Ismail Kamdar – Differences of opinion – Why we have them & how to deal with them

Ismail Kamdar
Share Page

AI: Summary ©

The speakers discuss the importance of understanding differences of opinion and cultural diversity in achieving acceptance among cultures. They stress the need for science and diversity in society to overcome similar mistakes and overcome similar mistakes. They also emphasize the importance of finding a trusted scholar and respecting one's opinion while avoiding drama. The speakers stress the need to focus on learning and love, avoiding distractions from social media, and finding a trusted scholar.

AI: Summary ©

00:00:06 --> 00:00:19
			In Al Hamdulillah Namu Ernesto Ernesto bureau were not meant to be in the villa Himanshu, Rory and
Pacino, amin siyar Dr. Molina, Maria de la hufa mo de la mejor de la.
		
00:00:21 --> 00:00:29
			In the US takahisa tabula hydro * * Muhammad in sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was Sharon Amorim
to her Coca
		
00:00:31 --> 00:00:33
			Cola, attend dadada.
		
00:00:37 --> 00:00:42
			One of those problems in our community that tends to alienate the youth
		
00:00:43 --> 00:00:46
			is the manner in which we deal with our differences of opinion.
		
00:00:48 --> 00:00:55
			It is the nature of our religion, that we will always have differences of opinion, and that
		
00:00:56 --> 00:00:59
			Muslims will never agree 100% on every single issue.
		
00:01:02 --> 00:01:22
			And sometimes our differences tend to get heated, we tend to get very angry with each other, we tend
to say things that we don't mean, it becomes a very emotional thing for us. And I, myself am guilty
of this. This is a reminder to myself, as well as everybody else on how to deal with differences of
opinion.
		
00:01:23 --> 00:01:31
			So two questions that I get the most from young Muslims on the issue of differences of opinion in
the oma at number one.
		
00:01:32 --> 00:01:33
			Why do they exist?
		
00:01:34 --> 00:02:03
			very logical question. We have one Koran, one true religion, why there's so many understandings of
this religion? Right? This is a very important question that a lot of young people ask. And we don't
often unseat as well as we can. So inshallah, in my first Goodbye, today, I'm going to try and
answer this question, which is, why do differences of opinion exist amongst Muslims?
		
00:02:04 --> 00:02:10
			The second question, which is the follow up question, is okay, they exist. So what do we do about
it?
		
00:02:11 --> 00:02:55
			Right, differences of opinion, exists in the oma, how do we deal with it? That's the second thing.
So two questions. Why do differences of opinion exist? And number two, how do we deal with these
differences of opinion. So to summarize it in a football, we can't really go into the full details.
hamdulillah. Two years ago, at the center, we did do a very detailed course on why differences of
opinion exists. We went through all of the issues, and all of the different reasons, and that's
available on YouTube to watch for anybody who wants details. But this is just a summary. If somebody
had to ask you, especially a child, a teenager or someone who's just starting to explore Islamic
		
00:02:55 --> 00:03:09
			knowledge, if they had to ask you, why are they so many different opinions? This is a simple way to
answer that question. And I will answer this question based on three things or other three points to
respond to this question with point number one.
		
00:03:10 --> 00:03:33
			Because that's how Allah willed it to be. that's point number one, Allah subhana wa Tada, world for
this to be a religion in which there are many hubs, many different opinions, many different
approaches. If Allah wanted, they would have been only one approach to fake. If Allah wanted the
correct opinion on every issue of fake would be clear in the Quran.
		
