Imam al- LAKHMI between his accusation of creating divergence in the doctrine and his merit of helping raise the importance of evidence الإمام اللخمي بين تهمة تمزيق المذهب والانتصار للدليل

Abstract

تعرّض الإمام اللخمي- رحمه الله- لانتقادات لاذعة، حتى صار مضرب المثل في تمزيق المذهب؛ وذلك بسبب خروجه في اختياراته عن مذهب الإمام مالك، بالرغم من أنّ معظم هذه الاختيارات علّق عليها العلماء فوجدوها مما تعضده الأدلة، فاللخمي- رحمه الله- لا ينتقد ويعارض الأقوال المروية في المذهب بداعي الهوى أو التشهي، وإنّما ديدنه في ذلك هو ديدن صاحب المذهب نفسه وغيره من العلماء، فقد خالف المذهب الكثير من العلماء قبل اللخمي وبعده، ولم يشكل ذلك معرّة لهم، بل قُبِل ذلك وعدّ إثراء للتراث الفقهي المالكي، والظاهر أنّ هذه التهمة إنّما كان لها صدى ورواجا تبعا لمقتضيات حقبة زمنية معيّنة مرّ بها المذهب المالكي، حيث نزع الأوائل المتشبعين بروح الاجتهاد العارفين أنّ المجتهد إنّما يصل إلى القول أو الرأي في المسألة لدليل رآه، فالعبرة للدليل لا لشهرة القول أو القائل ومكانته، أما بعد شيوع التقليد والدعوة إلى غلق باب الاجتهاد، فقد اختلف الأمر وأصبحت العبرة بقول ابن القاسم، دون النظر إلى قوة الدليل، حتى لو كان الرأي المخالف هو الحق الذي تعضده الأدلة وتنطق به. Imam “al- Lakhmi”- may Allah rest his soul in peace - faced bitter criticism, until he became known as someone who brought divergence to the creed because he had choices that were different of Imam Malik’s, despite that the majority of scholars approved these choices by sustaining them with evidence. Al- Lakhmi-may Allah rest his soul in peace- was not against narrated sayings in the doctrine for mere personal doctrinal inclinations, but he was just following the path of the head of the Malikite School and other scholars like him. He was not the first and only imam who raised objections against the doctrine, there were many imams after and before him, but they were not criticized as he was. On the contrary, they found encouragement and their works were considered as enriching contributions to the Maliki Fiqh. Apparently, this charge has been spread out because of some circumstances in specific periods of time in the existence of the Maliki school. The first scholars who were fulfilled with the reasoning effort (Ijtihad) considered that al-mujtahid (diligent) reaches a new opinion or a new saying in a given issue thanks to evidence. Thus, priority was given to evidence over the narrator’s position or the notoriety of the saying. However, when the door was closed in front of the reasoning effort (ijtihad) and mere imitation was spread as a principle of judgment, things changed, and full credit was given to Ibn Al-Qasim’s sayings, ignoring the power of the evidence, and not considering the opposing view however right and powerful it might be.