The Shaykh 'Aid 'Abassi's speech, and the clarification that the calamity of the Muslim community today is ignorance and its prevalence and spread

The student: And we know that the calamity of this community is ignorance. For centuries, the Muslims closed off the avenues of thought from themselves. Those who claim knowledge among them imposed taqlid (following a scholar without knowing his evidence) on the people. They said there is no ijtihad (independent legal reasoning); ijtihad is forbidden, its door is closed, and there is no mujtahid (a scholar qualified to derive rulings). Whoever wants to be a mujtahid is causing chaos, he is such-and-such, he is a liar and deluded, and he divides the people. They obligated the people to follow taqlid. Imagine a community where there is no scholar. What is knowledge? It is the open insight, walking on the guidance of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). This is what is represented by the saying of Allah (Mighty and Majestic): This call of insight, they have abolished it for centuries; and therefore their condition changed, as our Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He) said regarding it: This blessing, the blessing of knowledge, looking into the Book and the Sunnah, studying them, reading them, following their guidance, and standing by their limits. This call, they said, is not truth, it is not suitable, it divides the people. We must choose the opinions of some scholars and be bound by them and not contradict them, as if they are infallible, as if they are prophets. How is it permissible to be bound by the opinion of a person, whoever he is, in every issue, and to turn away from the Book of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), so that one does not look into them for piety, does not look into them for reflection and study, and for deriving rulings, but rather makes them for tabarruk (seeking blessing from a thing or person)? And when a calamity strikes them, they open the book of al-Bukhari and read it to ward off calamities. This is what the ignorant did, and they did it as if it were ruqyah (healing by Qur'anic recitation) or amulets that protect them, even though Allah (Mighty and Majestic) says: , , and in a verse: , and the other verse: , thus Allah (Mighty and Majestic) revealed it for reflection: They made it for amulets, to be read over the dead and in funerals and gatherings and the like, rituals as is the case with the People of the Book. This call wants to scatter the dust of ignorance. All of this is to combat taqlid, to call for the opening of minds and insights, to activate this intellect. Indeed, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) granted us the blessing of intellect not to abolish it or to deactivate it, but rather He (Blessed and Exalted is He) mentioned that the disbelievers will say on the Day of Resurrection: , . The Muslim is the one with the open intellect, the one who activates his intellect. But what does he activate his intellect in? He does not make it a judge, nor a legislator, nor the one who upholds the Shari'ah of Allah. Rather, he makes it a tool, a serious starting point in understanding the Book of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and ijtihad in the rulings of the religion of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) where He has been silent. As some scholars said, the function of the intellect in Islam is understanding from Allah and His Messenger, and that is sufficient for it, and the good is in this. So Allah (Mighty and Majestic), when He assigned this task to it, knew that this is its place. When you put a thing in its place, it is of great benefit. And when you put it in a place other than its place, or burden it with what it is not good at, then that is harm, and the greatest harm. The innovators activate their intellects, but in what? In bid'ah (religious innovation) in the religion. The acts of worship that Allah and His Messenger prescribed are not enough for them; they leave them to activate their intellects in what? They invent a new worship, a new act of nearness, as if they are legislators and as if they are gods. And at the same time, they prevent correct ijtihad, looking into the Book and the Sunnah. And as for in this world, you see them imitating everything, relying on foreigners in this world, which is one of the places of the intellect that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) commanded to be activated in. In this world, activate your intellect, invent, make "all of it", in looking at the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and so on, in invention, striving, and movement. This is where they deactivate the work of the intellect and activate it in what its provision has been sufficed from, from the acts of worship and the devotional acts. In any case, speaking about this virtue is long, so I move on to the other virtue.