What is the Conflict About?
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Creator: Salman al-`Awdah
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Identifier: http://www.islaam.com/Article.aspx?id=533
Language: en
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Subject: dawah
Title: What is the Conflict About?
Created on: Mon Jan 14 12:05:21 -0500 2008
Updated on: Mon Jan 14 12:05:21 -0500 2008
Version: 1
Abstract: ... manner which sooner rather than later guaranteed their interests. The Prophets were, therefore, brothers; their religion – Tawheed – as was reported by the Messenger, sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam was one even though their laws were somewhat different. In this light, will not those who are concerned with the affairs of Islam become enlightened? Will they not renew the Call of the Prophets and their followers, and fight the same battles that the Prophet fought? Will they not cease to preoccupy themselves with insignificant matters that distract them from the real issue? For surely, this great battle of truth against falsehood has been the concern of the reformers and renewers throughout history. The battle which Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, for example, fought against his adversaries was first and foremost a battle of Tawhid. It was a war against every form of shirk in worship, against transgression, and misguidance. Similarly, the battle waged by Imam Muhammad bin `Abd al-Wahab, the renewer, was one against various forms of polytheism which had become rooted on the Arabian Peninsula. He invited the people to the worship of Allah Almighty alone and to abandon all forms of paganism and polytheism. His struggle was never about side issues or juridical differences. For this reason one cannot ascribe to Shaykh Muhammad bin `Abd al-Wahab, his followers, or students an independent school of jurisprudence. Their legal thought is the same as the Imams who preceded them. Thus, they always chose that which was closest to the evidence but never aspired to establish a fifth school of Fiqh, as some falsely claim. And so while many people still collect the books of Shaykh Muhammad bin `Abd al-Wahab, read them, listen to, and even memorise them, some are nevertheless ignorant, or consciously ignore the real nature of the conflict which the Shaykh inspired. Indeed, many of those who profess knowledge and identify with the Islamic Call keep themselves busy in petty quarrels, lost in emptiness with those around them. They engross themselves with books, dissertations, and audiocassettes on se... [Full Article...]
