What is your advice to one who is fanatical about your opinion in some jurisprudential issues?

The questioner: His EminenceThe Shaykh- May Allah preserve you - , what is your advice to one who is fanatical about your opinion in some jurisprudential issues?

The Shaykh: Allah is his reckoner; if he is fanatical about a living person or a dead one, whether in truth or in falsehood. We have lived this age that you see embodied before you, and we forbid people from following any person who is not infallible. Rather, he should fear Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and choose from the opinions that which his soul finds peace in and his chest opens to, without fanaticism for a specific person. For people, however high they may rise, have no infallibility except for the one whom Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has chosen for His message; and that is our Prophet (may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him). So it is not permissible to be fanatical about any person except the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), for he is the infallible Prophet, and whatever knowledge has come to us from him is all correct and good. As for others, it is as Imam Malik (may Allah have mercy on him) said in his famous statement: “We have not been given anything from anyone that was not returned to us and refuted, except the one in this grave,” and he pointed to the grave of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). So fanaticism for people is one of the greatest causes of the Muslims splitting into sects and parties. We read this in past history, and we find some of its effects in the present age, contrary to the statement of our Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He) in His Book: .
So this splitting arises from fanaticism for people, no matter how righteous, scholarly, and practicing these people may be; it is not permissible to be fanatical about any of them. And have you not known, from the past centuries attested to as excellent in the authentic, mass-transmitted hadith, namely his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): ? People today narrate this hadith with the wording: “The best of the centuries is my century,” and this is an error in the wording. The correct wording is: , not “the best of the centuries.” This is how the hadith came in “al-Sahihayn” and others with the wording: . Have you not heard of these centuries attested to as excellent by this mass-transmitted hadith, that among them there was one who was a Bakri, or an Umayyad, or an Uthmani, or an Alawi?
There was nothing of this fanaticism for these people, who are the best of people absolutely after the messengers and prophets, among them. There was nothing of this kind of fanaticism, which is present today among the majority of Muslims, among the Companions. Therefore, the saved sect, which was mentioned among the seventy-three sects that will be in this Ummah by the information of the Messenger (may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him) to us, was not among these seventy-three sects except the saved sect, which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) described as being upon what the Messenger (may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him) and his noble Companions were upon. And since you have known that none of them, all of them together, were fanatical as they emphasize this meaning; there was no one among them who was fanatical in that brightest, purest era for one of these people, contrary to what happened afterwards when Satan began to sow his discord and move people’s religion, and they followed his ways, as He (the Exalted) said in the Noble Qur’an: . And it has come in “al-Mustadrak” by Abu Abdullah al-Hakim, with his good chain, from the hadith of Abdullah ibn Mas’ud (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was sitting among his Companions one day when he recited this noble verse after drawing a straight line on the ground, then drawing short lines around the straight line, then reciting this noble verse, passing his hand over that straight line: . Then he said (may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him): .
So infallibility is upon every Muslim not to deviate to the right or to the left, and not to be of the party of Satan, but rather to be of the party of the Most Merciful by walking steadily on a straight path; for it will lead him to the Garden of Delight without doubt or hesitation. As for these short lines, there is profound wisdom in the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) drawing of this wonderful image, as if, in modern expression—and far be it from him—he was a skilled artist; but he draws good and forbids drawing evil, as you know. He drew the straight path as a long line, indicating thereby his saying (may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him): “Paradise is surrounded by desires.” Who wants to reach Paradise, what does he need? He will find many desires. Excuse me; . He will find many disliked things on this long path of his. As for the lines, on the head of each of which is a Satan, they were short lines, indicating thereby the desires that Satan beautifies for these travelers on the straight path; as if he is saying with the language of the situation: Where are you going? And how far will you reach? To me, to me; so look at this path, how close it is! . Therefore, upon every Muslim are two things, by the occasion of this explanation:
The first thing: that he knows the straight line and distinguishes it from the lines of the devils. And the first thing: that he stations himself and perseveres in walking on this line; for the path is long and requires struggle. So we hope that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) will grant us the pleasure of knowing the path to reaching our Lord, and that He will also make us know the paths of Satan so that we may avoid them. And it was from the intellect of one of the Companions, namely Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman (may Allah be pleased with him), who said, as it came in “al-Sahihayn”: “The people used to ask the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) about the good, and I used to ask him about the evil, fearing that I would fall into it.” And from such a statement narrated from Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman, the poet said rightly:
“I knew the evil not for the evil, *** But to avoid it.
And he who does not know the good *** Falls into the evil.”
So know the path that leads to Allah, and it is none other than the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, upon the methodology of the righteous Salaf.
Yes.