Taghliz al-Malam ala al-Mutasarrieen ila al-Fatya wa Taghyir al-Ahkam
- Author died
- 1413 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Ṣumay‘ī li-l-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī‘
Taghliz al-Malam ala al-Mutasarrieen ila al-Fatya wa Taghyir al-Ahkam (Intensifying the Blame upon Those Who Rush into Issuing Fatwas and Altering Rulings) is a legal treatise by Hammud ibn Abdullah al-Tuwayjiri (1334–1413 AH / 1916–1992 CE) warning against the hazards of delivering religious verdicts without knowledge and departing from established rulings.
Background and Publication
The treatise was among the last works published by al-Tuwayjiri before his death in 1413 AH. It was published in Riyadh by Dar al-Sumay'i in 1413 AH (1992–1993 CE) as a single volume spanning 120 pages. The jurist Bakr Abu Zayd classified it in al-Madkhal al-Mufassal as an independent treatise devoted to prohibiting the issuance of fatwas without knowledge.
Purpose and Content
Al-Tuwayjiri authored the book in response to what he observed as a widespread tendency among claimants to Islamic scholarship to issue hasty rulings without sound knowledge and alter legal judgments established in the Quran and the Sunnah, paying little heed to the severe scriptural warnings against doing so.
The treatise draws heavily on textual evidence and historical reports:
- Practice of the Early Generations: Al-Tuwayjiri details numerous narrations showing how the Sahabah and the Tabi'un feared delivering fatwas, avoided volunteering answers, and referred questioners to one another out of piety and caution.
- The Gravity of the Mufti's Role: Drawing from Ibn al-Qayyim's I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, he highlights that a mufti speaks and signs on behalf of God, arguing that speaking about God without knowledge constitutes one of the gravest prohibitions in Islamic law.
- Critique of Contemporary Practices: The work examines specific areas where hasty muftis frequently stumble, notably divorce (talaq)—such as issuing unwarranted accommodations for divorces pronounced in anger or under oath—and the adoption of astronomical calculations (hisab) to determine the sighting of crescent moons (ahillah), which the author characterizes as religious innovation.
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