Abu Taymiyyah – Shaykh Ibraheem Ar Ruhaylee Manners of Interacting the Scholars [Day 2 Session 3]
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of carrying and interpreting Prophet's words and actions, including actions and knowledge. They stress the need for individuals to be clear about their knowledge and not be confused by recommendations. The speakers emphasize the importance of respecting and exaling people for their actions, following the words and actions of the Prophet, and following the royalty of the scholar. They emphasize the importance of reading and interpreting the statement of the Imams of guidance and maintaining their respect and honor.
AI: Summary ©
Indeed our praise is due to Allah,
we praise him, seek his forgiveness
and repent to him.
The one whom Allah guides there is none
who can misguide him and the one who
causes a person to be misguided there is
none who can guide him.
I bear witness
that there is no deity worthy of worship
except Allah and he is alone and he
has no partners,
I also bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam
is his worshipper and his final messenger.
O Allah send peace and blessings upon the
Prophet
and upon his family
and all of the companions.
Verily the ulama,
the people of knowledge,
they have a great status,
and this great status with Allah
is due to them being honored with knowledge
that Allah
has distinguished
them from the rest of the people
due to them carrying and conveying the religion
and conveying the knowledge.
Because of this, because of the scholars, the
they come and they enlighten the path for
the people,
and they clarify the rulings of the religion,
and they show the people
the signs and the landmarks
of happiness,
and for this reason,
the ulama, the scholars
have a great right upon us.
Allah has
honored them and ennobled them that they convey
their knowledge,
and also that people benefit from their guidance,
and people benefit from their knowledge,
and people benefit from their characteristics,
and people benefit from their silence.
So
the benefit
is very comprehensive
and people
they take knowledge from the scholars
and because of this they become upright upon
the truth.
So may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala have mercy
upon the scholars
and may He reward them on behalf of
us the Muslims and on behalf of Al
Islam.
And our lecture today
is regarding
how to interact interact with scholars, how to
interact
with the people of knowledge.
However, before we speak about the manners and
etiquettes of interacting with the scholars,
we need to understand what is the meaning
of Ulama.
What is the definition of a person being
an Islamic scholar,
and to whom is this title
or to whom is this description given to?
So we say
with regards to
who is a scholar and what is the
definition of an Alim
Alim that firstly this is very important, it's
important for us to understand and know
who is said to be an Alim and
who is not, and this is because there
are many other things which are linked to
us knowing
who a scholar is and who is not.
The people
if they know and they understand who the
Alim is, they will return to him, and
they will follow him, and they will take
his statements and his opinions,
and they will
follow his guidance.
They will follow
his manners. They will follow his war his
Zuhd, his Asidism.
They will follow his silence and his etiquettes,
and therefore
it isn't correct for there to be
a confusion
between
who is a scholar and who isn't a
scholar. So with regards to the definition of
a scholar, the definition of an aalim,
then we say that the ulama
are those people who carry
the knowledge, those people preserve the knowledge,
those people who understand it and comprehend it,
those who act by it,
and then this knowledge which they carry, and
they convey, and they memorize, and they
act upon,
it has an effect upon
their etiquettes,
and it has an effect upon how they
interact with the people,
and therefore
the scholars are those people
who have an effect on other people
in terms
of calling them towards a Dawah and teaching
them the correct etiquettes
and teaching
them silence
and this and this definition
is a comprehensive definition
and Insha'Allah, we will stop with every part
of this,
definition
and explain explain each part of this definition
and also mention
some of the guidelines or restrictions with regards
to this definition.
So the definition that we gave to who
a scholar is, we said that firstly,
the scholars are those who carry the knowledge.
Carry the knowledge, as I said, memorize the
knowledge,
meaning
that the scholars are the ones who carry
and memorize
the knowledge and Allah said in the Quran
rather it is clear ayaat
which are in
the hearts
of those who have been given knowledge. The
point is that these ayaat are in their
hearts memorized
and also they carry the knowledge in terms
of memorizing the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam.
