Misplaced Religiosity

MISPLACED RELIGIOSITY 1934) was a teacher of Hadith at Dar al-‘Uloom. When this reached him, he made it the subject of his reception speech and “proved” that all Hadiths are in accordance with Hanafi jurisprudence (Nafhat al- ‘Anbar, pp. 70–71). However, towards the end of his life, Anwar Shah Kashmiri realized the weakness of this method of teaching. His student, Maulana Mufti Muhammad Shafi‘ (1897–1976), narrates that Maulana Kashmiri said to him: “The summary of all our efforts and struggles has been that we tried to establish the superiority of Hanafism over other schools… but what has been gained from this? Nothing, except that, at best, we prove our own school to be sawab muhtamil al-khata (a correct view with the possibility of error), and we describe the other school as khata muhtamil al-sawab (an incorrect view with the possibility of being correct). After all our research and effort, we can only say that this is correct, yet there remains the possibility it is wrong; and that is wrong, yet with the possibility that it is correct. In the grave, Munkar and Nakir will not ask whether raising the hands was right or not, whether saying Amin aloud was right or saying