> The four types of people

[Umm Sufyaan]

Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan (may Allah preserve him) said:

People fall into four categories:

The first category is those who are able to made ijtihad in absolute terms, by referring directly to the Qur’an and Sunnah and deriving rulings from them, and they do not follow any other scholars (taqleed).

This is the highest status, but this only applies to the one who fulfils the known conditions of ijtihad, by having knowledge of the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and by having knowledge of Arabic in which the Qur’an was revealed, and by having knowledge of al-muhkam and al-mutashabih (clear, unambiguous texts and ambiguous texts), al-nasikh wa’l-mansookh (texts which abrogate others and texts which are abrogated), al-mutlaq wa’l-muqayyad (texts with absolute meanings and texts with limited meanings), al-khas wa’l-‘am (texts with specific meanings and texts with general meanings). He should also have knowledge of how to derive rulings, meaning that he should be qualified. Such a person may engage in ijtihad. This category includes people like the four imams – Abu Haneefah, Malik, al-Shafa’i and Ahmad – as well as Sufyan al-Thawri and al-Awza’i. To these people Allah gave the ability to engage in ijtihad.

The second category is those who cannot engage in ijtihad in absolute terms, but they are able to weigh up the opinions of scholars and determine which is more correct, because of their knowledge of which opinions are based on evidence and which are not.

Such a person must follow that for which there is evidence, and shun that which goes against the evidence. This action is called tarjeeh (weighing up what is more correct) and is also known as al-ijtihad al-madhhabi (ijtihad based on the study of different views).

The third category is those who cannot engage in tarjeeh. Such a person is regarded as one of the muqallideen (those who follow other scholars), but if he knows that some opinion has no supporting evidence then he does not follow it. But so long as he does not know and it is not clear to him that it is contrary to the evidence, there is nothing wrong with him imitating and following the opinions of the trustworthy scholars.

The fourth category is the one who is unable to do any of the above; neither ijtihad in an absolute sense nor weighing what is more correct nor following a specific madhhab, such as the ordinary Muslim, for example.

Such a person has to ask the people of knowledge, as Allah says (interpretation of the meaning): “So ask of those who know the Scripture, if you know not” [al-Nahl 16:43]. So he should ask the one who be believes is most trustworthy and the scholar in whom he has the greatest confidence, of those whose knowledge and actions he trusts, and follow his fatwa.

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