You can benefit people unless they become fanatic-Part 1/4

You can benefit people unless they become fanatic-Part 1/4

You can benefit people as long as fanaticism doesn't infect them, and in part of this advice, I will translate Al-Ghazali's work in English regarding what fanaticism does to one psychologically. But first, let me begin by telling you about my own journey and I hope it will benefit you and I hope you will gain wisdom from it. This will benefit those with a good understanding of religion, especially theology (Tawhid). Especially those who have fought the bottles refuted others and mingled alongside different circles in their journey.

When I was a kid probably the most beloved chant to me was "Yanabiy Salam 'Alayka" but due to different circumstances, I ended up learning from teachers that where Salafist as they are called today or Wahhabi as Sunni's scholars named them in refutations and past historical writings. I still remember the first day I was called to come for a session of knowledge to learn from my first Sunni (Ash'ary) shaykh. That person that encouraged me to come and learn later went more deeply into Wahhabism and left the teacher he guided me to learn from him. At the time I was 14yrs old turning 15. When I heard there was a shaykh who came to the Apartment building to teach, I was thrilled and grabbed two or three of the Wahhabi printed books I loved and ran upstairs to meet the teacher. He picked up one of the books and opened the introduction page and started reading praise to Muhammad bin Abdulwahab the originator of this movement, and quickly realized where I was coming from.

You see, I was not yet to the point of being a fanatic but surely I have thought Ibn Abdulwahhab was a great person who came to fight bad innovation and to call people to return to the path of Allah's messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم. I remember when I might have been 10 or 11 yrs old and a teacher told us that people in Makkah and Madina became disbelievers and started worshipping Idols and ibn Abdulwahhab fought to bring them back to Iman(Faith). I remember listening and wondering how did this happen, where there no scholars to tell them not to do so, how could this happen in Makkah and Madina, and I felt very sad, little did I know that the story isn't exactly as such. You see, people don't normally plan to be misguided, so be wise and merciful if you teach religion and speak to people the way they understand and not how you want them to understand.

Now, that my new teacher has noticed my background, he quietly put the book on the huge Old TV on the ground and started a regular conversation asking me where did I learn Arabic and what I was doing and continued teaching, normally, and encouraged me to come back. I started learning from him twice a week and I was attracted to his lessons due to his manners mostly, wearing the sunnah (thawb) and the fact he looked down when he spoke to women because in my understanding this is how a shaykh behaves. However, his teaching of the attributes of Allah and clearing Allah from being equal to the creation in detail started to conflict with my preconceived understanding. And, for the next probably six months I prayed after salah in Arabic "O Allah show me the good as good and enable me to follow, and show me the falsehood as falsehood and enable me to stay away from."
The teacher on his part did not say anything negative about Ibn Abdulwahhab or Ibn Taymiyah but simply focused on teaching the knowledge, and this might have helped to lessen the confusion I was already in, and if he was to begin by attacking there is a good chance I would have never returned to him.

Just to give you one example, I had a Wahhabi teacher who told us when I was 12 years old, wearing an amulet is an act of disbelief and told us the hadith "Whoever wears an amulet is a kaffir" and even told us that the some of the tribes of Qahtan that lived in Saudi and Yamen are Kaffir because they wear amulets and if we see anyone wearing such things we should pull and cut it off their neck. My Sunni teacher never wear any type of amulet which some call it "hirz, ta'wiz or qartas," but one day when he started his lesson I notice a black string on his neck that continued to a black square figure under his sunnah white clothing "thawb" and at that point, my brain could no longer focus on his lesson anymore, and this happened after months of learning from him. All my brain is thinking is about the hadith that was misexplained to me, and my heart was beating fast, I was lost in my taught wondering where have I lead myself to and couldn't wait to leave and go home. But If you looked at me you wouldn't be able to notice my troubled state of mind. When I got home I had the famous book for Al-Qaradawi called the Lawful and Prohibited in Islam and the copy I had back then in the early 90's in Arabic explained properly that the amulet that is kuffur are those of the non-believers that contained blasphemous saying and not those with the Quran...etc and my heart calmed down. This is not to praise Al-Qaradawi who was also a friend of Albany, in spite of their difference, but to point out the struggle a person may go through when he/she is misinformed. This also shows you how when you are misinformed it can trouble your mind and that calls for great wisdom and patience, for most people resort to their comfort zone and what they have believed and will fight against anything that's contrary and many would hear you but are not good at listening and being objective in examining evidence, and feeling and emotions play a major role.

The teacher was patient for a year and now I have learned my basic proper creed with some refutations of the wrong creeds and discovered something about tawassul something I have never heard before and learned that Ibn Taymiya was wrong in his judgment of Tawasul and that was the first time I heard he was wrong. Before that, I was told he was a great scholar whom if he lived long enough his teaching would have been the 5th school of taught -madhab, and that he was so knowledgeable that scholars were jealous of him and as a result, they put him in jail and had him wiped until he died in jail, and again I remember, back then, wondering why where they jealous of him, have they not learn to fear Allah especially being scholars. But now I was ready to listen to the alternative point of view, but always yearned to see evidence in the form of books of previous scholars. Praise Allah who made me learn Arabic because I can read on my own and validate what I have been told, just to make sure I am not being told something other than what really happened. Back then there was no internet to search for pdf copies of books, but my father had the Ihyaa` 'Ulum Addin, for Imam Al-Ghazali which I checked from time to time to compare if what I was learning was inline just to be sure, and from there onward It became a habit of always wanting to see the exact book that I am told so and so stated in such book. I may not have been to a point you can label me as a fanatic, but surely it's not like I was convinced or realized all my mistakes in one day. And the thing that kept me coming to that shaykh was mostly his manners.

Allah the Exalted said:
ادْعُ إِلَىٰ سَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ بِالْحِكْمَةِ وَالْمَوْعِظَةِ الْحَسَنَةِ ۖ وَجَادِلْهُم بِالَّتِي هِيَ أَحْسَنُ ۚ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَن ضَلَّ
عَن سَبِيلِهِ ۖ وَهُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِالْمُهْتَدِينَ
Which means:
Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good preaching, and argue with them in a way that is best. Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has strayed from His way, and He is most knowing of who is [rightly] guided.

Moreover, a wise teacher knows when to debate, when to warn and when to simply be quiet and just teach. The ultimate goal isn't winning but fearing Allah and doing the right thing while being merciful.

To be continued.....