And in whatsoever ye differ, the verdict therein belongeth to God.(42:10)
This day We have perfected your religion for you and completed Our favour unto you and have chosen for you as religion al‑islam...(5:3)
With the revelation of the last verse, the Din of God attained its perfect form in all aspects: political, ritual, social, economic and ethical. Following that, the process of wahyconcluded. As such, it does not seem possible that the Prophet (S) of God should have said to Mu'adh: "By what rule will you act, if you find no direction in the Book of God and the Sunnah?" The verse affirming the perfecting of the Din was revealed approximately three months prior to the demise of the Prophet (S), during the journey of the Last Pilgrimage. After that no other verses concerning ahkam were revealed to him.
During the span of the ten years that the Prophet (S) resided in Madinah, all the ahkamof God were revealed by means of approximately 500 verses‑the ayat al‑'ahkam (the verses containing the rules and laws of the Shari'ah) which make approximately one‑third of the Quran (as to their volume) and were already communicated and expounded by the Prophet (S). Not a single issue, small or big, was left without a hukm in any of the diverse spheres of human life, not even the hukm regarding the diyah of a scratch on the skin.
During his journey of the Last Pilgrimage, the Prophet (S) had declared:
O people, whatsoever takes you nearer to Paradise and away from Hellfire, I enjoined upon you. And whatever brings you nearer to Hellfire and removes you away from Paradise, I forbade you to do.
The following tradition has been reported in Usul al‑Kafi (Ilmiyyah Islamiyyah, Tehran, vol:1, p:80) from Sama'ah:
(Al‑Kulayni says): From a number of our companions, from Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Khalid, from Isma'il ibn Mihran, from Sayf ibn Amirah, from Abu al‑Maghra, from Sama'ah from (al-Imam al‑Kazim), Abu al‑Hasan Musa (A); (Sama'ah) said: "I said to him: Is everything in the Book of God and the Sunnah of His Apostle (S), or you have something to say (in addition)?' He said: (No); rather, everything is in the Book of God and the Sunnah of His Apostle (S)'."
Also in Usul al‑Kafi (op. cit. vol:l,p:77), the following tradition is reported on the authority of Sulayman ibn Harun from al‑'Imam al Sadiq (A). There, the Imam (A) states:
God has not created any halal (that which is permissible) or any haram (that which is forbidden) except that He has determined a boundary for it like the limits and boundaries of a house. That which belongs to the limits of the road is reckoned as the road, and whatever that comes within the boundaries of the house is considered as a part of the house. [This is true] even of a scratch on the skin, a full lash or half a lash.
The following tradition is reported in Basa'ir al‑darajat (Qumm, 1404 H., p. 143) on the authority of Muhammad ibn Muslim:
(Muhammad ibn al‑Hasan ibn Farrukh al‑Saffar al‑Qummi says): Narrated to us Ahmad ibn Muhammad (al‑Barqi), from al‑Husayn ibn Said (al‑'Ahwazi), from Fadalah ibn Ayyub, from al‑Qasim, from Burayd ibn Mu'awiyah alIjli, from Muhammad ibn Muslim, who said: "Abu Ja'far (the Fifth Imam) (A) said:We have the Sahifah written by Ali (A), whose length is seventy cubits. We study its contents, not going beyond them'. I asked him about the inheritance of knowledge that had been transferred (to the Imams), whether it consisted of generalities or of detailed exposition of such things as the people talk about, such as divorce and religious duties. He said: Ali (A) wrote down all knowledge, including all judicial laws (al‑qada') and duties (al-fara'id). When our sovereignty is established, we will act according to it in regard to every matter.' "
In Furu' al‑Kafi (Dar al‑Kutub al‑'Islamiyyah, Tehran, vo1:7, Kitab al‑hudud, Bab 1, hadith 12) a Riwayah is reported on the authority of Dawud ibn Farqad from al‑'Imam al‑Sadiq (A). In it, the Prophet (S) is reported as having said to Sa'd ibn Ubadah:
Verily, God Almighty has determined a hadd (limit, punishment) for every thing, and for whomsoever that crosses that hadd He has prescribed a certain hadd.
In another tradition of the same volume (Bab 1, hadith 6), it is reported on the authority of a reliable narrator, Sama'ah, that he heard this statement from al‑'Imam al‑Sadiq (A):
Indeed there is a hadd for every thing, and whoever transgresses it will be subjected to a certain hadd. And the Quran declares:
And whosoever transgresses the bounds of God‑‑those are the evildoers. (2:229)
Therefore, Islamic law prescribes punishment for those who violate the limits prescribed by God.
