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Fatwa CenterDefinition of following scholars’ concessions
Question
Assalaamu alaykum! According to one of your fatwas, following a scholar's concession is evil. What is the meaning of a scholar's concession? Is a decision made by the majority of the scholars a concession? Or is the meaning of a concession a decision made by only one scholar? I hope that you could give me a direct answer because I might have difficulty finding the answer if you refer me to previously answered questions. Thank you so much to all of you!
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallahu ʻalayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
Following scholars’ concessions means that the person takes the easiest view wherever he finds it and in any Mathhab (school of Fiqh) without considering the supportive evidence and their weight; rather, he is driven by his personal whims and desires. There is no doubt that this behavior is dispraised, because it undermines the authoritative status of religious assignments (through evasion of the injunctions of the Shariah) and compromises adherence to the religion. This is why some of the righteous predecessors used to say, “Whoever follows the concession of every scholar has collected all evil.”
As for the person who follows some concessions for a need or to avoid hardship, he is not dispraised for it. Likewise is the person who follows the easier view when he is confused about the religious ruling on a given matter. If he is qualified to practice Ijtihaad (personal reasoning) himself and has weighed the different views but could not declare any of them preponderant due to the strength and equivalence of the supportive proofs, scholars held different opinions regarding the obligation on such a person. Some held that he is required to follow the less stringent view available because Islam is essentially founded on easiness and facilitation, and Allah, the Exalted, has not imposed any hardship or difficulty on us in the religion. This is not regarded as the dispraised following of legal concessions because he chose the less stringent view due to the obscurity of evidence. The same applies to the lay-Muslim who consults a number of reliable scholars and they give him different opinions and none of them is more reliable than the others; following the less stringent view, in this case, is not considered dispraised following of legal concessions.
Whoever follows the opinion of the majority of scholars is not considered a follower of concessions; rather, he is upon great goodness because the truth often lies in what the majority of the scholars agree upon.
Allah knows best.
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