Читать книгу Disagreements of the Jurists - al-Qadi al-Nu'man - Страница 15

PROLOGUE

In the Name of God, the Merciful and Beneficent:

3 Praise be to God, Who revealed the Book to his servant, Muḥammad, the bearer of glad tidings and warner, and rendered it as He describes it in His Scripture: «a cure for what is in the breasts of mankind, guidance, and mercy for the faithful,»⁶ and «an explanation of all things, guidance, mercy, and glad tidings for the Muslims.»⁷ God bless Muḥammad, the Seal of the Prophets and Foremost of the Messengers, and the Imams among his pure and virtuous progeny.

4 Now, to the heart of the matter: I noticed that all those who pray toward Mecca,⁸ after agreeing on the explicit text of the Qurʾan and accepting the Messenger as truthful, differ in their legal rulings on many individual points of the law, some fundamental principles, and many matters of interpretation. Concerning these issues they have adopted sundry views, dispersed into diverse groups, and formed various disputing parties, and this despite being aware of God’s word: «that you remain steadfast in religion, and make no divisions therein»;⁹ «Nor did those to whom the Scripture was given make schisms until after there came to them clear evidence»;¹⁰ «Those to whom the Scripture was given differed concerning it only after clear proofs had come unto them»;¹¹ «Religion before God is Islam. Nor did the People of the Book dissent therefrom except after knowledge had come to them, through malevolence toward each other»;¹² «Do they then earnestly consider the Qurʾan, or are their hearts locked up?»;¹³ and «Do they not earnestly consider the Qurʾan? Had it been from other than God, they would surely have found therein much incongruity.»¹⁴ For in these verses, God censured division and disagreement and encouraged unity and solidarity, commanding and promoting the latter. He made it desirable to uphold the faith and prohibited the formation of schisms therein.

5 I have therefore decided to write a detailed exposition of this matter in the present book, and in doing so I seek assistance from God, place my trust in Him, and depend on the support, direction, and guidance of His ward the Imam, adopting him as a beacon to guide my way and a stock of provisions against my time of need, and drawing and scooping up water from his overflowing sea. I begin by setting forth the causes of their disagreement, what led and compelled them to differ, and what paved their way to discord. I will follow this by presenting their doctrine in general and the principles they have adopted for themselves, demonstrating the invalidity of these principles as support for their views. I will pair all that with an exposition of the doctrine of the people of truth¹⁵ concerning that over which these others have differed, clarifying and explaining it, and adducing quotations and evidence in support of it. After that I will present the doctrine of each group, the arguments they have adduced in support of those doctrines, refutation of the positions they have taken in which they have strayed from the Truth, and the doctrine of the people of truth regarding these positions, according to what we have learned on the authority of our Imams, peace be upon them. I seek thereby nothing but the reward for serving this goal and for undertaking to provide the means to reach it. However, proof belongs to the wards of God, who alone are able to provide it and open the doors that lead thereto.