00:03:34 --> 00:04:19
			The Quran would then have been like 30 or 40, volumes long, a very difficult to read. And the
religion would have been very difficult to practice. But he was not Allah's word for Islam to be
like that. It is the word of Allah, it We are an Ummah of diversity. Allah Subhana Allah created the
human race has to be a very diverse race. we differ in our personalities, we differ in our likes and
dislikes, we differ in in you know what type of food we enjoy, we differ in what we are good at, and
what what career path we take. And all of these differences. They play out even into our approach
towards the religion. For example, some people are more inclined towards the literal understanding
		
00:04:19 --> 00:04:32
			of things, whether it's nearly their personal lives, or whether it's in school, so they have a more
literal approach to life. So naturally, those individuals will have a more literal approach with
		
00:04:33 --> 00:04:59
			others like to get into, you know, the details of why and how they want to understand things on a
you know, on a more contextual level. And so the approach of fake would reflect that. So, in many
ways, the differences that we see allows the oma when it comes to how we practice Islam are really a
reflection of the diversity of Allah is creation. Allah made us a diverse nation.
		
00:05:00 --> 00:05:06
			And he has made us a nation where everybody thinks differently. And there's different ways of
thinking are reflected within the
		
00:05:07 --> 00:05:10
			scope of Sunni Islam within the different methodologies that we have.
		
00:05:12 --> 00:05:49
			And this goes all the way back to the Sahaba differences of opinion is not something new. You see
many young people, when they first start studying Islam, they had this idea that, you know, I'm
going to resolve the differences of opinion, I'm going to find the strongest opinion and unite
everybody behind it. But differences of opinion have existed from the time of Rasulullah sallallahu.
So, they have always been that they will always read it because people differ in how they read
things, how they understand things, how they perceive things, this is just part of being a human
being, that we will differ in these areas. So if you look at the Sahaba, simple example boxes, or
		
00:05:49 --> 00:06:23
			Harbor, of how differences of opinion existed amongst them, and how we even got heated amongst them,
like this is human nature, we are going to differ, and sometimes you'll get heated about our
differences. So in the time of Osman rajala, when he was the kaliba, the Muslim world began to
experience great wealth. And a lot of the Sahaba became very wealthy, they began to live in fancy
houses, he began to build up savings, they began to eat better food. And one of the Sahaba did not
like this. This is a hobby, his name was abuser of a fiery,
		
00:06:24 --> 00:06:37
			red, yellow. Now those are regular ones, he had a different understanding of the field of business
from all of the other Sahaba. In his understanding, saving money was
		
00:06:38 --> 00:06:58
			what you earn today you spend it anything extra you give it to charity. This was his understanding.
Now, can you imagine if this became the mainstream understanding, imagine living in the modern world
with that big understanding of it. But Allah will be that this was a minority. However, it became
heated, right, I was
		
00:06:59 --> 00:07:28
			going into quite a few heated discussions with others to have a particularly smart believer at the
time over this issue. And to resolve it, they came to a simple solution. Abuja went to live on the
outskirts of Medina, in a small town, perhaps you're far away from society, where he doesn't have to
see the world. He doesn't have to interact with the wealthy people. And this is out of sight out of
mind, meaning he led me and he led me.
		
00:07:29 --> 00:08:00
			What do we learn from this? Number one, we learned differences of opinion, go all the way back to
the Sahaba did not something new. Number two, it is normal and human, for us to sometimes get heated
about our differences. When someone says something, someone believes the opposite. It's human nature
that sometimes we want to get angry about the theory specifically, nowadays, we dealing with things
like should we shoot for social distance or not? Should we be a monster, it's something that, you
know, it boils down to a matter of life and death, it's natural that people are going to get angry
about it. But no matter how they solve,
		
00:08:01 --> 00:08:04
			the solve the by not forcing the opinion of the majority and
		
00:08:05 --> 00:08:16
			no on by without forcing his opinion on others. He simply lived away from them, practice his
understanding of Islam, and they practice the understanding of Islam, he is only one whom
		
00:08:17 --> 00:08:56
			he is one of those allies leads with the luggage or like nice. So if you see differences of opinion,
and actually, they're going to happen, the Sahaba had, the great scholars of Islam had it, they're
not going away, what needs to change how we deal with how we deal with each other. We are a nation
that are diverse, and even more so in a country like South Africa. If you're living in a country,
like for example, India, where everybody is of the same nationality, and have the same race and the
same culture, then the differences are not going to be as much but guess what they actually are a
lot. But now you come to a country where you have different races, you have different cultures, you
		
00:08:56 --> 00:09:05
			have people coming from different parts of the world, you have different cultures in different
neighborhoods, you are going to have a even bigger variety of differences of opinion.
		
