
IjadI th) , and none of therh deserves more to be ',jama 'ai
, ,
than the others, because of their equalY in authenticity,2
7
2
,
For evidence by reason, ibn the view of
his oppon8nts on the isque whether the one challenger of ijm8:
belongs to the Muslim Dissociating with this one ch;ll-
lenger, they assert that those partic'pate in l,jmi', belor,>.::
ta the ]V]uslirfl urnIrlah whom every Muslim should follow, \tJith :t"'-
gard 1,0 ,the one challenger, they doubt that' he belongs
to tha t umrrwh. They contend that i t is reasom.ble to fOUOVi
1
those wharn they are sure belong to the Wuslim umnnh rather
than those whorn they doubt belong to it.
17J
But Ibn re-
jects :this view, becau"se he maintains that" i t is disobediencC?
.\
.
'.
(
ta Allah, Who enjoins Muslims tO'refer to the Qur'an and the
Sunnah whenever a dispute arises .17
4
The existence of one'
challenge is a legal and binding dispute accord-ing to Ibn Hazm
and it
' , 175
cannot be disregarded.
To sUPl up, what Ibn Hazm wants to prove is that the
.
notion of religious truth in Islatn has no'thin
9
to do wi th the
,
number of people who adhere to i t. While his .p,roofs
ly a combina tion of Qur' anic verses and Prophetie tradi tio,ns,
and while reference to, the school is not. evident, this
may be because he found that the true madhhab corresponds

wi th the to which he belongs and represents. Hence,
his strong attempt at p,ropagating and defending i t is' obvi-'
ous. It shoulq be recalled, that thi
9
school applies the
of the Qur' an and the Sunnah asproofs to implement sharl (ah
,
and reason. It is which guides reason to find the re-
ligious truth. Reason is unreliable in its judgement,
bec,ause it is merely a worker, and not ruler.
"
diffe.rence between this type of i,jma' and the pre-
,
vious one is that this type of ijma' is less important than
ijma' where no challenge is known, because the 'existence of
one challenge in ijma' causes the loss of its unanimity, which
is a condition for the agre,ement in the 'occurrence of 'ijma'
.
brought about by the majority of 'ulama,.
W have discussed and analyzed Ibn argument'in
/
"
i
l ,
(
) ..
"
(
,
r
1
1
------"
110
refuting ijma' with one challenge. We have also discussed
-
i.ima' Ibn Hazm's view about on what is known by necessity,
.
j
ijma' of the
, i.ima' of :the people of Madinah, and
(
i,ima' where no challenge lS known: Ijma' on what lS known by
necessity is the strongest one in Ibn view, as no Mus-
lim will remain Muslim if he denies i t. Irjma' of the
is the se'cond i,ima' a,ccepted by Ibn ljazm, where no l?.:.I)abi
denies' i t. l rima' of the people of Madlnah is re je cted by Ibn
because, in view, the people of that city have 'no
privilege ver other people in other ci ties. I,ima' where no
1
challenge is known is also rejected by Ibn 0azm on the basis
that knowing' the opinion of the whole 'ulama' other than the
in a certain issue is impossible due to their great-
ness in number. Likewise, knowing the existence,or non-exist-
,
ence o'f any challenge to th,is type of i,ima' is also impossJb1f.J.
-
'"
..... .... '
-
,
,
;.



1
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11'
Footnotes to Chapter II
1See above,' pp.
2This i8 the opinion of who 'argues
that if ijma' i8 based on dalll (positive evidence), ,
.. '
i.e., the and the' Sunnah, it would be the by
it8elf; but if i8 based on dalll {probable evi-
dence), i. e ., reasoning, the i would not o'ccur due, to' the
difference of men's nature. Dr. 9ub0I al-9ali0' al-
Islamlyah: Nash'atuha wa Tatawwuruha. 1st ed. (Beirut: Dar al-
, .
'Ilm li al-Malayln, 1385/1965), p. 236.
JWe shall study the Qur'an and the Sunnah as the
basis of
Il- -. 4
Qur'an, :115.
SAl-Ghazali the Shafi'I school considered this
verse te the strongest one in the Qur'an to prove the
,
JValidity of ijma', for the ijma' of the Muslim community i8
the path of the believers. But.he and Ibn (d. 646/
1248) from the Malik! school.believed that this verse Dot
,
a decisive textual proof and a positive evidence. Al-GhazalI,
.
vol. 1, p. 175. Al-rpabarl did not apply this verse
to support i,jma'. George F. "The Basis of Authoritr
,u)
of Consensus in Sunnite Islam', n .. Studia Islamica xxi (1964) J\
p. 26, quo ting al-Tabarl, Tafslr al-TabarI, ed. M. Shakir
. . (l' ,
(Cairo! M8.'arif Press, n.d.), vol. 7, pp. 204-5. (Hereafter \;)
,
referred to as ':Basis of Authority"). The debate between the
defenders and the opposers of ijma' about the verse in ques-
tion can be traced in the books of Islamic jurisprudence, e.[.,
Ab al-l;fusayn ,(d. 436/1044), Ki tab tamad fi
,. ,
l i
.......
1
()
, \
\
\
7,
\
"
112.
al-Figh, ed. Mul;lammad Allah et al. (Damascus: al-
Ma:nad al-'1lmi al-Faransi li al-Dirast,al-'Arabiyah, 1)85/
i
1965) vol. 2, pp. 462-9; referred ta as Mu'tamad);
Sayf al-Din al-Amidi (d. Il;lkam al-Amidi, vol. 1,
pp. 286-98; al-Shawkanl, It$had, pp. 74-7.
-()
6 - 4
Ibn l;fazm, Il;lkam, vol. 4, p', 97.
?Qur' an, ,

8 '- 4
' vol. 1, pp. 17 -5.
9Ibn l;1azm, vol. 4,_ p. 498. a Mu' t-
zill jurist who is also a contemporary of Irrn us
a interpretation of this verse. According to, him,
this v.erse urges the believe,rs ta bbey ll al-amr, i. e ._, tJlle
,
umara' (emirs ) .
1
But if they see that the li al-amr are
taken in consideration upon any matter af'religion or
worldly matter, they should dispute with' them and the
matter to Allah and His Messenger. The case is similar ta when
someane says to his servants: "Obey the persan ,1 have entrusted
you vrith, and when you have any dispute refer it ta me." IVlu'ta-
mad, vol. 2, p. 471.
10This ls one of many ways of, Ibn Hazm in arguing wi th
his adversaries. He gives them. two alternatives in order to,
bring them ta a deadlock and then ta overcome them. Il;lkm, vol.
6, p. 7,72. Ibn Taymlyah (d. 728/1327), shares Ibn
view in ijma' gives his commentary upon this verse, He says
1hat whatever the Muslims upon must have been traced
back through divine texts from the Prophet so that
disag:reeing wi th i t would, men disag:-ee ing wi th the Prophet"
as disagreeing with would mean disagreing with Allah.
l'
IVla'arij (Cairo: Dar al-Zayni li wa al-
,
, i
1
,
1
i
1
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f
i

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,

-4
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11'3
n.d.), pp. 38-9. (Hereafter referred to as Ma'arij). c !
If we go back to the "sabab (the occasidn on which th'e
verse was revealed) 0 f this verse, th/? believers' way means
Iman, while',other than theirs is kufr as th,e verse
\'las revealed 'on Tu'mah ibn Ubayriq who had stolen a coat of mail
. .
and joined the idolatorsj see 'A. 'Abd Ijm', p.27.
ll Ibn lP,km, v?l. 4, p. 498.
..
12The , second verse meant by Ibn Hazm is: ,,1
. ,
whereas if they it to the messenger such of
them as are in authority, those among them who are able to
think .out the matter would have knoym it." Ibid.; Qur'an, 4:
83.
13Ibn Hazm, Ihkam, vol. 4, p. 49L According to Ibn
. !----
l;[azm, those who are in authority (lI al-amr) are the ,umara'
as reported from Ab Hurayrah, fugah, aS reported from
Mujahid, "al-J:fasan and 'Ikrimah. Ibid., 14, p. 497. Ac-
ording to. Alpnad Shakir, if we go back to the..,. sabab
of the verse in question the ?li al-amr/are those WhOM Mus-
-lims give authority,for their affairs, i.e., the rulers and
judges. Obedience to them is obligatory between Allah and the
Muslims themselves of what they command, as long as n.o is
available, and' as long as they (lI al-amr) do not order anyone to-
violate the The 'reason is that the verse mentioned above
was in the case of 'Abd Allh ibn when he was
appointed a chief by'the in a sirrIyah (a
He was angry with his soldiers in a certain matter "and said:
"Has not the Prophet ordered you to obey me?'\ They answered:
"Yes, has." So, he ordered thern to c'ollect wod and make a ofir.e'
and then them to enter into it. One of them argued and
told them, to ask the opinion of the Prophet. The Prophet said:
\ /
,.
. '.
,
"
.. .
, J
,
1
, '
1

(
t
,
/
1i1t
"If you entered the fire you would never come out of it. Obe-
dience is only to the right thing (innama al-ta'atu fI al-
. .
ma'rf). Ibid., vol. 4, p. 500, n. 1. Another report ,said that
the verse was revealed on the occasiop of a dispute between
Khalid ibn al-v/alld and 'Ammar ibn yasir. Khali at that time
was appointed by the 'Prophet as the leader of an
80mewhere outside lVladina.h. Ahmad Hasan, "The Poli tical Role of
, . .
Ijma' ,'" IslamicJStudies. 8 (June, 1969), p. 143 ('hereafter
ref:rred ta as ... li tical quoting al-tabari, Jami' al-
Bayan 'an Ta'wll Ay al-Qur'an, ed, Shakir (Cairo: n.p., n.d.),
, ,lij
vol. 7,pp. 345-6. With regard ta li al-amr many cammeptators
..
of the Qur' an said .. that they are: leaders, cammanders af the
"
schalars and the Ab Bakr,
'Umar, and the' sul1an, see A. \Hasan, ."Political RaIe," p. 143.
141bn vol. 4, p.
15"1 fdllow only what was revealed ta me." Qur'an,
6:50. For verses of similar meaning
J
see Qur'ani 10:16; 46:9,

