General Q & A Session: Internet Forums

by Shaykh Saalih as-Suhaymee

Taken from: A Recorded General Q & A Session

Question: Through the observations of some of the students of knowledge here in America of the Internet forums, certain concerns have come up. We present our concerns to the scholars to direct us, and we seek a solution to our concerns and problems.

• Many of the forums are managed by unknown personalities, thus the information is managed by a majhool person. This also makes it impossible to contact them in order to correct what is wrong and advise (them) when needed.

• Many of the visitors who post are unknown/majhool characters as well. On top of this, the information they author in most cases is not related back to any of the scholars, but is merely a concatenation of their own opinion and/or imagination.

• These authors have taken it as a pastime of theirs to stress the khilaaf/difference between the scholars, thus causing further splitting of the Muslims. To add water to the mud, the issues these characters stress, are issues many of us are in absolutely no need to have knowledge of, for they are above our level as well as theirs.

• On these forums the blind are leading the blind. That is every teacher (poster) finds students (observers) and every student finds a teacher.

• The people – both poster and observers – spend their time in these forums bypassing the online activities the scholars are holding, such as this one (albaseerah).

• The good is little while the harm is great. Both the observer is being misguided and the author/poster is misguiding others.

These are some of the observations in short. These observations reflect the state of affairs of these internet forums.

Please give us the verdict on these forums concerning:

1. The permissibility of attending the forums?

2. Who should be allowed to post based on the Sharee’ah of Islam, and not their so called: “freedom of speech”?

3. Also many of those seeking good and to advise try to reply with posts of their own, only to be overwhelmed and attacked by the replies received back.

So what is the correct manner in fighting this war against the misguidance and ignorance being spread, and the further dividing of the Muslims, all leading to further weakening of Islam and it people?

Answer: The Shaykh said that first of all everything mentioned in the question and the examples given in the question requires us to turn away completely from these types of open forums where anyone can say what they want to say and where many of the people, whether they be supervisors or writers are unknown. That which I advise you with is to make I’raad, i.e. to turn totally away from these types of open forums – jumlatun and tafseelan i.e. completely, turn away from it – all the way!

We should suffice ourselves with the sites of the ‘Ulema – people of knowledge. Those are known for not being hasty in giving their fataawaa and who are known for their strength and firmness in knowledge – the likes of: the mufti Shaykh ‘Abdul-Aziz Aal ash-Shaykh, and the likes of our Shaykh Saalih ibn Fawzaan al-Fawzaan, and Shaykh ‘Abdullaah al-Ghudayaan and Shaykh Saalih al-Luhaydaan and likewise our beloved Minister of Da’wah Shaykh Saalih ibn ‘Abdul-Aziz Aal ash-Shaykh and Shaykh ‘Abdul-Muhsin al-‘Abbaad al-Badr and Shaykh Rabee’ ibn Haadee al-Madkhalee and Shaykh ‘Abdul-Muhsin al-Ubaykaan and Shaykh Saalih as-Saadlan and other than them as I did not intend to mention all of them, but rather to give an example of the ones that I was referring to.

We should also return to the sites of our elder scholars, the ones who have past – the likes of our Shaykh ‘Abdul-Aziz ibn Baaz the scholar of his time, and the unique one of his time as it relates to his manners, his moral integrity and his knowledge. Likewise, the scholar of his time - Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih al-‘Uthaymeen who gave all of his life to knowledge and to the students of knowledge and also to our Shaykh Muhammad Naasir-ud-Deen al-Albaanee – the one who gave light to the Sunnah in this time period.

We should not be fooled by those who say that there is a difference of opinion amongst the scholars as it related to Shaykh al-Albaanee. This is a bunch of nonsense. Shaykh al-Albaanee was the one who gave light to the Sunnah in this time period and he is respected by all of the scholars, even if there are differences of opinions amongst them as it relates to issues. All of their Manhaj was one and it is the Manhaj of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaa’ah. As for the ones that I did not mention from amongst the scholars then I hope that they would excuse me as my intention was to mention the example and not to mention all of them. Likewise, the ones who follow the Manhaj of the ‘Ulema i.e. they start with Aqeedah in their call to Allaah and that which the a’immah of the Da’wah were upon. It is the Manhaj of the Sahaabah before all of them.

So we should stick to what has been reported on the websites of the Kibaar ‘Ulema (Major Scholars) of this time. We should strive to do that which brings us closer to Allaah by listening to their tapes and reading their books. Do not pay any attention to the people who are not following this Manhaj or those who may speak about some of those Scholars. That is because speaking about the people of Sunnah is a sign of people of bid’ah. Likewise, most of these open forums have people that use fake names or give each other such great titles that even the Sahaabah would have been embarrassed to have for themselves.

The Shaykh then mentioned some poetry about Andalus – the Muslims of Spain at that time. The meaning of the poetry is that after Andalus had been conquered by the French, or even before when it had been split up, every little place in Spain had someone who called himself ‘king’ although he only ruled a very small portion of it. Then the French conquered them. The point that the Shaykh was trying to highlight by the poem was that even though someone calls himself a ‘king’ or a ‘prince’ it does not make him that.

The people on these sites use false names and they praise one another and praise those that do not deserved to be praised, and this leads to differing amongst the Muslims. So the Shaykh advised on boycotting all these websites. He said: “By Allaah, you will be asked about the time you spent on these types of websites.” We should listen to the tapes – the beneficial lectures of the ‘Ulema. We should not be fooled by websites who act like they are with the scholars but they have a hidden agenda and it is nothing but a lie. They are disgracing the scholars, speaking badly about them and defaming them.

We should look for the ones who are in fact following the ways of the ‘Ulema in actions, Aqeedah, Methodology, application of Fiqh and other than that. Stick to the ‘Ulema and don’t be fooled by the people who (especially in Saudi Arabia) ride around in cars and skid around in the streets and do things to be seen and heard amongst the people. Our Shaykh Ali Naasir al-Faqhee … (the Shaykh mentioned something that the translator did not get). Our Manhaj is very clear – it is the way of the Salaf as-Saalih, the Sahaabah, Imaam Ahmad, Shaykh ul-Islaam ibn Taymiyyah, ibn Qayyim, Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab and all those who follow the path of the Sahaabah.

In summarizing the Shaykh advised staying away from these websites that have a lot of talk and that we stick to the websites of the ‘Ulema. The best thing to do is sit with ‘Ulema if you are able to, if you do not have the ability to do so, then benefit from their tapes and books. If whilst benefiting from their tapes or books you have a question about what was said/mentioned then call the ‘Ulema themselves and ask about the issue you didn’t understand from the tape or book. Their phone numbers are well known – they are even advertised in the newspapers. Do not be fooled by numbers that you may see on websites that say to call this place or that place, rather return to ‘Ulema ar-Rabbaaniyeen – those who are well known for their ability to nurture and cultivate, and those known for seeking out the evidences and giving fataawaa based upon evidences.

Source: www.albaseerah.org