Sheikh Sajid Umar

Website

  • Home
  • Main Blog
    • Articles
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Provisions For The Hereafter
    • Islamic Finance
    • New Muslim’s Corner
    • Knowledge Bites
    • Ponder This…
    • Young Learner’s Hub
    • Ramadan
    • Rulings & Advice (Q&A)
    • Memorize & Understand Surah Kahf
  • Biography
  • Schedule & Events
  • Articles
  • Video
  • Audio
  • Memorize & Understand Surah Kahf
  • Rulings & Advice (Q&A)
  • Islamic Finance
  • Knowledge Bites
  • Ponder This…
  • Awareness
  • New Muslim’s Corner
  • Young Learner’s Hub
  • Remarkable Projects
  • Provisions For The Hereafter Class
  • Quotes

Declaring another believer an innovator

October 15, 2017 by Sajid Umar Leave a Comment

Assalamualaikum everyone…

Introduction

The religion of Islam as completed by the final Messenger, Muhammed (SAW), is an entire way of life. Everything we do is Islam. The way we worship, eat, put on our clothes, removes our clothes, work and play is Islam. Even the way we treat other people is Islam!

For something to be everything; it natrually needs to be balanced and always upon a middle path statically.

The issue

During my journey calling towards the middle way in our affairs; I have unfortunately come across individuals who have taken it upon themselves to criticise the beliefs of other believers. They proclaim an individual to be an innovator in religion and fail to find inner peace and contentment until they do everything in their capacity to expose the supposed perpetrator. This unfortunate reality is further emphasized when individuals from the general public declare war against an Islamic propgator (daa’i), student of knowledge (taalib ilm) or scholar (sheikh).

Why unfortunately? Isn’t due criticism the middle way!? Isn’t innovation in the religion frowned upon and forbidden is Islam?

Well YES and NO…

NO- when the criticism is void of following due diligence and the established guidelines in Islam.

YES- when the criticism is based on established paramters and guidelines. The keyword here being ‘established’.

Islam being a middle way and a complete way of life, has without doubt, listed for us *clearly* the rules and regulations before a conclusion of any kind can be declared upon the believers.

Failure to follow these guidelines natrually would take a person off the middle way and cause them to become abusive of the rights of the other believers, all of which carry severe penalties in this life and the next.

*The Paradox*

Whenever a declaration of someone being an innovator in religion or misguided is passed; there will always be a third party. This party is represented by the innocent bystanders who try and make sense of all chaos. Their woes are further aggravated when the disadvantaged labels are thrown against people they respect, or even teachers whom they learn their religion from.

“I’m confused! I’ve just heard that my teacher is a person of bid’ah (innovation), and the people labelling him practice the religion better then me and come across as so sincere!”

“The person labelling my teacher is the same person who introduced me to him!”

“The person warning me against the brother is the one who introduced me to Islam. I cannot doubt his intentions!”

These are but some of the voices shared by the innocent onlooker.

In addressing this, I would like to share two points, as follows:

1. Our pious before us have taught us that the way to the hell-fire can also be paved with good intentions. It is imperative that we understand sincerity does not turn misguidance into guidance.

2. It is not enough to be sincere. Conformity to the teachings of the final Messenger (SAW) in practice must exisit as well.

This reality is established in our first article of faith, the ‘shahaadah’, in which we never seperate the fact that there is no one worthy of worship besides one Allah (sincerity), from the fact that Muhammed (SAW) is His servant and messenger (conformity to the teachings of the final Messenger (SAW).

Based on this; a (sincere) individual lacking (conformity) creates a paradox, and a paradox is a sight for sore eyes!

Ending off…

In the spirit of celebrating ‘how’, I end off by sharing with you established principles based on evidence and precedent in terms of the practice of the pious and rightly guided before us related to the topic of passing declarations over other believers. Contemplate these principles and hold tight onto them, especially when a sincere individual visits you in the future with a similar matter to the one addressed by this post.

These principles are as follows:

1. Declaring a Muslim as a disbeliever or innovator is a religious verdict which carries rules and regulations and can only be determined by those who Islam has established as authorities over us in these matters. This does not include the general public.

2. It is forbidden (haraam) to declare a Muslim as a disbeliever or an innovator in an unestablished way.

3. It is compulsory to verify the actual occurence of the speech or act that is being used to declare someone a disbeliever or innovator.

4. It is compulsory to verify that speech or act that has been established as having occured to be from the matters declared by established evidence to be a matter of disbelief or innovation.

5. It is compulsory to ensure that all the established conditions in Islam have been met before declaring someone a disbeliever or innovator, in the event of point 3 & 4 above being established. (The list of these conditions are not the point of this post and are known to the authorities in Islam.)

6. It is compulsory to establish the non-existance of the factors which *prevent* the ruling of disbelief and innovation being applied upon the accused, in the event of point 3 & 4 above being established. (The list of these factors are not the point of this post and are known to the authorities in Islam.)

7. Only those who have been established as authorities by Islam in passing ruling over the believers can offer declarations of disbelief and innovation, not the lay-public.

8. The established authorities by Islam in this matter can differ in their rulings & declarations over another due to differences in their conclusions from their study of the matters discussed in points 3,4,5 & 6. These differences in conclusions are valid, and as such, it is impermissible to declare oppossing counsel as misguided.

9. Whoever’s Islam and guidance has been established with certainty; it impermissible to declare disbelief or misguidance upon that person except with oppossing certainty established by evidence. It is not enough, and in fact prohibited, to declare a ruling based on suspicion.

May Allah increase our knowledge, forgive us and correct the affairs of the believers across the globe. Ameen.

And Allah almighty knows best.

Your brother,
Sajid Umar

FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Filed Under: Articles

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Follow Us

Visit Us On TwitterVisit Us On FacebookVisit Us On YoutubeVisit Us On Linkedin

Recent Posts

  •  إِنَّا ِلِلَّٰهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ
  • How does the Shariah Identify Money?
  • The Ruling on Benefitting from a Bank’s Debit & Credit Card Rewards’ Program
  • Islamic Ruling on Receiving Referral Fees offered by Businesses as part of their Referral’s Program?
  • The Meaning Of ‘حي’

Twitter

My Tweets

Archives

  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • Schedule & Events
  • Leave Testimonial

Copyright © · All Rights Reserved. "Sheikh Sajid Umar" - Idimdb -