Yasir Qadhi – Navigating Arguments in Islam
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
In Surah Al-Kahf, Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala mentions in the Qur'an that وَكَانَ
الْإِنسَانُ أَكْثَرَ شَيْءٍ جَدَلَةً that one of the
things that mankind constantly does is that he
argues وَكَانَ الْإِنسَانُ أَكْثَرَ شَيْءٍ جَدَلَةً It is
as if mankind, his main hobby is to
fight with others, to debate with others His
main incessant preoccupation is he's constantly making مجادلة,
جدل And جدل means to argue with passion,
to prove a point against somebody who's arguing
against you And the Qur'an has a
very interesting analysis of جدل The default of
arguing in the Qur'an is that it
is discouraged And it is only allowed with
some conditions If you look at the overall
analysis of the Qur'an Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala typically criticizes arguing Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala mentions arguing as something that those
who do not have priorities Those who do
not believe in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
they busy themselves with In fact, Allah mentions
arguing with others is one of the tactics
of Shaytan وَإِنَّ الشَّيَاطِينَ لَيُوحُونَ إِلَىٰ أَوْلِيَآئِهِمْ
لِيُجَادِلُوكُمْ Shayateen inspire their allies to constantly debate
and argue This is not the methodology of
the believer to get involved in constant debates,
constant argumentation Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions
in the Qur'an that وَإِنْ جَادَلُوكَ If
they come to you trying to argue, then
say to them Allah knows what you are
doing and move on And Allah azza wa
jal mentions of the characteristics of the believers
When ignorant people try to accost them When
ignorant people try to stop them and have
any type of evil or vulgarity or debate
مَرُّوا بِاللَّغْوِ مَرُّوا كِرَامًا They pass by with
dignity They say salam and they move on
So of the characteristics of the believer is
they do not get involved in useless talk
and in vain argumentation In fact our Prophet
ﷺ said And this is a very very
dangerous concept that we need to memorize and
understand He is warning against it He said
never have people who had knowledge gone astray
except because of excessive argumentation Hadith is in
Tirmidhi Once you have knowledge the main way
you go astray is by constantly bickering Constantly
fighting Constantly getting involved in issues that are
of no value This is an authentic hadith
that the Prophet ﷺ said Never do people
go astray after they have been given knowledge
except because of excessive jadal and argumentation And
this is why our Prophet ﷺ commanded us
to protect ourselves from useless argumentation In fasting,
in hajj, we all learn when fasting what
do we do?
The Prophet ﷺ said if somebody comes to
you, he accosts you, he wants to have
an argument What should you say?
اللهم إني صائم Don't break your fast by
doing something useless And the characteristics of the
hajj in the Qur'an Allah says in
the Qur'an about hajj That whoever goes
for hajj What are the conditions?
فَلَا رَفَثَ وَلَا فُسُوقَ وَلَا جِدَالَ فِي الْحَجِّ
Allah wants to protect our hajj And our
fasting from useless argumentation Wasting too much time
going back and forth And getting involved in
things that have no value to us And
in fact sometimes, sometimes argumentation even leads to
a rejection or a kufr Hadith is in
Tirmidhi That our Prophet ﷺ was sitting in
his house And people's voices began to raise
in the masjid And they began arguing over
the Qur'an About what does the Qur
'an really say about qadr Does the Qur
'an say this?
Does the Qur'an say that?
And each one was quoting a verse against
the other This is religious debate This is
religious argumentation Using the Qur'an against each
other This is the only time in the
entire seerah That the sahaba seem to have
a split in theology Almost happening And the
Prophet ﷺ is there They're debating what is
the correct opinion about some abstract issue Some
issue beyond our comprehension Some issue that is
not going to change your connection with Allah
It's just a theoretical issue And the Prophet
ﷺ heard them And he came out Hadith
in Tirmidhi says It was as if his
face was a rummanah, a pomegranate Meaning it
is bursting with anger They had hardly seen
him this angry It was as if his
face was bursting with anger And he said
to them, listen to this Alihaza khuliqtum an
bihaza umirtum?
Were you created for this?
Or did Allah command you to do this?
That you take verses And you hit each
other with these verses Watadribu ayat ba'du wa
bi ba'd Is this the purpose of the
religion?
That you argue over some abstract issue That
you debate over some concept That has no
relevance to your actual life And then he
said the people before you were destroyed When
they went down this path This hadith is
powerful Because if we understood it Wallahi sectarian
wars would come to an end If we
understood it There would no be all of
this tafarruq And all of this firqa bazi
we call it in Urdu It would completely
go away Is this why you were created?
To argue over an abstract concept That has
no relevance to you Just using the Quran
each side He said leave this This was
how the people before you were destroyed And
this is why our sahaba tabi'oon The
default amongst them Is they would avoid argumentation
Even religious argumentation The default amongst them They
would not do this Malik ibn Anas said
That arguing about the religion It makes the
heart hard And it makes the rituals weak
Arguing about the religion It makes the heart
hard You don't come close to Allah And
wallahi this is so true When you have
an argument with your friend With your cousin,
with your wife You can't go to sleep
in peace You're tossing and turning, your heart
is full of anger You've lost your own
peace When you argue What's the faida?
