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Dāwūd ibn ʿAlī ibn Khalaf al-Ẓāhirī (; 815–883 CE / 199–269 AH)Taareekh at-Tashree' al-Islaamee, pp. 181, 182 was a Sunni Islam Ulama, jurist, and Islamic theology during the Islamic Golden Age, specialized in the study of Sharia ( sharīʿa) and the fields of hermeneutics, biographical evaluation, and historiography of early Islam. He was the eponymous founder of the Zahiri Madhhab ( madhhab), the fifth school of thought in Sunni Islam, characterized by its strict adherence to literalism and reliance on the outward ( ẓāhir) meaning of expressions in the Quran and Hadith; the Ijma ( ijmāʿ) of the first generation of Muhammad's closest companions ( ṣaḥāba), for sources of Sharia ( sharīʿa); and rejection of Qiyas ( qiyās) and Urf ( urf), used by other schools of Islamic jurisprudence. He was a celebrated, if not controversial, figure during his time,Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq, The Riba-Interest Equivalence , June 2006 being referred to in Tarikh as "the scholar of the era."Al-Dhahabi, , v.13, Entry 55, pg.97–108
Toward the end of his education, al-Ẓāhirī traveled to Nishapur in Greater Khorasan in order to complete his studies with Isḥāq ibn Rāhwayh, at the time considered a champion of the traditionalist Sunni Islam philosophy. Ibn al-Jawzī noted that when studying with Ibn Rāhwayh, considered one of the most knowledgeable scholars in the history of Islam, al-Ẓāhirī was willing to debate with Ibn Rāhwayh on religious topics,Abu'l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi, Al-Muntazam fi Tarikh al-Umam, v.12, pg.236 something no one else had ever dared to do.Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, The History of Baghdad, v.2, pg.370–371 Ibn Rāhwayh criticized Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī, founder of the Shāfiʿī school, during one of his lessons; a debate ensued in which al-Ẓāhirī alleged that Ibn Rāhwayh didn't understand al-Shāfiʿī 's point on the topic of discussion, although Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, who was physically present for the debate, declared Ibn Rāhwayh to be the winner.Melchert, pg. 182.
Al-Ẓāhirī was initially a follower of al-Shāfiʿī in matters of jurisprudence, later branching off in terms of his principles,Ibn al-Nadim, Kitab al-Fihrist, pg.216al-Subki, Tabaqat al-Shafi'iya, v.2, pg.46Camilla Adang, "This Day I have Perfected Your Religion For You: A Zahiri Conception of Religious Authority", pg. 15. Taken from Speaking for Islam: Religious Authorities in Muslim Societies. Ed. Gudrun Krämer and Sabine Schmidtke. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2006. likely due to the influence of Ibn Rāhwayh. Describing him as "fanatical" both in his adherence to al-Shāfiʿī and to his own school later on, the Encyclopedia of Islam describes the Ẓāhirīte school as a one-sided elaboration of Shāfiʿī te doctrine, taking the latter's rejection of juristic discretion as a principle in formulating law and applying it to all forms of human reasoning.
Al-Ẓāhirī's understanding of the Islamic faith was described by al-Dhahabī's teacher, the Syrian Muslim historian and scholar Ibn Taymiyyah, as having been based upon the Atharī Aqidah, affirming the attributes of God Bi-la kaifa their fundamental nature.Ibn Taymiyyah, al-Aqeedah al-Isfahaniyyah, pg.77 Al-Shahrastani, a 12th-century Persian Muslim historian of religion and Ashʿarī Islamic theology, classified al-Ẓāhirī along with Mālik ibn Anas (founder of the Maliki school), Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, and Sufyan al-Thawri as early Sunnī Muslim scholars who rejected both esoteric and Anthropotheism interpretations of God,Al-Shahrastani, Al-Milal wa al-Nihal, v.1, pg.74 but both Ibn Taymiyyah and al-Shahrastānī considered al-Ẓāhirī and his students, along with Mālik ibn Anas, al-Shāfiʿī , Ibn Ḥanbal, al-Thawrī, Abū Thawr, Al-Mawardi, and their students to be the Ahl al-Hadith ("people of the tradition"),Al-Shahrastani, Al-Milal wa al-Nihal, v.1, pg.170Ibn Taymiyyah, Haqiqah al-Siyam, pg.35–36 as opposed to the Ahl al-Ra'y ("people of logic").