So the meaning of carrying the knowledge
is memorizing the knowledge
and also Adhaqt being precise when it comes
to this memorization.
This was the first part of the definition
that the scholars are those who carry the
knowledge, I. E. Memorize the knowledge.
Secondly,
they have fiqh of the knowledge. They don't
only memorize,
but they also understand
and comprehend
the knowledge
because
memory in of itself is not sufficient. A
person has to also,
comprehend and understand.
And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said
perhaps a person
will convey to another person
and the one who is being conveyed to
has more understanding of that which is being
conveyed to him. Meaning that just because somebody
is narrating the narration,
the person who he's narrating to may have
more knowledge and understanding
than the one who is
narrating,
and the companions,
may Allah be pleased with them,
they took from the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
directly,
They heard from the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
They memorized the knowledge and they were also
a people of understanding and a people of
knowledge.
And then the third part of the definition
where the definition is Wa'amil Ubihi, that those
scholars
after memorizing and carrying the knowledge
and after understanding and comprehending the knowledge, they
act upon it, and therefore actions are a
result
of the knowledge. For this reason, Ali radiAllahu
anhu said
knowledge
calls actions
and either the actions
come or knowledge
disappears.
And therefore,
the scholars
are people of uprightness,
people of obedience to Allah, people of righteous
actions,
and it is this knowledge or it is
these actions which makes the knowledge firm.
Then the 4th thing
which was mentioned
is that this knowledge it has an effect
in their own selves, meaning this knowledge it
affects the manners and the morals
of the scholars.
So first they memorize and carry,
and then they learn and understand,
and then they act by the knowledge, and
then all of this has an effect in
terms of their dealings with the people,
and bad manners
or bad etiquettes, lowly etiquettes are not appropriate
for a scholar.
And then the 5th part of the definition
is that they then have an effect upon
the rest of the people. They have an
effect upon the people
in terms of giving them Dawah and calling
them to knowledge.
So they learn,
so they memorize,
then they learn, then they act upon it,
then it has an effect in themselves, and
then they also have an effect in other
people those who are around them in terms
of giving them a Dawah.
And then the last thing which was mentioned
was they also have an effect upon the
people
in terms of people learning from their manners,
and people learning from their silence
and people learning from their demeanor.
So
the effect that the scholars have on the
rest of the people
is from 2 angles.
First of all, from Dawah to knowledge,
teaching people, and this is by speaking and
through statements,
and the second angle is being a Qudwa,
being a good role model for the rest
of the people, that people imitate them and
take them to be role models when it
comes to good manners.
And if this is understood, if we have
understood the definition of who a scholar is,
who an Alem is, then there is a
very important point which has to be made.
And this is a doubt that many people
have that sometimes
people are confused because
of a resemblance between
somebody who is a scholar and somebody who
is not a scholar, and therefore they're confused
between who is a scholar and who is
not being who is not a scholar because
of a resemblance
between them
so sometimes
people will confuse between an Alim, a scholar,
and a Khatib,
somebody who is able to give a sermon
or preach,
and because
the person who is giving a sermon
because of the eloquence of his tongue and
the eloquence of his words and that which
he says, people think that he is a
scholar,
and perhaps
the greatest clearest example which is given regarding
this is the statement of the virtuous companion,
Abdullah ibn Mus'ud
radiAllahu anhu, that he said to the rest
of the companions,
he said to them, verily,
you are in a time in which the
scholars are many and
those who are giving sermons, the Khutabah, are
very few.
And they will come another time upon you
in which those who are talking, those who
are giving sermons will be many, and the
scholars amongst them will be very few. And
a similar wording
has been mentioned from Tamim Adari radiAllahu anhu.
