Cikda kata Nouman Ali Khan diserang oleh geng salafi. Aku pun tak faham tentang serangan ini. Apa yang aku tahu, aku cuma ingin belajar ilmu yang benar, tak bergaduh dengan orang, membersihkan hati dan membetulkan kekhilafan teman-teman terdekat.
Kemudian NAK letak satu status panjang yang jarang dia letak di FB. Aku rasa terpanggil untuk letak di sini lepas 'share only me' dalam FB. Kemudian akan aku baca dengan cermat dan perlahan.
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Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu,
I’ve decided to write this post because a few close friends forwarded me comments being made about a clip of mine
taken from a program I conducted recently teaching the core concepts of
Surah Yasin. It seems a number of people (whose sincerity I wouldn’t
question nor do I have the right to) are concerned that I’m poking fun
at the learning of the classical science of Aqeedah and some of the most
famous classical scholarly manuals that deal with the monumental
subject. This post will be longer than my usual writings and for that I
apologize in advance.
First and foremost, Allah, His Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم and His Deen
are infinitely more worthy that I stand up for them and defend them as
opposed to me defending myself. If the intention behind defending
oneself is to preserve dignity or reputation, my belief, as is the
belief of all Muslims, is that dignity was granted to us because of this
religion and when we pursue any other means to attain it, we will fail.
Having said that I am compelled to explain what motivates this
writing. Allah says وعسى أن تكرهوا شيئا وهو خير لكم والله يعلم وأنتم لا
تعلمون. "It may well be that you all despise something and it is
better for you while it is Allah, He knows and you! You don’t know!" I
think in this frenzy of comments and outrage there is an opportunity to
share something of value about this beautiful religion and I will try to
do so to the best of my ability with clarity and sincerity. I’d also
like to comment right from the get go that I was taught from an early
age to uphold the dignity of all human beings especially Muslims. I
don’t go around reading comments being made about me but for any who are
outraged at me or may have made disparaging or judgmental remarks, they
are still my family in faith and I wish them well and pray for them as I
would for myself and my own family. That isn’t something special. This
is just what Muslims are supposed to do.
Now, on to the subject at hand…
Part 1: My Attitude Towards the Subject of Aqeedah and the Hadith:
I have tremendous respect for the entire corpus of our scholarly
tradition including the science of Aqeedah codified by great human
beings of the past, may Allah grant His forgiveness and loving mercy to
all of them. For those of you to whom my comments were perceived as
offensive to that tradition, I apologize for coming across as
insensitive and dismissive. I have studied some of the books I’m accused
of making fun of with some of my own teachers and mentors (which I will
get to a bit later). Historically, it is that legacy that prevented
great philosophical confusion from ransacking the ummah and kept us
holding on to the core teachings of the Qur’an and Sunnah in a manner
that was true to the sacred text.
Secondly, often times the word
Qur’aniyyoon is thrown my way. This guy always talks about the Qur’an,
never about hadith. Though I’ve talked about this before, I will here
again. I have regard for the subject of Hadith that is hard to put into
words and appreciate that to be a muhaddith is to engage in some of the
most rigorous, laborious and life consuming scholarship of any of the
other Islamic sciences. In my early years learning about Islam, I would
learn from brothers more knowledgeable than myself who were not hadith
scholars and they would quote a hadith from Sahih Al Bukhari or Muslim
or Sunnan Al-Tirmidhi. It was years later that I went through some of
the same ahadith with an actual muhaddith only to discover that the
context and scholarly understanding of the very same texts was so
different than what a shallow translation yielded. This happened on
multiple occasions. If ones understanding of the Qur’an can be
problematic if not keeping in mind the historical context of revelation,
and that is the word of Allah, that would certainly have to be of
paramount importance when it comes to the hadith tradition. There’s far
more to consider than whether or not a hadith is authentic. When did
our blessed messenger say it? Who did he say it to? How was it acted
upon? Are there other ahadith that complement its understanding? How did
the early generations discuss this hadith? How did the fuqaha discuss
this hadith? Did scholars of the past deal with potential misconceptions
that may arise from this hadith if not properly understood in its rich
language and context? These are a lot of questions and I for one do not
suppose about myself that I can confidently comment on them without
having learned them directly from a scholar of the subject. I’d rather
not quote a hadith than to quote it with a partial understanding. I do
cite the ahadith that I’ve had the honor of learning with certain
muhadditheen for which I am eternally grateful. I also happen to have
an ijazah in Al-Nawawi (may Allah show him loving mercy)’s collection of
forty ahadith. Incidentally, I conducted a program a year ago called
‘Honoring the Messenger’ and part of it was to illustrate how it is
impossible to believe in the book of Allah without believing in the
Sunnah of His beloved Messenger SAW. So yeah, I believe in our sacred
Hadith tradition and the flawless Sunnah of our messenger SAW but I’m
unwilling to be reckless in citing it.
