Bismihi Ta`ala
Conservative v/s Entrepreneurship.
The birth of the new born brings changes in the family children ranking, inheritance and weight of opinions. After the queen of Egypt Assya held baby Moses in her hand, there was an exception clause introduced in the Egyptian constitution so that to save Moses from the ongoing murder of Bani Israa-il babies. She brought him up in the palace of Pharaoh and yet this baby was destined to annihilate the reign of a tyrant King and his army. The birth of Rasouloullah Swalallahou `Alaihi Wasallam brought the wind of change up to the palaces of Rome and extinguished the long lit fire of Iran.
The challenge of the present generation is to pass on its values to the next generation and also by accepting and accommodating good modern changes brought by the new generation. This is called progress. The Sharia does not accommodate any changes in its source. But Sharia welcomes modern applications and accommodate them their new injunctions. Except Islam, no religion can cater religious prescriptions to accommodate modern business modes or modern scientific medical operations like transplants, vivisection etc.
Nonetheless, many administrative instances face the inter-generation challenge. The new generation see the last generation ‘’outdated’’ while the last generation is more conservative on its trend to sustain its real progress achieved. There is an example that I give to everyone that may benefit from them:
We find in Bukhari that when many Hafizs Sahabahs were martyred in a war, hazrat Umar r.a. addressed hazrat Abu Bakr r.a. the importance to compile the Qur-an in book form. The importance was felt now because Islam spread and there was less hafizs now to teach Qur-an to next generation. But Hazrat Abu Bakr r.a. refused merely on the fact that this has not been done during the time of Rasouloullah Swalallahou `Alaihi Wasallam. Hazrat Abu Bakr r.a. was conservative and hazrat umar r.a. saw the need for an implementation to the present circumstances.
Same analogue can be taken on the Fazail Douroud/Muntakhab Ahadiths/‘’new’’ issues/etc.
Note that Hazrat Umar r.a. did not rebel, but rather keep on telling Hazrat Abu Bakr r.a. politely, but accompanied with du`as that Allah Ta`ala put in his heart the same opinion. Finally Hazrat Abu Bakr r.a. was convinced to compile the Qur-aan in book form. He chose hazrat Ubayy bin Ka`b r.a. to do the job.(Bukhari)
عن عبيد بن السباق أن زيد بن ثابت رضي الله عنه قالأرسل إلي أبو بكر مقتل أهل اليمامة فإذا عمر بن الخطاب عنده قال أبو بكر رضي الله عنه إن عمر أتاني فقال إن القتل قد استحر يوم اليمامة بقراء القرآن وإني أخشى أن يستحر القتل بالقراء بالمواطن فيذهب كثير من القرآن وإني أرى أن تأمر بجمع القرآن قلت لعمر كيف تفعل شيئا لم يفعله رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قال عمر هذا والله خير فلم يزل عمر يراجعني حتى شرح الله صدري لذلك ورأيت في ذلك الذي رأى عمر قال زيد قال أبو بكر إنك رجل شاب عاقل لا نتهمك وقد كنت تكتب الوحي لرسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم فتتبع القرآن فاجمعه فوالله لو كلفوني نقل جبل من الجبال ما كان أثقل علي مما أمرني به من جمع القرآن قلت كيف تفعلون شيئا لم يفعله رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قال هو والله خير فلم يزل أبو بكر يراجعني حتى شرح الله صدري للذي شرح له صدر أبي بكر وعمر رضي الله عنهما فتتبعت القرآن أجمعه من العسب واللخاف وصدور الرجال حتى وجدت آخر سورة التوبة مع أبي خزيمة الأنصاري لم أجدها
So when the young generation is finding it difficult to adapt with the older generation or vice versa, then let`s take the steps of dialogue, respect, discipline and duas that sahabahs took.
Mufti Mackoojee