Al-Ẓāhirī rejected the principle of Qiyas, otherwise known as "analogical reasoning", as a method of deducing rulings in Islamic jurisprudence,Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, MUSLIM COMMUNITIES IN MULTI RELIGIOUS MILIEU: Some Reflections on the Madinan Constitution, October 2003 regarding it as a form of bidʻah, which means "innovation" within the Islamic religion, which the Islamic prophet Muhammad had not allowed.Ayatollah Morteza Motahhari, The Role of Ijtihad in Legislation, Ijtihad' in the Sunni Tradition, Portal IslamicaWalîd b. Ibrâhîm al-'Ujajî, Qiyas in Islamic Law – A Brief Introduction, Alfalah Consulting, FRIDAY, 29 APRIL 2011
There are conflicting views regarding al-Ẓāhirī's position when the specific causality of a command or prohibition within the Quran or Sunnah was stated, due to different Muslim historians recording opposing statements.Al-Subki, Tabaqat al-Shafi'iya, v.2, pg.46 Some take the view that al-Ẓāhirī restricted the ruling to the incident or condition in which the causality arose, seeing that the causality provides a concrete law;Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, edited by Franz Rosenthal, London: 1958, v.3, pg.5 others take the view that he would instead form a general principle in the event of a stated causality.Goldziher, pg.36
Thus al-Ẓāhirī, Ibn Ḥanbal, al-Shāfiʿī, Mālik ibn Anas, al-Thawrī, Ibn Rāhwayh, al-Ṭabarī, Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Awzāʿī, Ibn Khuzaymah, ʿAbdullah ibn Mubārak, Al-Darimi, and Muḥammad al-Bukhārī—described by Ibn Taymiyyah as the leading figures of Islam at the time—all agreed that the Quran was uncreated,Ibn Taymiyyah, Minhaj as-Sunnah an-Nabawiyyah, v.2, pg.106–107 but a semantic misunderstanding arose when al-Ẓāhirī, al-Bukhārī, Muslim bin al-Ḥajjāj, and others used the phrase "recently occurring" to establish that God and the Quran, believed by Muslims to be the literal speech of God, are not the same thing, but rather that God's speech is an attribute.Ibn Taymiyyah, A Great Compilation of Fatwa, v.12, pg.177Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani, Mukhtasar al-'Uluww of Al-Dhahabi, pg.211
Modern-day scholarship has suggested, in light of the weakness in the chains of narration connecting the phrase "the Quran is recently occurring" to al-Ẓāhirī that he may have never made such a statement or held such a belief at all. Due to al-Ẓāhirī's denial of analogical reasoning and Taqlid—cornerstones in the other main Sunnī schools of thought—the students of those schools may have Defamation the statement and attributed it to al-Ẓāhirī as a means of pushing the common people away from him and Zahiri.Dr. Arif Khalil Abu Ubaida, Imam Dawud al-Zahiri and his Influence in Islamic Jurisprudence, pg.56 Abū ʿUbaida further supported his point by noting that al-Ẓāhirī and his students were actually severer in their opposition to the Muʿtazilite school and their belief that the Quran was created than Ibn Ḥanbal was, using harsh language in their written responses to such beliefs.Ibn al-Nadim, Kitab al-Fihrist, pg.81
Most Muslims shorten the length of their prayers while traveling as well. This "traveling" by which the Muslim shortens his prayers and breaks the fast is a topic of discussion among jurists as to its distance and duration. Al-Ẓāhirī saw that any form of traveling, regardless of distance or duration, allowed the individual to shorten their prayers.
