17. Tijani claims that the differences between the four Imams is symptomatic of contradiction between Qur’an and Hadith

Tijani says:

Because of the vast differences between the four religious Islamic schools, they cannot be from Allah or from His Messenger, for the Messenger did not contradict the Holy Qur’an.^{^[1]}

Our comment:

Our purpose here is not to defend the four Imams or elaborate the reasons for their legal differences. However, I want to comment on his statement that the “differences of the Imams prove that it is not from Allah and not from his Messenger.” What would Tijani say if we present to him the statement of Sheikh al Ta’ifah al Ithna ‘Ashariyyah, Abu Jafar al Tusi, who confirms that the differences among the Shia vastly exceeds the differences of the four schools of fiqh. He says in his book ‘Uddah al Usul:

I mentioned what has been transmitted from them, the Imams, of different ahadith which relate to fiqh (the legal discipline) in my book called al Istibsar. In my book Tahdhib al Ahkam (I have mentioned) more than five thousand ahadith and I mentioned, in relation to most of them, the differences of the school in terms of application, and that is so well-known that it cannot be hidden. In fact, if you ponder about their differences in law you will find it greater than the differences between Abu Hanifah and al Shafi’i and Malik.^{^[2]}

^{^[1]} Then I was guided, p. 127.

^{^[2]} ’Uddah al Usul by al Tabarsi, vol. 1, p. 356-357, Sayed al Shuhada Publishers, Distributed by the Ahlul Bayt foundation, al Najaf.

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