00:09:06 --> 00:09:19
			So why did the mention of opinion exists? We say the reason number one, Allah has willdan that will
be a race or are a creation of diversity. And part of that diversity is how we understand our
religion.
		
00:09:20 --> 00:09:29
			The second reason why differences of opinion exists is it comes down to a science called pseudo
pseudo think means a methodology.
		
00:09:30 --> 00:09:37
			And in Islam, there's not one set methodology. There are a variety of methodology.
		
00:09:39 --> 00:09:42
			And every scholar in a way has their own method of
		
00:09:43 --> 00:09:55
			like we have the broader minutes, the HaNavi, the Maliki, the shabby, the humbling. And in the past,
we had others as well, like the jury, and there's all theories and many others and all of them are
acceptable.
		
00:09:56 --> 00:09:59
			But even within these methods, you have different methods
		
00:10:00 --> 00:10:12
			For example, within the hanafy budget to fake, you have the Turkish hanafy method, which is very
different from the Indian hannity method, which is very difficult to get rocky hanafy method. Right?
So even within the muzzle is diversity.
		
00:10:13 --> 00:10:50
			And what are the differences between these buttons? Again, if somebody wants details, we didn't
cover this in details two years ago and examine our YouTube channel, but just to keep it at the
basic level because the point of this football is how would you answer this if a teenager or a young
person asked you why he had differences of opinion. So, this is how you will answer you will tell
them that they are different approaches to fake and all these approaches are acceptable because they
all come from the from the perspective of sincerely wanting to follow the Quran and Sunnah. That's
where they come from sincerely wanting to follow the Quran and Sunnah. But people differ in how they
		
00:10:50 --> 00:11:21
			approach the Quran. So the differences between the Muslims, for example, a verse of the Quran? How
do we understand that cause? If that verse has three different ways to understand it, you will find
three different opinions on that issue. A Hadees from the prophets long he was Sana, do we take it
literally do we take it contextually. For example, He had these on dependents being below the
ankles. There are some words that say having your pants below the ankles, he had all the other words
up to say he's not hurt.
		
00:11:22 --> 00:11:48
			Now, sometimes a person who is junior to fail, they will get angry, they will say Oh, these people
are not following the sooner they are going against the Hadees. But that's wrong. They're not going
against that they have a different understanding of the same position, you will find that every
month, we'll look at the same honeys. But they differ in how they understand. For example, one
mother will say the prophets why some said your parents should not be below your ankles, therefore,
		
00:11:49 --> 00:12:24
			therefore is another word that was enough. Why did he say that? Now why did he say that? He said
that. Because in those days, you know the way the rich and elegant people used to dress these days
to have the robes flowing on the floor to show up that they own more fabric than everybody else. And
the profitsystem is prohibiting that he's prohibiting dressing arrogantly, he's not prohibiting it
just being below your ankles. So they will have a different understanding of defense. And so they
will have a different opinion. Look at it this way. Nobody is saying that the Hadees is wrong.
Nobody is saying that was foolish or some is wrong. They differ in how they understand what he said.
		
00:12:24 --> 00:12:56
			One person is understanding it one way someone else is understanding the different way. And this
applies across the board even amongst the Sahaba and the prophets, why some would say something
which is the harbor, and some will understand it in one way some understanding. Because this is how
human beings are we do it amongst ourselves. Right? It happens amongst ourselves that if you have a
school, for example, and you have a list of school rules, you have wonderful parents coming and
saying, No, the school says this. And another group parents can come in and say the school says that
enabled to be pointing to the same rule, but the board understanding in different ways. Because this
		
00:12:56 --> 00:13:32
			is human nature, we read something and we understand it differently from each other. And the
prophets or isms he showed us, that's okay. As long as he's coming from a place of sincerity, as
long as it's done in a proper method, it's okay to have a different understanding of the same thing.
So the second reason why they are differences of opinion amongst the Ummah and amongst the Muslims,
is because we have different methods of understanding the parameter. So some people take it more
literal, some people look at the context, some people may take certain pieces literally look at the
context in other pieces. And all of these fall within the framework of Sunni Islam. All of these are
		