So this was regarding the companions,
regarding their situation
that amongst the companions,
there were many scholars amongst them and amongst
those scholars only few of them would speak
only a few of them were Khutaba
and when they were asked Fatawa, when they
were asked questions
then they would refuse to answer the questions
or they would direct the questions at another
scholar or another companion.
However, today we are in a time in
which those who are speaking are many
and the scholars amongst those who are speaking
are very few and because of this there
is a fitna,
and the fitna is that people are deceived
by a person who is giving a Khutba,
who is speaking or giving a sermon, and
people think that every person who gets up
to give a sermon
or every person who preaches must be a
scholar.
And if you think about the people of
innovation,
and the callers to the people of innovation
many of them
are from this type these types of people
that perhaps they are able to structure their
words very cleverly,
and perhaps they speak with emotions.
Oh, they feel
creep, crying and weeping, and they make other
people cry, and they are able to raise
their voice, and they are and they show
a pride for Al Islam,
and because of this
people think that they are scholars
just because of the eloquence of their words
and how well structured their lecture is and
because of how emotional their structure is and
them raising their voices and showing you concern
for the Ummah, people think that this person
must be a scholar, but if the words
of this preacher
was shown to a scholar, shown to a
Faqih, a scholar of understanding
then it will not be worth anything.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, he said regarding
the Munafiqoon,
he said that they say words
and you will listen to them, and he
said this to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
meaning
the Munafiqun,
the manner in which they talk
and and how they say what they say
is something which may attract
a person,
but
just because
somebody
is a preacher or he speaks
and he's a Khatim,
this does not show that he is a
scholar, this does not prove that he is
a scholar
and at the same time this doesn't mean
that whoever is a Khatib can never be
a scholar because there are Khutaba who are
also scholars,
so you have
a scholar who is a Khatib
and you also have a Khatib who is
not a scholar
and sometimes you may you may also have
an Alim, a scholar who isn't a Khatib,
meaning somebody who has the knowledge,
somebody who has the understanding,
but he doesn't have the ability to deliver
a sermon or deliver,
this in an eloquent manner.
Existence of those certificates
and those academic achievements
is not an evidence
for somebody being a scholar,
and therefore we should not be deceived or
confused regarding
this, that a person is not said to
be a scholar purely because he has a
particular status
or an authority or a position
or because he has a particular qualification,
rather
the scholar is known
by when he speaks
his knowledge can be seen, and his firk,
his understanding can be seen, and he's known
by his etiquettes,
he's known by his silence, he's not known
by his positions
that he has been appointed to.
And also that which causes confusion between who
is a scholar and who is not a
scholar
is the praise of people, the praise
or the recommendations
of people,
even if it is another scholar
who praises this person and this person is
ignorant,
he doesn't raise and become a scholar because
of the praise of that
scholar, so
somebody being praised
and somebody being recommended
doesn't necessitate that this person is now a
scholar,
and perhaps
a scholar
would praise a person,
and yet that person who he prays is
not from the people of knowledge, so we
should not be deceived by these words of
praise
nor should we be deceived by these tazgiat,
these recommendations.
If the recommendation
is not
in conformity to the reality of this person,
then the recommendation
does not
raise or praise this person, and the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
he told us about
the first people who will be taken to
the fire,
those 3 men, and amongst those 3 is
a person
who learned. It will be said to him,
why did you learn? And he will say,
oh, my lord, I learned for your sake,
and it will be said to him you
have lied rather you only learned so it
will be said that you are a scholar,
and it was said and therefore you'll be
taken to the fire, so just because it
is said that somebody is a scholar
or somebody's praised
for being a scholar, it does not mean
that he's necessarily
a scholar,
and of course the true scholars
those who fulfill
the definition which we mentioned
in terms of memorization
and knowledge and understanding and righteous actions, and
good manners, and giving dawah to the people,
they are the masters of the people,
and they will be in the higher ranks
and higher levels of Al Jannah, but the
deception occurs or the confusion occurs when there
is praise for somebody who is not deserving
to be praised,
or there's a recommendation for somebody who is
not deserving of being recommended
and sometimes
even those who have knowledge or ascribed to
knowledge,
and we have seen this in our time
a lot today,
they will exalt a particular person
and they will raise a particular person,
and this person is not even a student
of knowledge never mind being a scholar, and
sometimes he's raised to a status
which is above the status of
the scholars.
