By Abdul Karim Ibrahim Al-Samak

The titular term (Doctorate) between scientific reality and social reality; it has become a social title more than a scientific qualification in the Arab societal milieu. Given this state and reality of this titular term, many scientific channels have proceeded to study this phenomenon and its impact on the scientific reality in Arab societies. Al-Majd satellite channel played a role in this, addressing the topic in the program "Hour of Dialogue", hosted by the program presenter Mr. Fahd Al-Sunaydi on the Al-Majd satellite screen, with Dr. Muhammad Al-Kathiri, on 12-20-1428 AH. It was a distinguished episode in which dialogues were held about the impact of this title on Arab society, and what the scientific, cultural, intellectual and social reality has reached of poor condition as a result of the dominance of this title in our Arab societies.. This prompted me to study this titular phenomenon, and clarify its position in comparison and measurement with the scale and standard of the scientific "Ijazah" (license), which our Islamic society knew. One of its best contributions - i.e., the Ijazah - was the science of chains of narration (Isnad), which is one of the highest sciences that preserved for us the specifics of Sharia and the noble Prophetic Hadith through the science of men (biography). Whoever carries the Ijazah possesses the scientific eligibility that the Ijazah authorized for him.

So that there is no injustice against those who carried the title through scientific merit, versus those who carried it through the world wide web and unrecognized universities, it was necessary to review this title - Doctorate - in comparison with the scientific Ijazah whose inception dates back to the beginning of the emergence of the first school in the Prophetic Hadith. The scientific Ijazah was and still is one of the greatest images of the scientific city in the capital of Islamic states. It - i.e., the Ijazah - is still a white mark and a crown wreathed in laurel, and a face of civilizational science in the state of Islam, in all its successive states, and across the breadth of the geography of the state of Islam, from the east of the earth to its west, and from its south to its north.

So what is the Ijazah? What is its definition? What is the history of its inception? What is the reason for its invocation? What is its benefit, importance, and scientific eligibility? What are its conditions on its owner?

In terminology: it is a permission to narrate verbally or in writing that provides information conventionally. Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, may d have mercy on him, defined it by saying: (The Ijazah is the authorizer's permission for the authorized to narrate what is correct according to him of his hadith).

The pillars of the Ijazah are four: the authorizer, the authorized, the subject of authorization, and the wording of the Ijazah or its manner. The best who cared for it and was keen on its clarification was Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, then after him Qadi Ayyad, then after them Al-Hafiz Ibn al-Salah, who said that its types are six, then after all of them Al-Zarkashi and Al-Iraqi raised it to nine types.

The school of Prophetic Hadith is the pioneer and predecessor to Islamic schools in the diversity of its sciences and arts in the industry of the Ijazah. After that, sons of other legal sciences followed the path of the people of Hadith, such as the school of Quranic sciences and jurisprudence and its sciences, and other such sciences.

As for the importance and benefit of the Ijazah, the best who cared for it are the sons of the Hadith school, as previously mentioned. For them, it comes in the third rank of the eight methods of receiving knowledge after hearing and reading, in which the fulfillment of the chain of narration in the nation is achieved, which is a characteristic of its characteristics. Al-Hafiz Abu Tahir Ahmed bin Muhammad al-Silafi al-Asbahani (d. 576 AH) said: (And in the Ijazah as is not hidden from anyone with insight and sight, is the duration of what has been narrated and verified of trace, and the survival of its splendor, purity, joy and light. It must be relied upon and always rested upon, without doubt in its authenticity or suspicion in its vastness, as the highest ranks in that are hearing, then handing over, then authorization. It is inconceivable that every book compiled would remain large, or an author similarly small, in the form of continuous hearing, through old disconnected time, and nothing is cut from it by the death of narrators and loss of conscious preservers. So when that exists, it is necessary to use a cause for the survival of the authorship and its duration, and it does not lead after to its non-existence. Reaching its narration through authorization has great benefit and a massive gift, as the purpose of it is to establish the narrated sunnahs in legal rulings and revive traces with complete altruism, whether it was by hearing, reading, handing over or authorization) (1),.

Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, may d have mercy on him, said: (The purpose of narration is to provide knowledge and maintain the chain of narration in the nation, and that the Ijazah provides the chain but does not provide knowledge).