Ibn al-Nadīm also mentions that after al-Shāfiʿī's treatise Al-Risala, Ibn Ḥanbal and al-Ẓāhirī were the next major Sunnī Muslim scholars to author works on the Usul al-fiqh ( Uṣūl al-Fiqh), with al-Ẓāhirī producing a number of works on various topics, including his rejection of blindly following the Ulama,Al-Shahrastani, Al-Milal wa al-Nihal, v.1, pg.61 the difference between general and specific verses of the Quran, the difference between succinct and detailed commands in the Islamic religion, and his views on and experiences with his former teacher, al-Shāfiʿī.The International Institute of Islamic Thought, SOURCE METHODOLOGY IN ISLAMIC JURISPRUDENCE, USUL AL FIQH �AFTER AL IMAM AL SHAFI'I Islamic studies has pieced together chapter headings for al-Ẓāhirī's work on juristic principles from other early works in the following order: binding consensus, invalidity of blindly following the clergy, invalidity of analogical reasoning, traditions transmitted by single authorities, traditions which provide certainty, incontrovertible proof, particular vs. general scriptural texts, and specified vs. unspecified texts.Devin Stewart, "Muhammad b. Dawud al-Zahiri's Manual of Jurisprudence." Taken from Studies in Islamic Law and Society Volume 15: Studies in Islamic Legal Theory. Edited by Bernard G. Weiss. Pg. 127. Leiden: 2002. Brill Publishers.Devin Stewart, "Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari's al-Bayan 'an Usul al-Ahkam and the Genre of Usul al-Fiqh in Ninth Century Baghdad," pg. 337. Taken from Abbasid Studies: Occasional Papers of the School of Abbasid Studies, Cambridge, 6–10 January 2002. Edited by James Montgomery. Leuven: Peeters Publishers and the Department of Oriental Studies, 2004. The chapters—and perhaps even the information contained therein—have primarily been preserved in the Fāṭimid-era works of the Ismāʿīlī Shia Islam jurist Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān, in addition to the passages preserved in the treatise Al-Muhalla of the Sunnī Muslim historian Ibn Hazm, an adherent of the Ẓāhirīte school.
Members of other schools have often criticized al-Ẓāhirī for his rejection of analogical reasoning. The early followers of al-Shāfiʿī in general held negative views of their former classmate, and the followers of the Shāfiʿīte school, Al-Juwayni in particular, were harsh upon al-Ẓāhirī himself. This is not universal, and many followers of the Shāfiʿī school have taken more accommodating views of al-Ẓāhirī's legal rulings. Al-Dhahabī defended al-Ẓāhirī and his followers, stating that just as al-Juwāynī had arrived to his views by the process of Ijtihad, so had al-Ẓāhirī. Likewise, Ibn al-Salah also defended the legitimacy of al-Ẓāhirī's views and his school, listing a number of figures from the other Sunnī schools of thought who considered al-Ẓāhirī's opinions in scholarly discourse.
Ismāʿīlī Shīʿas have, perhaps, been more accurate in that for which they criticized al-Ẓāhirī. The Ismāʿīlī Shīʿīte jurist Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān was particularly critical of al-Ẓāhirī for rejecting analogical reasoning yet at the same time accepting inference as a valid means of logical deduction,Qadi al-Nu'man, Differences Among the Schools of Law, pg. 193. a position for which he also criticized al-Zahiri's son and school in general.
Teaching
After completing his studies in Nishapur, al-Ẓāhirī returned to Baghdad and began delivering his own lessons. While historians differ regarding his exact number of students, it is agreed that his following was large, with most estimates ranging between four and five hundred students who would regularly attend his majlis.Abu Ishaq al-Faqih, Tabaqat al-Fuqaha, pg.92 His reputation spread outside of Baghdad, and even high-level scholars from elsewhere in the Muslim world began seeking al-Ẓāhirī's advice on religious topics of study.Ibn al-Nadim, Kitab al-Fihrist, pg.217 While his views were not universally accepted in his time, no attempts were made by his contemporaries to prevent him from granting Fatwa, nor were they opposed to his teaching position. His most well-known students were his son Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Dāwūd al-Iṣfahānī; ʿAbdullah, the son of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal; and al-Ṭabarī, Niftawayh, and Ruwaym.Ibn al-Nadim, Kitab al-Fihrist, pg.234Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Lisan al-Mizan. Vol. 5, pg. 173. Hyderabad: 1911.Ahmet T. Karamustafa, Sufism: The Formative Period, pg. 73. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007. Al-Ẓāhirī was also the teacher of the Sunnī Muslim jurist ʿAbd Allāh al-Qaysī, who was responsible for spreading the Ẓāhirīte school in Al-Andalus. The Islamic school of law – evolution, devolution, and progress, pg. 118. Eds. Rudolph Peters and Frank E. Vogel. Cambridge: Harvard Law School, 2005.
Death
Al-Ẓāhirī died during the month of Ramadan in Baghdad, where he was buried.Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol II C-G, pg. 183. Eds. Bernard Lewis, Charles Pellat and Joseph Schacht. Assist. J. Burton-Page, C. dumont and V.L. Menage. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1970. Photomechanical print. The exact year in which he died according to the Gregorian calendar is a matter of some dispute, with historians having stated both 883 Common Era and 884 CE.
