Question:
What are the types of khilaf and their causes?
Answer:
There are two types of khilaf, which are:
First: Acceptable Disagreement/differing of opinion (khilaf maqbul) like the disagreements of the types of hajj and others.
Second: Non-Acceptable Disagreement/differing of opinions (khilaf mazmum). The main causes are:
- Ignorance (jahil)
- Oppression (zalim) and extremes
- Surrendering to one’s wants and desires (hawa nafsu) and misgivings (zan)
- Contradicting the Prophet PBUH’s teachings (mukhalafah manhaj al-nabawi)
An Acceptable Disagreement
It is based on certain requirements:
- Those who are in the disagreements must be among the Fiqh and religious scholars
- In things which are the branches (furu’) and not the roots (usul)
- In the intention of searching for the truth
- Willing to sacrifice and give the best effort in searching for the truth (ijtihad)
The Causes of Disagreements
- Differences in understanding and one’s mental ability in processing something
- Differences in the mastery of certain knowledge
- Differences in the mastery in Arabic language
- Disagreements on the usage of sources in Fiqh
- Disagreements on the requirements for a valid (sahih) hadith
- Disagreements on the usul al-fiqh methods, such as:
- Determining the meaning of homonyms; words with multiple meanings (lafaz al-musytarak)
- Determining the ruling of something between essential (wajib) and sunna
- Determining the ruling of something between the impermissible or prohibited (haram) and undesirable (makruh)
- Determining absolute (mutlaq) and restricted (muqayyad)
- Determining a word between the direct (haqiqat) and indirect (majaz) meanings
- Determining the generality (umum) of the Quranic verse and mass transmitted hadith (sunnah mutawatirah) upon individual-to-individual reports (khabar al-ahad)
- Determining the generality(umum) of a saying
- Determining the indication (dalalah) of the expressions (nas) upon parallel meaning (lahn al-khitab)
- Determining the rules of exception whether it refers to all of the statements or some of them
- Determining the indication (dalalah) of divergent meaning (mafhum al-mukhalafah)
- Disagreements on the readings of the Quran
- Disagreements due to contradictions between evidences (dalil)
Our teacher, Fadhilatu al-Syeikh Dr. Mustafa Said al-Khin through his book entitled, Athar al-Ikhtilaf fi al-Qawa’id al-Usuliyyah fi Ikhtilaf al-Fuqaha had discussed this issue in detail.