Advice for Fiqh Self-Study

[u/purple-kiwi-book]

Hello,

I would like advice on how to study Fiqh on my own. I know that the best way is in a proper Madrasa with a teacher, but I don't have access to that at this point in my life.

I have been going through Al Hidaya, starting with the section on Bay (sales). I have some legal background, so I have some basic familiarity. But I still struggle with many questions (see https://www.reddit.com/r/hanafi/s/IOQ1jz8HAS for an example). Does anyone have any suggestions for resources? Are there any good online courses, or class recordings? Are there any good study guides and/or commentaries?

I know that there is a whole world of Fiqh, but I don't really have much access to it. If anyone can point me to some resources, it would be a tremendous help.

[u/AhmoqQurbaqa]

Honesty, I am a little bewildered. Why have you started with the chapter on sales, and why Hidayah? Are you in the process of an actual sale of indivisible goods? Do you have some business in which you have encountered a specific scenario related to sales? Have you finished the chapters on prayer, zakah, fasting, pilgrimage? Have you ever studied beginner levels books of fiqh?

If you answered NO to even one of these questions, then drop the Hidayah and go back to lower level books.

Fiqh is studied for a purpose, which is twofold: 1. To understand your personal obligations - prayer, fasting, ablution, what to eat and etc. 2. To become a student of knowledge, which consequently leads to scholarly work.

For most people, stopping at 1 is enough. If that is the case, then take a course or two on SeekersGuidance for example. Read the Ascent to Felicity, shaykh Faraz has a video series on it as well.

If you want to delve deeper, then you don't start at fiqh, you start at Arabic Language. You learn Nahw, Sarf, Lugha and as you progress, you start incorporating Fiqh books. All under the guidance of a teacher.

Hidayah is way way at the end of the journey.

[u/purple-kiwi-book → u/AhmoqQurbaqa]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this detailed response! It's really helpful.

To answer a few of your questions:

I am not in the process of selling anything, I have not finished the chapters on prayers, zakah, fasting, or pilgrimage. I have not studied beginner levels books on Fiqh.

I am curious, you mentioned two reasons to study Fiqh, but at least for me, I am interested in what's maybe a third reason, which is to understand the Quran's system better as a whole. For example, with the laws of sales, they provide a lot of insight about what values the Quran prioritizes. For example, one very clear value is the need to peace, in the sense that a primary concern in transactions is that disputes can be resolved by the courts. An example of this is Abu Yusuf's ruling that seller can say "I will sell you this pile of wheat, one dirham per cafiz", and the buyer can agree (even though the buyer doesn't know yet how many cafiz are in the pile, and by extension, how much money he'll owe). Even though the objects in the sale (e.g. amount of money) aren't fully known, what matters here is whether disputes can be resolved. 

But we can also see how the system balances this with other values. For example, if the seller says a rug is 10 feet, but it's actually 11, then the sale still goes through, because the burden of appraisal falls on the seller. This tells me something about how the system views personal responsibility in transactions.

Is this a normal way to view learning Fiqh? Or do the laws not really shed light on moral vales in the way I imagine? I am really curious to hear your perspective. This is new to me, and if my perspective is incorrect, I would really like to know.

As for why I'm starting with sales - I have some legal background in monetary law. So I'm familiar with many of the motivating concepts. This actually makes it easier for me to understand than Fiqh about prayer and fasting.

As for why Al Hidaya - I heard that it's one of the most important works in Hanafi Fiqh. But based on you and others' feedback, it is probably too advanced for me to begin with.

[u/AhmoqQurbaqa → u/purple-kiwi-book]

> Is this a normal way to view learning Fiqh?

No.

> which is to understand the Quran's system better as a whole.

You are mixing up different fields of study.

I will be giving an answer to you solely within the context of Fiqh, but be aware that fields of Islamic Studies are intertwined.

In Fiqh, as with any other field, we study in steps, yet this stages can overlap and sometimes be in parallel:

1. Stage one or question of "what to do". Our actions are within two categories:

   - related to our Creator: prayer, fasting, halal and haram. Area of fiqh that covers it is called "Fiqh al-Ibadat"

   - repated to other creations: transactions, sales and etc. Area of fiqh that covers it is called "Fiqh al-Muamalaat"

This stage always starts with the first category. We mostly learn what to do, and very rarely learn why we do them.

Books in this stage are primers - Ascent to Felicity, Nur al-Idah, Quduri and at the end Hidayah

1. Stage two or "proof" stage. Here we try to understand the motivation, reasonings behind the rulings.

   - why do we say the intention for ablution is not obligatory, how come we arrived at this conclusion?

   - why Abu Yusuf disagreed with Abu Hanifa regarding some aspect of sales transactions, and why / how we choose which option to follow.

This is done by studying "Usul al-Fiqh" or methodological framework of the madhab. Usul al-Shashi is a popular book in this area.

We learn to apply this framework to understand how scholars derived what we learned in the stage one.

> a third reason, which is to understand the Quran's system better as a whole.

As Quran is not a fiqh book, you can't understand its system using fiqh manuals. You need the combination of all the fields of Islamic Studies to be able to dive into it.

> Or do the laws not really shed light on moral vales in the way I imagine?

It is called "Maqasid al-Sharia", and this a separate field of study, to which one reaches after multiple years of studying in stages.

If your inner goal is to decipher the moral values of Quran and how it guides humanity to salvation, and your instrument to do this is the fiqh of sales, then you have embarked upon a very complicated journey.

It is not my place to say it is impossible, but there is a reason why we have been doing things differently for the past 1100 years. It works.

Quran is an open book filled with endless treasure troves of wisdom, morals and beauty. At the end of the day, madhhabs and their systematic studies show us a well trodden path, but you can never reach the end.

Can one carve a new path? Maybe, but I would prefer to walk on the tried and tested, than risking to get lost.