The four kinds of muftis

Among the "benefits concerning fatwas" with which Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya closed I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, the twenty-ninth states that those who have set themselves up to give fatwas are of four kinds; he then builds on this what each kind may legitimately do. ¹

The one who knows the Book of God, the Sunna of His Messenger and the views of the Companions, who exercises ijtihad on new cases and seeks agreement with the proofs wherever they lead. His ijtihad does not exclude following others at times: every imam followed someone more knowledgeable than himself on some rulings, as al-Shafi'i said of a question of pilgrimage, "I said it following Ata'". For Ibn al-Qayyim these are the ones who may give fatwas and be consulted, through whom the communal duty of ijtihad is fulfilled, and whom he sees meant by the hadith of renewers at the head of each century. ¹

A mujtahid within the school of the imam he follows, who knows his imam's rulings, principles and sources, and is able to derive from them and extend what the imam did not state by analogy with what he did, without following him in either ruling or proof – he has rather taken the imam's path in ijtihad and fatwa and promoted his school. Ibn al-Qayyim says that among the Hanbalis al-Qadi Abu Ya'la and al-Qadi Abu Ali ibn Abi Musa claimed this rank, as did many Shafi'is; that the Hanafis differed over Abu Yusuf, Muhammad and Zufar, the Shafi'is over al-Muzani, Ibn Surayj, Ibn al-Mundhir and Muhammad ibn Nasr al-Marwazi, and the Malikis over Ashhab, Ibn Abd al-Hakam, Ibn al-Qasim and Ibn Wahb – whether they were independent mujtahids or bound to their imams' schools; and that whoever considers their careers knows they did not follow their imams in everything. ²

One who exercises ijtihad within the school he belongs to, establishes it with proofs and has mastered its rulings, but does not go beyond his imam's sayings or contradict them, and on finding his imam's text does not depart from it. This, he says, is the state of most authors in the schools and most scholars of the various groups, many of whom think they have no need to know the Book, the Sunna or Arabic, since their imam's texts suffice them. ² Ibn al-Qayyim criticises the claim of many of them that they examined the schools and found their own imam's closest to the truth, marvelling at an ijtihad that carried them to ranking their imam above others yet left them unable to exercise ijtihad on the words of God and His Messenger. ³

A group who learned the law of the school they belong to, memorised its rulings and branches, and acknowledge pure imitation in every respect: if they mention the Book and the Sunna, it is for blessing and merit, not as proof; when they see a sound hadith, or a fatwa of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman or Ali, that contradicts their imam, they take their imam's view. ³ He holds that one in this position may not answer a questioner merely by following another without knowing it to be right; but if the questioner says he wants to know the imam's view and school, the mufti may report it as a transmitter, and the responsibility then lies with the questioner. ⁴

Following a dead scholar. In the thirty-first benefit Ibn al-Qayyim relates two views among the followers of Ahmad and al-Shafi'i on following a dead scholar without examining the proof: those who forbid it say that, were he alive, his ijtihad might change when the case arose. Ibn al-Qayyim holds that the best of the following people practise is following the dead, and that views do not die with those who held them, just as reports do not die with their transmitters. ⁴

Partial ijtihad. In the thirty-second benefit he states that ijtihad can be divided, so that a man may be a mujtahid in one field, such as inheritance, and a follower in others. On whether he may give fatwas in the field he has mastered he relates three views: that he may – which he holds correct; that he may not, because the chapters of law are interconnected; and that he may in inheritance only, since its rulings stand apart from the other chapters and are mostly certain. He also allows one who has exerted himself on one or two questions to give fatwas on them, in the sounder of two views. ^{4 5}

The classification is bound up with Ibn al-Qayyim's position on imitation and on whether a layperson must keep to one school, and with the benefit in which he states that giving fatwas by whim, by picking and choosing, or to suit a purpose is among the worst iniquities. ¹

The classification is given here from volume six only; the classifications of grades of muftis by others such as Ibn al-Salah, al-Nawawi and Ibn Hamdan, to which the editor refers, and modern studies have not yet been added.