The Ruling on One Who Claims to Be a Salafi and Slanders the Scholars
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Question:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: There are some callers to Allah in our country who claim to be on the methodology of the people of the Sunnah and the community, and yet we observe them slandering the scholars of the Sunnah and casting doubt on them. The question is: What is their ruling, and what is the course of action with them?
Answer:
How can they claim to be on the school of the people of the Sunnah and the community while slandering the scholars of the people of the Sunnah and the community? This is a contradiction. If they were truly on the school of the people of the Sunnah and the community, they would love their scholars, praise them, and follow their example. The fact that they curse the scholars of the people of the Sunnah and the community is evidence of misguidance and of hypocrisy, may Allah protect us from that. They should repent to Allah, the Exalted and Sublime, and leave off targeting the scholars. Targeting the general public and the common people is not permissible, because it is backbiting, and you should not backbite one another.
Mocking people is also forbidden by Allah,[Al-Hujurat 49:11] and backbiting, [Al-Hujurat 49:12] this applies to Muslims in general, so what about the scholars? Backbiting the scholars and mocking the scholars is more severe, because this targets the knowledge they possess, the knowledge they possess, and the religion they possess. And Allah declared disbelievers those who mocked the scholars. In His saying, the Exalted, [At-Tawbah 9:65-66], and the occasion of its revelation was that a group said, "We have not seen anyone like our reciters; these reciters are the scholars. We have not seen anyone like our reciters: they are greedier in their bellies, more lying in their tongues, and more cowardly in the encounter." They meant the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and his Companions. The scholars fall under this because they are the heirs of the prophets. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "The scholars are the heirs of the prophets." So the one who mocks the prophets or mocks their heirs falls under this severe warning. We ask Allah for well-being.
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: There are some callers to Allah in our country who claim to be on the methodology of the people of the Sunnah and the community, and yet we observe them slandering the scholars of the Sunnah and casting doubt on them. The question is: What is their ruling, and what is the course of action with them?
Answer:
How can they claim to be on the school of the people of the Sunnah and the community while slandering the scholars of the people of the Sunnah and the community? This is a contradiction. If they were truly on the school of the people of the Sunnah and the community, they would love their scholars, praise them, and follow their example. The fact that they curse the scholars of the people of the Sunnah and the community is evidence of misguidance and of hypocrisy, may Allah protect us from that. They should repent to Allah, the Exalted and Sublime, and leave off targeting the scholars. Targeting the general public and the common people is not permissible, because it is backbiting, and you should not backbite one another.
Mocking people is also forbidden by Allah,
O you who have believed, let not a people ridicule [another] people; perhaps they may be better than them; nor let women ridicule [other] women; perhaps they may be better than them.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا يَسْخَرْ قَوْمٌ مِّن قَوْمٍ عَسَىٰ أَن يَكُونُوا خَيْرًا مِّنْهُمْ وَلَا نِسَاءٌ مِّن نِّسَاءٍ عَسَىٰ أَن يَكُنَّ خَيْرًا مِّنْهُنَّor backbite each other. Would one of you like to eat the flesh of his brother when dead? You would detest it.
وَلَا يَغْتَب بَّعْضُكُم بَعْضًا أَيُحِبُّ أَحَدُكُمْ أَن يَأْكُلَ لَحْمَ أَخِيهِ مَيْتًا فَكَرِهْتُمُوهُ(65) And if you ask them, they will surely say, "We were only conversing and playing." Say, "Is it Allah and His verses and His Messenger that you were mocking?" (66) Make no excuse; you have disbelieved after your belief. If We pardon one faction of you - We will punish another faction because they were criminals.
وَلَئِن سَأَلْتَهُمْ لَيَقُولُنَّ إِنَّمَا كُنَّا نَخُوضُ وَنَلْعَبُ قُلْ أَبِاللَّهِ وَآيَاتِهِ وَرَسُولِهِ كُنتُمْ تَسْتَهْزِئُونَ لَا تَعْتَذِرُوا قَدْ كَفَرْتُم بَعْدَ إِيمَانِكُمْ
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، هل من منهج أهل السنة والجماعة الطاعن في العلماء؟ وهل نعمل مع من يفعل ذلك؟ لمعالي الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.