Question:
Recently, when answering questions, you often say, “No other scholar has said this.” Why is that? You didn’t use to say this before.
Answer:
First, let’s leave the “before and after” aside. Is saying this wrong according to Islamic principles? I always say the Quran and Hadith are the evidence. After stating the evidence, a listener might have a doubt, thinking, “Is he the only one saying this? Others might not understand it.”
To remove that doubt, we say that others have also said it. We don’t say it as evidence; we say it as additional information to remove hesitation. We still say the ruling is based on evidence, and even if no one else said it, the evidence stands.
We add this only to comfort the listener. Furthermore, regarding “you didn’t say this before, you are saying it now” – we have said it before.
For example, regarding the issue of reciting “ Navaithu Sowmagadin – niyyath (fasting intention words), we have said it’s wrong. When we say that, we ask, “Did Abu Hanifa say this? Did Shafi’i say it? Is it in the Madhabs?”
So, we add that no scholar has said it. This is not a new practice. You might feel it’s said more often now because we conduct Q&A sessions weekly. Earlier, when the need to say it didn’t arise as often, you didn’t hear it frequently.
But we have said it before, for instance, when refuting magic and sorcery. We listed many scholars who rejected magic. Even we have refuted numerous hadeeth which contradict Quran itself. Most of the scholars hesitant in this regard which we took bold step in speaking the evidential claims, which not myself said, but also most other scholars quoted it.
We didn’t just say it ourselves. So, this is not a new stance. It has always been our method.