Views
Creed
Al-Dhahabi states that al-Ẓāhirī learnt Kalam (dialectical theology) from Ibn Kullab. Similarly to other Muslim scholars who were accused of sharing Ibn Kullāb's Aqidah ( ʿaqīdah), such as Ḥārit̲h̲ al-Muḥāsibī and Muḥammad al-Bukhārī,Wahab, Muhammad Rashidi, and Syed Hadzrullathfi Syed Omar. "Peringkat Pemikiran Imam al-Ash'ari Dalam Akidah." International Journal of Islamic Thought 3 (2013): 58-70. al-Ẓāhirī was repudiated by certain factions of Muhaddith of his era, which accused him of holding particular creedal views relating to God's speech.Melchert, Christopher. "The Piety of the Hadith folk." International Journal of Middle East Studies 34.3 (2002): 425-439.
Analogical reasoning
This creed of not delving into the fundamental nature of the texts likely affected al-Ẓāhirī's views on literalism as well. While all the major figures of Islam were united upon the Quran and sunnah being the foremost sources of Sharia ( sharīʿa), al-Ẓāhirī held that these two sources must also be taken at the literal meanings and only applied in the particular circumstances which they described.J.H. Kramers and H.A.R. Gibb, Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam, pg. 266. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1953.
Consensus
Al-Ẓāhirī considered the Ijma ( ijmāʿ) to consist only of the opinions of the first generation of Muhammad's closest companions ( ṣaḥāba), excluding all other generations after them from this definition.Goldziher, pg.34
Nature of the Quran
While al-Ẓāhirī at one time Hadith studies under Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, he was later barred from study due to a dispute regarding the nature of the Quran; al-Ẓāhirī stated that the Quran was muhdath or "recently occurring", a stance of which Ibn Ḥanbal strongly disapproved.Ibn Taymiyyah, A Great Compilation of Fatwa, v.5, pg.532Ibn Taymiyyah, A Great Compilation of Fatwa, v.6, pg.160–161 Even before that time, Ibn Ḥanbal had actually cut off contact with anyone who would study with or consult al-Ẓāhirī regarding religious matters, a habit which Ibn Ḥanbal started after witnessing Ẓāhirī's defense of al-Shāfiʿī against the attacks of Ibn Rāhwayh. The rumor regarding al-Ẓāhirī's statement about the Quran only added more fuel to the fire. The Syrian Muslim historian and scholar Ibn Taymiyyah said that the dispute was semantic in nature, arising from a confusion of al-Ẓāhirī's intended meaning—that God Tawhid ( tawḥīd)—and the intended meaning of the and Muʿtazilite schools—that the Quran was created ( makhlūq).
Usury
Al-Ẓāhirī held the view that regarding in-kind exchanges of goods, the forbidden type of usury applies only to the six commodities specified by the Islamic prophet Muhammad: gold, silver, wheat, barley, dates, and salt. Because al-Ẓāhirī rejected the use of analogical reasoning in jurisprudence, he disagreed with the majority view that the prohibition on excess gain in in-kind exchanges of all commodities, and did not consider such gains to be a form of interest. Had Muhammad intended to include commodities other than the above six, he could have done so; because he specified that usury was only prohibited in these six commodities and that Muslims were free to deal in other commodities as they liked, al-Ẓāhirī saw no basis for making an analogy to any other commodities.
Female dress
According to Muḥammad ash-Shawkānī, al-Ẓāhirī regarded the Muslim Niqab to be Mustahabb ( mustaḥabb) rather than Wajib ( wajīb), seeing that a woman's face could be uncovered in public but that all other body parts must be covered.Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Is Wearing the Niqāb Obligatory for Women? , SuhaibWebb.com This was the position of Ibn Ḥanbal as well.
Traveling
If a Muslim begins traveling while Sawm ( ṣawm) during the month of Ramadan, al-Ẓāhirī saw that the individual should break their fast on the day which they started their journey, a view upon which both Ibn Ḥanbal and Ibn Rāhwayh agreed.Salman al-Ouda, Fasting for Someone Intending Travel , Islam Today, Sat, 08/21/2010 This was due to the Quranic verse allowing the traveler to skip the Ramaḍān fast and make it up when they complete their journey.Quran, If a Muslim did fast while traveling, they would still have to make up the days the skipped according to al-Ẓāhirī's view, as the verse wasn't merely an allowance for breaking the fast, but a command.
