Arba Qawaid Tadur al-Ahkam Alayha wa Yaliha Nubdha fi Ittiba al-Nusus ma Ihtiram al-Ulama (Matbu ضمن Muallafat al-Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, al-Juz al-Thalith)
- Author died
- 1206 AH
- Editions
- Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University
Arba Qawaid Tadur al-Ahkam Alayha wa Yaliha Nubdha fi Ittiba al-Nusus ma Ihtiram al-Ulama (Four Principles Upon Which Rulings Turn, Followed by a Treatise on Adhering to the Texts While Respecting the Scholars) is a short legal-methodological work by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (d. 1206 AH / 1792 CE) outlining foundational legal principles and the methodology of dealing with juristic disagreement .
Structure and Content
The work consists of two closely related sections:
The Four Principles
The author opens by stating that Allah perfected Islam and granted the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ concise, comprehensive speech ( جوامع الكلم ), which Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri explained as conveying vast meanings in few words . He then articulates four overarching principles upon which all religious disciplines and legal rulings turn:
- The prohibition of speaking about Allah without knowledge, citing the Quranic verse: قُلْ إِنَّمَا حَرَّمَ رَبِّيَ الْفَوَاحِشَ up to وَأَنْ تَقُولُوا عَلَى اللَّهِ مَا لا تَعْلَمُونَ (Say, "My Lord has only forbidden immoralities... and that you say about Allah that which you do not know") .
- Matters upon which the Lawgiver remained silent are pardoned, meaning no one may declare them forbidden, obligatory, recommended, or disliked, based on the verse: يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لا تَسْأَلوا عَنْ أَشْيَاءَ إِنْ تُبْدَ لَكُمْ تَسُؤْكُمْ and the Prophetic statement: وسكت عن أشياء رحمة بكم غير نسيان، فلا تسألوا عنها ("And He remained silent about things out of mercy for you, not forgetfulness, so do not ask about them") .
- Abandoning clear evidence in favor of ambiguous texts is the method of deviants, such as the Rafidites and Kharijites, referencing the verse: أَمَّا الَّذِينَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ زَيْغٌ فَيَتَّبِعُونَ مَا تَشَابَهَ مِنْهُ ("As for those in whose hearts is deviation, they will follow that of it which is unspecific"), obligating Muslims to follow unambiguous rulings ( المحكم ) .
- Distinguishing between clear matters and ambiguities, based on the hadith: إن الحلال بيّن وإن الحرام بيّن وبينهما أمور مشتبهات ("The lawful is clear and the unlawful is clear, and between them are ambiguous matters"); whoever fails to grasp this rule and insists on giving a definitive verdict on every ambiguous issue goes astray and leads others astray .
The author demonstrates the practical application of these four rules using the chapter on waters (Bab al-Miyah) in jurisprudence, addressing debated topics such as the tripartite division of water (purifying, pure, and impure), the effects of bathing or urinating in standing water, the leftover water of a woman's purification, and water measuring less than two large jugs (qullatayn) .
Following Texts and Respecting Scholars
The attached supplementary section focuses on legal methodology and handling scholarly differences:
- Referring disputes to Revelation: In situations of juristic disagreement, even among companions of Ahmad ibn Hanbal or between differing narrations of the Hanbali school, the final arbiter must be the Quran and the Sunnah rather than school preference or late relied-upon opinions .
- Censure in disputed issues: Clarifying the adage "there is no censure in matters of ijtihad," the author notes that if an explicit text is violated, denouncing the error is permissible regardless of the scholar's stature; however, in genuinely unsettled matters where evidence remains ambiguous, no one may censure another merely for differing from a particular school or custom .
- Consensus and difference: Scholarly consensus (ijma') refers to the agreement of the scholars of the entire Muslim community, not merely the four imams; the claim that disagreement itself is a mercy is rejected in favor of unity, though differing opinions with plausible grounds require forbearance .
- Balanced attitude toward scholars: Muslims must strive to know Allah's command in disputed questions, revering scholars and forgiving their errors without taking them as lords besides Allah; discarding scholars' speech entirely is described as the path of the maghdub 'alayhim, while blind subordination that rejects explicit texts under the pretext that scholars knew better is described as the path of the dallin .
- Critique of late legal compendia: The text warns against equating jurisprudence strictly with late works like al-Iqna' and al-Muntaha, noting instances where late codifications diverge from Ahmad ibn Hanbal's stated views, and citing principles from Ibn Taymiyyah regarding accommodating acceptable variance in ritual matters to maintain communal harmony .
Transmission and Publication
The text survives in manuscript collections, including a copy transcribed by Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Wahhab from the handwriting of Husayn ibn Hasan ibn Husayn (a descendant of the author), preserved in the Saudi Library in Riyadh (no. 86/89) and in the library of Abd al-Aziz ibn Salih ibn Murshid .
Portions of the treatise were published across several compendia, including al-Durar al-Saniyyah fi al-Ajwibah al-Najdiyyah and Majmu'at al-Rasa'il wa-al-Masa'il al-Najdiyyah . It was published in full within the collected works of the author (Mu'allafat al-Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, jurisprudence section, volume 2, pp. 3–14), edited and collated by Abd al-Aziz al-Rumi and Salih al-Hasan .
Answer updated