The Governance of Sayyiduna Isa (as): Ruling by the Shariah of Muhammad and Not by the Injeel

Ibn Hibban recorded in his Sahih from Abu Hurayrah (ra), who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: "Isa ibn Maryam will descend and lead them in prayer; and when he raises his head from the bowing posture, he will say: 'Sami'a Allahu liman hamidah; qatala Allahu al-Dajjala wa-azhara al-mu'minin' (Allah hears whoever praises Him; Allah has slain the Dajjal and granted victory to the believers)."

The point of deduction from this hadith is that Isa will say in his prayer on that day: "Sami'a Allahu liman hamidah" (Allah hears whoever praises Him), and this supplication during the standing posture after bowing is among the exclusive distinctions of this Ummah's prayer, as transmitted in a hadith that I cited in Kitab al-Mu'jizat wa-al-Khasa'is. Ibn Asakir recorded from Abu Hurayrah: "The Messiah son of Maryam will descend, praying the obligatory prayers and gathering the people for the Friday congregations." This explicitly demonstrates that he will descend observing our Shari'ah, because the combination of the five daily prayers and the Friday prayer existed in no religious community prior to this one. Ibn Asakir also recorded from the hadith of 'Abdullah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As, who said: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: "How could an Ummah perish whose beginning is me and whose conclusion is Isa ibn Maryam?"

Ibn Asakir also recorded from the hadith of Ibn Abbas, who said: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: "How could an Ummah perish whose beginning is me, whose conclusion is Isa ibn Maryam, and whose middle is the Mahdi from my household?" And as for the questioner's query: "If you say that he will rule by the law of our Prophet, what is his method of ruling by it - is it according to one of the four established schools or by his own ijtihad?" This question is astonishing from the one who posed it, and even more astonishing is his phrase: "according to one of the four schools." Did it ever occur to the questioner that the schools of jurisprudence in this noble religion are confined strictly to four, whereas the independent jurists (mujtahids) of this Ummah are beyond count? Every one among the Companions, the Successors, the Followers of the Successors, and onward had his own madhhab. Indeed, in bygone centuries there were approximately ten recognized schools whose masters were followed and whose texts were documented: namely, the four well-known schools, the school of Sufyan al-Thawri, the school of al-Awza'i, the school of Layth ibn Sa'd, the school of Ishaq ibn Rahawayh, the school of Ibn Jarir, and the school of Dawud. Each of these had adherents who issued fatwas and rendered judicial decisions according to their positions; they only faded after the fifth century owing to the demise of major scholars and the waning of scholastic vigor. Thus the madhhabs are manifold; why then did the questioner restrict it solely to the four schools? Furthermore, how could it be conceived of a Prophet that he would emulate (taqlid) one of the jurisprudence schools, when scholars state that an independent jurist cannot imitate another jurist? If an individual mujtahid from among this Ummah is not permitted to practice taqlid, how could a Prophet ever be imagined to practice taqlid? If you then say: "It becomes necessary, therefore, to state that he will rule by ijtihad," I reply: No, that is by no means necessary. For our Prophet (ﷺ) used to rule in accordance with what was revealed to him in the Quran, and that was designated neither as ijtihad nor as taqlid. The proof of this is that scholars have recorded a difference of opinion regarding the permissibility of ijtihad for the Prophet (ﷺ); had his ruling in accordance with what he understood from the Quran been termed ijtihad, such a scholarly disagreement would never have been posited.