Following Personal Understanding of Religious Directives
Question:
Whenever I ask the ulema any religious questions they start explaining the answers in the light of fiqh books. They seem to be teaching fiqhs not the deen. Is fiqh that important that nowadays it is considered that important. The last line of defence they use is that you have to follow one fiqh. You can’t mix it. I don’t believe that I am going to take everything which is easy in any fiqh. Is that understanding right or not as “Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said keep the deen simple. Is my understanding correct?
Answer:
There is no problem if a person follows his own understanding of religious directives if that understanding is an honest one. It is of course essential that the person carries out enough study and investigation of the subject within his own capacity before forming an understanding and acting in accordance to it. In doing this the person can tremendously benefit of the views and works of the scholars of different schools of thought however at the end he needs to decide what seems to be the most correct view to him. On the other hand, if the person is not in the position of doing a brief study of a subject and prefers to just follow a scholar that he trusts, then this is also fine.
Farhad Shafti
Whenever I ask the ulema any religious questions they start explaining the answers in the light of fiqh books. They seem to be teaching fiqhs not the deen. Is fiqh that important that nowadays it is considered that important. The last line of defence they use is that you have to follow one fiqh. You can’t mix it. I don’t believe that I am going to take everything which is easy in any fiqh. Is that understanding right or not as “Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said keep the deen simple. Is my understanding correct?
Answer:
There is no problem if a person follows his own understanding of religious directives if that understanding is an honest one. It is of course essential that the person carries out enough study and investigation of the subject within his own capacity before forming an understanding and acting in accordance to it. In doing this the person can tremendously benefit of the views and works of the scholars of different schools of thought however at the end he needs to decide what seems to be the most correct view to him. On the other hand, if the person is not in the position of doing a brief study of a subject and prefers to just follow a scholar that he trusts, then this is also fine.
Farhad Shafti
