Tom Facchine – al-Raghib al-Isfahani #79 – Should We Engage in DEBATE

			Ragosa honey wants us to understand that debating is very, very problematic and dangerous is a
chapter titled discouraging arguments and debates among laymen in every single situation, okay? And
he says that allowing lay people mean people, people who aren't scholars, allowing them to argue
about religious topics, and they don't even understand what the evidence is or what's acceptable
evidence or not acceptable evidence in the first place. It's like unleashing demons it's like
setting loose Jews and met Judah, it's a really, really bad idea, because as he says, There are
predators out there that are waiting for them to do this predators that are going to overpower the
		

			intellect and the bounds of the Cydia, the predators that he's talking about the ego and everything
with the shaytaan and sites, the ego tours where whether it's pride or rejection of the truth, and
what have you. And so he argues, he says that I was for honey that many scholars have taken the
position that debate is disliked, even for scholars. So then what about laymen? What about somebody
who's not a scholar? In fact, Allah subhanaw taala condemns argument and debate in the Koran and
actually says that one of the more defining features and this is in the SIAC of them, this is in the
sort of context of blame that makes up human beings is that they are argumentative, jendela in the
		

			idea where Allah subhanaw taala orders argument, it's circumscribed, that's not unconditional. It's
limited by arguing with that, which is better. And so the reasons for avoiding arguing and debate
etc, is because they rarely result in anything good, or they rarely result in anything except enmity
and rejecting the truth. And the tricky thing about it is that you might think that you're defending
Islam, you might think that you're standing up for the truth, but in fact, all you're doing is
exercising your own ego and leading yourself down into a place where it's going to be very, very
hard for you to turn back and admit that you were wrong. We see this today with egos on social
		

			media, people who style themselves as students of knowledge, but in reality, are only social media
influencers and they get up on screen and maybe they get the playbook seems to be to debate some
sort of atheist or somebody's ex Muslim or somebody like this, get a ton of subscribers and views
and then you start debating other Muslims. Well, what do you think's going to happen? You haven't
studied the deen properly? Your social media maybe has some sort of financial impact on your life in
some sort of way. You have a conflict of interest. How are you going to turn back? How are you going
to admit when you are wrong? How are you going to be spoken to in a way that's really going to
		

			encourage introspection and Maha Sabha and sort of taking oneself to Account No, you're only going
to go out to prove your own point. You're only going to go out to humiliate others and it's going to
lead you down a very, very dark road.