Topic

1. What should be a Muslims stance in the 21st century with regards to

the Madhabs? Should he abandon all madhabs, should he only follow one
or he should follow all? In your answer please also address the following

1) Proofs for and against abandoning all madhabs

2) Proofs for and against following all madhabs

3) Proofs for and against taqlid:

The idea was to first identify what the question was asking about;
was it asking what a madhab is? Or how the madhabs develop
and evolve? To talk about the evolution of fiqh will be considered
irrelevant and the same applies to what most students discussed:
The four madhabs and the role of the founders of these madhabs.

The ideal answer would have identified the challenges we have in

the 21st century at the while noting the fact that we are in the
decline and stagnation stage. Here I would look at what Dr Bilaal
Philips and the other scholars said about this stage.

After that I would look briefly at the foundation stage as well as

the flowering stage: what made these stages unique and what
makes the stage we are in the opposite of these stages. Here
would be a good time to talk about madhabs and what our stance
would be. Show the pros and cons of following one or all madhabs
and at the same time the pros and cons of abandoning all
madhabs.

I would dedicate a paragraph for explaining the dangers of taqlid

as well as the no madhab at all approach

I would conclude by highlighting that the solution is in the Qurn

and the Sunnah and then show the uniqueness of following the
steps found in the Foundation, Building and flowering stages.
Show how important it is to identify Prophet Muhammads (peace
be upon him) madhab and how important it is to follow this
particular madhab

Or

2. Someone said: The basis for taqleed is a Qurnic command: And ask
the people of knowledge if you do not know Thus the general principle
of taqleed is enshrined in the Qurn Majeed. Denial of this principle is,
therefore, an act of kufr which expels the denier from the fold of islam.
Engage this statement and in the process address the following issues:

1) Is the above statement correct?

2) What makes the statement correct or incorrect?

Engaging a statement implies critically analyzing it and

identifying the core message in the statement. Putting yourself in
the shoes of the one who uttered these words and then dissecting
each sentence. Present to your audience the philosophical
foundation on which the statement is based.

The one responsible for the statement is a supporter of following

a particular madhab and by a particular madhab he does not
mean the madhab of the Prophet but one of the four major
madhabs.

In the statement you were supposed to deduce the possible

meaning of taqleed and then compare that with what you have
learnt. You were supposed also to identify the other meanings of
taqlid. In one of the recorded live sessions, I talked about taqlid
as something earlier scholars regarded as compulsory upon a
layperson. This meaning of taqlid is obviously different from what
Dr Bilal Philips was talking about: YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO SHOW
THE DIFFERENCE.

Then you were supposed to deal with the so called general rule
and show that it has no precedence; earlier scholars never had
such a general rule. Refuting the kufr claims by showing that the
claim had no basis would have been the next step.

I would then conclude by highlighting the incorrectness of the

statement and showing the correct understanding as explained
by earlier scholars on the reality of taqlid.

Note: Discussions like what led to the emergence of taqlid and a

detailed discussion of what taqlid was or wasnt was considered
irrelevant since it did not directly provide an answer to the given
scenario.

Expectations:

1. Use the APA style of referencing. (Find out more about this style here:

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/).
Majority of the students did not know how to use the APA style of
referencing. In the rubric you will find statements like: sources
not properly cited or required style not used or no comment:
this is to indicate that you failed to follow the APA rules. In some
cases you would find you lost 1 or 2 marks for the sources used: a
fiqh assignment must have atleast one primary source cited. Also
basing the whole assignment on what was found on websites and
not quoting from a single book (primary or secondary sources)
was unacceptable.

2. The word limit: excluding the bibliography (1000 to 1200 words)

Marks were generally not deducted except where a lot of

irrelevant points were included or where important points were
not discussed. Relevancy in fiqh is important, the rule of the
thumb is: hit the nail at its end from the word go.

3. The bibliography must meet the requirements of the prescribed style of

referencing

Most students ignored this instruction and in the end lost marks.
You have to provide information that will enable the reader to
find the exact source from where you found your information.
Failure to properly cite your sources or failure to provide a proper
bibliography meant losing marks under quality of content as well.

Also, Wikipedia and its ilk are not acceptable sources and quoting
from such sources meant losing marks and this affected the
quality of the content

4. Include a bibliography at the end. Failure to do so will result in the

deduction of marks.

If no bibliography was provided at all then no lenience was

shown. If some bibliography was provided for then you had
atleast 2 marks

5. The Qurn and hadeeth quotations are counted as part of the word
count. Just include

the translation and leave out the Arabic.

6. Work must be typed in font type Arial and font size 12.

This was mostly ignored and students lost marks under the
quality of content

7. No need for a title page or a contents page so dont include any.

8. You will be penalized for including irrelevant information.

A lot of marks were lost under this category. An inclusion of

irrelevant information or failure to include relevant information
led students to lose marks under relevancy as well as under
quality of content

To help you achieve the best result, we discussed about what you
were supposed to focus on during the MIDTERM REVISION LIVE
SESSION (this was a few days after the assignment topics were
released and before any submission by any student). Then during
the FINAL REVISION SESSION we discussed about what was
expected from and where most of the students lost marks. Add to
this the rubric as well as this general assignment feedback; I
think this will help us in improving the quality of our assignments
in the future