, 7:203, 10:109, and 33:2.
16'
"Nor doth h speak of (his own) desire, it is' naught
*' '
save an inspiration that is inspired." Qur'an, 53:3-4.
17
. Ibn Ijazm, vol. 4, pp. 498'"-9.
,18
Ib
'id. ,
p. 499.
19
Ibid
. ,
..
p. 499 and vol. 6, p. 808; 'for
the example.
, ,
given by Ibn l;Iazm to support his view, see ibid., vol. 4", pp.
,
499-500. In the above represents Ibn l;Iazm's view
of the sources of Islamic jurisprudence, i.e., the Qur'an, the
'
Sunnah, and ijma" based on Ibid., vol. l, p; 87. In
'our opinion, if we scrutinize the construction of the words in
-,f
1
c
, 1
(
the vrse, the verb (obey) is mentioned before both words
(lah (Allah) and al-Rasl .(the messenger), and not before the
word lI al-amr. 'This gives an in our view, that
obeying Allah and His is without any condition, while
obeying iilI al-amr' i8 on 'the condition that they Drder what is
1.
not contradictory to order of Allah and His Messenger.
(
20 Ibid ., vo. 4, p. 497.
-
22'AII 'Abd al-Raziq, Ijma', p. 101. Accarding the(
Qaq.I 'Abd al-Jabbar Uma' wi thout sanad can occur. In his view,
the 'ulama' may agree upon the le gal judgement of an issue and
can' be right in the ir judgement the guidance of Allah
ta choose the rlght pne. Ibid.
2
3
"Watty muthabbat fI Ib.n ljazm, Il)kam,
vol. 4, p. 503.
,24"Watty mu' allaf ta' lIfan mu' .iiz Il
Ibid., vol. 1, p. 87.
25n5n l:fazm gives the def.inition of mujmal as follows:
"Tt is a word which needs eXl?lanation taken from another one."
,
, .
Ibid. t p. 39.
26Another example is the act of performing \the
(pilgrimage). Ibid., p. 110.
1 p. "93./
28 ,\ 1
Both Ash'arIs and Mu'tazilIs say that the mutasha-
biht are explained by the mul)kamt. Ech of these theological
schools argue that the (verses which agree wi th their school are
mul;tkamat, while those which agree w'i th th,e school of their op-
1 t
..
\,
t

ponents are mutashabihat. For verses: \'Then who-
, .
soever will, let him believe, and whosoever will, let him dis-
believe," (Qur'an, 1,8:JO) knd "Yet ye will not, unless Allah
willeth," (QurJn, 76:Jo). Accor.ding ta the Ash'arIs., the first
,
verse is mutashabihah (ambiguous), while the one lS
mah (clear). The Mu'tazills have the oppooite view.""
29Ibid ., p. 44. According to a,l-SarakhsI, tJ;s opin""
ion of Ibn l;fazrn is also the opinion o'f the xperts on Qur-
Janic exegesis (ahl al-tafsir). Usl al-SarakhsI, vol. 1, p. 16.
-,
JOIbn 10kam, vol. 1, p. 44. Ibn makes a
distinction between the mutashabiha.t in the Qur'an and that
in laws. In Ibn l;fazm's view, seeking the ta'wIl of the muta-
. . -
shabihat in the Qur'an {i.e., Allah's oath an'd letters at the
beginning of sorne surahs) is fo:bidden. Cf. above. ,pp. 16-8.
-With regard ta the in laws (i.e., those which are
between al-};aram al-bayyin [obviously prohibitedJ and al-};alal
al-bayyin[obviously permitted]), seeking their interpretatiohs
enjoined upan Muslims in order to their religion.
vol. 4, pp. 490 ff.
bayan (explanation"clarification) is either:
tafsir (commentary), isti thna' (exception), or (spec-i-
fication). Ibid., vol. 1, p. 71.
\
\ , 52Ibid., p. 7J. 'For other examples " see ibid ." pp.
72-3, vol. 4, p. 491. ,Ibn Hazm does not give us the verses
in question. But through our investigation their location i8
in srat (chapter 2) :226 & ff passim.
Again Ibn Hazm
or b6n-
(
i
l
j
\

\ -
z8.ko.h. Zakah, the third
merrtidned after (prayer),
5:55; 9:18; 22:78; 24:56;
34 . .
The verse ln questlon
pillar of
1
the second
27: J.
18: " And
\
Is+arrl , i8 often
pillar. Qur'an.
,,-

if 8. m:1.n or a woman
have a distant heir (having left neither parent Dor child) ,
"
and he (or she) brother or a sister (only on the
or's side) 1 then ta ea'ch of them tV/ain (the brother and tho
sister) the sixth, and if they be more than tv/o, then they
sha11 be sharers in the third, after any legacy that may
been or debt (contracted) not injuring (the heirr
V/illing away mate than a third of the herita[e) hath been
Qur'a0' 4:12.
J5Ibn lQkam, vol. 1, p. 78.
J6
Ib
d ," 79
_1_., p. . The verse iSI: "They ask thee for'
a pronouncement. Say: Allah hath' pronounced for you cancerh-
ing distant kindred. If man die childlesG and have a \
hers is the heri tage. and he would have inheri ted frorll
her had r;;hc died childles3. And if there be two sisters, th'l!
. thein:; nre two-thirds of the heritage. and if thoy be bret.ll-
\
ren, won and women, unto the male i8 the equivalent of the
- ,
Rhare of two females. Allah expoundeth unto you, 80 that
ert not. All8.h i8 Knower of aIl things." Qur'an, 4:177,.
J7Qur ' an, 21 :45. Ibn 15azm contends that Allah pre- ,
serVes tl1P Sunnah 1 bccause i t i8 revelation. IJikr:, the Qur' 0:1,
the :3unn:t.lt i8 o.lso a hikr (a ,remincr). Allah S0yS: "10: ,r 1
reveal the Reminder, and 10: We verily are its uarJ-
,
ian." Qur' an., 15:9. See l.J:lkam. vol. 1, pp. 87-8 .
J1bn Hazm defines. the Sunnah from which the reli-
, $
(
, \.
118
gious laws appear as "waJ:ty p;hayr muthabbat fI al-rnUYl:af."
vol. 4, pp. 505.
39Ibn J:Iazm also defines the Sunnah s "walfy marwl
ghayr mU'a11af WB la mu'jiz wa la wa
lakinnah magr"." Ibid" vol. l, p. 87.
i+o IQn J:Iazm defines the khabar al-tawatur as: "ma naga-
kaffatun barda kaffatin hatt tablugha bihI al-nabI."
, \ L
Ibld., pp.
41 This lB because it is so well-known.
1+2
Sorne, jurists say that th ir number must not be less
than sixt y, fort y, twenty, twe1ve, live, four, three,
and' even two trnsmitters. \ Ibn J:Iazffi, Il; li: am , vol. l,.pp. 9J-4;
see 8.1S0 'Ail 'Abd al-RQziq, Ijrnii', p. 14, n. ,2.
'4J Por detal1s, see Ibn J:Iazm, IQkam, vol. 1, p. 95.
44 .. T - ... 4
Ibld.,Al-Sarakhsl, al-Sarakhsl, vol. 1, p. 29 .
\
45Ibn r,razm, 11)kam, yol. 1, p. 96.
46 Ibid " pp. 96-7.
47 According to this is also the op'inio; of
Dawd Sulayrnn) ibn 270/884), the founder of
the school. Ibid., p. 97. According ta Ibn Qayyim a1-
Jawzlyah (d. 751/1350), a J:Ianbali jurist, this is als9 the
opinion of Abij Ya'l (d. the schcrol,
Malik ibn Anas, al-Shafi' l, and many others.. See ig
al-Mursalah 'al al-Jahmlyah wa al-Mu' attilah t summar. MuJ:lam-.
mad ibn al-MawsilI and rev. Zakariya 'AlI (Egypt: Mat-
. '.. ..
ba'at al-Imam, n.d.), pp. 474-5. (Hereafter referred to as
, .
J
(
\
ig) .
48 - T
Abu Bakr Muho.mmo.d ibn al-B8.rlillanl
8n A:-;ll'nrI-SunnI jurist and on8 of the eo.rly.contcmporari0:'
and opponel1ts of Ihn Hazm. Ho dos not specify the
and the' lilutako.lliJt1In V/ho uphold this Al-T::1mltld rI ::1J -
I\,dd 'dit). ::tl-!',1u1hic1<lh l'la al-Riifilo.h Vlo. ll-J:JlchV8.rl,J W<l Zll-
llu' tazibh, (]d, le commGnt. Mahmd f,luhammad al-Kh;tyc1::1rI ::1n
.' .
lvlul.Wlluno.d 'Abd o.l-HadI Ab Ro.ydah (Cairo: r,lJ.tbo"at LClJno.t
To.'lIr l1-TClrj::1mah wo. al-Nlshr, 1366/1947), p. 164.
dftol' rcfcrrrcd to lS Tarnhld).
1 }
ll)kam, vol. 1, p. 107. 'l'hey ::1ccept' ],l[l"ll'
al-w:l] id 08 l,lu ,Lj aJl (probable ev ldence), he C<luse 1-1,:;
l ,
transmi ttor lS not fr'8e from commi tting error, thou[,h he 'Z
reliab1e. As cll1.example, say" tho.t khflb<lr ;tl-VI'"
does pot nccessito.te convincintj knowled[0 (18 yjiLu 'llm
heco.use of the posslbility of the rav/1. (no.rrltor) 's
\
commi tt1n[': crror. Neverthe1ess, i t8 content ie vo.lid. Thr;
l.wkm conhllnod in this type of l)adI th b(ong:::; to th C1.tC{ nr:,
o'r w3.,jib in Ho.mfI tcrme. It is differont l'rom !;lt whicll
nocc\;si'L;ttCfJ hoth and acting upon it (rnu,lllJ li
'Dtl1:ll Wll :ll-ilm ma'an). For examp1e, the re21.dinr of :::;rat : J-
(Qu,l'Jan, chaptor 1) as mentloned in tht; l\Jl:lbLlr ;tl-;::,I.I_.u
-18 w3.,i1l1 Hl prQyor, not forq.
1,' va 1. 1, pp. 111-J.
For" ,furthcr detaiL3, see U:3U l
"
5
0
Ibn trLlzm, Il)kim, vol. 1, p. 110.
3ccopt in rrligion, because Lll-iann is otlwr than tlll"
,
truth and is prohibited by Allah. Hm l,la7.m mon-
tions many Qur
J
anic verses as evidence, "see ibid., vol, 4, p.
53:1. l"or Ibn in reje,cting se,e ibid"
vol. 1, pp. 110 ff.
120
1 ....
,
(
(
51 . k
p. 199. Ibn Hazm's argument th;;:tt habar al-
w;=jJ)id if) ah;o revelation and is preserved by Allah is that
thcr8 are mU,jmal verses in the Qur' an vrhich need the pr.)plt-
ct'e) cxrllanDtion, like: zakah, and })w.: Il' thE'se (,,;-
planationc, i.e., the Sunnah--mutawatir as as
v/ZLI.lid--w8rc not preserved by Allah, the as VliJJl as moct
,of the incumbent on Muslims w6uld be nullif ied. IbIU., p. 1
110. Sce a1so Idem, vol. 5, p. 114.
C')
JL'Qur>Cll1, 9:122.
LJ 1
-) 1\1-:::;<1.r'11\.11s1 mentIons four different opinIons con-
C0rtnr
r
tho meanin['; of to., Ifah. They are the opinions of 11\1--
J:tn.mmad ibn I\a'b, 'Ata' (d. ;15/733), al-ZuhrI (d. 1?4/742),
and (d. 20l.j/820) \'Iho said that tJ:'ifah me2n8-one, t\'::> ,
thrcc, ten persans recpectively. vol. 1,
p. J2).

