deobandiyyah plus Mauritanian scholars is the answer. :p

On a more serious note: why not just be muslim?

that whole post made me feel really sad.
as you said if the laypeople can focus on the common ground, it’s upsetting and frightning when our scholars can’t.

on a more positive note this:
“As most of you know, at MM, we try to stay away from sectarian arguments that have no benefit”
is one of the many things i love about MM!

The wording of all this is rather unfortunate, and I’m sure some people will use it as fodder for increasing their attacks.

If we were to compare traditionalism with “non-traditionalism”, against all the other fitnas that are out there today, we’d find agreement 99% of the time.

At the same time, we’d find bigots on both sides who would focus on that 1% of difference, and make a big deal out of it. They frustrate me to no end.

The statement that “I’m washing my hands of traditional Islam”, I find, is rather demeaning, in that traditionalism is implied to be something which sullies the essence of Islam, when really it is those bigots on both sides that we should be “washing our hands of”. Or rather, we should be inviting those bigots to a more balanced approach.

The more I read about these things, the more I realize how much the differences have so been thoroughly exaggerated. And we can’t blame anyone else but ourselves for this; we’ve created this mess by going on and on with this “Us versus them” mentality. We fail to see beyond simple binary logic – this group quoted this scholar, so they’re all Salafis! This other group quoted this other scholar, so they’re all Sufis! And we’ve stigmatized these labels, subtly causing us to hate whichever one we don’t follow.

Back to the basics – a Salafi seeks to follow the Salaf-us-saliheen, the pious predecessors and early generations who were the vanguard of Islamic thought and reason. The Sufis, according to one etymological opinion, are followers of the Ashab-us-suffah, the poor Sahabah who remained in the suffah of Masjid Nabawi. Both seek to follow individuals who were universally acknowledged to be among the greatest Muslims who ever lived. Really, how different can they be?

I suspect my comment won’t make it through moderation. Oh well.

Why not? -MM

Well, they say that mice and humans share 99% of their DNA. The lesson? It’s the differences that count.

I don’t think Imam Suhaib “hates” the traditionalists now. He still has love and respect for them as brothers in Islam (from what I understood of his post).

I’m guessing his post was more of a “I can’t work in this way” kind of thing rather than a full fledged switch to a different side to go against the traditionalists. He doesn’t have a side and he never had a side. He has always been, as he said, just a Muslim.

I don’t think we can sit here and judge what he did because we don’t really know his circumstances and what he has experienced.

Brother Amad, your statement of ‘is not the only victim’ is ridiculous. You most likely have not seen the debate that took place between Suhaib Webb and Shaykh Haddad. You didn’t even bother to respond to the points Shaykh Haddad made about Shaykh Qaradawi. Look into the history of the scholars and see how many debated, criticised each other, attacked each other. The issues Shaykh Haddad criticised Qaradawi are not ‘minor’, atleast some really stand out!

It is unfair for you to say this. And I hate to even post this because what is being said online is pretty disheartening! But brother, you make a post about the unity issue and then you go around finding the faults in others. You can say well it’s public, but listen, you aren’t at their level to go around criticising them. If you have issues with their adab, keep it to yourself. Some out there had no problems with it, and we also acknowledge that we are human beings, capable of getting a little frustrated/angry with another human. La ilaha illa Allah!

Takbeer in unison?!
BID’AH!

I would like to see the outcome of this.

Salaam,

I have a humble request of the author of this post. If you visit http://www.suhaibwebb.com, you can see that he took this article down and wrote another one explaining his position. Can you please take the excerpts you have of his article out, as he himself took it out? Inshallah it is for the better of the Muslims.

Jazakallahu Khair Akhi.
Wassalam

You know what’s funny? Those who churn out these cyber refutations and act like saviors of Sunni orthodoxy, would they ever act in similar vein if they were to meet some one like Shaykh Qaradawi face to face? And also as Amad pointed out; the real pioneers and upholders of Sunni Islam such as Mufti Taqi Usmani, The Late Mawlana Abul Hassan Nadwi, Bin bayyah and so on never came out with such a vitrolic ‘refutation’ and ‘exposition’, what made GF Haddad do it? Was he running out of victims to refute?

Abdullah, fear Allah brother, before labeling someone out of the fold of Islam…

br abdullah, soooo r u a mufti? where did u get ur ijaza from?

And also as Amad pointed out; the real pioneers and upholders of Sunni Islam such as Mufti Taqi Usmani, The Late Mawlana Abul Hassan Nadwi, Bin bayyah and so on never came out with such a vitrolic ‘refutation’ and ‘exposition’, what made GF Haddad do it?

JazakAllah for pointing this out. I find that today, most of our ummah has forgotten these great shuyookh in favour of the more “famous” ones with Internet presence.

The “refuting” and “exposing” game is just pure arrogance and pride. I remember being on a forum a few years ago where one of the level-headed posters wrote something about how Shaikh Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi rahmatullahi’alayh never condemned or refuted taqleed, but rather supported it, so it couldn’t be all bad. A bunch of other posters jumped on him and wrote about how they were going to “expose” Shaikh Abul Hasan, and how he was “no better than a grave worshipper”. Na’audhubillah! Who do these people think they are, that they can hide behind the anonymity of the Internet and attack people of such high esteem!

Before we say anything or write anything, we should ask ourselves, “does this make me a better Muslim? Does this help the cause of Islam?” If we had even this much diligence, we wouldn’t waste our time attacking one another. Sadly, though, these attacks are never meant to help the cause of Islam, they serve only to boost the already inflated egos of the attackers.

Salaam. Which scholars need to be respected? How can we identify them? What are qualities of such sheikh? Can sufis really respect salafi scholars despite disagreements and call them sheikhs? Can salafis really respect sufi scholars despite disagreements and call them sheikhs? Can sunnis respect a shia scholar or vice versa?

Most of time salafis (commoners) mention sufi scholars like if they are their best buddy (ie no respect) and vice versa.

I asked these questions to myself, and I think more the differences, lesser would be respect in my heart for the other’s scholars. So the best I can do is to not talk about them, and do not say bad if I can not say good about them. I should focus on making myself better muslim.