What is the reality of Fiqh

Almighty Allah has made human beings eternal, in the sense that they will exist even after this world perishes and will never perish absolutely.  Then, in this world, human beings have been given a body which has 2 aspects to it, one outward and one inward.  Separate organs/parts have been made for every function and Allah has kept the inward aspect totally under His control meaning human beings can do nothing they wish using the inward aspect.  The external parts of the body, which are nothing but tools for working, are under one’s control to some extent, that one can use them to do whatever one wants.  Then the purpose of creation of human beings has been clearly set forth in the following verse of the Holy Quran:

 

And I created the jinn and human beings solely to adopt My servitude.  Surah Dhaariyaat (51:56)

 

After revelation of this verse, Muslims should have left all other work and busied themselves only in worship and not do anything at all for their whole life.

 

However, Allah gave rigorous rules for earning one’s livelihood, marriage, etc. for all things that ensure personal subsistence and subsistence as a species.  We have been ordered to do all these things and not only ordered, but we have been exhorted that if we do all those things nicely, then we will be given great bounties in the hereafter for all eternity.  We have been shown the method of doing these things and it has been emphasized to us that if all these things are not done as per the orders of Allah and His Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam), then we will be taken to account for that, but we will be punished.

 

This shows that engaging in fulfilling personal needs is also a form of worship provided it is done as per the Shariah.  Now it is the obligation of every Muslim that whatever he/she does, it should be done as per the method shown by Allah and the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam).  Then things like eating, sleeping, trade, rest, etc. will all become worship.  Allah says in the Holy Quran that in Qiyamah, Muslims will be asked to enter Jannah, which is given in lieu of what they have done in this world.  Everybody did the same things in the world, but the Muslims did the same in the way prescribed by Allah and did all those as a form of worship in lieu of which they were given Jannah.

 

All the methods and ways given to the Muslims are mentioned in the Holy Quran and the Hadith, but because of some reasons (which will be detailed shortly), it became difficult to understand and deduce them from the Holy Quran and Hadith.  For these reasons, every person does not have the ability to deduce and extract them himself from the Holy Quran and Hadith.  Thus, the scholars made it their specialty and after looking into the verses of the Holy Quran, the Hadith and the Traditions of the Companions, described every rules in a simple language that in such and such a situation, this has to be done.

 

Thus, over a period of time, they extracted every possible rule from the Holy Quran and Hadith and created a whole new corpus of knowledge, whose name is Fiqh (jurisprudence).  This is the reality of Fiqh.

 [Excerpted from Haqiqatul Fiqh, Vol. 1]