[48] Shâh Walî-Allah ad-Dahlawî, Al-intibâh, part III. The author of It’hâf, an annotation to Al-intibâh, wrote: “The person who said that a Muslim should give up following a madhhab and adapt himself directly to âyats and hadîths was Shawkânî, not Shâh Walî Allah ad-Dahlawî,” and added that ash-Shawkânî’s words were better and superior, thus confessing the fact that he was against the madhhabs.
[49] For details, see ’Abd al-Ghanî an-Nablusî’s Khulâsat at-tahqîq and our book The Sunni Path, p. 32.
[50] Shâh Walî-Allah ad-Dahlawî, At-tafhîmât al-ilâhiyya, v. II, p. 142, Pakistan, 1387 (1967).
[51] Ibid. p. 290.
[52] Ibid. p. 301.
[53] With these words, Shâh Walî-Allah meant the teachings made up in the books written by ignorant men of religion. Such teachings do not exist in the basic books of the Hanafî and Shafi’î madhhabs or in hadîth books. When such teachings are cleared off, it will be seen that there is very little difference between these madhhabs, for there is no difference pertaining to the teachings that are expressed clearly in the Hadîth between the two madhhabs, even among the four madhhabs; and there are not many differences pertaining to the teachings that are not expressed clearly. These different teachings are either rukhsa (easier way, facility) or ’azîma (difficult way). For more detail, see The Sunni Path, published by Hakîkat Kitabevi in Istanbul.
[54] Shâh Walî-Allah, At-tafhîmât, v. I, pp. 277-9.
[55] Ibid, p. 283.