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.
See: Introduction to 'The Difference Between Advising and Defaming' by Haafidh Ibn Rajab
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