AN IDEAL ISLAMIC WRITER

By 

Ibn Abdillah As-sudaisiy Al-Iloori

With my little experience and interactions with our people in the academic field of shari'ah, Arabic and Islamic studies, I have come to realise the fact that academic writings and writings in the spiritual or theological circles are two different things. As for a pure academic writer, he writes anything he likes and uses his common sense hovering here and there just to satisfy himself, his readers especially his examiners and supervisors on how wide he had read on his research topic. 

So, the main goal of this kind of people is not really to guide people to follow a path. The target of an academic writer is to contribute to knowledge by picking up a novel area, have a focus point and defend that point to the satisfaction of his examiner or supervisor, no matter how absurd or ridiculous that point may be. What the academics are after is a writer's contribution to knowledge. They don't really care about the consequence of such contribution in the nearest future.

But in the case of a spiritual or pure theological writer, he is guided by some shari'ah principles and doctrines, the chief of what is the maqasidus shari'ah (objectives of Islamic law) and he is always conscious not to allow his writings run contrary to same. If Muslims in the academic circles consider the objectives of Islamic law in their various works, they would be using their respective disciplines to assist the cause of Islam and this would be a form of sadaqatun jaariyaah (everlasting charity) for them. But unfortunately, many of our Muslim brothers and sisters in the academia today are carried away by the western standards set for them, and this keep denying them the opportunity of performing jihad with their knowledge.

May Allaah guide us aright.