Ibn J:1azm, ]).cam, vol. 1 j pp. y8, 100-1.
[' L
J')1\bu Ja'far r'luJ:tarlmad al-Tusi V/8S the sllaylch (le:lrlr;"',
master) n[' tlw ShI'ah Imamiyah sect, and was one of Ibn
, '
contemplH';JricS", The believed in the succession of
'AlI, inntend of Abu Bakr; with clear nass. Por further dp-
. - ..
tails, al-Shahrastanl, r:lilal, vol. l, pp. 21e-2
1
-l-. Accord-
'llle; to, 'Abd nl-Qii.hir ibn 1'ahir al-BaghdadI (d. 2
L
I9/1037) thr;J',
:lre fiftr;en GUQ-divisions of the Imamlyah, amone; v/Jnch 2.rr: t!J'"
T'VIC:Jver Shl'1h and the Isma'IIIyah. Farg, p. 23. Accordil1!-
,to ;->_l-rpd, the 1lJ.liJ.r ;:tl-'NaJ:tid which rjecessit;:ttr;s know10r1: c,
(IJl,jib Li aJ-'lJrn) 1mo'hL the Shl'ah Imamlyah' is thp one TC'IlocL-
cd by a reliahle roporter and originates from the or
J'rom ono 01' the imams. He believes that the khac:::tr al-wal:id
doeG l'lot h;:tve any valid value unless it becomes convincedly
1
/
(
1
/
, \>
( ,
121 '
known. As khabar o.l-war.lid, in his view, does not necessital"
know1nrr i t au ta ti ve ly--except the one reported by a pr; j'-
son from the above sect--it follows thf3 t i t does not have (]
vzld valUt? 'Udd;tt vol. v, pp. 47 ff.
s6
Ibn lr:kim 1 vol. 1, p. 98. Al-Shafi' l calJed
this kind of r:ldI th (a sp_i-al report), see
RiGalah, p. 369.
57 Ibn vol. 1, pp. 98-9: idem, r.1u0alla,
vol. 1 p. 52.
5
8
Qur '8.n, 28:20-1.
59 Ibid ., 28:25: lbn lr:km, vol. 1, pp. 106, 1.')-
60
Ibn 10kam, voL 1, p. 107.
'",",
.\
61
Ibn attacks the in their
of the Tf3tter of 1"J01iefs exclusively through the l"h;lbar al-
tawatur. For further details,. see ibId., pp. 119 ['1'. Thf> r:\l'-
tazUI 'Abd al-Jabhir maintalns thot matter 01' belief'::
!lot be aCgep-ted through khabar al-w8.J:Lid. ''/lZlrl.
ed. Dr. 'Abd al-KarIm 'Uthman, comment. o.l-'Imiim Ar,l-
m:::t.d i on ibn AbI Hashim, 1 st e d, (C:::t.iro: JI!:l ba' a t a1-
:::t.l-l:ubra, 1384/1965) 1 p. 769. (Hereafter referrrd i,!J
. .
62 Ibn zm 1 ll:tl\:im, vo 1. 4, p. 506.
6J Ibn gives many examples where a report from a
sinGle porson becomes bi Among them are:
the report of the death of a person who will and
. the report of a po stman about the sul tan 1 s fletter which he 13
J
,
f
,
j
..
('
122.
,
\
carrylnr;. VOl.!I
S
, p. 118. Th-ls view is identical co
that of vlhej maintains that if we are inforrned by
sorneonc the Ct persan we know is ver,y iJ l 1
-Chis is lffia' lum bi al-l.arurah. Q1i 'Abd 1
20 vols " (Cairo: Matba' at 'Isa al-BabI al-J;Ialabi, '
1385/1965), vol. 15, p. J93.

Ibn J;Iazm, 10kam, vol. 1, p. lJ8; Ab Zahrah, Ibn
ljLlzrn, pp. 298-JOO'.
G5/
rh

lS is also the Vlew of the jurist
'Uddnt vol. 2, pp. J, 5J ff.
66
1
1.' J . b .
bn J;Iazm exp. alns tus Vlew y sayInG: "\fJ e a:r;e 0 nl,{
recomffiendoc1 ta pcrform the deeds of the Prophet as a model , .. '
do Dot lenve it with the notion of dlsliking it , and we lenvn
it not with the notion of dlsliking it, but [we leave itl
we Ieave all what is recommended ta us in whiclt if we do j 1;
shall be l'8warded. If we leav8 it, vve d1311 neither be sinflll
nor t'eworded, except the Prophot 1 s deeds WhlCh [sc'rve l to p;:-
plain an order (nrnr) or ta execute a lef:al issuE' O,lUl\rn). In
-Chis Lhe deeds are obligatory (1'0.1'9-) 1 for they are ]Jrr'-
ccdcd Lly tllC' arder. Therefore, theyare explanaLion of th()
order." .D.1L[im, vol. p.'
67 "
Por furthcr exO-rnples, see ibid., p. 431; sec also
vo 1. 1, p. 101 .
.
()(l -'
Qur' an 1 33: 21
G9The text of the verse says: "La(jod kan,1. lokurn ri
rLlsl cd 1o.h uswatun 0asanah . : . " Ibn says further
tha t If we say hiidha lak (this is for you), you may take i t u L'
leave i t, while if we say 'alayka hadha (this is L in<i:umbent i
l ,
(
(
,
.1

1 (
i 1
,
1
;
'.
1

upon you) you must do it. IJ:tlcam, vol. 1, p. 140; vol. 4, p. 4 ,
,
, 429. Ibn Hazm rproaches \ so.me l'v1alikls who neglect many dees
of the Prophet which, in his view, indioate injunction. For
details, see ibid., vol. 1, pp.
71'Ib' ' l 4 435
vo. , p. .
1 7" ,
<'-Others among the 'Hanafls, JVlalilds, and sorne Shafi-
l
ris believe that these deeds depend on their dalil which de-
t,errnines vlhether they are obligatory ,(wa,iib), recommended
(mandb) , . or permissible (muba!;). Among the Shfi OlS who
maintain this view Bakr al-Sayrafi id. 330/942) anrt
Ibn F'rak (d. 406/1(15), and{ this also the vie\'1 of Ab Rl-
J:i3.san al-l\3.rkhi (d. 340/952), which we think the right one.
, ,
Ibid., p. 422,;1 al-Tusi, 'Uddat vol. 2, p. 55.
73 Ibn l;lazm, J.1:kam, vol. 1, p. 139.
74por more examples, see ibid., vol. 4, \p. 436.
Accord'ing to A!;rnad' Shakir the Prophe't tolerated the singinp,-
because i t was perforrned by two li ttle girls only; see ibid. 1
n. 1.
75 .
Ibid., vol. 8, pp. 1055-6, 1065. Since qiyas i8
by lbn J:iazrn as the third source of Islamic law and
as sanad 0 f i,ima', his re fU,ta tion will be deal t, briefly in
this, section.
76
1bid
,. ,
p. 1166.
77
Ibid
. ,
vol. 7 , p. 929.
.,
7
8
Ab I?n
p. 37.

,
,
f
L
( '\
1? 't
79The Qur'an does mention the prohibition of blood
poured forth as weIl as carrion and swine-flesh for food, 8S
they are fouI, but it does not state whether blood nullifirs
or not. Qur'an, 6:146; see also ibid., 2:1-73 and 15: 1 '5.
vol. 1, p. 930. The application
cH q iyas among the in this matter is not recomme nder}
acco:rding ta Ab Ysuf (d. 182/798) as reported by Ab al-
al-KarkhI. Ab Ysuf does not like the use of giyad 11'
, thi3 matter, since the nulllfication of wi th the exis L-
ence of il. clot of blood on the head of the wound is also the
o'pinion of th ..).lRbl Ibn Abbas. Ab Ysuf gives priori ty "1
the opinion of a' over the application of Cl i,is, v/horp;<
al-Karkhl prefers q iyas to the opinion of a
s,l. Usl al-Sari1khs1, vol. 2, pp. 105-6.
81 In spl'te of Ibn . t' f - h l
reJec lon 0 glyas, e anc
his 8chool were of being obliged to use it and
c,alled i t d;:-tlIl. Goldziher, Zahiris 1 p. 35 n., quot1ng Ab
<ll-Fida, Ann::J.les, II (n.p., n.d.), p. 262. For example, the
) ..
Shafi'I jurist (d. 450/1058) said: " .... Thr;
other of people does reject analogy, but still uses
independellt ,judgement in legal deduction through reliance on
the rnpanlnf; (spirit) of the words and the sense oi' the addre!'s.
1 - ;- '\..
The ahl aJ belong to the latter. . . ." Se"o iB'fd., quo t-
inr; Con::;titutiones politicae, ed. Enger (n.p., .n.d.), p. '111.
(
Ibn Hnzm ricoies this accusrition and says that his dalIl is,
pure1y bu.rWd, on For further details" see lJ.lblm, vol. 5,
pp. 676-8.
vol. 7, p.
8J Ibid vol.' 8, pp. 1049 ff. For Ibn s axgu-
___ ..L..I ", ........ _,
....
,

( !

ments in refuting qiyas, see ibid., vol. 7, pp. 929 ff.
84 Another gi ven by Ibn l;Iazm to show the fnJ-
laciousness of qiya,s ,and to prave the non-existence of 'ills:!.11
in religion is that if the of the.valley of Tuwa' ln
S inai is the 'illah for Allah' s ordering r.1oses to take off
his sandals when, he was iA that valley (see Qur'an, 20:7), the
Muslims also should take off their sandals when
that valley or any other holy place, like: Makkah, Madinah,
and Bayt al-Maqdis. Ibid. For further details, arguments 8.nd
examples, see ibid., val. 8, pp. 1138 ff.
8.5 other examples given by Ibn l;Iazm involve the othE",
. pillars of Islam, Buch as the injunction of fasting in n.
Ibid., vol. 4, pp. 529-31. ...
86
Ibid. , , p. 505.
8'(. - . .,. . .
Idem. Maratlb, pp. 7 and 10. Ibn Taymlyah ln hlS
p
naqg (critique) of Ibn Hazm's Maratib assrts that judging r(:=!-
jeGtors of ijma' as infidels is onJ..y valid if they 'reject the
known ijma' (al-i,ima' al-ma'.lm). Ibn Taymlyah also asserts .... ,
that many i,ima' are unknown by people. Moreover, 'Ul<U{l:"
consider the na99 on which the i,jma." is based as (wedJ.()
or ffi:-tnGkh. See Nagd Maratib al-I,ima' (in the lowcr part of
Ibn l;Iazm' .. s Maratib ql-I,ima') (Cairo: Maktabat al-Qudsl, 1357;
A. H. ), pp. 7,' 10-1. and 16. (Hereafter to as racTa.) .
,8--B'Examples given by al-Shafi '1 are: the injunction of
i'ive-daily prayers', fasting in R'ama1an, pilgrimaf8 ta Maklmll
for those who can afford it, zakah, the prohibition of adultery,
killing, stealing, intoxicants, etc. These things be)GJng ta
the category' of al-Shafi'i calls 'ilm 'ammah (knowledge
.,
,
,
'1
\<)
,

\,
"
,1
i
1
" ..
- ,
1
1
1
f r
1
.f
.f
t
'.
'il
>
12(0
known by public), where no one who reache's adulthood and has
so,und can be ignorant of it. Risalah, pp'. 357-8.
89
Ibn
l H - T h T 399
a - umam, p. .
9U1bn Taymiyah, Nagd, p. 11.
91S ( 1 2
ee above, pp. J - .
1.
92Tb . T'" . . f' . . - '
n conslders thlS type 0 lJma' as a sec-
ond praof besides nass. He that the
Prophet'e legal judgement on a certain issue ie known to soro
p
people tl1rourl ijma' on1y. Ma'an.j (Mwllmlh: rt1-
Mnkt:1b8h Cairo: Dar al-ZaynI If aJ-Tiha'8h wa 'l'
N'ashr, n.d.), p. )R. (Herpafter referred ta aB This.
i8 a180 thp view of the Mu' tazill Ab al-Husayn 81-BasTI, who
- 1
that the existence of this type of P J-
ple from seelcing t-he praof in the na99' Mu 'tamad , vol. 2,
521.
93rurtner research i8 needed to assess the prpblem .
.
94 1bn vol. 4, p. 509.
sahabah include free people as weIl as slaves.
._._-
even children, like the Prophet's grand-sons and
tfusayn: Ibn further that the exc1ude th'"
. h\rpo'cri tes of Madtnah, and those whose tians are
aJle, Jike Hayt the effiminate, whom the Prophet ordered ta be
,
:1l1d the expe lIed Ibid., va 1. :', p. 20 J ;
volL 5, pp. '663-4. AI-QagI 'IyaI' (d. 544/1t49, the r.Jalikl
juA.st Rnd who became giIl of Cordova in 531/1-1)6-7),
reported that -the historian al-WaqidI (d. 206/822, who
l 'l
of excluded children from being sahabah, but this.
.---.- 1
\fpini<;?n was re jected by the ,;urnhr al- 'ulama,. Al-Shawkani,
'
/
, ;

,
"1
\


'.
,"
1
/

"7' .
! '
'.

