Advice from Adnan Arur, on behalf of the Shaykh’s sentiments, to students of knowledge: to be earnest and diligent, and to abandon the disputes that fill hearts with hatred and enmity.

The questioner : I say what I should not have spoken on behalf ofThe Shaykh : But I advise my brother and I advise all the brothers, and I ask the brother the following question: How did you know the truth from falsehood, and the right from the wrong? Is it not through knowledge? Is it not through good da'wah (calling to Islam)? These are the best means for them and for you. You should guide them to the pursuit of knowledge, by which Allah the Exalted guides a person and straightens his steps. A word like this from our honorable Shaykh does not have the same effect as knowledge, systematic organization, and foundational principles. You should organize for them and establish the foundations that the truth is not tied to men, that the truth is not tied to a place, and that the truth is not tied to a time. As for those debates and discussions that take place among the brothers—Al-Albani is good, or not good; Sayyid Qutb is a disbeliever, or not a disbeliever; so-and-so is such and such—this is the same speech we mentioned before. This has no end, absolutely no end. So the speechThe Shaykh : will tell you: Encourage them to seek knowledge. Call them with wisdom and good instruction. Do not create enmity between you and them. Even if they were Jews in the path of da'wah, other than the path of jihad, Allah the Exalted has conditioned us that our calling of the People of the Book must be in the best manner . So what can be said about your Muslim brothers who are, however, deviant, misguided, or mistaken, among other things? The answerThe Shaykh : is to encourage them to knowledge and to establish between you and them a brotherly, scholarly relationship such that they become like you in knowing the truth, and you all improve. And we are with you in the da'wah to Allah.

The Shaykh : May Allah accept your advice.

The questioner : And you as well, but praiseThe Shaykh : or commendationThe Shaykh : or of any scholar among the scholars, as Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah did regarding the Asha'irah, and even regarding the Mu'tazilah. And if we praise al-Ma'mun for his jihad and his conquest of the lands of the Muslims, this does not mean, and it is not necessary, that we support his madhhab (school of jurisprudence). At the same time, criticizing does not mean that we say he erred in this and erred in that; it means misguidance. These extremes, glory be to Allah, how the Muslims have been afflicted, as Shaykh al-Islam said: There is no statement but that it has two extremes and a middle. So let your debate not be about the man, but rather about knowledge, the pursuit of knowledge, and scholarly discussion, so that perhaps Allah will recordThe Shaykh : It does not mean that he encourages reading the books of Zayd and 'Amr, or Sayyid Qutb, no. Rather, he encourages the pursuit of knowledge: knowledge based on the Book and the Sunnah, and the sayings of the righteous Salaf. And this is not a final decision fromThe Shaykh : as is understood. And I sometimes include myself, as the honorable brother means, and he asked me the same questions. By the grace of Allah and His decree, I agreed with you before I knew your opinions. Perhaps verbatim, I directed him to such advice: to stay away from such issues. The important thing is our saying, or the saying ofThe Shaykh : may Allah reward him with good, that this speech in *Ma'alim fi al-Tariq* (Milestones on the Path) is good. It does not mean that he made Sayyid Qutb like Ibn Kathir. Rather, he explicitly states that he is not a scholar. This is a point we must realize. And it does not mean that if he erred in two or three matters, we do not mention any of his good deeds, as our Shaykh mentioned that Allah the Exalted praised the Christians in more than one place to the end of the verse. So this does not mean at all. The correct and truthful position is that the brothers should also not throw themselves at those books that do not provide knowledge, which they call books of culture. Rather, they should return to the books of foundational principles, after the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger, their divisions and commentaries, and the books of the foundational scholars and jurists, such as Shaykh al-Islam and his students, and the books of al-Shatibi, among others.