Zakir Naik – How can we Unite Despite the False Scholars and Leaders Misguiding the Muslims

As-salamu alaykum, dear President Zakir.

I am Mahmood from Toronto, Canada.

I am a postgraduate student of Life Science.

Muslims today are divided more than ever before.

And most of us are being misled by

constant propaganda and false celebrities who distort Islam

but pose as Muslim scholars.

My question to you is, how can we

get united Muslim Ummah as envisioned by our

Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam?

Another question is, are we currently living in

the same situation as the Jahiliyyah days before

our Prophet, peace be upon him, came?

Or are we comparatively in a better or

a worse of times?

I would appreciate your valuable, knowledgeable responses and

guidance for the Ummah.

JazakAllah.

The two questions, question number one is that

we are being led by false propaganda and

false information by celebrities and many people who

pose as Muslim scholars.

And the second question is that how can

we have a united Ummah envisioned by Abdullah

ibn Khatam sallallahu alaihi wa sallam?

And the third part of the question is

that are we in the times of Jahiliyyah

before Prophet Muhammad, are we better or are

we worse?

I find the first question is concerned that,

I do agree, there is a lot of

false propaganda, there is a lot of people,

there are many celebrities opposing Muslim scholars and

Muslim Ummah is divided.

Coming to the question of Muslim scholars, of

course, that reminds me of the Hadith of

the Beloved Prophet, peace be upon him, in

which Imam Bukhari has mentioned in his book,

Adab al-Mufrad and Sheikh Albani has classified

it as Hassan.

He said that now, one of the Sahaba

says, that now is the time where there

are many Fuqahas and few speakers.

There are very few beggars and there are

many people who want to give charity.

But there will be a time when there

will be very few Fuqahas and many speakers.

There will be a time where there will

be many beggars and few people who would

give in charity.

And there are various of the Hadith in

which the Prophet said that there will be

a time where people who will not have

knowledge will start speaking about Islam.

And I do agree with you that, you

know, at the time of the Prophet, the

Sahaba, Dawah, mainly one to one, or when

there was a talk, people used to gather,

few people, 10, 20, 30, 40.

Rarely, there were large gatherings like Hajj, Ulwida,

etc.

And as time went on, most of the

knowledge was spent either by Sheikhs in the

Durus or giving talks in public directly, one

to one.

And even in my childhood, when I was

in school, when I was in college, I

remember the days that we used to go

to listen to talks of religious speakers or

scholars.

And at that time, maybe in the 90s,

etc., in the late 80s, we found that

the videos became popular.

And besides hearing talks, which became less, we

used to get knowledge from the video cassettes

or from audio cassettes or from books or

scholars.

So as time passed on, besides one to

one Dawah, the print media advanced, the audio

media, the video media.

But in 2000s, you know, the social media

came up.

Internet came in the late 90s, and social

media, Facebook, in 2006.

And in the 2000s, it started in 2010,

and now we are in 2024.

And the social media has expanded so much

in the last two decades, in the last

20 years, phenomenal.

And we find that any Tom, Dick, and

Harry can address the full world on the

social media.

There is no expense required.

He takes his mobile phone, a smartphone, records

it, and uploads it.

He may have few views.

He may have hundreds, thousands, or even million

views.

But to address to the world has become

very easy.

Because of the social media, the pros and

cons.

There are pros is that, okay, you can

spread the Deen faster.

The cons are that even the fayyash and

the wrong things spread faster.

And even those people who want to distort

the religion or want to spread wrong things

become easier.

So as far as the brother's question is

concerned, that now there is, Huma is divided.

And you have many celebrities who pose as

Muslim scholars, and I do agree with you.

But now, because of the social media, most

of the people, unfortunately, that come on the

social media, they are more targeting how many

viewership they get.

How many followers do they get?

How many subscribers do they get?

Rather than delivering the message.

And unfortunately, this trend has even crept amongst

the Muslim speakers.

I'm not talking about the non-Muslim, what

they're doing wrong.

But even amongst the Muslim dais, or the

Muslim Islamic speakers, most of them, I wouldn't

say all, are more bothered about how many

views they gather on the videos, how many

subscribers they have, how many followers they have

on the social media, and what's happening by

this trend.

It's happening to the non-Muslim also in

this other social media.

But unfortunately, even amongst the Muslim speakers, what's

happening is that instead of the knowledgeable people

guiding the society, the society is guiding the

knowledgeable people.