Part 2: The Pulpit and The Street
I found Islam in New York City in the nineties. When I decided to fix
my life according to the mandates of Islam, I needed someone to teach me
the religion. If you know anything about NYC, you know that depending
on which masjid you set foot into, you’re going to be shown a very
different picture of Islam. I went to a masjid where the Imam told me
not to worry about learning the meanings of the Qur’an because that is
only for scholars. I should concern myself with the five pillars and
following the scholars (by which he meant himself and the individuals he
would approve of from his particular line of thought). This by the way
is not an isolated incident. I have met countless Muslims from the
indian sub continent who are told that they should not attempt to
understand the meanings of the Qur’an because they will get confused and
they should leave that to the scholars. Just learn some dhikr and if
you have a question, ask the scholar. He’s already got the perfect
understanding so you wouldn’t have to do any heavy lifting.
Being
a restless soul, that didn’t sit well for too long. I ended up in yet
another circle, where the entire focus was to debate the truth of Islam
with non-Muslims, then to another group where your spirituality was
pegged to your personal relationship with a spiritual mentor without
whom you wouldn’t be able to become a better Muslim and better yet, you
might only be saved through this relationship. I met some brothers at a
restaurant once. I remember it like it was yesterday. They saw me and
recognized me as a Muslim and so they started talking to me. They told
me that if my aqeedah isn’t correct that I’m fuel for the hellfire. I
was worried. I asked them what they thought of all the people I had
previously learned from by name. And for each of them they had the same
answer. ‘He’s a good brother but his aqeedah is flawed and he’s calling
people to the hellfire’. Now I was really worried. I joined their
circle and was in it for more than a year. I learned to ask the first
and most important question before asking anything else not only of
scholars or khateebs or da’ees but also of fellow muslims. What’s his
aqeedah? I even asked my dad once. What’s your aqeedah? He said, beta
(which means son) we’re sunni. I didn’t respond but in my heart I said
to myself, that’s what they all say. I actually believed that my family
believed in what will lead them to the hellfire because they didn’t
have the right aqeedah. Then came the problem of ‘how do you tell if
someone has the right aqeedah or not’? For all practical purposes, I was
indoctrinated into thinking that when it comes to this issue, there is
no such thing as benefit of the doubt. You have to assume that anyone
and everyone is corrupted in their aqeedah and you have to listen to
what they say with extreme caution waiting to hear something that could
prove that AH HAH! they are deviant in their aqeedah. Bear in mind this
became more about fishing for what might be creatively interpreted as a
problem of aqeedah than an actual problem of aqeedah. We have to be
cautious, and if there is even a millionth chance that this person might
mean something problematic, not only do I have to never listen to
anything he ever has to say, but also warn others to stay away from him.
For a short while in those two years, my only mission was to save the
ummah from deviants in aqeedah. I was good at it too. Somebody could
quote a book and I’d say, this person has read this book and is
influenced by the ideas of the author whose aqeedah is unknown,
therefore he is on the deviant list. The list was updated regularly.
What happened as a result was a spiritual void that I’ve never felt
before in my life. I wasn’t close to Allah. I knew how to argue His
names and attributes and debate whether He was above or everywhere but I
didn’t feel His love, His guidance, His mercy and His constant company.