So as a principle,
a Jahil, an ignorant person
is never benefited through the praise of another
individual.
In fact,
if all of the ulama came together,
if all of the scholars came together
in order to praise a Jahl, it does
not mean that he has now become a
scholar. He remains
a Jahl.
And as we mentioned the Alim, the true
Alim,
he's the one who is known for carrying
the religion,
for memorizing the knowledge, for understanding the knowledge,
for doing righteous actions, for hang having the
correct etiquettes,
and the opposite is also true.
That just because a scholar
insults or criticizes another scholar,
this doesn't diminish his status as being a
scholar.
And for this reason,
it is mentioned the principle is mentioned
that
the criticize
the criticisms
between
scholars of the same level
is,
thrown and it is not to be mentioned
or narrated because sometimes
scholars of the same status
who are colleagues to each other, they may
insult each other
out of jealousy. They may criticize criticize each
other out of jealousy.
So as a principle,
the insult
of a scholar towards another scholar
does not diminish the status of that scholar
as long as he is a scholar.
And also the praise of a scholar, of
a jahil,
does not benefit or raise this jahil to
become a scholar.
And and now we're going speak about the
etiquettes or the manners of interacting with the
scholars,
and this is after we have mentioned who
is a scholar,
and we spoke about the status of the
scholar, and also we highlighted the confusion or
the doubt which occurs in terms of
those who are not scholars resembling the scholars,
so the first and foremost of these etiquettes
is that we should love the scholars, and
we should support and aid the scholars, why?
Because they are a people of knowledge, and
they are the people of the religion,
and they have stood with
this knowledge, and they have spread the knowledge,
and people have benefited
knowledge from them, and therefore upon every single
mu'min, every single believer
is to love them and respect them,
and make tawfee of them, exalt them, and
honor them, and also to support and aid
them.
And there are many statements of the Salaf
which are
narrated with regards to respecting and exalting and
honoring
the people of knowledge.
So Tawus
he said it is from the sunnah it
is from the sunnah that 4 people are
honored.
The alim, the scholar,
and the elderly, the Muslim
elder,
and the ruler or the king,
and the father.
And
the point here is the Alim that it
is from the Sunna as Tahu said it
is from the Sunna that the Alim, the
scholar he is honored. Of course, the status
of one's father is known,
and the status of the elderly is known,
and the status of the king or the
ruler, the Sahib al Sultan, he is known.
As for the alim,
even if he's young, the scholar, even if
he's young in age
or even if he's not,
famous amongst the people,
but his status has to be honored and
he is to be respected,
and also Ibnu Abbas radiallahu anhu, may Allah
be pleased with both both of them.
There are examples in how he used to
honor
and exalt the people of knowledge.
So he took so for example, he would
take the reins
of the riding beast of Zayd ibn Thabit,
and he would leave the animal
walking while Zayd was upon the animal, and
then he would say this is how we
have been ordered to interact with our people
of knowledge. And also, Ibn Abbas said
that
I remained for a number of years,
I wanted to ask Umar ibn Khattab
a particular hadith, I wanted to question him
regarding a hadith,
and for a while I was not able
to do so, and the only thing which
prevented me was
the authority or the haybah, the authority which
Umar had in my eyes.
And then the second etiquette
is that we take knowledge from those scholars.
After loving them and respecting them, we take
knowledge from those scholars. We learn from them.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he ordered us
with this in the Quran.
