A speech by some Salafi shaykhs titled "Islam and the Intellectual Issue."
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The Shaykh : ... and he is the famous da'iyah in Idlib for the pure Muhammadan Salafi da'wah. We take advantage of the opportunity of his presence, along with his friend, Professor ... We ask them to benefit us with a speech that they direct to all of us, perhaps there is benefit and remembrance in it, and remembrance benefits the believers, if Allah wills. His Eminence, Professor Shaykh Muhammad Nafi' gave a speech in ... which was delivered on his behalf. Perhaps he will deliver it to us, for it undoubtedly contains beneficial benefits. However, we do not limit ourselves to this extent; rather, we hope that he will deliver it in another speech directed to our Salafi brothers, including what ... especially regarding the situation we are in, which is the blessed month of Ramadan. So, please proceed if you wish.
Shaykh Muhammad Nafi': May Allah bless you. The speech that was broadcast on the radio.
The questioner : Peace be upon you.
Muhammad Nafi': And the one I selected from four speeches, in which we treated one of them, and its title is "Islam and Intellectual Freedom."
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Nothing is like Islam in training its followers and adherents on intellectual freedom. It is the only religion that liberated minds from falsehoods and superstitions, and from the bondage of blind servitude, just as it liberated souls, through their servitude to Allah, from the snares of Satan and ... desires. It made those who believe in it the best nation produced for mankind. It is clear that intellectual freedom means the release of the mind to perform its natural function of understanding and knowledge, for that is its vast field. The mind is the application of reflection to matters in pursuit of the desired truth. By his fitrah (innate natural disposition), man is inclined to know the truth from everything he sees and hears. And Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, when He granted man the powers of sense and recognition, made him responsible for them so that he would not take it lightly to neglect them. So He said, Exalted is His status:[Al-Isra 17:36] And He criticized him for ... following the pattern of what came before without reflection and understanding, where He said ... His Messenger Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) ... the ignorant of the previous nations [Az-Zukhruf 43:23-24] And in several places in the Noble Qur'an, He lamented the imitation of the imitators, their imitation devoid of thinking.
And ... in the teachings of Islam, we find that He unleashed the mind to derive rulings from the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and ... to look at the universe to benefit from the treasures, minerals, benefits, and laws that Allah deposited in it, which He made a provision among His servants, where everyone who grasps the secret of action and striving gets his share from it, and ...[Al-Anbya 21:105] So He draws attention to what He left behind [Al-A'raf 7:185] Then He commands him to urge reflection and contemplation, saying [Ar-Rum 30:8] [Ar-Ra'd 13:3] [Ar-Ra'd 13:4] [Al-'Ankabut 29:43] [Ar-Rum 30:28] [Al-Baqarah 2:29] Do you think He created it to be neglected? Or to benefit from it? And whoever knows the abundance of those who benefit from the verses, like Islam, whether from the Companions, the Tabi'un, or those who followed them, realizes that they did not take the path of ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) except because Islam made it easy for them and charged them to exert ijtihad in every matter where they did not find an explicit text from the Lawgiver, or where they did not come across it, or where it was ambiguous with more than one interpretation. Allah the Exalted said [Muhammad 47:24] And He also said [An-Nisa 4:82-83] And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said Sunan an-Nasa'i 5381Sahih (Darussalam) And it is sufficient for Islam as an honor that it opened the locks of minds and broke their chains, encouraging them to move forward ... and it did not restrict ... experimental sciences ... and nothing is more indicative of this than ... Muslims in medicine, astronomy, the layers of the earth, the sciences of the sea, and ... the conditions of animals and other sciences, and it did not ... because it considers that a religion, just as if it blocked the need of the nation for industries that make them independent of others, it is a collective obligation (fard kifayah), and the entire nation is sinful for that. And they are also sinful if they do not think about the source of the causes of material military and non-military power and their realization, in accordance with the saying of Allah, Exalted is His status: [Al-Anfal 8:60] And ... the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) his nation to apply thought ... a life that trains a person to fear Allah in secret and in public, and he counted among them that there should be ... thought and ... remembrance, just as he taught them not to accept a statement without evidence [Al-Baqarah 2:111] And he severely criticized following desires and lowered the status of one who neglects his thought and does not benefit from his hearing and sight, until he placed him at the level of livestock, or even lower than them. So He said, Exalted is His status: "And We have certainly created for Hell many of the jinn and mankind. They have hearts with which they do not understand, and they have eyes with which they do not see, and they have ears with which they do not hear. Those are like livestock; rather, they are more astray. Those are the heedless." And since we have clarified the extent of intellectual freedom in Islam, and since we have clarified the extent of intellectual freedom in Islam and its encouragement of intellectual liberation and its respect for intelligent thinkers, we see it necessary to hint at what befell Muslims during periods of weakness: a deviation from sound Islamic education, by which its causes harmed Islam and Muslims, intentionally or unintentionally. They paralyzed their minds, disabled their thinking, and transformed their submission, making it to shaykhs and educators, after it was to Allah and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him).