Allah just became a subject of debate. I became accustomed to mocking
Muslims who didn’t see Islam the right way that I saw it. I developed
hatred for those who taught anything about Islam in ways that didn’t
align with my authentic and flawless understanding. The people that I
had love for were reducing by the day and by the way, some of the guys
in the authentic aqeedah circle had disagreements with each other and
started calling each other deviant too. That was ultra-confusing
because now I didn’t know which side to pick. They both quoted the same
scholars from abroad who of course wrote in Arabic so I had no way of
looking at the information myself except through the lens of
translation. We studied aqeedah manuals most of the time. Sometimes we
studied certain ayaat of the Qur’an but we only studied them to
reinforce that we are on the right aqeedah and how this ayah and that
hadith were evidence against such and such group. Qur’an and Sunnah were
ammunition for us.
Then a friend of mine, whom I loved because
he was totally not into this whole religious debate scene, took me to
this program where my first Qur’an teacher was doing a rapid translation
and explanation of the entire Qur’an in Urdu. I’ll be honest, I first
sat in to check for aqeedah mistakes. But the first night, as he just
talked about the word of Allah, I couldn’t help my tears from rolling
down my eyes. The ayaat and their explanation was doing something to me
that no halaqah, no debate, no study had ever done. I genuinely
desired seeking forgiveness that night. That was different because the
nights before that one I was more concerned with whom else should be
seeking forgiveness. As the nights of the series in Ramadan continued, I
experienced a never before felt love for the Qur’an, for the messenger,
for Allah. I didn’t want to learn anything else anymore. I wanted
this. This is not like any other book. Nothing else has ever made me
think like this, feel like this. My journey into the Qur’an began with
Dr. Abdus Samie and his brilliant little Arabic class. I started
memorizing more and more of the Qur’an. I started losing interest in
the deviations of others and started noticing the deviations in myself.
My comments may have been disparaging to some of you and for that I
apologize. But the way our beautiful scholarly tradition is being abused
to pass blatant judgment against other fellow Muslims who are each in
their own unique struggle spiritually, intellectually and emotionally is
just unfair and cruel. Our faith is no different from the faith of
Adam AS or Ibrahim AS or the Messenger of Allah SAW. The Qur’an is the
best and most primary source to understand who God is because He speaks
for Himself in it. When I meet young hot headed Muslims who are ready
to quote a aqeedah text and defend it but haven’t had the time to
memorize or recite or learn the meanings of even few surahs, I find that
to be an abandonment of our salaf.
In the Musnad of Ahamd RA and Sahih Muslim, the messenger SAW says
إن الله يرفع بهذا الكتاب أقواماً ويضع به آخرين
Certainly Allah, He elevates because of this book entire nations and
puts other down because of it. So when our beloved SAW says that this
book will the cause of the rise of nations, which ayaat is he SAW
referring to? The ones that we find useful in refuting each other? The
ones that fortify our positions against others? This book is above our
agendas. It is above our comfort zones. This book reign supreme and
nothing will ever be a bigger priority than it. وكلمة الله هي العليا.
The word of Allah, it is the Highest. It is not just another subject in
Islamic studies. It is the central beam that holds this entire
religion and its people together. If I spent my entire life emphasizing
that it is the ultimate priority of the Muslims, it won’t be nearly
enough. The Sunnah of our messenger is best described by our mother RA,
كان خلقه القرآن. It is to be viewed as the Qur’an brought into practical
application. It is thus not a separate entity or different subject
matter but really a necessary and fundamental manifestation of the book
of Allah from words to actions. When average Muslims, (not specialized
students or scholars) are being taught that their first priorities need
to be elsewhere, I will disagree till my dying breath. This word was
powerful enough to guide the lost souls of Quraish and turn them into
the greatest generation history has ever seen. It was powerful enough
to guide jinns passing by just as they heard some of its miraculous
ayaat. It is still powerful enough to guide any human being, Muslim or
non through this age of fitnah. We are at its service and it is not at
ours. Its surahs dictate what is priority. We do not impose our
priorities on it. We don’t get to decide which ayaat are more important
than others. Which surahs are more important than others. That is for
Allah and His messenger SAW. So much of the ummah today has no idea
what the word of Allah is. This Qur’an is passed to us through the
sweat, blood and tears of generations before us starting with our
beloved himself SAW. It isn’t cheap. People before us paid with blood
so we can recite it, ponder upon it, seek guidance from it and live by
it today. How is it not my top priority? Everything I will learn about
islam, I will learn in the shade of Allah’s word. For that, I am not
sorry.
Wassalamu Alaikum.