Accordingly, all the ahkamhave been described in the Book and the Sunnah of the Prophet (S); the period of legislation closed with the demise of the Prophet of God and nothing was omitted. Thus, we need not rely upon practices like ijtihad by ray and other conjectural instruments (such as qiyas, istihsan, masalih mursalah, madhhab Sahabi, etc.) for deriving the ahkam for emergent issues (we have discussed this matter in elaborate detail in another article).
It is true that the ahkam have not been laid down in a uniform way in the Book and the Sunnah of the Prophet (S). Some of them have been set forth as special cases, while some others have been stated in a general way, in such a manner that by applying the general laws to particular cases all the ahkamof the Shari'ah regarding emergent issues and events can be derived. Therefore, those who imagine that there are no ahkam in the Shari'ah for modern issues and contemporary problems indeed commit a great mistake; such a notion is contrary to the express statements of the Quran and conclusive dicta. The conclusiveness of these proofs is so certain that if a tradition attributed to the Prophet (S) counters their import, it should be discarded in accordance with the criteria and standards of the science of hadith and dirayah. This, because a statement whose origin from the Prophet (S) is not certain can never contest express texts of the Book, or reliable traditions of the Ma'qumun (A) whose authenticity of origin as well as import are definite. This, undoubtedly, holds true in the case of the present tradition which is of doubtful authenticity and is opposed to the express text of the Quran.
c) Above all, this tradition implies a confession on the part of the Prophet (S) of the insufficiency of law regarding the religious and nonreligious needs of mankind. How can we accept such a thing when the verse stating the perfection of the religion was revealed to him?
6. This tradition also implies that Mu'adh possessed the knowledge of all the ahkampresent in the Book of God and the Sunnah of the Prophet (S), whereas neither the Shi'ah nor the Sunnis believe this. Nobody among the Prophet's Companions was known to possess such a merit except Imam Ali (A); he was the only person who had perfect knowledge of the Divine Law. It was for this reason that the Holy Prophet (S) enjoined upon the Ummah to follow him and to take their knowledge from the Ahl al‑Bayt (A). The Prophet instructed them to consider the traditions of the Ahl al‑Bayt (A) as their guide and to follow them as a model of practice and behaviour in all the modes of life. No doubt, Amir al‑Mu'minin's source of knowledge and information was no other than the wahyrevealed to the Prophet (S) and taught to Ali (A) by himself. The leading and profound thinkers among Sunni scholars acknowledge this distinction of Imam Ali (A).
7. This tradition implies that at the time when Mu'adh was being sent to Yemen, the process of tashri was already complete and all the Divine ahkamhad been set forth. However, the verse pronouncing the perfection of the Din counters this presumption and indicates that the perfection of the Din was declared three months prior to the demise of the Prophet (S), on the occasion of Hajjat al‑Wada.
8. If it is said that ijtihad (in the sense of exercising ra'y and personal judgement) was permissible for Mu'adh alone and others should not follow him, it is evident that nobody has held such an opinion.
And if it is presumed that this style of ijtihadwas permissible for everyone, it means that every mujtahid has a right to legislate laws by means of ray and personal judgement whenever he fails to find a hukm in the text of the Book and the Sunnah. Moreover, laws thus legislated should be accepted and acknowledged as the real (waqi't) Divine laws in accordance with the doctrine of taswib. This means that whenever mujtahidun express a number of contradictory and conflicting opinions in a case, all of them should be recognized and given the status of the real hukm. Evidently, no one would be ready to accept this, as it will necessitate that the real hukm be identified simultaneously with a number of contradictory views and opinions, reducing Islamic law to a mass of contradictions.
Here, it will be appropriate to cite a tradition reported from Amir al‑Mu'minin in Bihar al‑'Anwar (vo1.2, chapter 34, p.284; also see Nahj al‑balaghah, Khutbah No.18):
When a case relating to one of the ahkam is put before any one of them he passes judgement on it according to his ray. Afterwards, when the same problem is placed before another of them, he passes an opposite verdict. Then these judges go to the chief who had appointed them and he confirms all the verdicts, although their God is One, their prophet is one and the same and their scripture is one and the same. Was it God‑subhanahu‑who enjoined them to differ (while laying down the ahkam), and they obeyed Him? Or He forbade them from it and they disobeyed Him? Or, did God Almighty send His Din in a defective and imperfect form and asked for their help and assistance in order to make it perfect? Or, were they His partners and assistants (in performing legislation) so that He has to concede to whatever judgement they pronounce? Or is it that God Almighty made His Din perfect, but the Prophet (S) fell short of communicating it (to the people)? The fact is that God states in the Quran (
, 6:38)