Will you please give information about Fiqh? What is the aim of Fiqh?

A Brief Description of the Question: 

Will you please give information about Fiqh? What is the aim of Fiqh? Does fiqh ensure man's happiness in the world and the hereafter?

The Answer: 

All of the rules that the religion of Islam introduced to ensure man's happiness in the world and the hereafter are called decrees of shari'ah or divine decrees.

When the phrase decrees of shari'ah is used, the decrees expressed by verses of the Quran and hadiths of Hz. Muhammad (pbuh) are understood. They can be divided into three main groups as the decrees related to creed, ethics and deeds.  

In fact, fiqh is defined as “a person's knowing the things that are for and against him (his rights and duties)”(1); so it contains the whole of the religion including creed issues and all of the things related to the world and the hereafter. Therefore, Imam Abu Hanifa called his work related to creed “al-Fiqhu’l-Akbar: the Biggest Fiqh”.

In fact, it is clear that deeds are not valid without belief. Deeds come after belief; therefore, fiqh can be defined as the decrees that mujtahids deduce by analyzing evidence related to the issues of deed. 

To sum up, fiqh does the following things:

- It aims to make man attain happiness in the world and the hereafter.

- It teaches man his own rights and responsibilities along with his rights and responsibilitiestoward his Creator and other people.  

- It contributes to the formation of a just, peaceful and stable community.

- It bases human relations on the principle of equality in creation and brotherhood in faith.

- Thanks to this knowledge, people fulfill their worshipping duties to Allah consciously.   They perform worshipping fully. For, instance, they learn the fards and wajibs of prayer and what invalidates prayer thanks to fiqh.

- This knowledge explains what human rights areand introduces principles in order to maintain them. It contributes to the improvement of positive relationships among people. For instance, it states that it is forbidden to deceive people to obtain unjust profits in trade.

- The science of fiqh enables us to learn the rules that ease life. To give people the freedom to fast or not to fast while travelling is an example of it.   

A person who deals with fiqh and has the ability to produce religious decrees from the evidence of the Quran and sunnah is called a faqih. Accordingly, fiqh and ijtihad are used in the same sense just like faqih and mujtahid.

Reference:
1) Zarkashi, Badruddin Muhammad b. Bahadir b. Abdullah, al-Bahru’l-Muhit fi Usuli’l-Fiqh, Daru’l-Kutubi’l-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 2007, 1/1.

- This verse does not show that the Prophet (pbuh) married women because he found them beautiful. While interpreting an expression of the Quran, it is necessary to be careful that the interpretation should not be contrary to the issues that are clear to be true.

a)That the Prophet (pbuh), who was the noblest and cleverest person in Makkah, was 25 years old but he married a widow who was 40 years old and did not marry anybody else when she was alive - though it was a custom adopted there - contradicts this interpretation.   

b)That he married several women after the age of 50, which was a period of old age especially at that time, shows that there were serious reasons behind his marriages.

c)That all of the women he married except Hz. Aisha were widows and that most of them were old show clearly that these marriages were not based on beauty.

d)This expression of the verse aims to emphasize that it is definitely forbidden for Hz. Prophet to marry. For, the Prophet is a man too. There is no drawback to his marrying a woman because she is beautiful.

In this verse, an expression that could easily be understood by people was chosen and it was emphasized that it was definitely forbidden for him to marry after that even if she loved a woman or liked her very much. 

e)In fact, what needs to be understood from this expression of the verse is as follows: Hz. Prophet never acts outside the order of Allah. Marrying or not marrying depends on divide permission.

Then, this decree of prohibition is a sign showing that his previous marriages depended on divine permission and were a result of obedience to divine orders.

Especially his marriage to Hz. Zaynab alone is enough to show the order of Allah regarding the issue. If we think about it as a human being only, we will understand that it would not be possible for the Prophet to marry Hz. Zaynab, which was a problematic issue in the light of the traditions of the community.

That is, the clear decree here is that it was impossible for the Prophet to marry again after that verse was sent down.

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