Irshad, p. 70.
\
(
96Ibn Hazm, Ir:kam, vol. 5,"p. 665.' This view of Ibn
is similaf that of Ibn' Taymiyah, Atmad ibn
r.lalik ipn Anas'. Ibn Taymiyah, UE}l r.Jadhhab ah1
al-f,ladlnah, ed. & comment. Zakariya, 'Ali Ysuf (Citadel [Cairo 1:
"
al-Imam, n.d.), p. 19. (Hereafter referred to as .
According to Ibn Hazm the include those
'who 'heard from ,the Prophet when they were still infidels, then
became Musl'iITls, and gave their reports, if they were persons
of good reputition ('adl). 'ltkam, vol. 2, p. 20).
Y
f 97Sa 'id ibn'al-Musayyib was one of the tabi'in (the
ge!1eration following,'that of the who lived in I!ladln8h.
Ibn Hazm, Jawami' al-sir;ah wa Khams Rasa'il Ukhra, ed.,Dr.
. .
san 'Abbas and Dr. Nasir al-;-Dln al-Asad, rev. Ahmad
. .. ' ..
'Shakir Dar al-Ma' arif, n d. ), p. )25. (Hereafter r'3;- ,
, ferred to as Jawami'); idem,
Il:kam,
N'ol. 5, p. 668, lirie 17.
98Al-Shawkani t Irshad, p. 70.
99n1n I;Iazm, IJ:tkam, vol. 5, p. 664. For.the
1
of the verse, see Qur' an, Lj-8:29. The remaining"verses are:
, "Lo: those,., unto whom kindness gone forth before from Us,
Il J ,
they will be far removed from thence. 'lJ.'hey, will not' hear, the
slightest sound thereof, while they abide in that which
souls desire. The Supreme Horror will not grieve them, and
the angels wiLL welcome them, (saying): This is your Day v.'hic11
promisd." Qur'an, 21:101-). ", ... Those who sl'end
the are not upo'n a level (wi ilh the,
res\ of ;;uch are greater in rank than those who spent
and Unto each hath Allah promised good."
Qur'an, 57.10.
, J
f
" .

..
\
1
1
-or-
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'/
1
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1
\ -------
Qi
v \
/
1.000ne iSDout 1.053 liter, pp. 136-(1
{' ... "/
n. 129.
101 Ibn Irykam, vol. 5, pp. idem,
vol. . 4, p. 114.
102 --
, are five'views on the the saha-
\ .-.-
bah. These views are' as follows: a) The view of many 'ulama'
which is similar ta that of Ibn Hazm. Ibn al-Haj ib from the Ma-
6. \
likI school maintains that many 'ulama' accept the of the
wi thout investigating their (the l:\) condi tians .
. This view, according ta t,he Shafi' i q'aqi Ab Bakr ls
that of the salaf (the first generation of the and the
jumhr ai-khalaf (the tabi'n and other generations en masse).
According ta the Shafi' i jurist Imam al-l;faramayn' al-Juwayni '
(d., 478/1085),. the 'ar:ialah of the is ijma'.y He bases
his view on certain Qur'anic verses and J;1adlths, among which
are those mentioned by Ibn l;fazm above. Al-Shawkani, Irshad,
p. 69. b) The view of Ab al-l;fusayn (d. 359/
970), and is that the 'adlah of the like
that of other' people,' should be investigated. Ibn al-Qattan
gives the examples of the sahabah whose 'adalah is re jected ';
.-.---- 1
like who ,killed l;famzah, and al-v/alid who drank intoxi-
cants (khamr). amongthe TI1,!'tazilis gives the exam-
pIe of ,a who slandered another If the slanderer
was right, contends, the slandered would not be 'adl.
Yet, if the slanderer was wrong, he would be 'adl.- c) The
view of th Mu'tazili 'Amr ibn 'Ubayd (d. 142/760) who 'main-
tains that the "Nere aIl 'udl before the' fitan (sing.
fitnah, dissentions), i.e., the ivl wars, e.g., the battles
of Siffin and al-Jamal. After these fitan, the 'idlah of the
should be d) The view of a @roup among

/
iI
(
" '
the and the ShI rIs who maintain that aIl of the
VIere 'udl except those who fought 'AlI. e) The
view of al-MawardI (d. 450/1058) who maintains that a
. / .-.---
who was known for his keeping company with the Prophet was
'adl; otherwise.,his 'adalah should be investigated. Like
Ibn Hazm,' al-ShawkanI (d. 1255/1839) accepts the first view
. ,
and rejects the four others. For further details and his
arguments, see Irshad, pp.' 69-
7
0. Ibn I:Iaz,m does not mention
the other views about the 'adal\ah of the However,
he asserts that the include the infidel who heard the
Prophet and later beca'me a Muslim. He was then also /adl.
According ta Ibn the 'adlah of a persan the time of
!
the became a candi tibn only during the tirne he was
1
giving the warning and the (fi hin al-nadharah wa al-
. --.
man' bi al-khabar), not whenl he was VIi tnessing what he had ,
reported (la rI rnushahadat ma akhbara bihI). This i8 be-
cause there were hypocrites in Madinah during the time of the
"
Prophet, as weIl as people whose condi tians were unfavourable
(see abave, p. '127, n. 95). There was also an unidentified
man falsely claimed ta have been"sent and authorized"by
the Prophet to rule the people of an area Bani al-Lay th ,
twa miles' With this trick he intended
,a girl who had rejected him in the time of the Jahi-
Ilyah (pre-Islamic paganisrn). But his scheme was dscovered "
w en people came ta the Prophet. This man, and any person .
who deceived the Prophet, was not considered a Ibn
contends further that reports are accepted only from res-
pectable persons'whose merit was known (min samI wa 'urifa
IlJkam, vol. 2, p. JOJ. This statement seems ta
contradict the previous one where Ibn Hazm maintained that
the are 'udl. What Ibn Hazm meant was that if a
{
(
(
130
\
person is known ta be a he is ':.S1h. There are many
ways ta know whether a persan is a among which arc:

his in one of the Prophet's campaiGns and ,
tles, e.G., the battles of Badr, UJ:tud, etc.,
tic ipation.."ln one of the two pledges of 'Aqabah, cmd hi,s p1.r-
tieipation as a member of the envoys from the Arab tribes
which visited the Prophet. On the other hand, there were Ollly
1JO and sorne who reported fatawa (sing. fatwa, fut\lfi,
or futyii, formaI legal opinIons) in matters of (acts
( pit> P-. h U 1\]1', l:l \'1 1" r 'l l
.. .
111", ;1, l' ,,,,1"'1," Il,flll 1" """" ill 1,'1" l' ',I",;
V(II. '), l'l'. ()(,')-'/: idi
'
l1l, ,1:1W:ul1i', Pl'). II q-;, 1. 1 !I\ lIa':,l1\ .1. , 1 Il:
-- 1
tll::lt the lncludcd 'tI10SC who l'ou{"lit 'AJI liln Au] '6111,
in t)w bat-Ue of wh!2re the army of 'Ali Cind thnt fJi
,
ibn Abi S.Ufy8Jl were engag'cd, Clnd in the battle
al-Jnmal, where 'A'ishah, TalJ:tah, and al-Zubayr fought
and his pnTtisans. Accorcling to Ibn l;lazm, nelthc:r 'Ali Citld
his pCirtlsan::::" nor his, opponents to fi[ht at the 1,_
tle of al-JClmCll. But rather', both parties met together in
rah to diseuse (li fI) the assassinatlon of
ond to apply the Islamic penClI law upon the ass3ssins. Dut
the ClosnOOlns, who ware almost thousands in numbcr, were
of the punishrncnt. seeretly ineitcd ta
fi[:ht,' :;0 -that both pClrties were eompellecl to defcnd therncel-!f's,
Clnd battle oeeurred. J).lkm, vol. 2, p. 204; for furthnr
detail;;, ,;cr; ldcrn, F'ar;;!, vol.- 4, pp. 156-9. hliLlt l'QE:ard t:c'
the batLlc of Siffln, Ibn Hazm contends th, 'AlI fou[ht ,,11-
.... . .
'awiyz1l1, not becaus8 of f1u'awiyah's rejection to pl'?d[(? alJc'-
Gi::Jnco Lo 'Ali as a caliph, but rather bGCClUSe of his reJve-
tian to cZ1rry out his orders in the entire land of Sham
\
while he ('Ali)' as Calip.Jl, should be obeyed. ' Ibn l;lazm assC'l'Ls
\
.1 '
1
(
13.
\
that 'Ali was right, and Mu'awiyah did not deny the merit and
the right of 'AlI for the post of the caliph. It was Mu'a-
wiyah's ijtihad which led him to give priority to taking re-
i,;aliation (tagdlm akhdh al-gawad), for the assassins of 'Uth-
min 'over the baY'ah (the pledge for Acording
to Ibn J:iazm, )"1u' wiyah was wrong in this i ,itihad. For further
details, see vol. 4, pp. 159-63.
10] -
Idem, Ihkam, vol. 5, p. 66S.
-.-- .
104We use here ta'IIm (teaching) as the meaning of
tawqlf, i8 the'interpretation of Zahrah. This is
, the only meaning which we know is appropriate for the context.
Ab Zahrah, Ibn J:iazm, p. 357. What .Ibn J:iazm means by the
Dabah' s rece i v ing the tawg if is that they are "in constant
contact with the Prophet and fully aware of his intentions,"
O.A. Farrukh, p., 277.
1
1 C SA '. 1 l S kh T J h h' f . t f
ccordlng to a - ara Sl, t e c le merl 0 the
is not the il' precede..nce of the wi tness, but to b'e
believers, h'e accepts i,jma ( of the as the
stronge8t one. Usul al-SarakhsI, vol. 1, pp, 313 ahd 318.
106 . f " - th h-b h
Beslde the occurrence 0 lJma', _Clmong e
- - "
disagreement among theml also occurred. One example 18 their
'disagreement over the issue of umm al-walad (a slave-girl who
has borne 'her master a child). According to 'Umar, she cou Id
not be sold unless to set her free. Ibn Mas'd, Ibn 'Abbas,
and Ibn al-Zubayr, however, asserted thRt she could te sold
by ter master, but if ter child is alive when her master
dies, she is set at the expense her child's share in
the inheritance. Joseph Schacht, "Umm al-VJalad," S.E.I., pp.601-J.
Ibn J:iazm mentions the report of Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah who ,
, 1

