Our Time Our Challenges Ultra Conservative Vs. Ultra Liberalism - Corrected Khutba

Our Time Our Challenges: Ultra Conservative Vs. Ultra Liberalism

Dr. Yasir Qadhi

Opening

As-salāmu alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh. Al-ḥamdu lillāh wa-s-salātu wa-s-salāmu 'alá Rasūli Llāh wa-alá ālihi wa-ṣaḥbihi wa-man wa-alá. Amma ba'ad.

Let me get straight to the point. How does one navigate one's way through the maze of modern controversies? I wanna give some guidelines. Obviously in a 10-15 minute lecture we have no time to go into details.

But if we look at a number of incidents of early Islam, we get an idea of some of the guidelines we need to follow in order to be rightly guided.

The Danger of Religious Extremism: The Wounded Sahabi

In a hadith narrated in Abu Dawood, a group of sahaba went out on an expedition. And in the course of the army, in the course of the war, one of them had a severe wound in his head, fractured skull, open wound in the skull.

And on the way back, he was sick, he was lying in bed, he was like basically wounded. On the way back, he becomes junub. And he wakes up in the state of janabah.

And the question arises, I need to pray fajr. Do I have to do ghusl with an open wound on my head? Still bleeding wound on my head, freezing cold weather. The desert is a very cold place at night in the winter.

Do I have to do ghusl and perhaps fester the wound or not? And there was no person of knowledge in that gathering. And so one of the sahaba said, you know, the Quran clearly says you have to do ghusl. And I just don't see any exception for you when you have a wound, so what if you have a wound? So the sahabi took a bath with an open wound.

And of course the wound festered. Of course his situation got worse. And he passed away, he died.

As a result of that infected wound in the head. When the Prophet (peace be upon him) heard of this, he said:

(Abu Dawood hadith 336)

"They killed him. May Allah's curse be on them. They killed him. May Allah's curse be on them."

Now, qatalahumullah, I translate as may Allah's curse. But it doesn't mean, the Prophet (peace be upon him) himself said that, when I get angry at another Muslim, Allah changes my curse into a forgiveness or blessing. That I'm a human being, and sometimes I'll curse a Muslim, and it's out of anger, and I have a promise with Allah. There's a hadith in Sahih Muslim, I have a promise with Allah, that if I ever curse another believer, it'll be transformed into a blessing and an istighfar for him.

So he got so angry (peace be upon him), that they gave a fatwa that was wrong, and it resulted in his death. So he said, qatalahumullah. Then he said, why didn't they ask for the fatwa? Why didn't they ask a person of knowledge when they were ignorant? Verily, the cure to ignorance is asking questions.

(Abu Dawood hadith 336)

"The cure to ignorance is to ask questions."

The Lesson of Religious Fanaticism

And this hadith shows us the dangers of overzealousness, the dangers of religious fanaticism, which is all too common amongst some segments of the ummah. All MSAs have that brother, you know what I'm talking about, or that sister.

We'll be gender free in this lecture, mashallah. Because yeah, you got fanatics on both genders. Where they make Islam so difficult, so impossible, that in reality, nobody can live their lives like that.

And the fact of the matter, and take it from me brothers and sisters, I have been in the MSA and involved with the MSA for the last 25 years. And I have seen too many of these cases. Brothers or sisters that are overzealous, over fanatic, they burn out.

And you meet the same people 10, 15, 20 years down the line, and you're shocked like, what you brother, what happened? Complete 180. Because you cannot sustain a life with such religious fanaticism. With everything becoming difficult, or haram, or what not.

And we see over here as well. Here was a person, he read the Quran. The Quran clearly says, when you're in a state of janabah, do ghusl. It's in the Quran. So the man thought, you know what? Tough luck, he's gonna have to do ghusl. And based on that presumption, it led to a person's death.

And this person didn't realize, for every rule there are exceptions. For every verse there are clauses taken out. For every hadith, for every aam, there's a khas. For every general, there's a specific. The person had no idea. But in his zealousness to be Islamic, to be Quranic, to be following the tradition, he went against the tradition.

We all have people like that.

The Danger of Ultra Liberalism: The Alcohol Incident

Another incident, shows us the exact opposite side. In the time of Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), a person who had a lot of, not knowledge, he was known for his services to the community.

He was a person who had a lot of good in him. But he wasn't a scholar. He hadn't studied Islam. Well- known person in the community who actually had fought certain battles with the Prophet (peace be upon him) as well. So he has a stellar CV, but not knowledge.

This particular individual in the time of Umar ibn al-Khattab, not in the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him), in the time of Umar ibn al-Khattab, he read a verse in the Quran, surah al-Ma'idah, it's still there.

"There is no sin on those who believe and do righteous deeds regarding what they have eaten [in the past] when they feared Allah and believed and did righteous deeds."

And Allah says in the Quran, as long as you have iman and taqwa and do good. That's the verse in the Quran. So this particular individual said, Aha! Clearly, the Quran allows drinking alcohol.

I'm not making this up. This is a famous historic incident in early Islam. He took one verse, which is ambiguous. It's open to interpretation. And he used it as a trump card against every single other verse, every hadith, the unanimous consensus of the sahaba. That became secondary.

