That is Abu Bakr the truthful, may Allah be pleased with him. The truthful, well guided Caliph!
He was asked about an affair, simple. In our time, if any of us would have been questioned, he would have issued a legal opinion (fatwa) directly, without hesitation.
(He was questioned) on the meaning of the word “fodder/grass”, in the speech of Allâh Subhânahou wa Ta’ālà:
وَفَاكِهَةً وَأَبًّا – 80:31
« And fruits and fodder, »
Here is Abu Bakr as Siddiq, the ascetic, the devotee, the fearful of Allâh Azza wa Jall: he did not answer and said:
“What heaven will shelter me and what land will bear me if I say something in the Book of Allâh Azza wa Jall what I do not know ?!”
Now you hear legal opinions that make you frown: you hear the takfir of Muslims, you hear the defamation of meritorious scholars, the living among them and the dead, you hear the word on Allah without right, you hear the one who makes lawful singing and he is known, and he who gives a fatwa making lawful usury, and the one who gives a fatwa to abandon the authentic hadiths, and the one who gives a legal opinion with his passion, and the one who gives a legal opinion with his reason and the one who gives a legal opinion according to the detritus of his opinion …
فَمَاذَا بَعْدَ الْحَقِّ إِلَّا الضَّلَالُ ۖ[…] – 10:32 […]
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