Wabisah bin Maabad came to the Prophet (saas) saying ''I want to ask him about every single matter of righteousness or wrongdoing'', and as he approached, the Messenger of Allah (saas) said: ''You have come to ask about righteousness ?''. He said ''Yes.'' He said: ''Consult your heart. Righteousness is that about which the soul feels tranquil and the heart feels tranquil, and wrongdoing is that which wavers in the soul and moves to and fro in the breast even though people again and again have given you their legal opinion [in its favor].'' (Ahmed and Daramy)
This hadith is one of the most misunderstood and misquoted ahadith in circulation amongst the Muslims. The danger of misunderstanding the words of the Messenger of Allah (saw) are two-fold: not only does one loose the benefit of correctly comprehending the meaning of the message, by missing the point being made by the Prophet (saw), but one also often falls into the trap of misunderstanding what was said and arriving at conclusions contradictory to the correct meaning of the hadith. These problems are further compounded when the misinformed party proceeds to propagate his incorrect understanding as being an Islamic concept or Shari'a ruling, thus misleading and misguiding people, albeit with the best of intentions.
We must understand a number of things:
The heart or conscience cannot decide what is right and wrong.
We all know that Allah (swt) created us with the sole purpose of worshipping Him, and so all our actions should be such that they are according to His commands. And as humans, it is not possible for us to know these commands by ourselves, hence the need for Messengers to convey the revelation from Allah, and hence the need for scholars to interpret these texts and extract the Divine rulings from them. Using our minds, or our hearts, it is not possible to arrive at the correct hukm, however advanced one's intellect.
One should avoid doubtful matters whenever possible.
The Prophet (saas) was advising Wabisa to stay away from actions that would ''waver in the soul'' and caused unrest and doubt in the heart, even if people reassured him that these actions were acceptable.
''The halal is clear and the haram is clear, but between the two are matters which are doubtful to many people. Therefore, whoever avoids these doubtful matters clears himself in regards to his religion and honour and is thereby safe, but he who falls into doubtful matters falls into haram. [He is like] a shepherd grazing his sheep at the edge of a sanctuary, about to cross over the boundary. Truly, every king has a sanctuary, and truly Allah's sanctuary is His prohibitions.'' [Bukhari & Muslim]
''Leave that which causes you doubt in favour of that which causes you no doubt''
By avoiding the doubtful matters, one safeguards and protects oneself from falling into the haraam. (eg. food/drink containing haraam ingredient, buying something that may have been stolen, chatting on the internet with member of opposite sex)
The Sahaba (ra) went one step further than this in their avoidance of doubt by sacrificing and avoiding even some halaal actions, as Umar ibnul Khattab (ra) used to say: ''at the time of the Messenger (saas) we used to leave nine tenths of the halaal for fear of committing the haraam''. (eg. listening to music, playing cards, watching sport, going to market)
Abandoning the permitted things (mubaah) does not make it haram
It's important to remember that by avoiding a halaal action or by avoiding a doubtful matter, that does not automatically make that action haraam, and one should be careful not to issue ''pocket-fatwas'' telling people that these actions are haraam and passing judgment on other people. Only Allah (swt) has the right to declare actions as halaal and haraam, and avoiding a doubtful matter should be seen as waraa' and not a self-inspired fatwa.
This principle does not apply to abandoning the wajib or committing haraam (eg. selling alcohol, lying in application forms, Friday prayer)
Discrimination between different fatwas on the basis of Islamic evidence.
When faced with difference of opinion, one mustn't choose the ''option'' that is closest to one's heart, as this leads to following one's desires, whereas we are commanded to follow the commands of Allah (swt). We must try our best to determine which scholar is best capable of arriving at the correct ijtihaad, and then follow this opinion regardless of whether we are ''comfortable'' with this fatwa or not.
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