/
('
(
that UlIlF\ ll-waloct l'las sold durin[' the tlme of th"
Prophet ;tnd Ab B:::r, while 'Umar prohibitod her beinc'cold.
l\nothor roport mcntloned byIbn Hazm ic thot 'AlI, durh[
rlllL', tJwt he followed 'Umar and -'Uth1Jl:l.n in tho.i
on settill-c froo llIillO ;:ll-\/a 1Q[1. Ac:corin' to Il))1 If":-I.
Co
the: view if, lwr fret? Ho bn.ses vic"/! 0') .,
l.la'dlth \'Ihich states that wh,en qiiriyah, the Proph<2t's conC'iJl 'i,",
uor'? IbrZthIm, the Pr0phet said: "Sh8 js set frel' by cll] lr]."
lJ.'1-cilm, vol. L
p
, JL 520. For other' oxarnples of
"l'lOnf, the seo Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzlyah, l'lm 8J-
l<iCjL'ln 'an R:Jb :ll-'\.lQmln (in the lovier p2.rt of his
An/ill;), J vols l',la1;ba'at Ql-nI1, n.d.') , yol: 2, 1', J.'?
(H
0
rcQftcr reforrcd to ae l' Eim al-;:c)J' in).
107Anotl18r examplr:: clted is thrJ agreement of the: :,'-
throu[,h tJw exerClse of i ,j tiho.d durinc:; the "JI
u 1 'Umor, on punlshrncnt of an intoxicant drinl:8r l'ri th
1a:>ho;;, while i t VIa:::; fort y laslle s durin;- the t
tJ[l' Prophct and Ab Bakr. On this, 'I\.li Gay::;, tJwt H
"
n,
rink::;, ho would llC dru,nl\:; if he W<lG drunk, ho wuld
irr3.tion::ll1y; ii' he did co, ho would cl:::tnder. TllC'rpforr', 'J\I.1
VlouJ d <lpply to hlm the legal punishmont of sl,:Jl1do'rers, i, (1. ,
r: lC,h Ly 1a8hcc. 'Abd ibn 'Awf, ;:mother ,'; c,
th:J L the lpdd (fixed punishment) ls lashe;,.
Al-\.mirli, lJ:llm <ll-Amidi, pp. 379-80; al-Sorakhsi, U::;l ,,1-
vol. l, 'p. )01. Ibn tIazm maintains tho.t 'Umor '!'J'L]
Ilot ost:11;11sn a pcnal 1 a\'1 wi thout ony basis from the ,lin
addition21 fort y 1aslles, in Ibn J:fazm'sview, 18 ta'dr (discr"tiol1-
3.ry punishmE.'nt) , for i t is legal for one who continuous drintin
t
to
be punished Vlith/eighty'lashes, while the 'one Wh? drink
first sight (waha1ah) is punished \Vith fort y lashes.
fore 1 Ibn Hazm denios the existence of i,jmn' basod on i,j ,
, .
\ '
1
1
1J3
in tllis case, 1.e., the eihhty'lashes for the punishn:tent of
an drinker. Ibn J:fazm refers ta the r,:,port
whon 'Abd A 11uh l bn Ja' far was flogging an intoxicant dri 1 d:
n
J'
'Ah counted until fort y and said: "Stop, the nc:-,senfer 0 r
1\110.11. pO:1C
r
:; upon him, flogged wi th fort y , Ab B:lkr W l L11
fort Y :::nd 'Umar with el[';hty [lashes]. and all 8re
Accordln[ to Ibn HaZin "aIl are Sunnah" means ta' zr r is 8J ,
1
;3unnah. 'l'his is re jected by bis opponon ts, because to. Z 11, _L:;;
vrith tQn 1o.3he3 on1y. To this, Ibn J:fazfn replies that 'UnJ:lr
mir;ht pllnlsh with ten' lashes for every cup drunk r)y the in-
toxico.nt drinlcer. D)km, vol. 4
11
pp. 516-7. -In acceptin;
tho tV/o kUlds of 1.1:ldd (i.e., foryy and eighty 11JI1
lJ8.zm m:J.intains thot the 'ulo.mn, (among the 0,Q},lo.tJah) :1Lr
nr
, 1,)
Vlew as i.imii' of the f,J,Q,!;ilbah (Le., basC' on
that the J,t:tdrl shou1d not exceed elghty 1a3h83.
1JJ. 'Accordinr, to al-Saro.Jch8I, the eit:hty IS SUnlllJJ.,
throW)l inve1stigation, the nurnber oI IJCO ple who w" r rc'
o rd0red by Lhe Prophet to b03t the intoxicant drlnkor Vii tll
the ir pairs 0 f were fort y persons. The rc Core, thr
juriste; :lf,roo that the punishment of the intoxic,lnt
lG ci:hty lCl.shes. Ur:ul al-SarQkhsl, vol. 1, p. JOl.
108 -
. Ibn 10k:1TTl, vol. f, pp. 9G2-7; ,(>o also Id";;"
Fal}l. vol. p. 109.
lQ91"or further on Ibn Hazm' 8 on tllr
1
;suo or tho succussion of Ab Bakr, Gec idem, D.dJim, vaJ.
7, pp. ')n2-7. Amang those who disarree wi th Ibn J}a7,m 18 1\11-
lila who m'aintains that the electon of' 1\1> tctkr
ini tia-tcd by people' who wepo present in the masque. 10. te t' rJtl,
1
e]r'c.on ViaS justified on the basis of i,]ma:. "Polit-
ico.l R{)1e," p. 139.
110See above, pp. 25-6.

'J
\,
(
13't
111 Ab
Zahrah, Ibn J:Iazm, pp. 354-8.
112See
above, pp. 27-8.
113
S ee aboya, pp. 28-9.
11
4
'See above, p. 74.
115Ibn J:Iazm, vol. 4, pp. 50.5-6;'see also
Fa,;, l , vol. 2, pp. 81-2. al-wa(lid can be known, by
sity. Gee above, p.
73. In being sa, i ,ima ' basedonit can 0(' ('u r.
116 Al C'h - 1" ,'"
-0..) aIl, Hisalah, pp.
5JJ-5.
117 AbV
Zahrah, Ibn
p,
362; al-Lay th ibn Sa' il
was one of the tabi'i al-tabi'ln (the followin[ of the Iol-
o
lowing generation of that of the who lived in
se0 Ibn l:fazm, Jawaml', p. 332.
118 Ibn ][azrn does not affer details, because the l.l!:l-
dl ths have been deal t by him in his book al-I!?iil
which is not extant,see IJ:lkm, vol. pp. 552-J. Nonctltr-'-
les,s, al-Arnidi of the Shafi' i school does m'entlon J:ladlth,]
wled by the proponents of this type of IJrna', among, which
"Madlnah is pure, i t removcs i ts dirt llke a plj r of
remove the dirt of iron," see .l0kam al-'fl.mldl, vol. 1, p. }lj0.
119 For further details of the position of the
see Ibn },!azm, IJ:lKam, vol. pp. 552-J.
120 Ibn Hazm does not give us any ta prove tl13t
Makl\:ah the best city. However, the position of Makkall a"
the holiest city in Islam ls indisputable.
9:101 and 4:145.
122 Ibn J:Iazm, 1.0kam, vol. 4, p. 554. "The Ravifid ("in,:::.
was applied to groups of soldiers who hav0
desert8d their leader. It was applied ta a certain sect of the
shI 'ah of Efah who deserted Zayd ibn 'Ali ibn al-J:rusayn ibn
r
---
'AlI when he refused to speak Bakr and 'Umar, lor
hp said: "Both were ministers 0 f my fa thpr ; Iul)ammCJSL "- -,
The term is also applied by Sunnl r'juslimt; to 3ny ,: -,(,-l,
oof ShI'ah. Finally, it if) applied to o.postates or schi:.:-:m:lti(;;3
who speak against the
12J ibn l}azm, Itkam, vol. 4, p. 554.
554 (
Ibld., p. - J'
12S Ibn Hazm is referring to the verse: "1'hose who JI t(lp
. ,
the proofs and the guidance WhlCh We revealed, :lfter vJe h<ld
made it clear in the Scripture, are accurspd of All:-J/l ;l/l,j
accursed of those who have the power to curse," QUI" an, 2: 151),
\
1270ne ar' jYlany examples given by Ibn tjazrn \s th,]! "'1, :lr
read srat al,-Insh1gaq (chapter 84) as well as ',,0rat L-,' ',1'1'1'1
\
1 1 _ 1
(chapter 32) 6f 'the Qur'an while he was deliver1nr lus
(Friday and then he cdescended from the minbar (pu 11' i t)
1 _
and prostrated, followed by,the people of Mo.dimlh. !,L':l('-
tice, according to Ibn l;fazm, was not fo llowed by the
IJ;lkiim, vol. 4, pp.' .5.56-7; vol. ,6, p, 878. Morc
'
()ver, Ibrl f!:l'/lli
arGues, most of t)1e fort y issues WhlCh are considered by il'
as the i jma ( 0 f the peop-le of JVIadlnah are dispu table aman, 111('
people of that city themselves. Ibid., vol, 4, p. 5.58; vol. 6, p, G'?9.
128
p
;r further details, see al-Sarakhsl, 31-
;vol. 1, pp. 314 ff. Unlike al-SarakJlc;J, Ibn '1';::1:1'-
mlyah anrl. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyah l'rom the l;fanbali school .Le:,,!!
ta the? lVlallkI position. As for the ar{!ument of Il.ln TayrnJ :,',lh
for the i jma' of the' people of see 1),11.18. t [']'.
17 ff; for the opinion of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyah, see !'
al-fljlqi'ln, VDl. 2, pp. 434 ff.
12?The Madinian mudd in the early period of Is'laIT. 10
1 _
(
(
13"
1.05J liter, if we estimate that wheat equals 100 litr.;l'fi.
'l'he MCl.dinln which equals four mudds lS, 4.2125 li ters.
j)
However, thc'measurement of mudd in other Muslim cities
dlferent. For further details, see Walther Him, Islamise}J'>
un Gcwichte, Handbuch der Orientalistik, ed.
Spuler, suppl. vol. 1, book 1 (Leiden:. E:J. Bril1. 1955), pp.
45-7 and 51. (Hereafter to as IslcLmlSC}le JViasse).
1 . 0 '
Ibn p. 2J.
1J1
.ll;kam, vol. 6, p. 876.
1 J2'J'Je do not agree wi th Ibn J.lazm in assuming that tltr>
measure of tlw is accepted by r.luslims becau;'0 i t \
is the minimum measure ln the controverGy. It i8 true L
sa' PqU:1; '53 pOUJlds in Madlnah and 8 pounds in Ba[:hdad, j'Ill
the measun
'
of the 1?D." lS still the same, i.e., 11.2125 lit"l,:;:
see W. ][lnz. lslamlsche' nasse, p. 51. This 18 becau8e ow'
Madinm pound equals 1.5 BaghdCl.dian one. The measul"?-
ment of poynd is aiso different in other Musli,m countn8fJ.
Par example, pound in Madinah, Iraq (as weIl as Yamin),
anJ Andalusia respectively equals 609.375 r, 406.25 f, and
L153.J g. J<'or further qetails on pound (riltJJ, see ibld., PP:
. ;:;8- JJ. lU though Ibn 1:fazm does not gi ve us Jny detlils 0 n
the mea:mro of mudd, his Dpinion in this issue 0 f the
.sil.' ; no t different from any other school. This is because<"
this iSrJue 18 accepted as a mutawi1.tir report by the peo- "-
pIe of J\bd lnah, handed down from the Prophe,t. An issu!? 0
thjf1 kllHl i" considered hujjah by the four Sunni :3chools. Ahi
, .
Ysu[ ('rom the l;ianafi school, after rece ivinr the explana-
tion ,of this matter from Malik, said, that had this mutawatir
t ,
/
1
)
i (
(
1
1
13'"
report reached Abu Ijanifah, he would have accepted i t. Thi:;
rc: port of the peo pIe of Madinah is considered by Ibn Taymiy:1h
tho first of i,jma' of the people of that city,
which is, ln Ibn T.ymiyah' [L view, accepted by Iv1uslirns as 1.1:"1)-
i0.h. The second catogory of this type of ijmo.' is the e"H'11
0
r
practicc of the people of r,1ldinah before the RGsn,;sinatiol\ (, f
'UthmQn. Accordin[; to Ibn T.ymlyah, this practico is accr;I' 1 -,cl
'- J:lu,i by the r,1alikis, the Shafl' ls, the l;fam1l'is, and ap-
parcntly also th8 l;Ianballs, , they accepLed tho practico of
tho riC}ltIY-Guided caliphs as The third category 0,
thi:::; type of i,ima' is that in case two dalIlc contradict0c1 (I!Ji?
anothcr in :1 certZlin issue.::, for examplo, two J:1aI Lhs or 'I,',,'
and it i:-; Dot known which of the two r.lflcliths or .. :/:-":-
l'G 13 o.rjrlJ.l (preJ,()f1derant), but one of them if.; practised.l'y
thE:' ]Ji?ople of I,';ainah, the Tv1alikIs and Sh5.fi (ls choOSG th,'
prClcticc: a r the people of Nlad'Ino.h. Ab l;Ianifah doos not ln""
any pre l'cr'once for the practice of the IJeople of ln
the schoo l, Ibn Tayrnlyah t;ives us two viows: a) A l-
QDc,lI !l.h Ya'J6 and Ibli '1\qIl (d. 513/1119) do not choost' th,
pr:1ctlc(:, al' the p'cClple of Madinah; b) Abu al-KhCltt5.b '(do
755-6) dace" wllicll ic Cllso the view of- AJ:1mad i1'l1 Hanbol.
iip'eakinr;, thcse three categorios of l,lniJ' are rter' ,l,L-
ed by th jurnhur al- 'ulzllno', The fourth C'ato[ol'y of
mcntionod uy I1)n Taymlyah iG the late practice ol' the peoplr
of f,llo.dll1o.h. This is not l,lU;j,jah accordlnc; ta the },fo.l1afls,
f l 1 and lbnbal Is. This is a180 the vic'!; of the ef Iec-
" .
tive defenders of MalikI doctrines. Ibn TCl:/mJ ;rah 2Lf,:;lll,,' :
Lho. t fiornC' J,lo.lilds in North Africa (o.l-ilaghrlb) i t ,,'
l,1U,i.iah, Tf' this assumption is true, this miCht ::11so be t,lll"
for the J.1iilikls in AndaIns,ia, whom Ibn l;Iazm attacli:s severe l,:.
For lurther details, see Ibn Tayrnlyah, pp. 23-7.
- ,
;
t
l
i
,
(
,
See also Muttammad al-Figh"
1382/1962), pp. 304-7.
1331bn Hizm taglld. For his arguments
against taglld see vol. 6,'pp. 793 ff.
.
) vol. 4, p. 531. This typ of ijma' had

