Shadee Elmasry – The Need for Principled Discussions Between Scholars, Politicians, & Activists Dawud Walid

The need for principle discussions between scholars, politicians and

activists, Muslims in the West are in dire need of more organization

and implementation of protocols of intra community communication. I

do not mean organization as an another nonprofit organization in

the alphabet soup of Muslim led groups that speak on behalf of

special interests within the community, some of them

misrepresenting the pristine teachings of Islam. I speak of a

clearly articulated charter of expectations, which calls

scholars, politicians and activists to convene to assist and

hold each other accountable, which in turn, should translate better

serving the interests of the community at large. Prophet

Muhammad, prayers and peace be upon him and his family stated,

whoever sees from among you and evil or injustice, then change it

with this hand. If he cannot then resist it with his speech, and if

he cannot, then resist it with this heart, and that is the

weakness of faith. Habib al Hassan Abu Saleh, Al Bahar, may Allah be

pleased with him, stated in regard to those who can change wrong with

their hand that, quote, this is the obligation of the political

authorities and the representatives of their affairs,

end of quote, the moral obligation of those who hold political

positions is to remove harm within society. For Muslims who are in

political positions, not only is there a facet of accountability to

voters, but there is supposed to be a higher Call of Duty of having

fidelity towards the secret principles within slam. In fact, I

am of the view that we should mature as a community that we do

not give our support to Muslim politicians simply because they

are Muslims. In fact, support should be withheld in my view,

until their understanding of Islam is fairly vetted, just as non

Muslim candidates should be vetted on what policy positions that they

hold before we support them. The roles of scholars in advancing our

community and social political sophistication, has been

undervalued by politicians and activists in general, as well as

many scholars themselves. Scholars have the role of not only teaching

the parameters of acceptable political engagement from the

perspectives of the secret law and Islamic ethics, but also share the

duty of vetting Muslim political candidates. Moreover, scholars

also have the duty of advising in during dire times, warning

politicians about their detrimental positions, given

politics in the broadest sense, and activism for social political

change fall under the category of enjoying good and forbidding evil.

Ill I'm Obamacare EU for now handle munkar. It is incumbent

that doors are more widely open for student teacher relationships

between politicians and scholars. See the Achmed czar rookie status

stated, it is not permissible for anyone to proceed in a matter

until he knows the ruling of a law pertaining to it. Politicians and

activists are dependent on scholars in this regard from the

onset. Ideally speaking, politicians and activists should

become scholarly pertained to Islamic rulings as it relates to

issues which they represent

regarding the holding of governmental authorities

accountable. This falls under the purview of scholars to Habib al

Hassan, in Salah al Bahar stated that in regards to resisting evil

and injustice was speech, part of prophetic tradition that quote,

this is the obligation of the scholars and preachers in the

quote, scholars and Imams have to lead by example, in giving

guidance about how to address moral crisis's and in justices

that plagues society, some scholars must take the task of

principal communication and advisement through backchannels It

is not wise that all advisement or even warnings are firstly taken to

the public. Likewise, there always must be preachers from the pulpit

that raise the awareness of injustices according to the

Islamic paradigm, and give counsel on how to react. The plan of

action should at times include pointing community members towards

principle community organizers that are mobilizing around certain

issues. One of the worst issues as plague

Muslims in the West post 911 Is the silence for many scholars and

preachers on pertinent issues which left a void that became

dominated by activists and later Muslim politicians with sincere

intentions that were undereducated or oblivious to the foundations

which underpinned our secret law. Hence, we have the unfortunate

state of affairs, that in the name of social justice, we have some

prominent politicians and activists that are actually in

joining the forbidden and criticizing or blocking the

permissible and even the recommended.

The void left has also helped usher in the unfortunate

predicament of some scholars and imams in the West becoming too

close with governmental authorities, both here and in

Muslim majority countries, which edit to activists and many within

the general community. Being skeptical about the role of

scholars in the social political affairs of Muslims. Our tradition

is replete with warnings to scholars of the dangers of getting

too cozy with governmental authorities. Imam Jafar sodic May

Allah's blessings be upon him said pertained to this, quote, the

scholars are the executors of the messengers. So when you see the

scholars inclining towards governmental authorities check

them End of quote, If scholars and preachers themselves not hold

accountable their peers, who give the appearance of being

compromised by relationships with Gover mental authorities, or

blatantly covering up oppression of the governments in the west or

abroad, it undermines the credibility of scholars among the

generality.

The negative consequences of this is lack of seeing the need to

consult with scholars at all, and pushing politicians and activists

further into echo chambers of predominantly so called woke

operatives, who do not regard the Quran and the Sunnah as sacred and

in fact use Muslims for their own political purposes.

As for politicians, activists and scholars, there should be private

conversations and vigorous disagreements behind closed doors.

There should be space however, at times for public critique, with

clear evidences presented and brotherly and sisterly tones. This

too is part of our tradition, which we have seemingly loss for

instance, a lathe inside May Allah's mercy be upon him, openly

disagreed with Imam Malik Ibn Anas. May Allah be pleased with

him, regarding his position that the actions of the people of

Medina was a binding proof of Islamic jurisprudence. l lathe

however, started the discourse with a prayer for Imam Malik

thanked him for his disagreement with him, and hoped that he would

be increased in excellence. This is but one of many examples of

excellent comportment of our pious predecessors who vigorously

disagreed with each other, but wanted the best for one another.

On the other hand, we are bound to set the tone for a kind,

respectful disagreement, not so called counsel call out culture.

On the other hand, we cannot allow disagreement to be shut down in

the name of saying that any public disagreement is quote unquote, bad

edip or by pulling what I call the Wali card, that if one disagrees

with a scholar who openly says oppression that she or he is,

quote, unquote, making war against a Wali, which then implies that

Allah Medina and sublime is at war with the dissenter, there is much

more that can be said about this topic. It is my belief that we

need to establish better mechanisms and protocols of how we

establish different inflections of the Quran and Sunnah, based

political agendas and protocols among Muslims in the West. Right

now, we really do not have such from my vantage point. The first

step is for our scholars, politicians and activists to be

more open to regularly talk with each other instead of talking past

each other, or about each other.

This has been a presentation of the Safina society Audio Blog.

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