بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ
I ask Allaah's Aid and Assistance and upon Him I rely...
Introduction from Shaykh as-Suhaymee
Indeed all praises are for Allaah, we
praise him, we seek His Assistance and His Forgiveness. We seek refuge in Him
from the evil of ourselves and the wickedness that result from our deeds.
Whomsoever Allaah Guides, none can misguide and whomsoever Allaah Allows to go
astray, none can guide.
I bear witness that there is no god worthy
of worship except Allaah, having no partners, and I bear witness that Muhammad
is His Slave and Messenger, may the Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon him,
his family and his Companions collectively.
About the Author
The author is a
well-known Haafidh (someone who has expertise in religious texts) that has
authored major works in the disciplines of al-Islaam including ‘Aqeedah,
biographies, Tafseer and others.
He was born in 736 AH
and passed away in 795 AH, passing away at the age of 59 years old. Comparing
his lifespan to others from the scholars then it was average, as some lived
much long and others died much younger than him.
The Five Categories of
People Who Advise
The importance of this
books is twofold; it contains many points of benefit for the student of
knowledge and secondly the importance of this topic to be addressed has become
increasingly important.
Those who have severely
erred when seeking to give advice can be categorized into five groups:
1.
Those
who completely leave off giving advice or enjoining the good or forbidding the
evil. They neglect this obligation even though they have the capability in
doing it.
2.
Those
who use the mistakes of others to degrade and insult others. They don’t
differentiate between Naseehah (i.e. advice) and Ta’yeer (i.e. defaming).
Consequently, they expose the faults of their brothers, perhaps even on the
pulpit, or speak ill of a mistake made by a scholar or tarnish the decisions made
by the Muslim rulers.
3.
A newly
innovated group that call to ‘al-Muwaazanah’ - that is that they stipulate mentioning
something good about a person if they are to warn against a mistake he/she has
(details of when to expose the mistakes of others will be discussed shortly, In
Shaa Allaah).
4.
Those
who use the mistakes of the people of knowledge as an opportunity to tarnish
their name, degrade their honour and to warn against them in totality, this is despite
their ranking in knowledge and benefit.
5.
Those
who magnify the mistake of others - if the matter is subtle they blow it out of
proportion and increase the one who made the mistake in nothing but insult and
degradation by spreading his mistake and tarnishing his honour.
As for Ahl as-Sunnah wa
al-Jamaa’ah then they are balanced between all these aforementioned parties; balanced
between extremism and negligence.
Perhaps the above mentioned
mistakes have become apparent because of the weakness of al-Emaan and the
diseases in the hearts. If one was to observe the method of correcting with the
major scholars of knowledge, they will see how they advised, and continue to do
so, with sincerity and wisdom. However, there are those who wish to fish in
murky waters, seeking to pick out mistakes from obscure matters with the only
objective of seeking a way to expel the one who made the mistake outside the
fold of Ahl as-Sunnah.
The advice of Shaykh
‘Abdul-‘Azeez bin Baaz (may Allaah have
Mercy on him), and an amazing piece of advice he gave, when faced by a youth
who sought to get a ruling on a particular person. The Shaykh didn’t succumb
and instead commanded all those who want to call to Allaah, the Exalted and the
Glorified, that they call with insight and knowledge. That they follow the path
of the Ahl as-Sunnah wa al-Jamaa’ah in explaining the truth, rectifying
mistakes and to refute in a manner legislated in the Sharee’ah. As for those
who claim that they are trying to protect Ahl as-Sunnah from innovators when
talking about the mistakes of our scholars with the objective to create
discord, then such a person is a liar. Whoever wants the truth will find it and
whoever wants discord then they are fishing in murky waters, as the Shaykh described.
To be continued...
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