Imam Malik says, arguing causes qaswatul qalb How
true is this?
When you debate, when you argue You have
a fight with somebody You raise your voice,
he raises his voice You go home, your
whole day is gone You cannot find peace
at home What have you gained?
This is not the methodology of the believer
This is not what the mu'min The muttaqi
spends the bulk of their time in And
al-awza'i said The famous scholar of
Sham Al-awza'i said, when Allah subhana
wa ta'ala Wants people to go astray
He gives them argumentation Amongst them When Allah
wants to let people go astray They're not
worthy to be saved What is the mechanism
to cause them to go away From the
straight path?
He makes them argue amongst them This goes
back to the hadith of the Prophet He
literally said, that never have people Who were
once upon guidance gone astray Except due to
excessive argumentation Now, does this mean Any argument
is haram?
Obviously not Clearly, sometimes Argumentation, and you bring
an evidence And you prove your point And
you bring a hujjah, this is something that
is ja'iz But I repeat, the default
Position of the Qur'an and sunnah Discourages
argumentation, and this is very clear Allah azza
wa jal mentions They're always arguing with you
Against the truth And Allah mentions in surah
yaseen Look at this man arguing about me
And Allah mentions in surah al kahf The
one that's arguing about the day of judgement
And Allah mentions in surah mu'minun The one
that's arguing, how much did I stay How
much did you stay, and he's arguing With
Allah, that I stayed only one day And
he's arguing with Allah, you didn't Give me
enough time, so all of these Argumentations are
criticized in the Qur'an That is the
default, but when Is it allowed to argue
When is it allowed to bring an evidence
And have a back and forth So there's
two types of arguments Arguments for the dunya,
and arguments for the deen Arguments for your
dunya You're arguing about a worldly matter And
arguments for religion As for arguments of the
dunya It is allowed As a tactic When
you have done When zulm has been done
against you Excuse me, when you are mazloom
When you are mazloom When somebody has taken
your right And you don't have Any other
mechanism to get Your right back, in this
case You have the right, the option To
use argument As a tactic, and you present
Your evidence, and you get what is due
Back unto you, qad samia allahu Qawla allati
tu jaadiluka Fi zawjiha, mujadala The surah is
called The one who came arguing, and this
is A ja'iz argument, it is a
permissible argument Allah has heard The argument of
that lady whose Zulm was done, her husband
did zulm upon her She had her rights
taken away And she's arguing about her rights
And Allah is saying, I have heard Her
mujadala, and she was praised In the Qur
'an for this, our mother Aisha Radiallahu anha
says, I was sitting in the Hujur, in
the house, and I saw the lady Come,
and wallahi I was She was in the
house in the process here I could barely
whisper her Hear her whispering, and Allah from
above The seven heavens heard her as she
Was talking with the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
This is mujadala, this is A argumentation that
is done In order to obtain your rights
This is permissible, it is a Tactic, but
you have the right If you feel, you
know what, it's not worth it And I'm
better off not even Arguing, this is ja
'iz, and it is In fact, afdhal, if
you believe That arguing is not Worth your
time, is gonna be exhausting You're gonna get
demeaning yourself And there are many examples for
this, the most obvious one When the brothers
of Yusuf slandered Yusuf in front of him,
they didn't know it was Yusuf And they
slandered Yusuf And they said, you know what,
if his brother Bin Yamin Is a thief,
his older brother did Many things as well,
this is in the Qur'an What does
Allah say about Yusuf Fa asarraha Yusufu Fi
nafsihi, walam yubdiha lahum He kept his anger
inside He kept his dignity, he didn't Argue
with them, fa asarraha Yusufu Whatever, cause you
know You've been slandered, and wallahi Everybody who's
been slandered, the first Defense mechanism is what?
You wanna refute back, you wanna Do the
same thing back, but The higher methodology The
better methodology, you can You can defend, but
People of Izzah, keep their Izzah And they
allow the slander to be Spread, and Allah
Azza wa Jalla Will protect their dignity, fa
asarraha Yusufu fi nafsihi, walam yubdiha lahum Yusuf
kept what was in his heart And he
didn't demean himself, and respond Back and say,
how dare you say this I am Yusuf,
no, he let it be Because it would
not be worthwhile For him, he maintained that
dignity But again, to be precise, it is
Jaiz, it's up to you, argument For the
dunya is jaiz When zulm has been done
to you As for argument of the religion
You have to be very Careful, and Allah
Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la Puts many
conditions About arguing for the religion This is
not the default, it is not The first
mechanism, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
says, ud'u ila Sabili Rabbika, call to
the Way of your Lord, when you want
to give da'wah How do you call
to the way of your Lord?
Bilhikmati, you call with Wisdom, walmawidatil hasanati And
with good preaching Level one, wisdom, level two
More emphatic preaching Then level three, the last
Resort, wajadilhum Billatihi ahsan, and then Argue with
them, but even then there are conditions So
it's not the first, you don't Begin religious
dialogue by debates By refutations, by argumentation That's
not the methodology of the Quran, no, you
begin With hikmah, then mawidatil hasana Stronger mawidah
And then when that is not Working, you
move on to the highest level And that
is Arguing, but even that Allah put a
condition What is the condition?
