2nd Dhul-Hijjah,
1435 Bismillaahir
Rahmaanir Raheem
It is not just the most beautiful greeting but the most
blessed one you could ever be given. It is a greeting that isn’t compulsory to
give but is mandatory for you to respond to. So, I say to you; ‘Assalaamu
alaykum wa Rahmatullaahi wa Barkaatuh my brother or sister. How have you been?
Alhamdulillaah, I have never been anything but excellent.’
If you have not yet come to the realization of how
awesome this greeting and its response is; I plead with you to give yourself
some time to ponder upon it so that when you say it to someone you will do so
with passion and when someone says it to you, you would count yourself lucky
enough to give it back in full bloom.
So, to my subject matter for today which I am
foreseeing will be quiet lengthier than usual. This is an article I have been
wanting to write for some time now. I have even written it in different forms
in my head (smile to Jannah). Alhamdulillaah that I am finally writing it.
I keep asking myself anytime the results of my facebook
activities especially come popping up into my face (I guess you understand
that) the simple question;
‘How did it all
start?’
How it Started
So, I didn’t want to join facebook because I had some
not-so-good perceptions about it. Then, I don’t know where I got the kick from,
but I found myself there. Next thing, I was connecting with friends from the
old and the new (I was in level 200 then).
Suddenly, my name did the magic. I started getting
friends’ requests from foreigners: Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and many of such
countries. Some tried to chat with me in their language thinking I was their
country woman. The name Rubaba was familiar to them (and imagine that my own
country women and men aren’t familiar with it…chai!).
So they sent me messages on mainly Islamic issues and
then they added me to many Islamic groups and invited me to some pages as well.
It was so much fun being a part of such a family and very ‘lesson full’. There
was one particular person who always tagged me in his notes which were mostly
on touchy stories of Islamic history and others.
What Happened
Afterwards
In the beginning of my facebook days, I was just doing
usual hooking up with school mates and acquaintances. Knowing these people (the
Bangladishi, e.t.c.) added flavour and purpose to the whole facebook game:
Da’awah.
Being a part of them taught me that I could gain some
rewards on this network by doing what I have already learnt to love doing best;
talking about Islam and its beauty and that is ‘Da’awah.’
I happened to be the women’s commissioner of the Ghana
Muslim Students’ Association of the University of Ghana then so I created a
group on behalf of the executives especially for sisters: Pearls of Peace, UG.
Funny enough, we added guys to the group and we learnt and discussed numerous
things. So it continued like that until today: I share what I learn and know
with all my friends. I post on social issues too. And now, my facebook
activities have widened and grown into something that is an important part of
me, alhamdulillaah.
Among the Facebook
Results that Keep Popping up
1.
Messages of
appreciation.
2.
Messages of
admirations and wanting to be closer: friends, sisters, brother-sister (how do
I put that?).
3.
The marriage
proposals (the good and the bad of it).
4.
Need for help with
problems (emotional, spiritual, physical, academic and sometimes financial).
5.
Invitations to
programmes and all
6.
The questions about
deen (Islam)
The Questions About
Deen
Of all the above, I would like to dwell on this
particular one due to the purpose of this article.
So, people sent (they still do) me questions about the
deen that they needed answers to. Some were very simple like; how many are the
Islamic daily prayers? (Smile to Jannah), and some were simply not questions I
should even attempt to answer and so I don’t. What I did was to ask appropriate
people for help and when they are able to do so, I relate their answers making
sure to let the questioners know that I am not a scholar and the answers are
not from me.
Some Key Lessons
from Facebook
1. Among the many lessons I have learnt on facebook are
that; when you are on any social network, you must have strict principles with
which to operate for your own good and for the good of the people you interact
with especially when you are a MUSLIMAH.
As a Muslimah, you need those principles to survive and
by survival, I mean; to keep your dignity intact. Among the many principles
should be that; you do not entertain guys, be they Muslims (the religious or
not) or non-Muslims. That should be an unbreakable rule that you set for
yourself because some of the guys are hyper for trouble.
2. Do not take a wrong advantage of the admiration and
appreciation people have for your personality on social networks especially
when your activities are da’awah inclined.
Taking Advantage
I have tasted the sweetness of the universal Islamic
feel of brotherhood and sisterhood on social networks; facebook and whatsapp
especially. So many of the very close sisters I have today were initially
facebook friends only. Now, I have many close sisters from different countries
whom I have never met but it feels as if I really know them due to our common
understanding that Islam is our binder.
