What are the guidelines for responding to a dissenter?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Shaykh.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : Shaykh, may Allah reward you with good. Does not the saying of Allah the Exalted:[An-Nisa 4:95] and the verse you mentioned imply this?
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : Is it fair to a man, when advising him or responding to him, to mention his good deeds before mentioning his bad ones?
The Shaykh : No, may Allah bless you, there is a distinction here. If we want to refute a false statement, there is no need to mention the man's virtues, because if you refute him and then praise him, you weaken the force of the refutation. However, if we want to assess the man, we must mention both his virtues and his faults.
Therefore, you will find, for example, that books on narrators mention faults and virtues because they aim to assess the man. You will find that in books of refutation, they do not mention the man's virtues; they mention the fault they want to refute him for. So the matter requires distinction. If one wants to refute and clarify an error, it is absolutely inappropriate to mention the man's virtues, because this weakens the force of the refutation. But if he wants to assess the man, such as when asked, "What do you say about so-and-so?" I would say, "So-and-so has such and such; he has virtues and he has faults." Yes.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : Shaykh, may Allah reward you with good. Does not the saying of Allah the Exalted:
And to both Allah has promised the best [reward]
وكلا وعد الله الحسنىAnd We made it understood to Sulayman
ففهمناها سليمانThe Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : Is it fair to a man, when advising him or responding to him, to mention his good deeds before mentioning his bad ones?
The Shaykh : No, may Allah bless you, there is a distinction here. If we want to refute a false statement, there is no need to mention the man's virtues, because if you refute him and then praise him, you weaken the force of the refutation. However, if we want to assess the man, we must mention both his virtues and his faults.
Therefore, you will find, for example, that books on narrators mention faults and virtues because they aim to assess the man. You will find that in books of refutation, they do not mention the man's virtues; they mention the fault they want to refute him for. So the matter requires distinction. If one wants to refute and clarify an error, it is absolutely inappropriate to mention the man's virtues, because this weakens the force of the refutation. But if he wants to assess the man, such as when asked, "What do you say about so-and-so?" I would say, "So-and-so has such and such; he has virtues and he has faults." Yes.