So those people who come, they are more

bothered on what the society likes.

So they tailor their talks according to society,

not according to what is required by society.

So you know what, when we consult the

experts of social media, they say, okay, if

you want more views, I mean, you're an

Islamic speaker, but you make a video on

how to cook.

So when you start making a video on

how to cook biryani, maybe you'll get a

million views.

And what they're saying is a fact.

Because you know, people like to know things

which are different, not only talks, talks.

So, and you may find that the experts

of social media will tell you, okay, you

play maybe with a cat.

You know, the largest pet amongst humanity is

cat.

So if you play with a cat, you'll

get more views.

So unfortunately, not all, but many, can say

most of them are guided by the society

on what they want.

So they're changing their matter on what is

wanted by society rather than what is required

by society.

And this trend is very dangerous.

And coming to your question of Muslim scholars,

I would say that based on the Hadith,

that the Fuqahs are very few.

According to me today, the scholars are only

a handful, maybe a hundred or maybe a

couple of hundred, not more than that.

Not like the previous days where there were

many scholars, you know, every country had, mashallah,

tens and hundreds of scholars.

Now, in the full world, if you have

to name, you'll hardly be able to name

a hundred scholars, leave aside more than that.

And that's the reason when someone asked me

many years back on this Ask Dr. Zakir,

and I named a few of the scholars,

they were a handful.

And never do I consider myself to be

a scholar.

I consider myself to be a student of

knowledge.

And I consider myself to be a da

'i.

And the role of the da'i is

that he should acquire knowledge from the scholars

and make it common to the masses.

Acquire the knowledge from the scholars and make

it palatable, make it digestible, make it acceptable

for the ummah or for the non-Muslims.

So the roles of people like me who

are da'is, we are not scholars.

We don't pose like scholars and I don't

consider myself to be a scholar.

I'm a student of knowledge.

And I consider myself to be a da

'i.

We have to read the books and hear

the videos and read the articles of the

scholars, books of Quran and Sahih Hadith, and

make it more compatible, more palatable, and more

digestible for the audience.

So my role is to get the information

from the scholars and make it more acceptable

to the masses.

Coming to your second question, that what should

be done to envision the idea or thought

of Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, of

one ummah?

The only way we can do it is

that we should stick to the Quran and

Sunnah.

We should stick to Quran and Sahih Hadith.

So if the full Muslim ummah sticks to

the Quran and Sahih Hadith, as Allah says

in the Quran, in Surah Al-Imran, chapter

number three, verse number three, وَاتَسِمُوا بِهَبْ لِلَّهِ

جَمِعُوا وَلَا تَفْرَكُوا Hold strongly to the rope

of Allah and be not divided.

The rope of Allah is the glorious Quran

and the authentic Hadith of the beloved Prophet.

So if the Muslim ummah unites together and

are not divided only on the basis of

the glorious Quran and on the Sahih Hadith,

we will be one united ummah.

The only way we can be united is

under the manner of the glorious Quran and

Sahih Hadith.

And regarding the last part of the question,

that are we now in the times of

Jahiliyyah before the Prophet or are we better

or are we worse?

Of course, the time of the Jahiliyyah before

the Prophet, I would say worse than now.

We are better than that, but we are

deteriorating.

The time of the Prophet, the time of

the Sahabas, the practice of the Muslim of

the Sahabas, you know, after the Prophets, after

the Anbiya's, the best generation was the generation

of the Sahabas, the companions of the Prophet,

the Khulafa Rashidin, the Sahabas, they were the

best.

As the generation that keep on coming later

and later, we find that we are getting

away and away from the Deen.

And now we are more than 1400 years

away from the time of the Prophet.

And of course, the times have deteriorated, the

going more down and down, but yet I

feel we are yet better than the Jahiliyyah,

the days before the Prophet.

And we pray to Allah subhanahu wa ta

'ala that may he give us the wisdom,

the hikmah, and the courage and the patience

that all the Muslim Ummah be united.

You know, the non-Muslims, they are so

much against the Muslims.

There is no way that we Muslims can

differ.

We should leave aside our small differences and

unite together on the banner of Quran and

Sayyidina.

And see to it that when we deliver

the speeches and talks on Islam, see to

it that the message you give gets a

person closer to Allah and his Rasul.

See to it that they get closer to

Allah and Rasul.

So that, inshallah, all of us, we pray

to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that all

of us, all the Muslim Ummah, we will

enter Jannah for those, inshallah.

Ameen.