Mufti Menk – Respecting the scholars and respecting the people

			I remember, when we respect the scholars, we would actually be
		

			closer to Allah subhanho wa Taala. Because the dean comes to us through them, the dean comes to us
through them. So even if you have a gripe against the scholar, even if there is something that has
happened, when you want to raise it to so respectfully, the problem today that we have people, even
amongst one another, when something bad has happened to say, expose this person to this to that, if
you expose someone fair and good, Allah will expose you. So one of the rights and the duties we have
that Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam has spoken about many times, he says, Whoever covers the fault of a
Muslim, Allah will cover their faults in this world and the next and Allah will not embarrass them.
		

			So if you've been going around exposing people wait for your day, it's coming. May Allah forgive us.
But if you have, that does not mean don't deal with the problem. You may want to deal with it, but
in a respectful manner, in a private way, in a way that you don't disturb the dignity of an
individual. You know, imagine,
		

			there was an Imam in one of the massagin in one of the countries in southern Africa.
		

			And he was quite rough. And he used to know the community.
		

			The people started leaving the masjid one by one because he used to get up and say,
		

			you know, alcohol is very bad. This brother and he would point at the brother and you say with his
name, say his name was Eunice for example. His his brother Yunus has been drinking for 20 years,
please get up and tell us what have you gained from that? Tell us what? And this brothers like?
What?
		

			So to correct such a scholar, you need an ally. This is factual what I've told you is real. He spoke
about alcohol. He spoke about adultery. He says, you know this person here, what he's been doing is
very bad. Get up and tell us what's been going on we hearing a rumor. And he's like what, now they
stopped coming for Salatu. Juma?
		

			So we got to deal with it because this is a big thing. But at the same time we deal with it
respectfully, may Allah subhanho wa Taala help us in this particular case, he was wrong to expose
someone else even to talk about them from a member tell you why people come to get closer to Allah
to learn something good to be inspired. Why are you here today?
		

			Why are you here? You are here to be inspired to get something good to get closer to Allah to have
to feel when you leave here that today I learned something today. I had a really good time and it
was so nice. I enjoyed it. They were beautiful brothers and sisters, Mashallah. We learned we
laughed at the same time and we cried also, and we walked out of here better people. That's why you
are here. Am I right?
		

			You are. Imagine if I were to pick on one of you two of you make this whole thing a big
embarrassment. You would go in saying never again straight path No way. Not at all. May Allah
Subhana Allah guide us and may He open our doors. So this is why we say we need to definitely
respect one another. We need to be there for one another. We need to understand that just like we
would love to be covered. We need to cover others.