Shared Responsibility

FREEDOM OF THOUGHT “I have left you on a clear path; its nights are as bright as its days.” (Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith No. 5) However, when a person reads the commentaries on the Quran and the explanations of Hadith, when they look into books of jurisprudence and belief, they encounter what appears to be the exact opposite. They find so many differences that it may seem as though there is hardly a single teaching in Islam on which scholars do not have multiple opinions. Islam, in such a situation, begins to appear to be a religion full of differences. A hadith teacher from a seminary said that the lessons on hadith begin in the month of Shawwal and end in Rajab. During these ten months, not a single day passes without the need to say at least twenty times: “In this issue, suchand-such Muslim scholars have one view, and such-andsuch Muslim scholars have another view.” This was the view of one companion; among the successors there are further differences”—and also to say: Our opinion is correct, and the opinion of others is wrong (Ra’yuna sawab wa ra’y ghayrina khata’). Why did a religion without differences turn into one filled with differences? And what is the satisfactory explanation for this? Much has been written and said about this issue over the past thousand years. Even today, numerous articles and books continue to be published on the subject. This question existed in a basic form even during the time of the companions. However, it became more structured during the period of the successors and their followers.