The Ruling on Tracking the Flaws of Scholars and Students of Knowledge and Publicizing Them
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
This person says: Your Eminence the Shaykh, what is Your Eminence’s opinion of those who occupy themselves with categorizing people, tracking the slips of scholars, preachers, and students of knowledge, whether living or dead, and spreading their errors among the general public? They warn against scholars and preachers by name, label their brothers who do not agree with them in this ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) as innovators, boycott them and warn against them, and perhaps fabricate lies about them. They have even abandoned praying behind some of them and testing people’s loyalty and disavowal (al-wala' wa al-bara') based on individuals. In all of this, they claim to be the only ones deserving of the name Salafi, excluding others, and they spread the rumor that you, Your Eminence the Shaykh, support them in what they hold. As a result of this, a great division has arisen among the students of knowledge who hold the Book and the Sunnah and the Salaf of this Ummah in high esteem. So what is Your Eminence’s guidance?
Answer:
This question is longer than the lecture. My brothers, have you heard Allah the Exalted say:[Al-Hujurat 49:12-13] If you are speaking about people, return to yourself and count your own flaws. Count your own flaws before you track the flaws of others. Turn to Allah Mighty and Majestic.
Allah did not make you a watchdog over people to count their flaws. Rather, He commanded you to hold yourself accountable. If you see an error in your brother, you guide him with good admonition between you and him. But speaking about him in gatherings is forbidden, and this is the backbiting (ghibah) from which one is prohibited.
I also advise you, O you who occupy yourselves with these matters, to seek knowledge first. This only happened out of ignorance. It happened out of ignorance. They are ignorant people who think they are scholars or students of knowledge, then they belittle people, seek out their flaws, and engage in the critique and vindication of narrators (al-jarh wa al-ta'dil). This is their main occupation. They must seek knowledge first so that they know the truth from falsehood, the correct from the incorrect, and know how to deal with the errors of others. These matters require fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and knowledge. They are dealt with by covering up faults, by what is best, by admonition, by advice, and by good admonition. They are not dealt with by such matters that inflame discord in the society and make a Muslim hate his Muslim brother, or a student of knowledge hate his fellow student of knowledge, until, as the questioner said, some of them do not pray behind others. Why? Are you not Muslims? Are you not brothers in Allah Mighty and Majestic? So why do some of them not pray behind others? The one behind whom one does not pray is the open sinner (fasiq), the one who is an open sinner in his creed or in his actions, the one whose open sinfulness is apparent, the one who openly commits sin. One does not pray behind him. But as for a person who is covered, a person who has nothing apparent against him, but rather you are accusing him, or he did not agree with you in what you want, and you take this as a reason to boycott him, to cut ties with him, to create division, discord, and disagreement—all of this is not permissible. Yes.
This person says: Your Eminence the Shaykh, what is Your Eminence’s opinion of those who occupy themselves with categorizing people, tracking the slips of scholars, preachers, and students of knowledge, whether living or dead, and spreading their errors among the general public? They warn against scholars and preachers by name, label their brothers who do not agree with them in this ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) as innovators, boycott them and warn against them, and perhaps fabricate lies about them. They have even abandoned praying behind some of them and testing people’s loyalty and disavowal (al-wala' wa al-bara') based on individuals. In all of this, they claim to be the only ones deserving of the name Salafi, excluding others, and they spread the rumor that you, Your Eminence the Shaykh, support them in what they hold. As a result of this, a great division has arisen among the students of knowledge who hold the Book and the Sunnah and the Salaf of this Ummah in high esteem. So what is Your Eminence’s guidance?
Answer:
This question is longer than the lecture. My brothers, have you heard Allah the Exalted say:
(12) O you who have believed, avoid much [negative] assumption. Indeed, some assumption is sin. And do not spy or backbite each other. Would one of you like to eat the flesh of his brother when dead? You would detest it. And fear Allah; indeed, Allah is Accepting of repentance and Merciful. (13) O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.
وَلَا يَغْتَب بَّعْضُكُم بَعْضًا أَيُحِبُّ أَحَدُكُمْ أَن يَأْكُلَ لَحْمَ أَخِيهِ مَيْتًا فَكَرِهْتُمُوهُ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ تَوَّابٌ رَّحِيمٌ يَا أَيُّهَاAllah did not make you a watchdog over people to count their flaws. Rather, He commanded you to hold yourself accountable. If you see an error in your brother, you guide him with good admonition between you and him. But speaking about him in gatherings is forbidden, and this is the backbiting (ghibah) from which one is prohibited.
I also advise you, O you who occupy yourselves with these matters, to seek knowledge first. This only happened out of ignorance. It happened out of ignorance. They are ignorant people who think they are scholars or students of knowledge, then they belittle people, seek out their flaws, and engage in the critique and vindication of narrators (al-jarh wa al-ta'dil). This is their main occupation. They must seek knowledge first so that they know the truth from falsehood, the correct from the incorrect, and know how to deal with the errors of others. These matters require fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and knowledge. They are dealt with by covering up faults, by what is best, by admonition, by advice, and by good admonition. They are not dealt with by such matters that inflame discord in the society and make a Muslim hate his Muslim brother, or a student of knowledge hate his fellow student of knowledge, until, as the questioner said, some of them do not pray behind others. Why? Are you not Muslims? Are you not brothers in Allah Mighty and Majestic? So why do some of them not pray behind others? The one behind whom one does not pray is the open sinner (fasiq), the one who is an open sinner in his creed or in his actions, the one whose open sinfulness is apparent, the one who openly commits sin. One does not pray behind him. But as for a person who is covered, a person who has nothing apparent against him, but rather you are accusing him, or he did not agree with you in what you want, and you take this as a reason to boycott him, to cut ties with him, to create division, discord, and disagreement—all of this is not permissible. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، محاضرات في العقيدة والدعوة-06-الاعتصام بالكتاب والسنة|صالح الفوزان|العام|كبار العلماء — youtube.com (47:09)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.