Question on following Madhabs

[onedayinshaAllah]

Assalamu alaykum,

Please clarify:

1. When coming across a known authentic hadith which goes against the Hanafi Madhab (when the evidence is weaker), can i adopt the stronger stance? if not, why?

2. I have seen on SunniPath that the Hanafi position of hands folder under the navel is the strongest position in this issue out of all the madhabs? Is this true? If so, does that mean all the hadiths about positioning of the hands in salah are weak?

[abdulwahhab]

Assalamu alaykum,

Please clarify:

1. When coming across a known authentic hadith which goes against the Hanafi Madhab (when the evidence is weaker), can i adopt the stronger stance? if not, why?

Do you think scholars of the past 1300+ years who were Hanafis never happened upon this hadeeth? The "stronger stance" is deemed "strong" by the ulama in context of other ahadeeth or on the basis of the earlier scholars who were also exposed to the hadeeth but promoted something different from it. Furthermore, a lot of the narrations that we receive can give a different meaning if the context is not understood by us. One such issue, for example, is that of 20 rakats of Taraweeh. To a cursory reader of hadeeth, it may seem like this is a weak opinion and that 8 rakats are more definitive, but when the context is known, it is seen that the latter applies to Tahajjud and that the 20 rakats apply to Taraweeh.

Furthermore, we have to always take into consideration that the Hanafi school existed before the books of Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim رحمهما الله came into existence. So, by the time a narration would reach any of these muhadditheen, it may have been weakened by a narrator who came after the Hanafi school was established. It is highly possible that a strong authentic chain of narrations at the time of Imam Abu Haneefa may have been weakened after his time and would be considered weak by the time it reached Imam Bukhari .

2. I have seen on SunniPath that the Hanafi position of hands folder under the navel is the strongest position in this issue out of all the madhabs? Is this true? If so, does that mean all the hadiths about positioning of the hands in salah are weak?

There is something called "abrogation", where a later narration overrides the earlier ones. We even see this in the Qur'an, where first alcohol wasn't banned, then a limitation was placed that intoxicated people should not perform salah, and then there was an outright ban in the Qur'an.

Similarly, Rasoolullah is known to have prayed in different ways, but what would be most appropriate for us to follow would be what he adhered to later in his life. The Hanafis say that folding hands under the navel is the strongest opinion and this is also shared by the Hanbalis. This is because Hanafi ulama believe that the ruling of folding hands below the navel abrogated the rulings before.

[onedayinshaAllah]

JazakAllahu khayran for your reply.

1. So because of Usul the stronger evidence is disregarded? I understand the Taraweeh example you have mentioned and some hadith is not understood by the lay person. But if the hadith has been classified as stronger than the hanafi stance why is it a problem to adopt it? For example, regarding the more known issues like the issues in salah (i.e. placing of hands, rafal yadain). What you have mentioned about the narrator of the hadith being weakened by the time the hadith reached the authors of the two sahih's R.A. This has baffled me! Is it not that the Hanafi scholars at that time would have gone through the hadith available to them that may not have been accessible to Imam Abu Hanifa R.A and changed the opinion of the madhab? If that's the case, is it that once the madhab ruling is put in place even if a stronger evidence comes it can not be overridden.

2. Please clarify is it the strongest stance on this issue out of all the 4 madhabs? Mufti Abdur Rahman has mentioned in his Fiqh Al Imam that the Hanafi position has the least amount of criticism towards it.

[abuhajira]

I am moving this dicussion to Indepth Fiqh as it is more suited for that section

[abdulwahhab]

JazakAllahu khayran for your reply.

1. So because of Usul the stronger evidence is disregarded? I understand the Taraweeh example you have mentioned and some hadith is not understood by the lay person. But if the hadith has been classified as stronger than the hanafi stance why is it a problem to adopt it? For example, regarding the more known issues like the issues in salah (i.e. placing of hands, rafal yadain). What you have mentioned about the narrator of the hadith being weakened by the time the hadith reached the authors of the two sahih's R.A. This has baffled me! Is it not that the Hanafi scholars at that time would have gone through the hadith available to them that may not have been accessible to Imam Abu Hanifa R.A and changed the opinion of the madhab? If that's the case, is it that once the madhab ruling is put in place even if a stronger evidence comes it can not be overridden.

2. Please clarify is it the strongest stance on this issue out of all the 4 madhabs? Mufti Abdur Rahman has mentioned in his Fiqh Al Imam that the Hanafi position has the least amount of criticism towards it.

1. Imam Abu Hanifa had many students and many teachers and many great contemporaries. The issues found in the madhhab would have been changed or altered if a stronger opinion was found, but it wasn't, because they had the strongest narrations.

Also, it is quite straightforward that a hadeeth that was narrating something earlier in the life of Rasoolullah reached the Imams of hadeeth while another narration from later in his life reached them with a weaker chain or did not reach them at all. This is why the madhahib are not derived from the ahadeeth; the ahadeeth are used to strengthen the madhahib only, not change them. The Hanafi madhhab follows the opinion of Imam Abu Hanifa and his students, particularly Imam Muhammad and Imam Abu Yusuf رحمهما الله. Even these students differed on some issues with Imam Abu Hanifa but they still did not differ on the issues that you've mentioned, such as where to fold the hands.

2. Since Mufti Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf DB has said it, then it is true that folding hands below the navel is the most sound position and has garnered the least criticism. I'm not a Mufti so I cannot say nor do I have the right to judge between madhahib. But even so, a person from a different madhhab may say that having the least criticism is no guarantee of authenticity. For example, the Malikis follow the a'maal of Madinah Munawwarah, so they leave their hands to the side. This approach of following the a'maal of Madinah Munawwarah was even criticized by Imam Shafi'i but the Malikis will say that they believe themselves to be closest to the sunnah based on their usool, even if the ahadeeth in the Saheehayn say otherwise since their usool is derived from ahadeeth.