So the seeker does not attain the description of the righteous except through his complete submission to his shaykh, such that he becomes before him like a dead person before the washer. And they taught him that a seeker who says to his shaykh "why" will not succeed, whereas the great imams of religion and knowledge did not allow their followers to take their ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) or issue fatwas based on it until they knew their evidence in it.
So look, O my Muslim brother, at this great reversal that cut off ijtihad (independent legal reasoning), disabled thinking, erased intellectual freedom, and prevented the student from objecting to his shaykh, even if he saw him doing what is wrong, as their shaykhs explicitly stated in speech and writing. By doing so, they paved the way for colonialism, where the colonizer exploited this deviant education that was given the attribute of religion. He bought the consciences of followed people, and by virtue of their blind obedience to them, he reached many of his requirements and imposed much of his authority. He terrified and frightened, and many of them remained silent about proclaiming the truth and neglected speaking about the verses of liberation and the hadiths of awakening. Negligence increased among Muslims as a result of the silence caused by the injustice and tyranny of the ruler. Intellectual freedom diminished, and necessity pushed many of the free thinkers to flatter those who controlled their necks and to adjust their research according to the desires of the tyrants. Thus, the philosophy of thought mixed with the politics of command, producing a blind direction that only produced the division of the word, the expansion of disagreement, and the multiplication of inclinations and directions. The Muslim peoples bowed under the light of direct and indirect colonialism in its various types: military, political, economic, and cultural. But destruction has become strong with our rising generations, which began their intellectual awakening at the beginning of the twentieth century at the hands of some Islamic renewers. They will return the truth to its place, with the help of Allah the Exalted, and cure the disease of stagnation and negligence from minds and souls, and correct the crooked behavior that filled the midst of Muslims with lewdness and recklessness. And Allah is the Helper in that, and He is sufficient for us, and He is the best Disposer of affairs.
The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.
Shaykh Muhammad Nafi': May Allah bless you. The speech that was broadcast on the radio.
The questioner : Peace be upon you.
Muhammad Nafi': And the one I selected from four speeches, in which we treated one of them, and its title is "Islam and Intellectual Freedom."
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Nothing is like Islam in training its followers and adherents on intellectual freedom. It is the only religion that liberated minds from falsehoods and superstitions, and from the bondage of blind servitude, just as it liberated souls, through their servitude to Allah, from the snares of Satan and ... desires. It made those who believe in it the best nation produced for mankind. It is clear that intellectual freedom means the release of the mind to perform its natural function of understanding and knowledge, for that is its vast field. The mind is the application of reflection to matters in pursuit of the desired truth. By his fitrah (innate natural disposition), man is inclined to know the truth from everything he sees and hears. And Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, when He granted man the powers of sense and recognition, made him responsible for them so that he would not take it lightly to neglect them. So He said, Exalted is His status:
Indeed, the hearing, the sight and the heart - about all those [one] will be questioned.
إن السمع والبصر والفؤاد كل أولئك كان عنه مسؤولا(23) And similarly, We did not send before you any warner into a city except that its affluent said, "Indeed, we found our fathers upon a religion, and we are, in their footsteps, following." (24) [Each warner] said, "Even if I brought you better guidance than that [religion] upon which you found your fathers?" They said, "Indeed we, in that with which you were sent, are disbelievers."
وكذلك ما أرسلنا من قبلك في قرية من نذير إلا قال مترفوها إنا وجدنا ءاباءنا على أمة وإنا على ءاثارهم مقتدون قال أولو جئتكم بأهدى مما وجدتم عليه ءاباءكم قالوا إنا بما أرسلتم به كافرونAnd ... in the teachings of Islam, we find that He unleashed the mind to derive rulings from the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and ... to look at the universe to benefit from the treasures, minerals, benefits, and laws that Allah deposited in it, which He made a provision among His servants, where everyone who grasps the secret of action and striving gets his share from it, and ...
