DIFFERENCES OF OPINION
Many people quote the ahadith:
"Difference of opinion among my nation is a mercy" and "difference of opinion among my sahaba is a mercy." to justify blind following of the four school of thoughts and to push down those who promote ittiba (reasoned following). So i want to share with all a reply of Dr. Bilal philips about this issue.
"The hadith "differences among my nation are a mercy for you." collected by al-bayhaqi is weak and allegedly reported by Jabir. As for the hadith "differences among my companions is a mercy", it is considered wahin (extremely weak) by hadith schcolars. It is allegedly reported by ibn umar and collected by ibn battah in al-ibanah, ibn asakir and nidham al-mulk in al-amali, quoted by shaykh al albani in silsilah al-ahadeeth ad-daeefah wa al-mawdoo-ah, beirut, al-maktab al-islami, 3rd ed., 1972 vol. 1 p.82.
Not only are these so-called hadiths un authentic, but their very meanings are in obvious conflict with the Quran itself. Throughout the Quran's one hundred and fourteen chapters, Allah has clearly cursed and forbidden religious disagreement and has ordered unity and agreement. Disagreement has been explicitly forbidden in verses such as:
"..Do not dispute among yourselves and cause you own failure and loss of power.." (8:46) and: "..Do not be like those among the idolaters who split up their religion into sects, each group happy with what they had." (30:31-32)
Implicitly, too, Allah has forbidden it, for example,
"If your Lord had so willed, He could have made manking one people; but they will not cease to dispute, except those on whom you Lord has bestowed His mercy.." (11:118-119)
If Allah's mercy puts an end to dispute among men as is implied in the quotes u mentioned, how then could disagreement and dispute be a mercy?? In the unmistakable terms of the following verse and others like it, Allah has ordered unity and agreement:
"Hold fast to the rope of Allah together and do not split up. And remember Allah's mercy on you when you were enemies, then He put love in your hearts and with His blessings you all became brothers.." (3:103)
As for the differeces that arose between sahaba and imams, they were natural and unavoidable. A large portion of it was due to their different reasoning abilities which showed up in their various interpretations of the Quranic verses and hadiths. There were other causes which led to differences their time which later disappeared, for example the wide distribution of hadiths made it impossible for any individual sahabi and imam to be aware of them all, and thus wrong decisions were bound to be made where information was lacking. Obviously, they cannot be blamed for these and similar mistakes, which were not intentional. Furthermore, it is absolutely proven that they readily corrected their wrong decisions when authentic information or more relevant evidence reached them. The sahaba and imams were totally free from the blame for conflicting rulings.
However, any discrepancies apparent in their different rulings are not to be glorified and perpetuated. Infact they themselves disliked disagreements, as is shown in the following narration quoted by ash-shafi's student, al muzani:
"Umar bin al khattab, the second righteous caliph, got angry because of a dispute b/w the sahabi, ubayy ibn ka'b and another sahabi ibn masood, over the performance of salah in a single piece of cloth. Ubayy considered it quite all right while ibn masood felt that was so only when cloth was scarce. Umar angrily left his residence and declared, "Have twoo of Allah's Messenger's companions disagreed and they are among those whom the masses watch closely and imitate? Ubayy is correct and ibn masood should desist! If i hear of anyone disputing about this matter after this point, i will deal with him!" (Jami' Bayan al-ilm, vol. 2, p.83-4)"
How could conflict be a mercy? It is nothing but those who got drowned in the pool of blind following trying to defend their own madhab.
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