Lloyd#19: The 2 Divisions & 4 Levels of Islamic authority

Lloyd De Jongh's material on Shariah law is available freely from Lloyd here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BGrC1fxB-ym-ZQ64TtfYEG0vQtYCOIL6 Other material has been provided by him here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0f1ga9cvekt18au/Reliance-of-the-Traveller-AppendixW.pdf You can also watch further material on Sharia law on Lloyd's YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/LloydDeJongh/videos In Lloyd's final episode, he unpacks for us the structures of authority in Islam, which include 2 Divisions and 4 levels. Lloyd begins this talk by stating that Islam has borrowed many of its law from Judaism, but corrupted it along the way, employing Ijma (the consensus of those in authority), and those who refuse to follow it will be killed. This corruption, he maintains, is still very detailed in its setup, which he explains in this episode, pointing out that there are 2 major divisions, with another 4 levels of authority. 2 DIVISIONS: 1) The first division is that of Sharia itself, which is a legalistic and rigid set of rules and laws, which are for everyone (sometimes referred to as Zahir). It is an outer form of practice. 2) The second division is known as Haqiqa, which is a spiritual and inner knowledge (sometimes referred to as Batin), and is only for knowledgeable Imams and scholars. 4 LEVELS: 1) The first level is called Ibara, and is for lay Muslims, and deals with legislative subjects which are to be understood literalistically. The Qur'an and Hadith are also at this level. 2) The second level is called Ishara, and deals with legislative practitioners. It is reserved for practicing Imams only. 3) The third level is called Lataif, and deals with Spiritual practitioners. 4) The fourth level is called Haqaiq, and is the Divine Essence with Allah, reserved for protected clerics who are connected to Allah. Levels 3 and 4 are for Sufi leaders only, who are considered the only ones who are good enough to commune directly with Allah. Not everyone may agree with Lloyd concerning these two divisions, or even the 4 levels. But do tell us what you think, and do try to support what you say with source material. Lloyd would love to respond. For those who would like to continue to watch Lloyd's videos, you can see them on his YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/LloydDeJongh/videos © Pfander Centre for Apologetics - US, 2022 (67,960) Music: "Epic Heroic Conquest" by Musiclfiles, from filmmusic-io