KUALA LUMPUR, June 27 — Malaysia can benefit from evaluating opinions from other schools of Islamic jurisprudence besides the officially recognised Shafie teachings, Penang Mufti Datuk Wan Salim Wan Mohd Noor said.
After a meeting with the Council of Eminent Persons today, he urged the government to be open and flexible in finding solutions to Malaysia’s social and financial problems.
“There is no restriction that says we cannot benefit from other mazhab’s views. We cannot be confident that the absolute truth lies in our own mazhab (Shafie), when it can possibly be found elsewhere,” he said.
“We believe Islam has the solutions to all humanitarian issues but we must keep our minds open, since the solutions may lie in other mazhabs,” he told reporters when met at Ilham Lobby today.
Mazhab refers to schools of thought within the realm of Islamic jurisprudence. Under the Sunni Islam recognised here, there are four school of thoughts: Shafie, Maliki, Hanbali and Hanafi.
Malaysia, along with other Southeast Asian countries like Thailand and Indonesia, practise the Shafie school of jurisprudence.
Wan Salim said Malaysian Muslims can adhere to the Shafie school for guidance in their worship, but must have the courage to consider opinions from the other schools for matters such as social transactions and Islamic financing (muamalat).
“We cannot just limit ourselves to our own mazhab so that we can ensure our religion is relevant in the modern days,” he said.
He pointed out that scripture sometimes conceal a deeper meaning than the obvious, which required a complete understanding of Islam to keep the faith pertinent in daily life.
“Some of the texts are clear-cut but others are ambiguous and metaphorical in nature. We cannot be fanatic over ‘old’ views because times are changing,” he said.