Works
Al-Ẓāhirī was known as being a prolific author, and the Arab-Persian Muslim historian and bibliographer Ibn al-Nadim was able to personally record the names of at least 157 of his written works, the majority on topics within Islamic studies.Ibn al-Nadim, Kitab al-Fihrist, pg.271–272 Some of these works were very long, and they covered both legal theory and all branches of positive law. He was also considered to be the first person to have written a biography of his former teacher, al-Shāfiʿī.Al-Nawawi, Tahdhib al-Asma wal-Lughat, v.1, pg.82Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Tawalli al-Ta`sis li-Ma'ali Muhammad bin Idris, pg.26Ibn 'Asakir, History of Damascus Melchert cites Ibn al-Nadīm and Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr for his claim that Ẓāhirī's biography of al-Shāfiʿī was the not just the first biography about al-Shāfiʿī but the first major biography of any Muslim jurist ever written. None of these works have survived to the modern era in their entirety.
Contemporary evaluation
Although al-Ẓāhirī's theological views were and are considered controversial, his character and religious piety carry universal acclaim.Goldziher, pg.29Abu'l-Fida, Concise History of Humanity, v.2, pg.260 The Muslim scholars al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī,Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, The History of Baghdad, v.2, pg.369–370 Al-Dhahabi, Al-Tabari,Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, The History of Baghdad, v.2, pg.373 Al-Nawawi, Al-Suyuti, and Al-Albani all attested to his morality, humility, and personal ethics.
Sunnī views
While the Zahiri or "Dāwūdi" school, as they were known during the early history of Islam, is not as numerous today as the other four major Sunnī schools of thought, it was once a major school and encompassed Mesopotamia, the Iberian Peninsula, the Balearic Islands, North Africa, and Southern Iran. Even his contemporary critics conceded to his intellect and level of knowledge, even while rejecting his beliefs. He has been described as "the scholar of the era" by Al-Dhahabi, and the hierarchy of religious knowledge in Baghdad was considered to have ended with al-Ẓāhirī at the top. When Al-Tabari was asked regarding the books of Ibn Qutaybah, he answered that Ibn Qutaybah's work was "nothing", and recommended the books of the "people of jurisprudence", mentioning al-Shāfiʿī and al-Ẓāhirī by name, then "their contemporaries".
Shīʿa views
Shia Islam have taken a dimmer view of al-Ẓāhirī and his school. In the 1970s, Twelver Shīʿīte scholar Abdul Kareem Mushtaq accused al-Ẓāhirī of having held Anthropotheism regarding God, citing the Persian Sunnī historian and theologian Al-Shahrastani as his source.Abdul Kareem Mushtaq, Shi'a Usool al-Deen, Tauheed – Belief in the Oneness of Allah , Answering Ansar Nearly four decades later, the section of al-Shahrastānī's work was translated into English, demonstrating that al-Shahrastānī had actually stated that al-Ẓāhirī didn't hold anthropotheistic beliefs about God.Sunni Defense, , Lies of Answering Ansar, 27 September 2009 al-Shahrastani had stated:Al-Shahrastani, Al-Milal wa al-Nihal, v.1, pg.104
Muʿtazilite views
Being steeped in esoteric philosophy, the Muʿtazila school were quite hostile towards al-Ẓāhirī and his school. Although some prominent figures of this school, such as the Muʿtazilite theologian Ibrāhīm al-Naẓẓām, denied the validity of analogical reasoning as al-Ẓāhirī did, they also denied literalism and the validity of consensus, and most of them found al-Ẓāhirī's ideas to be ridiculous.Ibn al-Nadim, Kitab al-Fihrist, pg.172
See also
External links
Categories: 810s Births, 883 Deaths, 9th-century Iranian Historians, 9th-century Iranian Writers, 9th-century Jurists, 9th-century Muslim Scholars Of Islam, 9th-century Muslim Theologians, Atharis, Kullabis, Medieval Grammarians Of Arabic, Mujaddid, People From Kufa, Persian Sunni Muslim Scholars Of Islam, Sunni Fiqh Scholars, Sunni Imams, Sunni Muslim Scholars Of Islam
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