He said,
ask the people of remembrance, either people of
knowledge, Question the people of knowledge. And Al
Imam Mashal Tobi Rahimullah,
he said that the obligation upon every
army, every common Muslim,
and every Muqalid
is to ask the people of knowledge. And
Abu Darda radiallahu anhu, he would say why
is it that I see scholars are departing
you and yet the juhal amongst you are
not asking them or seeking knowledge from them.
And he would say,
so learn knowledge from them before Allah raises
knowledge from you. And that he would say
the raising of knowledge is by the disappearance
of
the scholars. And for this reason, the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam said in the hadith,
knowledge will not be snatched
from the hearts or the chests of
the scholars,
rather knowledge will disappear
with the passing away of the scholars.
So if people do not take this knowledge
from the scholars, they will be destroyed,
and egg and ignorance will become prevalent,
and ignorance will be amongst
the people. And for this reason,
whoever
lives to a time in which he sees
the scholars and he can take from the
scholars, he must take from them. And
today, us, the Latin Muslims, we have benefited
from the companions taking from the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam,
and the Tabi'een taking from the companions,
and then the adba'at Tabi'een taking from the
Tabi'een.
And this is how Islam became
widespread
that the early generation
would teach the latter generation,
and the latter generation will learn from the
early generation.
So we are now
at crossroads with regards to Al Islam
that we are in a time
either we learn from the scholars and then
we convey this knowledge or the people will
be destroyed because of
the ignorance which becomes widespread.
And all praises for Allah,
the Ummah, all of it will never be
destroyed,
But the point is that this is an
encouragement for the Tula Bilal. This is an
encouragement
for the students of knowledge to strive and
make Ijtihad
and try hard,
and to make utmost efforts
to take from the scholars and then convey
this knowledge to the people.
And, also,
the
third point is
that just because
a scholar makes a mistake
or he errs up in a particular issue,
this does not mean that we have to
insult the scholar,
just because he makes a mistake and he
errs, it doesn't mean we diminish his status
or we insult him,
rather
we avoid
status of that scholar. And for this reason,
Abdul Abdul Mubarak,
he said
every intelligent person
should not
diminish the rights of 3 types of people.
Any intelligent person, the right upon an intelligent
person is that he does not diminish the
rights of 3 people.
Firstly, the ulama, the scholars.
Secondly, the Sultan, the ruler,
and thirdly, Ikhwan, one's brothers.
And then he said that the one who
diminishes,
the rights of the Alim will lose his
akhira,
and the one who diminishes
the rights of the sultan, the ruler will
lose his dunya,
and the one who diminishes the rights of
his brothers or the honor of his brothers
will lose his integrity.
So note how Abdullah ibn Mubarak
he said
a person will lose his Aqira
by diminishing the rights or the honor of
the scholars, and this is because
speaking ill and insulting the scholars
is destruction for the hereafter,
and by it a person's good deeds are
lost.
And Al Hafid ibn al Saqir,
he said
after
Dua of Mercy, he said that you should
know the
flesh of the scholar it is poisonous. May
Allah have mercy upon them.
And
he said
that throughout history history,
the Sunnah of Allah
with regards to those people who insult and
diminish and mock the scholars is known.
I. E. How bad
the ending is of those people.
So
the flesh of the scholars,
it is poisonous.
Whoever eats from the flesh of the scholars,
meaning whoever backbites
them, whoever diminishes
their rights, he will be destroyed.
And the
the intelligent person,
he doesn't destroy his own by
eating the flesh of the scholars.
As for the mistake which a scholar makes,
then if a person been becomes aware of
the mistake,
and this is without Khaluf, meaning without a
person
investigating
and looking into his mistakes and trying to
find a mistake somewhere without all of this,
but
with clear evidences it has become clear to
you that a particular scholar he made a
mistake, then this mistake has to be avoided.
A person cannot act by this mistake.