been alluded to by al-Shafi'i, Jima' al-'Ilm, pp. 60-4.
,
135 - - 4
Ibn ll;lkam, vol. ,p. 531.
13
6
Ibn 'Hazm also contends that there are 'ulama' among
ri inn (demons, genii) whom we do not 'know whether the legal
jdgement co'ncerned them or not. Ibid., p. 535.
137Ab Ayyb was one of the who gave their
futya (fatwa, formai legal opinion) in one of two issues only.
Ibid., vol. 5, p. 666 line 21; idem, Jawami', p. 320.
is important to remember that the Prophet reCOffi-
mended that people perform sunnah prayers at home. Moreover,
when his'house and masque were being built in Madlnah he lived
..
ternporarily in the house of Ab Ayyb. Idem, Jawami', p. 95 . Per-
, ,
haps during this time he saw the P,rophet per forrning this two rak' ah
prayer. For further examples, see idem, Ihkam, vol. 4, pp. 536-7.
-- -.--
139In addition to fear, Ibn mentions other rea-
sons, among which that the 'alim may maintain silence, be-
cause the side of the truth is not yet visible to him. In
other words, he does not know whether the 1egal judgement of
the 'ulama' which reaches him ,is right or wrong, and there-
fore, he cannat challenge it. His silence, t,hen, does not
mean his agreement,. Another reascn for maintaining silence
-
of the is,that they actually give their disagreements,
, 1
but they do not reach us, though they, reach other people in
other parts of Muslim countries. Therefore, we think that
they are silent, while actually they are not. For further
details, see ibid., p. 537. This argument of-Ibn alpo
indicates his reject,ion of the ijma' sukti (tacit i,jma'),
though he does not deal with it in a special ehapter in his
book al-ll)kam.
140 The complet ion of the verse is: "When' ye welcomed
i t wi,th your tongues, and uttered it wi th mouths that
whereof ye had no knowledge, ys counted i t a trifle. In the
sight of Allah it is very great." Qur'an, 24:15. The othor

verses ci ted by Ibn "10! ye are those who argue about
that whereof he' have some knowledge. Why then ye argue con-
cerning that whereof ye have no Imowledge? Allah knowth. Ye
lmow no t . " Qur' an, 3: 66 .
141 - 4 4
- Ibn Qazm, 10kam, vol. i pp. 533- . For further
arguments of Ibn in refuting see ibid.--' vol. 1,
pp. 117 ff passim.
142 - 1
Qur' an, 11: 1 9.
143rbn Qazm, 10kam, vol. 4, pp. 502-).
14 4. . l t" f . lb
rhlS sectlon a sa con alns ln ormatlon on n
Jjazm 1 s refutation of i,jma' based on the opinions of the'
majority of 'ulama' despite the challenge posed by their mi-
nori ty, which applies to one and beyond. Though Ibn l;Iazm
tes' a special section ta the i,jma' the" minori ty, most
of his accounts are given in this section and need not to be
repeated.
145It is probable that of 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn
1
4

1
1
...
, .
;
1
!
l
1

i
140
.
'Abd al-J:Iamld,' the correct name this Ab
(or Ab Khazim) 'Abd al-J:Iamid ibn 'Abd al-'Azlz. He
"
died in 292/904. See Ab Isl)aq al-ShlrazI, rabaqit al-FugahQ'; r
ed. Dr. Il)san 'Abbas Dar al-Ra'id al"\Ara'bi, 1970),1
p. 141. ..
146 -
Ibn l.l)kam, vol. 4, p. 5l.j-4; vol. 1, p. 180;
147rhat is, the remander of inheritane should go tn
the deceased 1 s relatives on the maternaI side (dhawl al-ar1:tam).
Ibid., vol. 4, p. 544.
148
Ibid
.
_ 149Ibn lfazm does ",'0t GiV'e} the "rgument of Zayd ibn
Thabi t, but 11e does cri ticize -his opponents among the Walilds
'and Shafi'Is for follow{ng'Zayd ibn Thabit. Ibn I;Iazm does not
believe in the sOl.J,ndness of'the l)adlth clairning that "Zayd is
the most learne man among you on the law of inheritance (inll-
zaydan afralukum)." Ibn I;Iazm contends that if this l)Sldlth were
sound _it would be against his opponents themselves, because it
r,oes on with " .... and J\1u'adh'is the most learned among yOl1
. ,
in Islmnic jursprudence (wa mu 'adh afgahulwm). Il This is beCat;lSe
, /
they' do not follow Mu'adh in his dealing with the
, '
alty of death upon apostates (without asking them to repent)
and the legali ty of nheri ted" ,property by a believer f'rom a
non-belicver. Ibid., vol. 6, pp. 819-20.
...
"-
150Ibid., ;01. 4, p. 544; vol. 5: p. 661.
l' ,
,
15
1
lQiQ
. J vol. 5, p. 661. Ibn I;Iazm differs from Ab
;
Sulayman ibn Khalaf, the founder of the school,
and the ,jumhr of 'ulama,. According to Ab 'Sulaymn
and the jumhr'of his school, shudndh ocpurs when the 'ulama'
J \.
t ,,"',
! r
! .
1
" i '
..
;
"
.
"
l
l
1
1
"
1
1
" .
i
t
i

,
\
)'
(
. "
\
.)
"
,
" '
141
, agreed upon an issue, and having done sa, one of them hai-
lenges the agrement after he has agreed ta i t. Ibid'.
15'"'
QIbn contends that if qhudhdh i8 defined 0"
the separatiop of one 'alim from the rest of 'ulama' this is
not acc,eptable for him, because if the 'alim mentioned abOV0
in' his op.ifion he wi:l become (praised) and .
mamduQ ,(laudable). As shudhudh 'is madhmum (reprehensible) it
wou}d be for a person ta be mahmd and madhmm ai -
--.--- (
the same time. As an example, Ibn Hazm mentions that aIl thE:'
disagreed (khalafa) with Ab Bakr In .... intention to
fight the apostates (ahl al-riddah), while he alone Vias right
- and the whole "were wrong. Ibid.
66
./ __ l_., p. 2 . This is in the main 'the style of
Ibn He cites other examples, tao.
'his' aI'guments o'n the issue regarding' the
transmitters in the khabar al-tawatur.
1 - ,
For deta ils" see
\ .
number of chalns .0'[
Ibid., vol. 1, p. 95.
, ' 1
, -- 154Many of these lyadlths have sirlar'versions, but
are composed of chains of transmitters.
155This J:ladIth is a combination of three J:ladifhs,
totally cited by a single ?D narration, see ibid., vol.
4, p. 545. r:I:'he, first orle, "The community'of TvluJ:lammad will
never agree on an error" was cited by many J:ladlth collectors.
but wi th different versidns, (i. e., "My communi ty'. .'. "
, instead of "rr:he cpmmuni ty of 1I1utmmmad . . . ,,), among whidl
are al-BukharI in h1s al-JamL' al-9:J:liJ:l (Ki tab .... ;J,l-' tan), ;lI-
T irmidhI 1 s Jam\ (the chapter dealiI16 wi th Fi tan), Ibn T,ij'[llt
f
3
Sunan (chap'ter n.anasik ri tan), Ahmad. ibn HantaI' s' f,iusnad', IV,'
\ ' ..
101 and V, 145; nother version was also cited by al-Ghazali,
see 'vql. 1, p. 175.( Thel scond J:ladIth Vias cited
\
?
i
"
.
.,
r
'c
,
t
,
l

)
J
by Ibn Mjah in his ehapter on the nature of Fi tan. The third
with a similar version was by al-GhazalI, see
'"
ib,id.
1
15
6
Ibn J:fazm, vol. 4', p. '545.
,
157 AI-Amidl, J.l;kam al-midI, vol. 1, p. JJ9
"
j 58 ' ,
1 Ibn J:fazm, Il:kam, vol. 4, p., 54!).
159Ibid . See also above, p. 142, n. 152.
------,
160
, Joseph Schacht, The Origins of t\luhrunmadan Juri:::;-
Rrudence (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1950), p. 91; George f.
l'fou rani , '''Basis of Autliori ty," 0 pp. '157-8'.
16\1. Montgomery Watt, Islam and the Integration of
Society (London: Routledge&Kegan Paul,-[c. 1961l),,_p. 20
L
I
as quoted by A. Hasan, The Early Development of Islamic Juris-
prudence (Islamabad: Islamic Research Insti tute, 1970), p. 15'('.
162 - 4 4
Ibn ZI'fl, '1.l)kam, vo 1. ,p..5.5 .
9
16 J1bid ., p. 546. This ls one of many $ound
. ,
which i8 considered weak by Sound Qadiths are dis-
puted by Ibn Hazm, either through finding. wealc narrafors.in .
. ,
their Ganad, or through his inv'estigation "on the matn (text)
, 1 --
of the hadIths, like the a-ne mentioned above. For sound ha-
. . .-
dl ths which are doubted Ibn Hazm, E1ee ibid . vol. 5, p. '(O? j
. (
6, pp. 764, 809, 820, 100J, and