And We have already written in the book [of Psalms] after the [previous] mention that the land [of Paradise] is inherited by My righteous servants.
ولقد كتبنا في الزبور من بعد الذكر أن الأرض يرثها عبادي الصالحونDo they not look into the realm of the heavens and the earth and everything that Allah has created
أولم ينظروا في ملكوت السماوات والأرض وما خلق الله من شيءDo they not reflect?
أفلا تتفكرونDo they not use their reason?
أفلا تعقلونDo they not contemplate within themselves?
أولم يتفكروا في أنفسهمIndeed in that are signs for a people who give thought.
إن في ذلك لآيات لقوم يتفكرونIndeed in that are signs for a people who reason.
إن في ذلك لآيات لقوم يعقلونAnd these examples We present to the people, but none will understand them except those of knowledge.
وتلك الأمثال نضربها للناس وما يعقلها إلا العالمونThus do We detail the verses for a people who use reason.
كذلك نفصل الآيات لقوم يعقلونIt is He who created for you all of that which is on the earth
هو الذي خلق لكم ما في الأرض جميعاThen do they not reflect upon the Qur'an, or are there locks upon [their] hearts?
أفلا يتدبرون القرآن أم على قلوب أقفالها(82) Then do they not reflect upon the Qur'an? If it had been from [any] other than Allah, they would have found within it much contradiction. (83) And when there comes to them information about [public] security or fear, they spread it around. But if they had referred it back to the Messenger or to those of authority among them, then the ones who [can] draw correct conclusions from it would have known about it. And if not for the favor of Allah upon you and His mercy, you would have followed Satan, except for a few.
أفلا يتدبرون القرآن ولو كان من عند غير الله لوجدوا فيه اختلافا كثيرا وإذا جاءهم أمر من الأمن أو الخوف أذاعوا به ولو ردوه إلى الرسول وإلى أولي الأمر منهم لعلمه الذين يستنبطونه منهمIf a judge passes judgment and strives to reach the right conclusion and gets it right, he will have two rewards; if he strives to reach the right conclusion but gets it wrong, he will still have one reward.
إذا اجتهد الحاكم فأصاب فله أجران وإذا اجتهد فأخطأ فله أجرAnd prepare against them whatever you are able of power
وأعدوا لهم ما استطعتم من قوةSay, "Produce your proof, if you should be truthful."
قل هاتوا برهانكم إن كنتم صادقينSo the seeker does not attain the description of the righteous except through his complete submission to his shaykh, such that he becomes before him like a dead person before the washer. And they taught him that a seeker who says to his shaykh "why" will not succeed, whereas the great imams of religion and knowledge did not allow their followers to take their ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) or issue fatwas based on it until they knew their evidence in it.
So look, O my Muslim brother, at this great reversal that cut off ijtihad (independent legal reasoning), disabled thinking, erased intellectual freedom, and prevented the student from objecting to his shaykh, even if he saw him doing what is wrong, as their shaykhs explicitly stated in speech and writing. By doing so, they paved the way for colonialism, where the colonizer exploited this deviant education that was given the attribute of religion. He bought the consciences of followed people, and by virtue of their blind obedience to them, he reached many of his requirements and imposed much of his authority. He terrified and frightened, and many of them remained silent about proclaiming the truth and neglected speaking about the verses of liberation and the hadiths of awakening. Negligence increased among Muslims as a result of the silence caused by the injustice and tyranny of the ruler. Intellectual freedom diminished, and necessity pushed many of the free thinkers to flatter those who controlled their necks and to adjust their research according to the desires of the tyrants. Thus, the philosophy of thought mixed with the politics of command, producing a blind direction that only produced the division of the word, the expansion of disagreement, and the multiplication of inclinations and directions. The Muslim peoples bowed under the light of direct and indirect colonialism in its various types: military, political, economic, and cultural. But destruction has become strong with our rising generations, which began their intellectual awakening at the beginning of the twentieth century at the hands of some Islamic renewers. They will return the truth to its place, with the help of Allah the Exalted, and cure the disease of stagnation and negligence from minds and souls, and correct the crooked behavior that filled the midst of Muslims with lewdness and recklessness. And Allah is the Helper in that, and He is sufficient for us, and He is the best Disposer of affairs.
The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.