8th

Tabi’in 

Tabi’in are the students of the companions of the Prophet. They use to write Al Hadith and to compile it. Tabi’in are authentic people in general based on this Hadith and both the interpretation of this Hadith. After their time there must be some standard criterion to find out, who is authentic and who is not. So Tabi’in also were writing the Ahadith and compiling the same. They exhorted everyone around them to adhere to the Sunnah. Second, the preserved this prophetic way of life in the form of writing and in the form of its meticulously accurate, detailed, oral transmission. (Ullah, 2015) 

In the time of the Tabi’in, the Sunnah was being transcribed on a much broader and more official scale than in the period of the companions. Halaqat al’ilm (study circles, basically classes) proliferated all over the expanding Muslim world and writing was an integral part of this Halaqat. (Abdl-Haleem, 2015) 

During the days of the Tabi’in, two major methodologies of understanding the text arose: 

a) Ahlul Hadith (The People of Hadith) in Madinah. 

Among the Tabi’in in Madinah were Sa’id ibnu Musayyib, Zuhri, Yahya, and Rabbiah Ar-Ra’ie, Urwa, Abu Bakr bin Ubaid bin Harith, Qasim bin Muhammad bin Abu Bakr, Ubaidullah, Sulayman bin Yassar, Kharija bin Zaid bin Thabit. They took their Fiqh from Abdullah bin Umar (ra). Sa’eed ibnu Musayid was known as Al Jareei (The Outspoken) or the one who has the guys to make Ijtihad, while Rabiah was called Ar-Ra’yi because of his common practice of making Ijtihad. 

The populace in Madinah had lived with the Prophet (saw) and took his actions and sayings in a more practical manner. Thus, Ahlul-Hadith emerged in Medinah. 

b) Ahlul Ra’yi (The People of Reason) in Kufah. 

Among the Tabi’in in Kufah were Ash-Sha’bee, Hasan Al-Basree and Ibrahim Nakha’ee, Hamaad, Alqamah bin Qais, Majsood bin Ajdah. These Tabi’in such as Ash-Sha’bee were considered Muhadditheen (Scholars of Hadith). 

The populace in Kufah (Iraq) was experiencing many problems such as the fabrication of Hadith, political turmoil, etc., and the scholars were very careful in collecting Hadith due to the possibility of fabrication. Due to these problems, they often used reasoning. Reasoning here implies opinion derived from different understandings of the text (Hilal, n.d.). 

Factors affecting Fiqh: 

- Division of the Ummah 

Within the first quarter of a century of this period, the Muslim nation suffered a number of devastating socio-political blows which caused a number of sects and factions to appear. The most serious were those caused by rebellions of the Khawarij, the Syiah, and ‘Abdullaah ibn az-Zubayr and his followers. The constant vying of these contending elements for control of the government resulted in a general state of turmoil. 

The first two factions, the Khawarij and the Syiah, later evolved into religious sects which developed their own particular systems of Fiqh. Relying on unorthodox interpretations of the Qur’an and the Sunnah which suited their own socio-political views, they rejected the contributions of most of the Companions and the Righteous Caliphs, declaring them to be apostates, and elevated their own leading figures to the rank of law makers. 

- Deviation of the Umayyad Caliphs 

The Umayyad Caliphs introduced a number of practices which were common in the non-Islamic states of that time, such as Byzantium, Persia, and India. Many of these practices were in clear contradiction to the Fiqh of the earlier period. For example, the central treasury, the Bayt al-Maal, was turned into the personal property of the Caliphs and their families, and taxes not sanctioned by Islaam were introduced to further increase their fortunes. Music, dancing-girls, magicians and astrologers were officially introduced as forms of amusement in the court of the Caliph. Furthermore, with the forced acceptance of Yazeed as crown prince imposed by Caliph Mu’aawiyah in the year 679 CE, the office of Caliph was converted into that of hereditary kingship. Hence the state-Fiqh link was broken and a significant unifying factor of the Madh-hab was thereby lost. 

Due to these factors, the Islamic scholars (‘Ulamaa) of this period avoided sitting in the audiences of the caliphs, and thus the principle of Shooraa (consultative government) was lost. With each successive caliph the government steadily deteriorated into a dictatorial monarchy similar to the non-Islamic governments of that day. As a result, some of the caliphs attempted to manipulate Fiqh in order to justify their deviations. To combat this distortion, and preserve authentic Fiqh for later generations, scholars began to collect and compile the Fiqh of the earlier period. 

- Dispersion of the Ulama 

Many of the scholars of that fled the political centres of the ‘Umayyad state to avoid conflict and confusion as well as persecution from the various competing factions. This move resulted in a break-down the principle of Ijmaa’ (unanimous agreement on points of Islamic law). With the scholars scattered throughout the state, such unanimity on any new point of law became virtually impossible to establish. This in turn led to a significant increase in the individual Ijtihaads of scholars as they attempted to deal with the multiplicity of new customs and problems in their own areas. Whenever an outstanding scholar of Fiqh arose in an area, the students and scholars in that region would gather around him. Often, even students and scholars from other regions would join them and in that way a number of schools of Islamic law (Madh-habs) evolved. 

During this stage Abu Haneefah and Sufyaan ath-Thawree became prominent in Kufah, Maalik ibn Anas in Madinah, al-Awzaa’ee in Beirut, and al-Layth ibn Sa’d in Egypt to mention a few. 

- Fabrication of Hadith 

The narration of Hadiths increased as the need for information grew. Since the state had unofficially stopped relying on the Sunnah of the Prophet (saw), scholars in their various capacities had to go in search of individual narrations of the Sunnah handed down by the Companions and their students, in order to make their legal judgements. At the same time a new phenomenon developed: false sayings and actions began to be attributed to the Prophet (saw) for the first time. For a fabricator to be trusted he would have to relay some true Hadiths along with his fabrications. This led to the beginning of the compilation of Hadiths and the development of the science of Hadith criticism, which aided later scholars in their Ijtihads (legal rulings). 

However, before the science of Hadith evolved, a mixture of true and false reports worked their way into the body of Islamic knowledge and was inadvertently used by some scholars in making decisions. In this way, a body of incorrect Fiqh evolved, which was further bolstered by Fiqh decisions made by scholars who had rejected certain true Hadiths because they were only known to them through the Hadith fabricators of their areas (Philips). 

The opinion presented by Ahlul-Ra’yi was through their Ijtihad which was based on the legislative evidences, i.e. Quran and Sunnah. 

These Ahadith are clearly referring to the person who adopts opinions or gives Fatwa based on his Aql without any evidence from the Shariah. Ahlul-Ra’yi on the other hand, were those who exerted their utmost effort in scanning the Islamic texts, and then issued an opinion. This process is called Ijtihad. 

Some people say that Ahlul-Ra’yi did not utilize Hadith in issuing their opinions. This claim is false. People like Ash-Sha’bee were recognized Muhaditheen while being from Kufah and from Ahlul-Ra’yi. 

The main difference between them was that the People of Ra’yi practiced more Qiyas and Istihsan and they went deeper into the text to extract more rulings than the People of Hadith. These two main schools influenced many other schools of thought (Hilal, n.d.). 

Reference 

Abdl-Haleem, O. (2015). History of Compilation of the Sunnah | Efforts of the Tabi‘in and the Tabi‘i Al-Tabi‘in. 

Hilal, I. (n.d.). Studies in Usul Ul Fiqh. Retrieved from http://www.islamic-truth.co.uk/ 

Philips, A. A. (n.d.). The Evolution of Fiqh. Internation Islamic Publishing House. 

Ullah, Q. F. (2015). Science of Hadith. Hund Publishing.