00:13:32 --> 00:14:20
			acceptable methodologies, whether it is the Hanafi, the Sharpie molecule, all of it is acceptable.
Right. So this is the second reason why the advances intern reason why they are differences in Gecko
is because of culture. And this is one that a lot of people don't know understand that Islam is a
universal religion that accommodates all cultures, the good of every culture is accommodated in
Islam. And a lot of our faith is culturally dependent. A lot of our faith is based on the culture of
the locality. This is specifically true when it comes to the pick of business and the physical
marriage. For example, the Quran tells us to treat our wives well. He doesn't go into any details,
		
00:14:20 --> 00:14:31
			what is considered reading your wife, well, that will differ from culture to culture. In some
cultures, it will mean you know, that you cook the food for her everyday for example,
		
00:14:32 --> 00:14:52
			another culture may mean that you give us an amount of money every month, another culture may mean
that you give our own home, right? Every culture is different in what's considered treating your
wife well. So you will have a scholar in Pakistan saying one thing a scholar in Saudi Arabia saying
something else is calling South Africa's in something else, because each of them are looking at this
verse from their culture. And
		
00:14:53 --> 00:14:59
			all of this is fine as long as it falls within the framework of what is acceptable culture right?
		
00:15:00 --> 00:15:10
			That's another long discussion which we didn't cover in the past. So this is the third reason why we
have differences of opinion in that our culture's default. And again, this goes back to early. So
		
00:15:11 --> 00:15:52
			we see this in the time of Omar rajala. When the Sahaba moved to Syria, and he started dressing like
the people of Syria, and living in fancy houses, like the people of Syria, and he began to adapt to
that culture, Omar goes to visit them. And he comes to the simple clothing and his simple lifestyle.
And he looks at the way the Sahaba are living in Syria, and he shocked and he asked him, What
happened you, you'll change. And this explained to him that this is the culture of the people. This
is how they expect the leaders to dress. This is how they expect the leaders to learn. So they just
adapted to the local culture. And he left it as he didn't forced him to continue living according to
		
00:15:52 --> 00:16:28
			Medina culture, he then forced him to go back to dressing or living the same houses we lived in, in
Medina, they had moved to a different land and they had adapted to that land. And once they
explained it to him, he left it as it was. And so Surya gained a very different culture for Medina.
And even Makkah and Medina have very different cultures from each other, even in the time of
Rasulullah. Slowly some you will find that the culture of the Maharaja rune was very different from
the culture of the South. And that was fine because our religion allow for cultural diversity. And
we see this even amongst the Imams of phaco. So Mr. Malik, for example, Mr. Malik was of the opinion
		
00:16:29 --> 00:16:47
			that a non Muslim can sit together and eat at the same table, if they are wearing hijab, and they
have a you know, a god unit. So for example, for men and his wife is beating up on another man and
his wife, for me, they will all sit together at the same table and eat your mother because of their
opinion. You know, one way he was humble was of the opinion that that's Haram.
		
00:16:49 --> 00:16:53
			Now, why was there a difference of opinion between Hema Malik and Yamaha on this topic?
		
00:16:54 --> 00:17:23
			There's nothing in the Quran and Hadith about it, it really came down to the cultures. In the
culture of Medina, at the time of human body, that was a norm, that you would invite someone over to
your home for a meal and everybody was sent together, as long as proper hijab was observed, it was
fine. In the culture in Midlothian, which was 100 years later, every home would have a separate
dining room for men and a separate dining room for a woman. And you'll be considered rude to sit
with somebody else's wife at the same table. Very different culture. So very different.
		