There it is clear to us that the importance of the Ijazah, unlike hearing and reading, comes as a basis for connecting narrations and maintaining the chain of narration in the nation, which is considered one of the highest aspects of its scientific city in the history of human scientific civilization. The chain of narration is what preserved the Prophetic Sunnah for the nation, and it is what connected the predecessors of the nation with its successors.

This Abu Tahir al-Silafi al-Asbahani emphasizes the benefit of the Ijazah unlike hearing and reading, saying: (And among the benefits of the Ijazah also is that not every student and seeker of knowledge desiring it is able to travel and journey, especially if he is prevented by an illness or lack of means, or if the sheikh to whom he travels is far away and in reaching him he finds great fatigue. Writing then is kinder and for him more appropriate, and that is considered among the clearest of ways. How can someone from the furthest West to someone from the furthest East authorize him in narrating what is correct with him of his hadith from him, so that narrated becomes a proof).

This talk is an affirmation of its authorization in writing, and the loftiness of its position in writing. Al-Ishbili (d. 576 AH) indicated by saying: (Most people of knowledge have authorized it). The importance of the Ijazah is also evident in its being a necessary matter in narration; by it, it is completed and perfected, otherwise it was inevitably incomplete. Al-Hafiz Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Attab bin Muhsin al-Qurtubi said: (A student of Hadith has no choice but the Ijazah, hearing what he carries from the traditionist, or presenting it to him, or hearing it by another's presentation to him, due to the proximity of heedlessness, sleep, omission, distortion and substitution on them or on one of them. If the traditionist is the reader with his word, then oversight of the listener and the loss of what is read to him is possible, so if authorization is added to hearing or presentation, the Ijazah contained all that which might suffer from these calamities).

This being said, many scholars took a serious position on the Ijazah as being better than hearing, and there are those among them who place it with it in one rank. Al-Hafiz Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Rahman bin Mandah al-Asbahani (d. 470 AH) said: (The Ijazah is stronger than hearing, because it is further from lying, more repelling of accusation and suspicion, and free from hypocrisy and vanity). Al-Hafiz Ibn Makhlad al-Qurtubi (d. 276 AH) said: (They are the same). Meaning authorization and hearing.

The Khatib al-Baghdadi counted a number of names of many people of knowledge who spoke of the validity of the Ijazah. The library of Islamic heritage also preserved for us dozens of books and works in studies that cared for the Ijazah and were interested in it, with the aim of clarifying the importance of this scientific eligibility for its owners, among those who enriched the library of Islamic heritage with various arts and sciences.

In speaking about requesting authorization through formal application, Professor Abdullah Al-Targhi defined it by saying: (It is the form of the request presented by the one desiring narration and chain of narration, to his sheikh or sheikhs, to acquire the legitimacy of the connection of his chain through them, via authorization).

The scholars of the nation have recorded the history of the existence of the first written Ijazah. It was the authorization of Judge Ismail bin Ishaq al-Jahdami al-Azdi (d. 282 AH) in his handwriting, in which he authorized Ahmed bin Ishaq bin al-Bahlul al-Tanukhi. It was among the oldest authorizations known to the people of knowledge in this art, and Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi pointed to it in his history.

It must be pointed out that the people of Hadith, as previously mentioned, were the first to strive to work with authorization and acted upon it, and others from the people of other legal sciences, and even non-legal ones such as the science of arithmetic and others, imitated them. Here I would like to present a picture of two virtuous scholars who attained the honor of scientific Ijazah by traveling and journeying in search of knowledge, and both are from the lineage of a noble scientific family. The first: is Sheikh Muhammad Saadi al-Kilani al-Hamwi (1168-1241 AH / 1754-1825 AD). He went to Al-Azhar when he was twenty-seven years old, studied under a number of sheikhs, and spent seven years there as a student of knowledge. His sheikh in this Ijazah was Sheikh Abd al-Rahman al-Nahrawi, who in turn studied under the best sheikhs of that period, whom Al-Jabarti mentioned well in his history. Al-Kilani was authorized in the following sciences: 1- Al-Ashmuni's commentary on Ibn Malik's Alfiyyah. 2- Al-Mukhtasar for Al-Saadi on Al-Talkhis. 3- Ibn al-Subki's commentary on Jam' al-Jawami'. 4- Commentary on Al-Manhaj for Sheikh al-Islam. 5- Al-Khatib's commentary on Abu Shuja'. 6- Al-Zarqani's commentary on Al-Bayquniyya in Hadith terminology. 7- Ibn Hajar's commentary on the Forty. 8- Commentary on Al-Jazariyya in Tajweed for Sheikh al-Islam. 9- Tafsir al-Jalalayn. 10- Raihan Agha's commentary on Al-Ajurrumiyya. 11- Commentary on Al-Tahrir for Sheikh al-Islam. The date of his obtaining the Ijazah was Ramadan 1202 AH, and it exists in Hama in the possession of the Kilani family.