It is equally amazing and heart-touching when someone
feels comfortable enough to confide in you over sometimes very critical issues
when they have never met you. You begin to wonder about what it is that they
see in you. The expressions of admiration, appreciation and love fiisabilillaah
is so touching that I can only hope that Allah azza wa jal accepts from all of
us and unite us in Beauty; Paradise.
And it is true that we do take advantage of the trust
people on social networks have for us especially to tell them about Islam and
our views on some social happenings. That is plausible. What is not right is
that we make these people believe that we are scholars which we are not just
because we can search, learn and share Islam with them. So, that is what this
article is about.
The Young Scholar
Alhamdulillaah, there are many scholars on facebook,
both local and foreign ones. These scholars post links to their lectures for
people to access. These scholars are however not my focus even though I am
going to compare them to my interest group: the young scholars in the virtual
world.
My use of young here is not wholly in terms of the age
of these scholars but it also features how narrow their knowledge is. The young
scholars in the virtual world (social networks – facebook, whatsapp, etc) are
those young people who always watch and listen to Islamic lectures, read
Islamic stuffs from ‘sheikh Google’ and others. Due to this attitude (commendable
when done right), they have come to know a lot about their deen and they are
able to share with others what they learn.
Some of these young scholars can recite the Qur’an in
Arabic, they probably don’t speak Arabic that much but they understand some
things in the Qur’an. The use of the English Qur’an and Qur’an tafseer
(commentary) books makes that a lot easier. Some, alhamdulillaah, also attend
schools that teach them Islam. For this, we should all be proud of these young
scholars and thank and praise Allah azza wa jal for them.
How some of these
Young Scholars Become a Problem
In one very interesting lecture by Ustadh Nouman Ali
Khan, he talks about the different types of youths. Check my article; The Youth; which one are you?’ for a
brief on the lecture. Among the youths that he spoke about was one who had
gotten better in his deen over time but instead of helping others in the best
of ways to also grow, he rather takes the self-righteousness approach which is
obviously not good. I named this category of the youths; the Seemingly Religious
Youth in the article stated above.
Now, I would like to look at the young scholar in the
light of the ‘Seemingly Religious Youth.’
Characteristics of
the Young Scholars in the light of the SRY
1. Knowledge is Extremely
Narrow
It is true that the Noble Prophet Muhammad suallallaahu
alayhi wa sallam said that we should preach the message of Islam even if what
we know was just a word or an ayah (verse). It is for this reason that we
should be proud of every da’ee (one who preaches the message of Islam) whether
he is young or old, and whether he is the most or the least knowledgeable.
However, we do not ignore the damage that a narrow
knowledge could cause provided one does not know how to say; ‘I don’t know’
when he is asked about something he does not know.
So, in our virtual world, we see young people who have
turned themselves or have been turned into scholars giving rulings ‘by heart’
on sometimes very sensitive issues on which various scholars sometimes differ.
Some of them, due to their sources of knowledge (websites mostly), are not even
aware that there are differences of opinions among scholars on many issues
which are all deemed valid. The moment they are attached to a particular website,
from which they go to copy rulings on issues to feed their students in the
virtual world, they forget that sometimes these websites go with a particular
madthhab (school of thought).
The Danger in this
The students of these young scholars in the virtual
world tend to start seeing all other people who have opinions that are
different from their scholars’ as wrong. This is because of two things.
1.
They do not know
except what these Young Scholars teach them.
2.
They have grown to
trust these Young Scholars over time due to their religious activities in the
virtual world.
2. Over-confidence
in their knowledge
That is self-explanatory. These young scholars believe
in themselves so much that they do not find the need to even consider Islamic
opinions that are different from theirs so as to benefit their students with a
variety of understandings like some of the highly respected scholars do.
3. Condemnation of
the Real Scholars
This is the height of the troubles of some of these
young scholars. A young scholar, as I described above, will learn from a
variety of scholars (alhamdulillaah, we have many of them especially now) and
then the moment the feeling of self-righteousness starts taking over the better
part of him, seeing the many people who believe in what he also says, begin to
condemn these same scholars who have taught him (the five pillars of Islam
which makes him Muslim and others). Interesting enough, the disagreement and
condemnation which comes with insults of all types are mostly on issues that
are nothing to write home about.