16.4rbid . " vol. 4, pp . .548-9. Notice that Ibn
repeats the words laID yUrad bidhalik al-din three times
" "t see l"bl"d., pp. 548'" (11
0
ne 26)
,during the course of hlS argumen ,
and 549 (lines 18 and 26).
.
"
p
,
l
!
,
i
' ..
<
i
!
, .
J
, f
\
t
143
, 165 Ibn Hazm contends that if the above fJadI th were
relevant to religion and were accepted in its general mean-
ing, falsehood could be changed into truth. A person whose
opinion differed from that of other people, his opi,nion would
be false, as the fJadlth says, Satan can pursue him.
But if his opinion was backed by another one, this false opin-
ion would turn into truth, becau/e Satan is away from the
This is not the nature of religion, because false remains false
even though it i8 backed by thousands of people. Ibn 9on-
(
tends further that the Prophet would not have meant 'that Satan
was away from infidels like t1he Jews, the Christians, or Mus-
lim heretics, because were more than one person, pr that
they constitute the of people. On the contra!y, in
Ibn Hazm's view, the more they are in nurnber, the stronger is
with them than with one person. Ibid., pp. Slt8-9. Ibn
is probably rlght in considering that the above fJadiths
have nothing to do with i.jrna', but his,views are exaggerated.
Ther.e is an indication that the Prophet ,warns his followers of
separation from the r.1uslim communi ty which actually happened
later.Every member of the community has the right,to express
his opinion, but it not mean that he leave the CQm-
muni ty. TIloreover, difference of opinio\n is in' the nature of,
human beings. The solution is that everyone among the 'community
explains his argument honestly, for the sake of finding the
truth, so that opponents can be convinced. Otherwise, the opin-
ion of the majority is to be accepted by aIl as ijtihad of the
'ulama' ,
- '
not as i,jma'.
\
166
w
T
hen KhadJ..Jah converted to Islqm she and the Proph-
et belonged to the truth, because of his prophethood and Khadi-
jah's acceptance of hi8 message, while the of people
. ,
opposing them were in Similar evidence
,
., ..
4-\
(
by Ibn Ho.zm is the case of Zayd ibn Amr ibn NUfa,yl, who] 1'." li
ln pre-Iclamic Arabla 1 2.nd, who refused tb \'Jorship ldols ine ip' '!
of' Allah. Beco.use of this attitude he wo.:::; the only pt?rcoll i11
hic time who belonged to the truth, and accordinG to 8. 1:lo.rllC1l',
he would be r:J.lced on the JudGernent .Do.y lS o.n umrnOll (8. no.tl.o:I,
3. communi ty, people) in' i tself. Ibid: pp. 5
L
I6-7. AnotllOr
. proof \ to justify, the possibili ty of cOllsidoring 3. persan VIL,)
belol1Gs- to tru th ac.; 8.n ummah which is no t useQ by, Ihn 1):0 ."
is the followinr, Qur' anic verse:- "10! J\brtlham was ;:1 natIon (:::':..:.'.-
In:J.h) , obedicnt to Allah, by nature uprlGht, and he Vlo.S not a [
the Idola tors. /1 Qur' an, 16: j 20.
167.Ibn l:fo.zarn, Il)kiirn, vol. Ly, p. for other ve]',""
cltcd hy Ibn l:fazm, see ibid. For their location, Qur'211,
6: 11 6, JO: 2
1
1, o.nd 12: 4 .
168 Ab'd al-JalJbo.r, Sh8.r0 pp. 61-::.

1
6
9Ibn l:f::lzm, Il)kam, vol. 4, p. 543.
17 For furtfjer examples of such (wdl ths, see ibid., p.
- l "
, l'
1'11 A8o. in , /1.. r;omeone who says 'there i., no go(l 1 1) t
.Allah'" in the lpdlth, in Ibn Haztfl's view, belon8 to ,jarno.",!,
'a 1-1).:.9.9..
1
72
Ib,id., p.
17Jlbid., p. 550.
1741bn J;I::lzm is referring to the Qur'anic verse'.wlc"
rcc;t.ds: r-and if ye have a dispute concerniw any rn;<t C'?l' 1
,
re/fer it to Al1o.h and the messenger. . . Qur<in, 4:59.
175rhere
are sorne types of ijJ1la' mentioned by Ibn
J:lo.zm .in his book Ihkam and
-.--
['11 ara tib 1 but vie have not 100kcd
into thorn, 'because of the il" l.irnited value.
1
f
r'
'.
i
, i
,
i.
i
.!
CONCLUSION
Ibn I;Iazm, who revived the sehool in the fifth/
eleventh century in Andalusia, faced severe 'reaction from
his ontemporary 'ulalYla' and rulers, ,who considered the ZahirI
1
!
school as an intruding one, for they had already followed th ..
Mliki school. His and defpnding thJn
school, which he, considers the right one, is poli tical and
1
Politieal, because, as a pro-Umayyad, he
of in and Its and rulErs in por-
, ticulQr 1 bacl\: to the ,pure Islamic teachings. He believes"

tha 1, the pOIl tical instabili ty and the corrupt ion ln the cou t J-
tryare dU8' to ,the' devlation from and vIolatIon of Ut"

i. C!., the Qur' an and the Sunnah of the Prophet. Bec;l\\sn
Ibn I;Iazm Lelieves that politics and rellgion are inseparabl0,
he confInes himself to teaching people the ligh 1,0
achieve his goal.
Ibn I;Iazm insists upon the total agreement of Musllm,
for the occurrence of ijr1a'. Due to the existence of na"::'JL-_
and inhorent disagreements and dIvergences in human kin0,
Ibn l}azm insists on naf;'f;' as the only basis of i,ima', for nn
JVluslirn would deny its authority. The i,ima' maintained by lbn
...
1
"
( ,
(
1
\
t[azm i3 that of the ln its broad meaning. It com-
prises two types: .) i ,jma' on wha t is known in religion b:r
necossity, llke the injunction of flve-daily prayers, and
b) iJma' of the sahabah in its narrow meaning, i.e., IJma'
'-'--,
on what the '?.Q;J:lbah wi tnessed and heard from the Proph'et,
llke the tax he imposed on the Jews 'of Khaybar. However,
the 'ulamo' en masse do Dot c'onsider this ijma' as ,such,
, '
for it is not more than the transmission of the by th0
,\ !?Q.I.lo.bah from the Praphet ta their following generation. "
Although to sorne extent there is a similarity of
view on ijmo.' between Ibn and as weIl as
al-Tsl" this simllarity is merely accidentaI, caused by
different motivations and backgrounds. Ibn Hazm, al-Nazzarl1,
. ..
and al-TsI belong to the school of law, the Mu'ta-
zill school of theology, and the shi 'ah sect
Basing ijma' on alone, i.e., the Qur'an and
the 0unnah, Ibn J,razm asserts that, like the Qur' o.n, the Sun-
nah of the' Prophet is also a waJ:ly and pre_served by Allah.
'l'he 108s of the Sunnah, mutawatir as weIl as iiJ:lad, would
cause the destruction of religion, because Sunnah,
us wlth esscntial details on Allah's statements and instruc-
tions in the Qur'an for' human beings. However, Ibn Hazm
maintains that unlike the Qur' an t the Sunnah ,is not an es-
tablished text in the Scripture, and contains no miracle in
1
(
(
i ts structure.
Unliko the oplnion of the rnajori t,y of 'ul;}.rno, ln dC-
cepting khabdr al-wiil)id as probable evidence, Ibn Hazm con-
siders lt as convincing evidence, that it was re-
ported by a reliable transrnitter; who traced his hearing to
" ,
the Prophet through reliable transrni tters. Ibn I;Iazrn doef3 no t
accept the validity of in religi8n, because he asserts
tlllat Zdnn is other thdn the truth and is prohlbi t8d by A1Llh.
Contrary to the oplnion of the rnaJority of 'uldrnii',
Ibn l:fazm does not accept the tagrlr 'Of the Prophct dS
because he contends that whatever the Pr?phet did not'dis-
approve of is' perrnissible. The dut Y of the Prophet lS tllJ-
!
11eh, and he would not keep silent if he saw somethinG not
pormissible. Prophet's fiel is considered a:> mandb onrl
usw3?h for luslirns, unless there is an indication of its boill
his execution of a certain injunction. It is t.lt"
gawl of t e Prophet which is accepted by Ibn Ifazm dS a 0u.J.j:tlt
1
by i tsclf, while the ma,jori ty of 'ulama: cons ider the q dwl,
<-
i'i'l, and tagrlr o,.f the Prophet together as l;luJ,]lh.
Qiyiis is rejected by Ibn I;Iazm as one of the sourcas
of h;larnic law or as sanad of i,jrna', for he considers l t
an inhovation and superfluous to religion. He maintains thlt
whatever Allah does not state as something enjoined or pro-
hibited is permissible, and as Allah has perfected the reli-
gio1n of Islam, any law based on other th an is to be
Il
14'
rejected. The existence of an 'illah upon which qiyas is
based, is rejecte
t

Although I-TuSl and
in they differ in
share the view of Ibn
their solving an
emerging Issue, which is usually solved by the majority, of-
'ulama' by applying 9 iyas, Ibn Hazm will' exe-rcise i,jtihad
l ,
to find its legal .iudgement based on If he does not
findany dalIl in the the issue is considered permissi-
ble, which is the basic legal judgement everything, Al-
Tsl will tryfto find the opinion of the hidden imam on that
issue, But if it is still unknown, it will be revealed in
the ijma' of the 'ulama' of the ShI 'ah, If no agreement has
been reached, the opinion of the imam be with one
has dalalah from the If no dalalah is available, the
opinio1n of those who are unknown in person and by lineage
is wi th that of th-e imam,' If the groups of disagreeing 'ulj-
ma' consist of both known and unknown 'ulama', the opinion of
any group is accepted. Although ihe opinion the imam
not with any of the disagreelng groups, their opinions are
, permi tted. Otherwise, if they are not permi tted, the imam
should not remain silent any longer. The opinion of
on this issue is However, he accepts the statements
of the hidden imam as as asserted by al-Shahrastani.
Other than the ijma' which he advocates, i.e., ijma
C
, 1
/ ,
( '/
(
of the based on na!?!? Ibn J:!azm n?Jects i,jma/ and lb
. authori ty, Dealing with i,ima' of the people of Madinah,
asserts th;;J.t the ijma' of the people. of Makkah is more de-
servin{; of acceptance thal1 that o.f Madinah , if the ijma' 01'
the people 0 f Madlnah should be accepted. r.Ioreover, Ibn H:lZIIi
pro tests that there and Rawafids ln Madlnah.
"
Asserting the occurrence of i,jm' merely because no challcnp"
is known is also rejected by Ibn J:!azm, For him, the absonc
n
of challenge in ijm' does not necessarily indicate one's
agreement;. but it may indicate his fear, Furthermore, a ch'l}-
lenge might not reach the 'ulama' in their i,jma'_! _80 that
assume its absence. Ibn J:!azm reminds his'opponents of thp
exisi{ence of 'ulam' amqng jinn whose agreement or cha11eo[,'
has never been known to them, , Knowing the opinions of al]
, ,
the 'ul:lma' of Islam is impossible' due to their greatness 111
number, except those of the sahbah before they scattered ta
,-, .-.....,---
diffcrent points Madinah. Like the ?pinion of the
, majori ty of 'ulam', Ibn Hazm rejects ijma' with one
. \
challenge. The idea that a single 6hallenge must,be shudhGdh
i8 rejected by Ibn H.azm, for the truth might be with the 8in-
, ..
gle ch::lllenger. The shudhdh which is intended in the f}CldI'Jll
cited by his if that badlth should be accepted,
understood by him to be "disagreeing wi th the truth." Hut h'"
\,
oub'"ts the soundness of that 1;aditl\ as well as another hadi-::J!
i

