LET US HAVE MERCY

By

Ibn Abdillah As-sudaisiy Al-Iloori

In sha Allaah, I will never support glaring errors of any scholar because it will hurt my conscience deeply. But at the same time, I will not join in ridiculing or support the ridiculing of well known scholars upon Sunnah just because they made some perceived errors or mistakes. Even if the perceived errors is on some points of 'aqeedah, we must be patient and wise in handling the situation.

There are better ways of calling them to order than to make hasty declarations about their persons or turning them to cream cracker for some obviously ignorant youths to consume. Even if a scholar belongs to a sect other than that of the Ahlus Sunnah, courtesy demands that he be called to order in ways that would yield fruits and not ways that would further plung him into graver innovations. Our objective shouldn't be just be to correct errors, we should mind our methodologies. 

Some scholars have made grave errors in the past and yet they are excused by many scholars of their own time and scholars of subsequent generations. The problem is that we hardly find excuses for ourselves these days. Once some people make some little little efforts in a couple of months and it yields no fruit, they start making imflamatory comments. Some scholars would write refutations on another scholar's errors and would keep it for years or even a lifetime without publishing it hoping that perhaps, the person being refuted would later repent. They would only be refuting those errors without being emotional or sounding as if there are some worldly scores to settle. 

Some of our Salaf would work on innovators for many years before even making any declaration about them. I once read a piece where Sheikh Rabee' حفظه الله said he wrote a refutation about someone and for years he did not publish it, he kept admonishing the person involved. Yet, some of us think we are emulating him. The Sheikh is free from what many people ascribe to him in term of methodology. I have read several of his warnings against poor methods of handling da'wah. After meeting with someone on some occasions, the next thing is to declare war. 

The case is even worse to the extent that some people would not even want to meet their own brother or sister in Islaam because of what they have heard from a third party which could be wrong. They label people from far distance. They will say so and so have told me about his or her deviantions and the person is thiqah (trustworthy). So, "I don't need to meet him or her". No any attempt to meet and talk from heart to heart like brothers that we are suppose to be. You need to at least meet him or her and make your own personal findings and try your best on him or her. You might be wrong on your assumptions. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم worked on his uncle who was even a Kaafir till point of death. So, who are we near him? 

If we are not merciful and painstakingly patient upon our Muslim brethren and people who even have traces of Sunnah and who have recorded some glaring achievements in their da'wah, how are we supposed to be merciful upon other creatures of Allaah who are not even Muslims? Perhaps, this clearly depicts why our impacts on calling non-Muslims to Islaam is very very low. We find it hard to deal maturely with people with some traces of Sunnah. How is it now easy to win over people of bid'ah or even the Kuffar who are even ready to insult us or make blasphemous statements? We should fear Allaah seriously and retrace our steps as far as our methodology is concerned.

We like preaching. We like telling other people the truth. In fact, in some people's profile on Facebook, "Da'wah-Calling to Allaah" is their occupation. But we don't want to concede to our own flaws and return to the truth. For every harmless advice, we bring up poor excuses to cover it and digress from substance. Allaah says in Qur'an in Q2:44, "..have you then no sense? We should all note that an-naseehah (admonition) is for all. No one becomes perfect by virtue of being an Ahlus Sunnah. If we don't tell ourselves this bitter truth, who will? When a person of Sunnah defames another person of Sunnah, it becomes very worrisome and pathetic indeed. 

I have been saying this and I will keep saying it because some people  have persistently make it look as if someone is defending his favorite teachers or scholars by warning on the danger of making hasty declarations that scholars even run away from. By Allaah, this is far from the truth. Allaah will ask me if I am following my desire. The problem is not in clarifying or refuting the errors of a scholar by another scholar, the problem is ridiculing of scholars and making them preys in the mouth of ignorant people under the guise of making glaring error. Nobody is above refutation. Even a refuter can be refuted by another person or even the refutee. No one has monopoly in refutation. But all refutations and counter refutations must be knowledge based and not conjectures. So, a scholar can refute another scholar for making glaring errors, but at the same time and as a matter of urgency call youths to order on the evil of consuming the flesh of scholars raw under the guise of making one mistake or the other.

May Allaah assist us.