What is the appropriate style in presenting the truth to people? And is any severity or harshness permissible in that?
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The questioner : The question is that sometimes, in some jurisprudential disagreements between you and some scholars, whether they are contemporary or from the Salaf, we mention the example of the issue of the clipped gold, this matter you have exhausted in research and we have read it, and praise be to Allah, conviction was reached... but sometimes in some... from some contemporary scholars, they take a ruling other than this ruling, so do we have to present them with advice along with evidence, or perhaps there is something in our style, that the hadith says "you are in the Fire" and whoever wants to... his beloved... the hadiths with harshness, and this is in the Fire and you are in the Fire, or do we just present it to them and they choose the most correct of the two opinions?
The Shaykh : What do we present to them?
The questioner : The evidence, the evidence that you presented in the book, and they have their evidence in which they are convinced.
The Shaykh : This, my brother, is also a matter... we say, and there are many tapes, that we must, when we are confronted with people who have strayed from us far away, consider them as patients, and the patient means... so the patient with a physical illness... that one should be gentle with him, and even more so, and even more so, that the spiritual or moral doctors should be gentle with their patients and not use severity with them except when necessary. And I say this with the exception that we do not fall into establishing... coercion, because many of those who claim to belong to the call of the Book and the Sunnah, imagine the obligation of... no, we say this is the principle and this is what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was upon, but sometimes using severity... harshness, we say if we are afflicted with some of these spiritually ill people, we should treat them as doctors treat their patients with all gentleness and all softness. You gave the example of the clipped gold and you removed a phrase from the hadith.
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : ... the hadith memorizer.
The Shaykh : ... you mentioned this phrase as an example.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : The hadith in its entirety is known, so if your intention is, and this is what I consider unlikely, that... on this in this issue as you mentioned just now, and he was aware of the evidence that contradicts what the majority of scholars are upon, then this is naturally... but if your intention is to startle him by threatening him with the Fire because of his disagreement with the hadith of the Messenger (peace be upon him) which he knows and the patients do not know, this is not permissible... people know... and that they are degrees and levels, among them are the general people... I do not mean only those who are with us on the line, I mean all... for example, those belonging to the four schools of jurisprudence, they do not know except that this is forbidden and this is lawful, this is a recommended practice, this is an obligation, and so on. And most of the people, I mean, I think, I think... I think that Allah guided us to what people differ in... that it is not permissible for us to burden the general people with what we burden the students of knowledge with, let alone to burden the general people with what we burden the special people with, I mean that the general people must ask the people of knowledge as in the noble verse:[An-Nahl 16:43], and asking the people of knowledge undoubtedly requires from the questioner some effort to choose the meaning... he is not obligated to know where this scholar got this answer from, this... today the students of knowledge or the scholars, this is the obligation of the students of knowledge and the scholars, but the general people must... after the scholar and the one who claims to be a scholar has exerted effort, is he righteous or not, and so on, as... he wants to treat his physical illness, he does not go to any doctor, but he goes... so if he is convinced that so-and-so is the scholar from whom he finds no better, he asks him and follows him, this is... but if it becomes clear to him after that his scholar was mistaken in what he ruled, it is not permissible for him to persist with it... unless it becomes clear to him that it is wrong, this is the only difference. But a person who asked the scholar and set off walking... like this, Allah does not ask him, just as He does not ask the scholar who exerted effort and erred, because he did... and this worker also did... so if the reality is that these people who are in their reality ignorant of Islam and in their view... deviating from Islam, these are... for the call of there is no god but Allah, so people in this field undoubtedly differ in knowledge and principles, so the one who spent his life in knowledge is not like this one who is new in knowledge, this one who is new in knowledge receives from the one who spent his life in knowledge the result of this life, but he is not... with this knowledge... and he transfers it to others, so that differs... the style, perhaps a student of knowledge and his style is better than a scholar, because this issue does not return to what Allah bestows upon people of wisdom in calling to the good admonition, so we advise our brothers from the young Salafis not to use severity and harshness in calling those who disagree, and to always imagine that these are wretched people and that they are patients, so they must be pitied... I say in many cases, starting from the saying of Allah the Exalted... the strong upon... meaning that the call to the truth and the word of the truth is in itself heavy, heavy upon... so if the heaviness of the style is added to it, that is greater than the soul... therefore, it is sufficient for us to convey this heavy truth to the people who have strayed from it far away with the delicate style and with wisdom and with good admonition, so perhaps they will be guided, and perhaps they... this is what I testify to Allah with, and this is what He advised... .
The questioner : May Allah reward you with good. We have a topic of the sunan and... it says confirmed and unconfirmed, and these details, and this is not taken from the jurists but from the people of hadith.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : So can we know, I mean, the detail in this topic?
The Shaykh : What do we present to them?
The questioner : The evidence, the evidence that you presented in the book, and they have their evidence in which they are convinced.
The Shaykh : This, my brother, is also a matter... we say, and there are many tapes, that we must, when we are confronted with people who have strayed from us far away, consider them as patients, and the patient means... so the patient with a physical illness... that one should be gentle with him, and even more so, and even more so, that the spiritual or moral doctors should be gentle with their patients and not use severity with them except when necessary. And I say this with the exception that we do not fall into establishing... coercion, because many of those who claim to belong to the call of the Book and the Sunnah, imagine the obligation of... no, we say this is the principle and this is what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was upon, but sometimes using severity... harshness, we say if we are afflicted with some of these spiritually ill people, we should treat them as doctors treat their patients with all gentleness and all softness. You gave the example of the clipped gold and you removed a phrase from the hadith.
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : ... the hadith memorizer.
The Shaykh : ... you mentioned this phrase as an example.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : The hadith in its entirety is known, so if your intention is, and this is what I consider unlikely, that... on this in this issue as you mentioned just now, and he was aware of the evidence that contradicts what the majority of scholars are upon, then this is naturally... but if your intention is to startle him by threatening him with the Fire because of his disagreement with the hadith of the Messenger (peace be upon him) which he knows and the patients do not know, this is not permissible... people know... and that they are degrees and levels, among them are the general people... I do not mean only those who are with us on the line, I mean all... for example, those belonging to the four schools of jurisprudence, they do not know except that this is forbidden and this is lawful, this is a recommended practice, this is an obligation, and so on. And most of the people, I mean, I think, I think... I think that Allah guided us to what people differ in... that it is not permissible for us to burden the general people with what we burden the students of knowledge with, let alone to burden the general people with what we burden the special people with, I mean that the general people must ask the people of knowledge as in the noble verse:
So ask the people of the message if you do not know.
فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَThe questioner : May Allah reward you with good. We have a topic of the sunan and... it says confirmed and unconfirmed, and these details, and this is not taken from the jurists but from the people of hadith.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : So can we know, I mean, the detail in this topic?
Source
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