00:17:24 --> 00:18:01
			We see the same thing today that you need a scholar in India making a fatwa and you might be shocked
by how can you say that, but he is living in a different culture is living in a different context.
His fatwa is based on his people, based on where he is, what are the norms, and what are expected of
people in South Africa, Africa would be different. And so these are some of the main reasons why we
have differences of opinion, for the next time somebody walks up to you, or somebody is dealing with
problems, you know, in understanding their religion. And they asked, you know, why do you still have
differences of opinion? These are three ways you can answer it. We have differences of opinion,
		
00:18:01 --> 00:18:12
			because Allah made us a nation of diversity, we have differences of opinion, because they are
different methodology. And we have differences of opinion because we have different cultures that
Allah has been as a culturally diverse
		
00:18:13 --> 00:18:20
			and there are many other ways to answer this question, but we will settle on those for now. So
behind Robin is the amazing phone for Salama, who's
		
00:18:26 --> 00:18:37
			in Alhamdulillah Voodoo and a stir in en esta 01. We know we had to walk alone he went to be
laughing in shallowly and kusina khamisiyah Yamashina mejor de la palabra de la comida.
		
00:18:39 --> 00:19:15
			So the other question you get after that is, what do we do about it? Right? Okay. So a young person
is starting to practice Islam. And you explain to him why we have difference of opinion. Now he has
another confusion, who do I follow? Who do I follow? Someone's telling me, for example, that I have
to wait a quarter, someone else thing is you don't have to know someone is telling me that the Juma
hopper must be out of it. Someone else saying it's okay for you to be in English, though someone's
telling me that I have to do this and someone say no, you don't have to do that. This is how I
normally tell. What do I do? And this causes anxiety for young people causes a lot of anxiety. What
		
00:19:15 --> 00:19:30
			do I do these differences of opinion? How do I handle it? So I want to mention three things that
every one of us can do when it comes to dealing with differences of opinion. Number one, find a
scholar that you trust and follow Him.
		
00:19:31 --> 00:19:48
			Number two, respect everybody else's opinion. Don't get involved in fights, don't get involved in
arguments, don't go with other people to change their methods, right? Respect the other opinions
that exist within Islam. And number three, focus on knowledge that we're gonna
		
00:19:49 --> 00:19:59
			focus on your own after focus on trying to get closer to Allah subhanho wa Taala. You see, for so
many of us, our entire practice of the religion was
		
00:20:00 --> 00:20:42
			Down to I vetted him. That's what it boils down to. Instead of focusing on my own heart, my own
emaan my own, you know, since we focus on Oh, I have a bigger beard and you know, I'm just more
islamically than you. My question is to help other people have more to work with in your question,
and it becomes an ego thing. It becomes a battle of egos. Stay away from number one, find someone
that you trust. And yes, in every community, there are many different allameh with many different
opinions. You find someone that you trust, you follow that person while respecting everybody. Right?
So for example, one Halim saying that Juma the hookah must be somebody else is saying, you know,
		
00:20:42 --> 00:21:16
			it's okay for you in English. Whichever opinion you follow, go to the masjid that follows that
opinion. If you believe it has to be out of it. Go to a Masjid in Arabic, if you believe in can be
in English and you wanted to English go to masturbate in English, at the same time, completely
respect the others. You don't have to go to other machines in your Why are you having it in Arabic?
You must have it in English. Why are you so backwards? Oh, don't do any of that. Let it be a matter
of work. There are two opinions. Someone should follow one other budget, follow the other. Let it
be. Don't make it an issue. And this is the thing that many of us find hard to do. We make
		
00:21:16 --> 00:21:55
			everything an issue. And when somebody is different from us, we feel we feel threatened. We feel
challenged. We feel like the idea of I'm wrong. We have to start thinking in terms of Allah's mercy.
When it comes to fake Allah's mercy encompasses all of the views. What does that mean? Just say for
example, this application, someone is saying that something is haram, somebody else is saying it's
Allah. Let's go with a very simple example. And we all fight about the prawns, right? We have prawn,
someone's in Kwanzaa Haram, someone's in Kwanzaa, the person who believes that prawns is wrong. And
he follows that he never eats in his life, Allah will reward you for the person who believes that
		
00:21:55 --> 00:22:00
			he's halau. And he follows that and he eats it. Allah will, you know, or rewarded for that as well.
		