Billatihi ahsan In the way that is the
most effective And best, use the best manners
Use the best adab Use the best akhlaaq
when you argue And Allah says very explicitly
in the Quran Wala tujadilu ahlal kitabi Do
not Argue with the ahli kitab Illa billatihi
ahsan Except if you must Then argue in
the best of all Manners, don't be crude,
don't be Vulgar, use the best etiquette Use
the best adab Use everything that is the
best and don't resort To their level, so
Allah explicitly Says, don't argue with them But
if you must, then argue Billatihi ahsan, and
Allah subhana Wa ta'ala mentions explicitly in
the Quran Yujadilunaka fil haqqi Yujadilunaka fil haqqi
They're arguing with you against the truth And
Allah says in the Quran, they're arguing about
Allah subhana wa ta'ala bighayri ilmin wala
Hudan wala kitabin mubeen They're arguing without knowledge
And without guidance And without certain kitab Clear
kitab, so three conditions are given If you
want to argue, argue with knowledge And argue
with hidayah And adab, and then argue Upon
clear and unequivocal issues That there's no ambiguity
about Kitabin mubeen, so the Quran explicitly Mentions
conditions for argument A famous incident occurred In
the time of Malik ibn Anas That a
man came to Malik ibn Anas He was
surrounded by his students And a man came
and goes, I want to Argue with you,
debate with you About some concept of theology
Some abstract concept of theology Imam Malik said
to him So if you win the debate
What should happen?
The man said, then you must follow my
opinion Then Imam Malik said, what if I
win the debate?
The man said, I will follow your opinion
Then Imam Malik said What if a third
person comes And he wins the both of
us in debate So then the man said
Both of us must follow that man's opinions
So Imam Malik Responded to him, the religion
Does not belong to the one Who wins
the debate Do you think every time somebody
comes Who's more argumentative than the other We
will leave the Quran and Sunnah And go
to the one who argues Go and he
said to the man, go and leave This
gathering and argue with somebody Who doubts the
religion, I have no doubt About my religion,
this is the Methodology of the real scholar
Leave argumentation Leave useless refutation Leave all of
this back and forth Any argumentation That doesn't
result in guidance That doesn't result in the
softening of the heart That doesn't result in
actual Amal close to Allah It is of
no value I finish and conclude with a
Beautiful reminder of our Prophet Reported in Sahih
Bukhari And other books of hadith, famous hadith
Our Prophet said I guarantee a palace In
the peripheries of Jannah For anybody Who leaves
arguing Even if the Haq is with him
Think about this I guarantee you will get
To a palace in the Peripheries of Jannah
I guarantee it, if you make it your
Lifestyle to stop Useless argumentation, stop debating Stop
wasting your time Because it causes the heart
to be hard Because you distance yourself from
your religion Because you cannot even enjoy the
Ibadah, wallahi we all know Brothers and sisters,
when we are involved in our argumentation Even
Salah is no longer Praiseworthy, you don't even
feel the Lezzah of Salah, because your mind
Is involved with what your cousin said, what
your wife Said, what somebody said, leave argumentation
As much as you can Follow the better
and the more dignified Path, control your tongue
As much as you can, and when others
argue Just say, وَإِذَا خَاطَبَهُ الْجَاهِلُونَ قَالُوا سَلَامًا
Just say Salam, and move on, and leave
Argumentation as much as you can If you
must argue, then argue With ilm, and with
Adab, and بِالَّتِيهِ أَحْسَنَ With the best of
all etiquettes Never stoop to the level Of
those who want to be foolish with you
And if you do so, then you will
always be The winner in the eyes of
Allah, even if Somebody wins the argument, who
cares I have to question one other hadith
here because It's relevant, I forgot it, and
that is Even our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
said this A man came to him, and
It was a debate about money And each
one is saying, it's my money, my money
And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said Ya
Rasulullah, this man is a liar I don't
have any evidence for it But this man
is a liar, he will lie Against Allah,
he will make halaf And he will take
my money away The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
said It is possible Some of you might
come to me Arguing more effectively Than the
other, and I might Believe that argumentation So
I will give the wrong Person, this is
in the hadith he's saying That arguing might
Cause me to be convinced But then he
said, anybody who Argues incorrectly with Batil, and
he takes the rights Of others, it is
as if He is taking Jahannam into his
Pocket, arguing Is not an evidence in the
eyes of Allah You can argue with eloquence
Even the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is saying
It is possible one of you might argue
more eloquently And I might be convinced but
you should Be aware, so he's telling the
other guy Even if your other guy wins,
it will not change Haq and Batil, even
if I Put in his favor, in reality
It is not in his favor, and on
the day of Judgement, he will have to
answer for False argumentation, so leave As much
argumentation as you can And try your best
to be the more dignified And follow the
Prophet Yusuf And our Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam And Insha'Allah we will continue with
another talk Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Al
Fatiha