A person does not take this mistake, but
at the same time, he maintains respect
and honor for the scholar, and I always
point out
that we have to have
that we have to follow the truth
with absolute sincerity,
and the truth should not be
forsaken or the truth should not be left
because of the statement of a person or
the statement of a scholar,
So
just because you love a scholar,
it doesn't mean that his mistake has to
be accepted.
Just because you love the scholar, it doesn't
mean that now you have to abandon the
truth, and some people say, but we love
the Ulama, and we respect the Ulama,
and this is incorrect. We respect the Ulama,
and we love the Ulama.
We supplicate for them. We know their
virtue. We know we know their status.
We seek forgive we seek forgiveness for them
from Allah, but at the same time if
they make a mistake, then we don't follow
that mistake.
And then the 4th
etiquette that we should have when it comes
to dealing with the scholars is
that we always make excuses
for them. We always make excuses for anything
that they may might have said or might
have done,
and this means that
we always give them the benefit of doubt.
And if their speech is ambiguous, we take
it to the better meaning and not an
evil
meaning. And
also that we should never
criticize a scholar
for what he said unless there is an
absolute
clear direct evidence
with absolute clarity that he has made a
mistake. And for this reason, it has been
narrated that Tohumer ibn Khattab radiAllahu anhu, he
said, do not think
evil about your brother
because of a word which came out of
his mouth
as long as there is some benefit of
doubt that can be given, meaning as long
as his speech
can be interpreted
in a better way, then do not think
bad about your brother because of a statement
which he said. Anu Amari Ibra Khattab radiallahu
anhu, he said this statement regarding
every normal Muslim, regarding every common Muslim,
if we can give him the benefit of
the doubt doubt, then we should do so.
Then how about
the scholars?
So the scholars,
if they make a statement,
then we try to take it to a
best the best possible meaning or interpretation
rather than criticizing
them. And the one who is successful
is the one who when he hears the
statement of a scholar,
if it has a possible ambiguity or a
possible wrong interpretation,
he tries to find an excuse,
and he tries to find a way of
taking his statement towards a better meaning, and
therefore he says
that from a particular
angle, the scholar was correct.
And we have seen this
in many statements
of the Ulama. Many statements of the Ulama
in which
there will be another statement of another scholar,
and they would try to interpret it in
the correct way or
try to,
correct it from taking it towards a particular
angle.
As an example,
it was ascribed to Sufyanathuri
that he said the Imams of justice
were 5. The Imams of justice were 5,
I. E. The first 4 imam, the the
first 4 Khalifa,
and then the 5th one is Umar ibn
Abdul Aziz Abdul Aziz ahamullah.
This statement
was then taken to al Imamu Ahmed,
and when this statement was narrated to al
Imam Ahmed that Sufyan al Thawri said this,
al Imam Ahmed said that this is.
This is falsehood.
Sheikh Usama ibn Taymiyyah,
he mentioned
that the meaning of Al Imam Ahmed saying
this is falsehood
means
that this statement being attributed to Sufyan Athouri
is falsehood. It's not possible that Sufyan Athouri
would make this statement.
Why? Because the Imams of guidance
after the 4 Khalifa, the fifton was Muawiyah
radiAllahu anhu, and he was much greater than
Umar ibn Abdul Aziz.
So al Imam Ahmed,
when this statement was attributed to Sufyanathuri,
and he knows the how upright Sufyanathuri
was, he negated the fact that it is
attributed
to him. And for this reason, if you
ever hear
this a statement,
a strange statement
being attributed to a scholar, you say that
this isn't,
logic that a scholar would say this, or
it's not correct that this scholar has said
this statement because the scholar is known for
being upright. And you and you would see
that if you were to investigate,
you would understand
that maybe the statement has been taken out
of its correct
context,
or maybe there's been
a changing in the wording of the statement
which the scholar made.
So what we should do is we should,
in fact, defend the honor of the scholar
and,
defend the scholar and respect the scholar and
fulfill his rights.
