Applying the Sunnah: These days it causes us embarrassment with the common people, just as it causes fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) in the mosques. How should we deal with the common people regarding this matter?

The questioner : Applying the Sunnah: These days it causes us embarrassment with the common people, just as it causes fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) in the mosques. What is your opinion, may Allah reward you with good? It seems he is asking how we should deal with the common people regarding this matter?

The Shaykh : I say: The claimed fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) does not arise from applying the Sunnah by the common people, but rather from some of the people of the Sunnah entering into discussions with others who are not qualified for such discussions, neither from a scholarly nor a stylistic standpoint. As for the scholarly aspect, it is clear, because many of our brothers object to it, asking, "Why are you moving your finger, for example?" One says, "By Allah, this is the Sunnah." Then they ask, "What do you know about it?" One says, "By Allah, I found Shaykh So-and-So saying..." This is not an answer; it may just be that mentioning Shaykh So-and-So increases the fire of the dispute... and so on. So I say that most of those who enter into discussions with the common people are, as the saying goes, neither in the caravan nor in the army; they are not qualified, neither from a scholarly nor a stylistic standpoint. From a scholarly standpoint, it is obligatory for the one who upholds the Sunnah to preserve the evidence so that he can establish the proof against the opponents, first to convince them, and second out of mercy for them. He must preserve the evidence for the Sunnah that people deny against him.
Second: He should be gentle in presenting this evidence to people, based on the wise, well-known verse: . What usually happens is that some people become enthusiastic about the Salafi call at the beginning of their journey in life, and since they have not been granted any wisdom, you find them clashing in the arena, clashing and clashing. As I always say, and forever, human energy is limited, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) indicated in his saying: . When a person grips his fist like this, he can keep it that way for hours until the power of sleep overcomes him. Why? Because it is a natural grip. But if I do this and then after five or ten minutes it starts to relax, this is an example of the enthusiasm of some of our Salafi brothers when they receive the call and rush into confronting people with all harshness and severity. After that, the nerves relax, they retreat, and they barely manage to maintain the Sunnahs they had learned, if they do not turn their backs on them entirely. Therefore, the fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) occurs.