The Misinterpretation of the Verse

The verse clearly says, that anything is halal to eat and drink, as long as I have iman and taqwa. Now, footnote here, Allah clearly says, as long as you have iman and taqwa and do good, i.e., as long as you follow Islamic law, everything that's halal is halal for you to eat. i.e., don't feel guilty, don't feel bad.

When Allah has made things halal, then enjoy them. That's the meaning of the verse. No one ever understood it, that everything is halal. Pig becomes halal. Alcohol becomes halal. Nobody.

The verse is not talking like that. But this particular individual, basically said, the verse clearly says, and he ignored other verses, other ahadith, the unanimous consensus. And this led to an interpretation as well, that was rejected by every sahabi, every other person alive.

Nobody agreed with him. In fact, when he was brought in front of Umar ibn al-Khattab, drunk, and he tried to use this verse, said, look, it's allowed for me. Umar ibn al-Khattab did not accept his excuse and punished him for the sin of drinking, the 80 lashes, punished him.

Because this is not a legitimate interpretation. This is not within the spectrum of acceptable interpretation of Islam. Even if the person thinks he has a verse, the methodology, we call in Arabic, usool, that he used

to derive this verdict, are absolutely nonsensical. They don't really exist. And it wasn't used as an excuse.

The Middle Path: Understanding the Spectrum

Now what this shows us, my dear brothers and sisters, is that from the beginning of time, we've had ultra fanaticism, and we have ultra liberalism. We've had these strains, but they've always been peripheries of the ummah. They've always been at the fringe. And the bulk of the ummah, the bulk of the Muslim scholars, the bulk of Islam, has always been within these two extremes.

And therefore, dear brothers and sisters, one of the primary ways to navigate through the problems of our times, the controversies of our times, is to ignore the extremist voices on both sides. And to concentrate on what the Prophet (peace be upon him) called the sawadul a'adham, or the bulk of the ummah. Our Prophet (peace be upon him) said:

(Tirmidhi hadith 2167)

"My ummah shall never unite upon misguidance."

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, my ummah is an ummah that is blessed by Allah. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, I command you, I advise you to follow the jama'ah, the large group of Muslims. And whoever breaks away, breaks away leading to the fire of hell.

Guidelines for Navigating Modern Controversies

1. Seek Authentic Scholarship

So when you look at Islamic scholarship, alhamdulillah, we can clearly say that from the beginning of time, there's been a spectrum of permissibility, a spectrum of opinions that scholars have held. And then there are fringes that by and large have been rejected by the ummah. And therefore, when we're navigating through any modern controversy, look at who is giving that fatwa.

Look at that person's track record. Look at the person's credibility. Look at the person's peers. Look at the person's acceptance in the ummah. All of these are signs in the eyes of Allah. All of these are basically methods you can use to gauge the veracity, the authenticity of an opinion.

And therefore I always advise my brothers and sisters that you know, we're living at times of pseudo- scholarship. We're living at times where people without knowledge but the sharp tongue are assumed to be scholars. People who have the gift of the gab. People who know how to mesmerize audiences but have never studied the sharia. They don't have authentic scholarship. Unfortunately, the average Muslim sometimes gets confused.

And everyone in this audience needs to educate himself or herself about authentic Islamic scholarship versus pseudo-scholarship. Somebody who watches a few YouTube videos doesn't become an alim.

Somebody who Googles a fatwa doesn't become a mufti. Somebody who just reads a Wikipedia entry on something doesn't become an expert on it.

We wouldn't do this for any other discipline. Would you go to a doctor who's merely studied from Google and Wikipedia? No! So then why is your religion cheaper than your life? Why is your house, you would not go except to an architect to design your house. Why is your house or your life not as important even as your religion?

For religious scholarship as well, there are institutions, there are people, there are bona fide accreditations, there are people who have that authentic scholarship. And it is your job, because on the day of judgment Allah will ask you about what you did. It is your job to search for authentic Islamic scholarship.

And alhamdulillah, there's a spectrum of opinion and understand and tolerate. You can choose your position within that spectrum. There are opinions that alhamdulillah, I might have something, Imam Suhaib might have something else, others might have something. This is within the spectrum. You'll find the classical differences. But there are also opinions that go beyond the spectrum of acceptability. And that is where I ask you to think a little bit more critically.

2. Question Your Own Paradigm

And the other point I have and I'll hand it over to my dear colleague and friend Imam Suhaib Webb. The other point that I have is that I speak especially to you in college or who have studied over here, second generation and third generation American Muslims.

Just as you're brave enough to question Islam, and to question scholars, and to question why is this haram, why is this halal, be just as brave, if not braver to question your own paradigm from within which those questions are emanating. I.e., Just like you're saying, why should this be haram? Why did Allah prohibit this? And you want to ask these questions, as well be brave enough to challenge the dominant narrative that we have all been born into. To be brave enough to challenge the mainstream understandings, because morality and ethics in the western environment evolves over time.

Whereas in the Islamic tradition, morality and ethics is something that is stable. And we need to be cognizant enough of the effects of being born at a particular time, in a particular society, in a particular culture, in a particular civilization. And the fact that that automatically causes us to absorb values through osmosis, through interaction.

Some of those values might not be authentic, might not be Islamic, and some of them might be. Question the questions just as much or even more than you're willing to question the Islamic tradition.

And for this field in particular, there are many disciplines, but in particular post-modernism really is a