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مُقَدِّمَةُ الْمُفْتِي · Muqaddimat al-Mufti: The One Rule Everything Else Serves
مَنْصِبُ الْإِفْتَاءِ · What the Muftī's Post Is
Know how honoured the muftī's post is, and how heavy it is. Then know this. What the muftī gives his answer from ought to be a source he can name.
- إِذَا عَلِمْتَ شَرَفَ مَنْصِبِ الْإِفْتَاءِ وَخَطَرَهُ، فَاعْلَمْ أَنَّ مَا يُفْتِي بِهِ الْمُفْتِي يَنْبَغِي أَنْ يَكُونَ مَأْخَذُهُ مَعْلُومًا
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الْفَتْوَى تُخْبِرُ، الْقَضَاءُ يُلْزِمُ · Fatwa Informs; Qada Binds
There is only one difference between the muftī and the judge. The muftī informs you of the ruling. The judge's ruling is binding.
- لَا فَرْقَ بَيْنَ الْمُفْتِي وَالْحَاكِمِ، إِلَّا أَنَّ الْمُفْتِيَ مُخْبِرٌ بِالْحُكْمِ، وَالْقَاضِيَ مُلْزِمٌ بِهِ
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وُجُوبُ اتِّبَاعِ الرَّاجِحِ (أَبْيَاتُ ٩-١٠) · The Book's Opening Rule: Follow the Stronger View
First: if qualified scholars have already said which view is stronger, follow what they said. Second: if they have said nothing, fall back to ẓāhir al-riwāya, the school's main record. That fallback holds only until someone does the weighing.
- «اعْلَمْ بِأَنَّ الْوَاجِبَ اتِّبَاعُهُ تَرْجِيحُهُ عَنْ أَهْلِهِ قَدْ عُلِمَا، أَوْ كَانَ ظَاهِرَ الرِّوَايَةِ وَلَمْ يُرَجِّحُوا خِلَافَ ذَاكَ فَاعْلَمْ»
Ibn ʿĀbidīn is citing al-Qarāfī (d. 684H), a Mālikī, not speaking in his own voice. What al-Qarāfī's words show is this. Neither a mujtahid nor anyone who follows him may rule or give fatwā by anything except the stronger view. Doing that is following your own whim, and whim is forbidden by ijmāʿ. Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, and al-Bājī who is also a Mālikī, had reported the same ijmāʿ before him.
- وسبقه إلى حكاية الإجماع فيهما ابن الصلاح، والباجي من المالكيّة في المفتي. وكلام القرافي دالٌّ على أنَّ المجتهد والمقلّد لا يحلُّ لهما الحكم والإفتاء بغير الراجح؛ لأنّه اتّباع للهوى وهو حرام إجماعًا
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الِاسْتِثْنَاءُ: تَعَارُضُ الْأَدِلَّةِ عِنْدَ الْمُجْتَهِدِ وَعَجْزُهُ عَنِ التَّرْجِيحِ · The One Exception: The Proofs Clash Before the Mujtahid and Defeat His Weighing
Still al-Qarāfī's words, as Ibn ʿĀbidīn reports them. The ban holds the mujtahid only while the proofs have not clashed before him and defeated his ability to weigh them. Once that happens, the man who follows him may then rule by either of the two views, and it is on that point that ijmāʿ is claimed. Note there is one exception here, not a list of them.
- وأنَّ محلَّه في المجتهد ما لم تتعارض الأدلّة عنده ويعجزْ عن الترجيح، وأنَّ لمقلّده حينئذ الحكم بأحد القولين إجماعًا، انتهى
Ibn ʿĀbidīn comes back to this later in the book and spells out the other half. When the two proofs come out equal in the mujtahid's own eyes, he himself may rule by whichever of them he wishes.
- وقد قدمنا عن الإمام القرافي: أنه لا يحل الحكم والإفتاء بغير الراجح لمجتهد أو مقلّد، إلا إذا تعارضت الأدلة عند المجتهد، وعجز عن الترجيح. أي فإن له الحكم بأيّهما شاء؛ لتساويهما عنده
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