The very worst of it is where such a young scholar
pronounces the real scholar as a kaafir (disbeliever) just because he holds a
different opinion on a particular issue. It is amazing (at least it amazes me)
how a Muslim is unable to measure the seriousness of pronouncing his fellow
Muslim as a kaafir. Yet these young scholars do so with ease even to the real
scholars (some have the whole Qur’an in their heads, some are muftis by
learning and training, some are memorizers of ahaadith, some know almost the
whole of seerah, and they preach these knowledge to millions of people).
One thing that these young scholars have not tasked
themselves to learn is how we could disagree on some particular matters and
still respect one another’s opinion because at least we all agree on that which
makes us Muslims; the five pillars of Islam. They have not learnt what many
renowned Islamic scholars have come to learn with time that their opinions
alone should not be that which is right always because they are humans
susceptible to being wrong.
Ustadh Nouman says clearly as one of his principles for
da’awah that he does not answer questions on hadith, fiqh and others except on
Qur’an because his knowledge in the former two is limited. Dr Yasir Qadhi
admits without regret that when he was younger, he had said some things in his
lectures that were only as a result of his uncontrolled passion against some
people and he adds that these passions were as a result of the means in which
his scholars taught him – they hated some people for no reason and so they
programmed his mind to feel the same. Growing up and learning more, he realizes
that things are not as he used to believe. This is maturity in scholarship to
me at least.
I was invited to give a talk on; Purification of the
Heart at an all ladies’ programme some time ago and I met a wonderful soul
there. She was the chairperson of the programme, her whole body covered in
black. She uncovered her face because it was only ladies. I was attracted to
her for one particular reason – the manner in which she answered questions.
Subhaanallaah! You would just love it. She would say; according to this and
according to that and they are all valid and when she doesn’t know, she says so
and then she would ask for whoever knows to contribute.
For me, that is the point some of these young scholars
are missing. And that is unpardonable because we are in a time where knowledge
of these things is everywhere for the seeker.
Who are the Main
Victims of the Young Scholars?
The victims of the young scholars are the people who
unfortunately, due to their lack of knowledge on Islam, depend solely on them on
these social networks for what is halal (permissible) and haram (forbidden) in
Islam.
To me, the main victims of these young scholars are the
ladies. Oh yes! Too many sisters have too many questions on Islam which they
desperately need answers to. Too many sisters are not ready to learn their
deen. They want to be spoon-fed all the time. They do not want to buy or
download books on Islam and read. They do not want to watch lectures by
renowned scholars on different aspects of Islam which are all over to update their
knowledge on Islam.
For that and many other reasons, they just depend
totally on their young scholars whom they have put 100% of their trust in to
tell them what to do and what not to do. Read! They won’t do so. Watch the
right materials! They won’t do so. So you see these sisters raising the status
of these young scholars whose knowledge they admire to the next level. This is
truth and truth must be said as it is.
What Really is My
Problem?
1.
I will discuss what
my major problem is with this negative aspect of the young scholarship in a
next article in shaa Allah (perhaps then, it will be your problem too).
2.
I have always been
interested in the history of the Prophet Muhammad suallallaahu alayhi wa sallam
and his companions radiyallaahu anhum. Their lifestyles and how they disagreed
on issues sometimes and still stood together, how they did not believe their singular
opinions alone counted, how they thought of others as better in knowledge than
them even when they were obviously among the best and many of such
characteristics about them are extremely admirable and so we must preach that
to everyone else. Just look at the personalities of Abu Bakr and Umar
radiyallaahu anhum and how they stood together for example. So I ask myself; ‘why
don’t we all start learning to really be like these people?’
And I want to end my long article here with the hope
that I am able to write the second aspect of this soon in shaa Allah. Remember
that I did not write this for any particular person but it is due to a general
observation I have made in the virtual world. I do admire and appreciate all
the Muslims in this virtual world who are trying their best to portray this
blessed deen (Islam) as best as they could. May Allah azza wa jal reward all of
our efforts, save us from riyaa and accept from us. Aameen. I love you
fiisabilillaah and I pray that Allah subhaanahu wa ta’aalaa blesses us with His
Shade and Nuur on the Day of Accounts. Aameen.
Jazaakumullaahu
khair always!
Assalaamu alaykum!
www.mmahajia.blogspot.com for my articles
www.rubabawords.blogspot.com for my poetry
Rubaba
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