There is a second scientific Ijazah for a scholar and descendant of a noble family from Dar Hajar in Al-Ahsa: Sheikh Rashid bin Abdul Latif al-Mubarak al-Ahsa'i (1273 AH - died Wednesday evening 5/9/1340 AH), may d have mercy on him. Sheikh Rashid realized the value of the scientific Ijazah, despite the high position of his scientific family over more than three centuries from his birth. He went to Iraq, the Levant and Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Caliphate. In Damascus, he enjoyed residing to seek knowledge from its scholar Sheikh Abdul Razzaq al-Bitar, may d have mercy on him. He authorized him - may d have mercy on him - in what he heard of sciences from him and read by his hands, and Al-Bitar had been authorized in them.

University of Damascus has maintained granting its graduates the university degree, writing on it the term known to the predecessors of the nation, which is the term (Mujaz or Ijazah). Even the graduates from the Faculty of Medicine, their degrees had written on them (Mujaz in Medicine) or (Ijazah in Medicine), in line with the term Ijazah known to Muslims as a scientific rank attained by its owner through what he heard and learned of sciences. That is the term Ijazah in the reality of Islamic scientific civilization.

So where is the term Doctorate today from the term Ijazah known to Islamic society, and where is the position of the Doctorate scientifically if weighed by the scientific nature of the Ijazah? To avoid injustice to those who deserved this title by scientific merit and contribution, it must be noted here that the Doctorate is a modern imported title that entered our Arab world in the first half of the twentieth century. The sons of that generation who lived through its birth in our Arab world, we do not doubt they were worthy of this title, as they enriched the Arab, Islamic and historical libraries with their great contribution until they reached the rank of encyclopedic knowledge. Conversely, others put on the cloak of this title and made it the end of the road, and after this title improved their standing in the milieu they live in, they abused the title more than they benefited it. Owners of this title in advanced countries earned it with merit, science and contribution, and became beacons of science in those societies in various fields, and being scientific is a condition for obtaining the title. But in our Arab world, this title was a meager commodity spoiled by its owners and holders; it was a reward not a competence. This resulted in what our Arab world paid of bad conditions in scientific, moral and educational decline, especially after Eastern European countries opened the door for graduate studies in their universities to the sons of the Arab world, who returned from some studies intellectually affected by the socialist and communist tendency. The sons sent by their countries reached these nations, then returned qualified for university positions, even though they were not suitable for teaching middle stages, let alone being university teachers. Thus the state of education in these countries declined, and the matter grew worse these days when the granting of this title reached the web networks. You find people who obtained this title - Doctorate - while they do not hold a university degree, or you find among them someone who had a qualification and held this title, yet he is unable to formulate a written page for publication in a newspaper or scientific journal.

The Saudi Al-Qafila Magazine addressed this in its issue marked number (5) on volume (56), dated September and October 2007 AD, with a comprehensive research about this title, under the title: The Doctorate: One title and different scales. The magazine addressed in this file the history of inception and what it had reached of poor condition in our contemporary Arab reality, and the study showed that the Doctorate in our Arab reality was the end of the road, and not the beginning of scientific giving. The holder of a Doctorate became a holder of a social title, as it was an alternative title to titles known to our Arab societies, such as the title (Bey, Pasha, Effendi and Sheikh), and other titles. Out of abuse for this title in our contemporary Arab reality, this title has become a commodity sold at the lowest prices and through the easiest means of obtaining it, via the web networks that market this title, in addition to some Arab and non-Arab universities that are unrecognized. Journalism had a direct role in promoting and marketing this issue, especially advertising media which promotes these non-scientific certificates, as many followed these advertisements out of a desire to obtain this title due to these advertisements. Holders of Doctorates these days have become holders of a reward, not a competence; that is the state of the Doctorate for many who obtained it in our Arab world. For them, it was a lifeboard that reached them to an end of the road they drew for themselves, and not a bridge to pass towards a scientific future for which it - i.e., the Doctorate - was the door. In this state, they were a heavy burden on the societies they live in.