00:22:01 --> 00:22:39
			On the day of judgment, if it's discovered that perhaps the project Haram is the correct opinion,
does that mean the bulk of the oma a product owner Jana? No. Because they didn't know. They didn't
know they followed what they thought was the correct opinion. Allah hold you accountable for
following what you think is the correct opinion. Because when it comes to fit, this is something a
lot of people take a very long time to realize when it comes to very few things are certain. Most of
our opinions are a matter of, you know, I could be wrong. Most big opinions are messed up, I could
be wrong. The things that are certain you are going to find differences of opinion about them. For
		
00:22:39 --> 00:23:11
			example, the uprights dollar, is there any difference of opinion about that? No. First in the month
of Ramadan, is the only difference of opinion about fasting compared to the month of Ramadan? No,
right? The amount of Raka. In Asana, there's no differences of opinion on the fundamentals. The
differences of opinion are secondary issues. So if one person is putting their hands on their chest,
and someone else putting it below their name, and somebody else has it by the side, Allah will
accept often. So why do we make an issue? Why do we make it something to fighting people?
		
00:23:12 --> 00:23:37
			So we need to learn to live with that. So when it comes to this fictitious, this is fine to have
discussions, you know, sit with your friends, the following one opinion you falling the other, you
want to know why you don't understand the other person, that's fine. When it becomes a fight. When
you break family ties. When you stop being surrounded to someone, when you start thinking this
person is deviant, all over a secondary Matter of fact, we have to take a step back and think, are
we approaching things the right way
		
00:23:38 --> 00:24:16
			to learn to love and that love when it comes to differences of opinion. And my final word of advice
when it comes to differences of opinion is don't obsess over them. Focus on knowledge that benefits
you focus on knowledge they bring up with you know, we like so excited about controversial debates.
We want to see two aliens fighting over, you know whether masks are necessary or not, or whether
social distancing is acceptable or not. And some of us get a kick out of seeing people fighting for
these things. And we spend so much time with arguments especially nowadays because you're in the
past the argument may be in a newspaper article. Now the arguments are online. So someone posts a
		
00:24:16 --> 00:24:57
			video. So when else post a Facebook post, somebody else has a WhatsApp message. It is 2000 comments
and we sit and read every single comment. What have we benefited? Nothing? Nothing. There's no
benefit to that. Instead, okay, you following your opinion, somebody else is wanting another
opinion. Avoid the drama. Focus on knowledge depend on what you read or learn some IDs, learn some
love, study Islamic history, focus on your own purification of the soul. Don't get involved in the
drama, don't get involved in the debates. That is a distraction from shaytaan. Healing destruction
from she thought it fuels our ego. It splits the oma it creates hatred between brothers and it
		
00:24:57 --> 00:24:59
			caused unnecessary conflict and it also you
		
00:25:00 --> 00:25:29
			waste time. It wastes a lot of time, especially nowadays with social media. When you go on Muslim
social media entities debates and debates and debates over secondary issues where everybody thinks
that they are right everybody else is wrong. In the meanwhile, it's an issue with Allah will accept
all of the positions. So this is how we deal with our differences of opinion. You follow a scholar
who you trust you respect the other positions and you focus your time on things that benefit you not
an arguing over factors.
		
00:25:30 --> 00:25:55
			We do this and inshallah we'll be on the straight path will be united and he's mad, these
differences will become secondary, they will fall to the side, it will not bother us in any way.
Unless we're hunter Baker's united Houma, where you protect us from our own ego we protect us from
fighting with each other over secondary matters. we unite our community upon the straight path and
allow us to become mature and tolerant in eating our differences of opinion from bonaga to officer
in the center of
		
00:25:56 --> 00:26:03
			Islam comma Hamiltonian, Medina, Medina, Robin our lack of minima for under one field in our
		
00:26:05 --> 00:26:10
			country. So Mohammed Robbie is at the mercy of Salah from section 111