And then the 5th,
etiquette which we should have with us with
regards to the scholars,
and perhaps we'll finish with this because there's
not much time, is that we have to
understand
every single scholar will have mistakes. Every single
scholar will make mistakes.
However,
the mistakes of a scholar
do not diminish his status because of the
amount of goodness which he has, so the
amount of goodness outweighs the small mistakes
which he has, and unfortunately, we are living
in a time today, in a time of
fitna
where people will destroy
the integrity of a scholar
who has many many good works and many
good statements
because of a few mistakes which he has
made. And I'm going to mention to you
statements from
the Salaf. And I'm not going to mention
to you statements from those people who are
our contemporary scholars in case that it is
said that we are watering down the religion
or we are misguiding people, rather
statements from your salaf.
So Saeed ibn Musayeeb Rahimullah,
he said there isn't a scholar,
nor is there a sharif,
nor is there a virtuous honorable person,
except he has an aid, except he has
some defects,
some mistakes.
And then he said, however,
the person
whose virtue is a lot,
however, a person whose goodness and virtues is
more than his mistakes,
then his virtues do away with his mistakes,
and the ones whose mistakes are more than
his goodness and his virtue,
then the mistakes do away with his
goodness or his virtue.
So that person, that scholar
who has much goodness
and much virtue, and his goodness greatly outweighs
his mistakes,
then his goodness is respected and it outweighs
any mistakes which he has made. And also
Al imam, ibn Abdul Barq Rahimullah,
he said, nobody is free from making
mistakes.
However,
the person whose good is a lot or
the person
whose
that in which he's correct is a lot,
and that in which he's wrong is little
is a scholar,
and the person
whose errors are many
and that in which he's correct is little,
then he is somebody who is ignorant.
So think about the scales which the salaf
would weigh the people with, they would say
that somebody who is correct most of the
time
and wrong
less of the time he is considered to
be a scholar, and the one who is
wrong most of the time
and craved less of the time, then he's
taken to be a jahl. And
al Hafid ibnurajib
he said the
just person, the munsif, a just fair person,
is a person
who
a few mistakes of somebody because of the
many good deeds of this person,
and look how
the approach of the salaf was different to
the approach of the people today, that the
people today, they will destroy the integrity of
a scholar, they will destroy the reputation of
a scholar
because of a single mistake which he makes,
or because of a single statement which he
makes, and they will disregard the many many
good statements, and the many goodies that this
scholar has because of one single statement,
and we abide by a religion
which
only
invalidates
actions because of Al Kufr and because of
a shirk.
And just because a scholar makes a mistake,
then this doesn't mean and this doesn't necessitate,
we have to warn against the scholar,
and we have to boycott the scholar, and
we have to boycott other people to boycott
the scholar, and we have to boycott everybody
who does not boycott
the scholar. So this is something that you
should pay attention to,
and that you have to take the statements
of those Imams of guidance whom we mentioned.
They were people who came and they guided
the people after them, and they advised the
Ummah, they gave nasiha to the people, they
clarified the religion to the people, and we
remind the people with the manhaj of the
salaf. We say we are followers of the
salaf. We say we follow the methodology of
the Salaf. These are your Salaf, and these
are the statements of
the Salaf. So
to summarize,
these are the some of the etiquettes
that we should have in terms of dealing
with the scholars
that we love them and we support and
aid them, we benefit from from their knowledge,
we take from their knowledge,
we maintain their respect and their honor. If
they make a mistake, we avoid the mistake,
but we maintain their integrity.
And also
that
if we can interpret an ambiguous statement of
a scholar
in a way which is better, in a
way which is correct, if there's any benefit
of doubt which we can give that scholar,
then we do so, and
the
great good deeds of person outweigh and cover
any small sins which he made, and those
small sins or those mistakes which he had
does not destroy
his,
integrity or diminish his integrity.
And I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that
he makes all firm upon the truth
and firm upon the religion until the day
we meet him and Allah knows best.