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