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When the Prophet (saaws) received the Message of Islam, he cultured
the personalities of the Sahabah, and the product of this culturing
process was personalities that understood Islam in a very profound
manner while simultaneously possessing the qualities of leadership.
This group of individuals would later become the core of leadership
that would enable the Prophet (saaws) to effectively govern the
affairs of the society and would serve as the engine that created a
momentum for the Muslim Ummah to excel and progress in all aspects
of life for centuries to come. Many fields of knowledge, such as
Fiqh, Usul, Tafseer, and Arabic language, benefited from the fruits
of such a generation.
In the field of Fiqh (jurisprudence), during the first few
generations, the level of thinking was very high, and the atmosphere
that ensued produced personalities such as Imam Shafi, Abu Hanifa,
Malik, and others. Such personalities were original in their
thinking and creativity, and their work reflects the high level of
creativity and thinking that existed at the time. These scholars
would have several debates and discussions amongst one another, but
in the end, each respected the opinion of the other while
acknowledging one another as equals.
With time, this level of understanding began to slowly deteriorate,
and the onset of such a decline was something virtually undetectable
but with dramatic repercussions. The seed for the decline was
planted when the students of these great scholars began to show a
level of respect for their teachers and mentors, and out of respect,
they began to simply carry their opinions and imitate them WITHOUT
adding any original thinking or creativity of their own. And what
started as innocent respect eventually devolved into the Muslim
Ummah becoming a generation of imitators rather than a generation of
thinkers. At first, this trend was unnoticeable and nobody ever
thought of its long-term consequences, partly due to the fact that
the level of thinking in the society was still very high, and the
decline was very subtle from one generation to another. However,
with time, original thought and creativity, rather than being the
characteristic of an entire generation, was gradually reduced to
fewer and fewer individuals, and imitation slowly became the
emerging trend. Rather than contributing any original thought and
creativity of their own, Fiqh and many other fields became a
regurgitation of the original work done by previous scholars.
Further contributing to this decline was the overall decline of the
Muslim Ummah, and the emergence of many problems that accelerated
the decline, such as the introduction of alien philosophies into the
Aqeedah, the cessation of Ijtihad as an institution, and the
decline in the Arabic language. Gradually, imitation and repetition
gave way to exaltation and glorification, which eventually resulted
in sanctification and worship of these personalities. The situation
deteriorated to the point that fatwas were given saying that it is
haram for a Hanafi to marry a Shafi, or that a Hanafi may not pray
behind a Shafi and vice versa.
Nowadays, very little if any creativity exists among the Muslim
Ummah. Among the ''scholars'' and ''intellectuals'', as far as Fiqh,
Usul, and other such fields are concerned, what is produced is
either a cut-and-paste stew of opinions and research from classical
scholars or research that reflects a distorted thinking that is
influenced by foreign culture and thought and is outside the circle
of Islam. And among the masses, the picture is even more bleak.
Muslims are reared with a mentality of kissing the hand of their
Sheikh, and fatwas are issued left and right while Muslims simply
absorb whatever the Sheikh or imam decrees as if what comes from the
scholar or Sheikh is above the Shariah itself and beyond questioning
or accountability.
Many lessons can be learned from such a history. First, we should
realize that, as the saying goes, ''big things start out small''.
Some of our most pressing problems and issues began as something
virtually undetectable, which forces us to be extra vigilant at
ensuring the purity of our thought and culture from ANY deviation,
no matter how marginal it may seem. Also, we should realize the
importance of creating an atmosphere that fosters originality and
creativity, and such an atmosphere is desperately needed in the
Ummah today if we are to reverse the existing trend. In this manner,
we will produce a level of thinking that is vigilant in safeguarding
its integrity from any vestige of corruption or deviation, while at
the same time encourages original thinking and creativity.
Similarly, when we ask somebody for an answer, we
do not take this answer because that individual is the ''Grand
Sheikh'' or the Grand Mufti or he is such a nice person who has so
much knowledge, and he has a PhD in Islamic studies and he went to
such-and-such Islamic school, and he has a long beard and is older
then us - therefore he knows more than us, etc., etc. Islam does not
revolve around individuals. What is of significance to us is the
strength of the evidence supporting the answer given and whether it
is based on Islam, and no individual or a group (even AdduOnline) is
above questioning and accountability.
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