t
(
150
w'hich orders the believers ta follow the ,jamii'ah, cited by
his o,pponents. However, he contens that the >,jaJn3.' ah l-
tcnded in the J;8dl th i,s jO-ma' at al-J;Sill!l. In' i ts [eneral metln-,
lng, jama'at denotes the Muslim community as the or-
posite of the non-Muslim community. In its particular m00n-
ing, i t means any group among the Muslim communi ty who fo] J ow
the Qur'an and sound of the prophet in contrast to
Musllm heretics and those who follow fabricated
'fo what extent is the of Ibn similZlI' ta
that of its founder, Ab Sulayman Dawd, is beyond the scopr>
of this study. HoweveI', we know that Ibn follows DawGd
in rejecting giyas, .:...Y, istiJ;san, and taglid, and in acc(011 t-
ing the i,jma' of the This type of ijma' which 18
co.:;ideI'e the third source of Islamic law 1 18 0 f minaI' 1111-
portO-ncc. His opponents do not even consider it as ijm3.',
but rather as the itself. The dalIl, the fouTth Goure'
'of IsJ amie law in the' is cansidered by
ljO-zm':J opponents as qiyO-s in disguise, al though i t is
Ibn
a1so
based on In inst:?nce we may say that Ibn J;!azm"
as a sticks to the alone. In one 0 [ his poem,"
he said: "1 will not incline towards' any opinion in religion;
nay, the Qur'an and the Sun3.n [of the Prophet] me,"
as we have cited on the front page of this thesis.
,
------------- .
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t
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4
Il
GLOSSARY
'adalah, honesty, honorable record.
-
'adl (pl. (udl), an honest man, a persan with an honorable
record.
ahad (khabar al-waJ;id), a I;adi th (tradition) reported bj one
chain of authority.
ahkam (sing. hukm) , legal judgements, laws.
-.--- .--- [
'alim (pl. (ulama.,), a scholar, a ,learr'ted man, a savant.
amlr (pl. umara'), an emir, a ruler.
Andalusia, al-Andalus, Muslim Spain.
asbab al-nuzl (sing. 'sabab aI-nuzl, see below).
,
(pl. !d.f;'l),,, basis, principle, theory (of divine Iaw).
awamm, laymen.
batin, an inner or secret meaning.
Batinlyah. seekers of the inner or meanin? of the
naS8.
bay' ah, the pledge of ailegiance.
bayan, explanation. clarification.
-
bayt al-mal, public treasury.
l.a'lf. weak.
indication.
dalll, proof, evidence.
dhikr, a reminder. It also means remembering and mention-
ing. which i8 a technical term for the ri tuaI rc':'"
15 \
r
.,
( ,
152.
i tations of the dervishes and their services.
(pl. fuqul), eminent.
faglh (pl. fugaha' ) , a jurisprudent, a jurist whose profes-
sional interest is in figh.

far' (pl. furu 1) ,
section.
. .
or, substantive
branch, posltlve
coriunand, an inc1.1mbent of religion the performance
oS WhlCh i8 obllgntory.
law.
fataw1'i (sing. fatwa, Tutwa, or futya), the formaI legal opin-
ions a canon lawyer.
fatwa, (see fntawa aboY).

fiqh, jurisprudence in Islam.
fitan (sing. fitnah), dissension, civil strife, discord. \
fitnah, (see fitan abo.ve).
fudl, (see fadil above}.
--.-- . --.--
fugaha' , (see faqlh above).
fur', (see far' above).
(see fatawa above).
futya, (see fataw3. above).
a fixed punishment; punishment indicated in th
0adlth, news',a story, and finally a technical term for the
traditiqn of what the PFophet said, did, or approved.
pilgrimage (to Makkah).
prohibited, forbidden, unlawful, sinful.
0u j ,jah, pro of.
(pl. judgement, law.
<
\
i-
.,

.
t
l
f'
t
<.
153
ibadiit (s ing. 'ibadah), acts of devotion, religious'observanceG .
. '
i jma', the consensus of the Muslim communi ty.
ijma' sul\:tl, tacii i,jma',.
,
i,jtihad, independent jdgement in a" legal que'stion based upon
the jinterpretation of the Qur'an and the Sunnah.
'illah, ,cause, reason.
iJ,1am, leader. It is used ln a general sense, e.g., the IGe.der
in prayer, and
munit y leader.
p18ce that the
imamah, leadership
,
iman, faith, belier.
---- ,
in the. particular sense of a com-
Among the Sh'Iah the imams take the
caliphs have among the' Sunni ifluslims ..
istiJ:lcin, preference, the application of discretion in a le;81
judgement.
i'tiqadiit, articles or religious faith or practice.
isti thna' 1 exception .
.Tahillyah, pre-IGlamis. paganism , (lit., ptate of ignorance).
jama'oh (pl. jama'at), group, community.
iamo.' 0. t, (see ,iama' ah above).
,iLLlna'at al-J:tilll.Q.., the community. of the truth. Tt is lIsed by
Ibn Hazm in a general sense as the Muslim community,
and in the particular sense of the followers of the
Qur'an and the genuine Hadith.
fj inn, demons, genii, intelligent creatures of au and fire.
jumhr, mass.
,jumhr a1- 'ulama', the 'ulama' en masse (in the mass).
rI
,., (
.
l ,
"
.
1
{,
151t
kalalah, a d person who has neither parents nor chil-
dren to give his inheritance to.
khabar" news, report.
khabar al-wa91d (g)).ad), a 1).adi th reported by one chain o,f
transmitters.
khabar al-tawatur (mutawatir) ,'a 1).adlth handed
'- chains of unimpeachable transmi tters. \,
,the tabi 'un and other generations. .
1
khalifah, caliph.
khamr, intoxicant, wine, liquor.
...
the who know the inner meaning of the
khutbah, s.rmon, specifically the Friday setmon .
. kitab; document, message .
kufr, infidelity
kunyah, 'the name consisting of Abu (father) 0' Umm (mother)
followed usually by the name of the eldest son or
daughter.
madhhab, a school of law among Sunn! Muslims.
ma'dhr, excused.
madhmum, reprehensible.
ma1;tmud, praised
ma'jr, rewarded .

ma'lum bi al-darurah, known by necessity.
, .
mamd1)., laudable.
recommended.
"
1
!
!
,
,
1
i'
l'
1
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manskh, abrogated.
matn, text, the subjet-matter of a
mawl, client.
minbar, pulpit.
(pl. ,precise,' c'lear verse of the Qur' an.
mu,jmal, what is impled in general terms or expres'sed by
implication.
mu,itahid (pl. mu,jtahidn), a legist who exercises ijtihad'.
, ,
munkar" reprehensible action.
mutakallimln (sing. Muslim theoiogians.
mutashabihat (sing'. arrlbigupus vers'es
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Qur,an.

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Ifnutawatir, khabar al-tawatur above).
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nadb, recommending.
nagd 1 critique.
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uasikh,
" the div ine te xt .
judge ..
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giyas, analoky,
rak'ah (pl. raka'at), unit in\ prayer, bowing.
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of the
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opinion. ,
al:'nuzul, the occasion 0 which the verse was revealed.
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sab
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companions.of the Prophet.
sahabi, (see sahabah above) .
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salaf, the :first g'enerat;i..on of the .:1j.abah .
prayer.
sana, chain of narration .
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shadhg.h, deviating.
'shari 'ah (pl. shara' i,'), the canonical law of Islam; the Qody
of regulations which makes up the religious law.
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shaykh" old man, leader of a t'ribe or, a gr.oup, master, a title
of respect.
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shubhah, jUdicial error.
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shudhdh, deviation.
sirrlyah, detachment,
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Sunnah (pl. sunan)", a custo'm or practice, la ter
narrowed down to the practice of the Prophet or ct
1).adlth recording the same. Sunnah includes the Froph-.
et's sayings, deeds and tacit.approval. In this rBS-
pect often synonymous wi th th. Sunnah also mean,'
merl toriou,s.
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srah, a chapter or a section of'the Qur,an.
tbi'i (pl. tbi'In) , a person succeeding the of
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the
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tabi' i al-tabi' ln, the following al the. following genera tion
of that Of;\thk 1j1:I;liibah.
tabl1gh, conveyance f the message, religious .
tafslr, commentary' of the Qurdan.
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taglid, decisions based on the authority of preceding
tions.
ta'wil, interpr,tatiorl, inner meaning.
tawg If, the tea.qhing of the Proph'et.
ta' zIr<,
discretionary punishment.
.
thigah (pl. ' thig a t) ,
reliable autharity.
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'Udl, (see adl abpve).
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lama' , (see 'alim above).
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(see amlr umara' ,
ummah, nation" people, party, ty.
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umm al-Vlalad, a slave-girl who has borne 'her master a child.
usl, (see asl above).
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uswah, model.
Vlahalah, at first sight.
wajib, obligatory.
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wazlr, minister.
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ablution, the lesser
prayers.
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sertitude. :laC] ln,
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zakah, alms tax.
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THE UMAYrAD DYNASTY IN ANDALUSIA (138/756-422/1031)
(1) 'Abd l al-Dakhil (138/756-172/788)
1
(2) Hisham l (172/788-180/796)
\ 1
(3) AI-Hakam l (180/796-206/822)
1 \
(4J 'Abd al-Raf;unan II (206/822-238/852)
l '
(5) l
1 1
..
(6) AI-Mundhir (273/886-275/888) (7) 'Abd Allah (275/888-300/912)
AI-Hakam III al-
Muntas'ir bi-Allah
(J50/961-)66/976)
1
Suiayman
1
MuQ.amrnad
1
(8) 'Abd al-Rahmal1
al-Nasir li-Dln llah,
(JOO/912-J50/961)
1
,
l
'Abd al-Malik ',Abd Allah
,.1
'Abd al-Jabbr f
1
1
AI-J;iakam
, 1
Mul}ammad 'Abd al-Ral}man
1
(10) Hisham'II al-
Mu'alfyid bi-Allah
(366/976-)99/1009)
[
4,00,1. 1010-403/1 0 1,...J_) __ ---!: ____ ,
Hisham (12; Sulayman al-
r,Justa'In
(400/1009-4-07/,1016 )
(13) 'Abd al-Raf;unan IV
al-Murtad
(408/1018-410/1019)
(11) Muhammad II
" al-MahdI
(399/1009-400/1010)
(14) 'Abd al-Rahman V
al-Mustazhir bi':Allh
(414/1023)
(15) Muhammad
al-Mustakfi bi-Allah
(414/1024-416/1025)
(16) Hisham III
al-Mu'tadd Qi-Allah
(418/1027-422/10)1)
, .
Adopted from:
2. Stanley Lane-Pool, The Mohammadan Dynasties
(Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1925), p. 22.
1 \
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