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Maidah 101
Assalamu Alaikum
In Surah Maidah 101, Allah says:
Believers! [478] Do not ask questions about things which, if made known to you, would burden you and if you ask them while the Qur’ān is being revealed to you, they will be made evident to you. [At this time,] God has pardoned these things, and God is Forgiving, very Gracious
Ghamidi sahab writes in the footnote that:
This is the answer to the fourth question which begins with an on the spot admonition. It is said that people should refrain from unnecessary questions. This admonition was required because such questions tighten the limits of a directive, and then people are not able to follow them and as a result invite the wrath of God. God wants that a directive be followed the way it is given. Difficulties should not be created by asking to explain what is concise and by asking to limit and restrict what is absolute. Moreover, it also should remain in consideration that the last sharī‘ah of God is until the Day of Judgement and hence the freedom of ijtihād and fiqh cannot be curtailed in it. There is a possibility that this freedom might get curtailed because of asking unnecessary questions, and the coming generations might be faced with hardships as a result.
First of all, if God has given a command and in application that implication is still gonna come up, even in that case we must follow the thing, then how is it gonna be something which “would burden you”. E.g. blood is haram. If two animals fight and one dies the blood is still gonna stay in animal’s veins. People asked and God answered, how is it gonna be burden. Like every command from God will be followed with all its implications (which the words and applications require), why does it become “burden” when God explains its implication or a scholar. Both ways it will be followed.
Secondly, if one generation asked many questions and got “burden”, doesn’t it go against the principle that “no one shall bear others’ burden”
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Maidah 101
updated 9 hours, 28 minutes ago
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In Fiqh, we see how our Fuqaha sometimes made directives overly complex by delving into minute details. For instance, when God instructed to perform tayammum in the absence of water, it was unnecessary to overanalyze what “absence of water” meant. Questions like how far one must search for water, the quality of water, or the amount of water available for drinking versus ablution led to an exhaustive list of conditions. This approach complicated what was meant to be a simple directive. Such unnecessary questioning was discouraged.
The example you cited pertains to Ijtihad, highlighting another dimension of excessive questioning. This curbed the natural faculty of reasoning, whereas God intended for people to engage in Ijtihad.
Regarding your last point, it is not applicable here. The cited verse refers to previous nations who complicated matters for themselves by asking unnecessary questions. Muslims were specifically advised to avoid following their example. one of its examples is in Surah Baqarah where they asked questions about a cow.
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So the point which I have understood then is that Quran wants to give orders in principle and leaving the application on people, based on their levels of intelligence, “with a sense and feeling of submission” in every act of ours. Objectively thinking, out of those practical applications which can come up there is only one of them which is “the right one”. Quran wants that people just follow the principle and apply that in their own ways with that feeling of submission, and if asked then the objective practical form will be told and that shall be followed. Is that right?
But the question still remains, if that is the right application of some command in Quran, we should be thankful that we got that detail from Allah himself, how does that become a burden?
And, not being disrespectful, when asked for details why would God make that harder for us to follow, like it was done in the cow case?
And also in the cow case people asked that because they wanted to evade following the order, an evil thing, many questions in Quran asked by Muslims were out of curiosity, which is not a bad thing.
Also, if on asking more questions, it becomes stricter for them then that strictness should remain to the addressed generation and shouldn’t continue, based on the ethical principle that others shouldn’t be burdened for the acts of someone else (which is a principle which Quran says about the day of judgment too “no one shall bear the burden of someone else”?
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If God specifies a directive the way he did in the case of divorce and inheritance it is then binding upon on all. That is why God did not do it in most of the directives. The verse you cited about burden is about misdeeds, doesn’t not apply here.
Minute legislation is burdensome, it is an obvious thing. That is why God didn’t do it and what our fuqaha did is also not appreciated.
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