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Reasons for abandoning Taqleed of Madhabs?

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#1 [Permalink] Posted on 2nd October 2014 11:13

Asslamo Allaikum,

I would like to hear people's views on why a number of people in the Ummah abandon Taqleed of Madhabs?

Jazakallahu Khayran

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#2 [Permalink] Posted on 2nd October 2014 11:20
I can tell you only from my experience, it might not be the case for other areas of the world. But here youngsters who abandoned Taqleed basicly fell prey to superficial Salafi propaganda, who manage to paint their views always as the only legitimate one in Islam.
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#3 [Permalink] Posted on 2nd October 2014 11:39

In my limited experience in USA and Europe a large number of Muslims abandoning Madhabs fall into 3 categories:

  1. Born-Muslims (Non-Professionals): Many born Muslims came from a cultural background and taught to do things from childhood with a cultural slant. When they grow up and begin to analyse matters and ask questions they are given cockabul stories and fictional tales which don’t often make sense. Their reaction is then to reject everything which they witnessed in their family (or greater cultural setting) as “innovation” and insist on following Qur’aan and Sunnah. In Europe I see 3rd, 4th generation youth clearly telling me “Hanafi Madhab” is what my forefathers followed; I follow the Qur’aan and Sunnah. This is a very specific mind-set.
  2. Born-Muslims (Professionals): Western education system produces a certain kind of mind-set! It is evidence based and not eminence based i.e. you are told to question the validity of conclusions and derived results until they stand up to scrutiny.  While previous generations accepted the statements of their “Imam, Maulana, Shaykh” on face value the “educated” generation wants to look at the evidence and revaluate the conclusions. This formulaic methodology lends very well to “Google evidence”, “Find evidence”, “follow evidence”.
  3. Reverts: By and large they are wary of following “cultural Islam” so without having sufficient background and knowledge the “follow Qur’aan and Sunnah” methodology lends incredibly well. They can actually see (and evaluate) what they are following instead of an “Uncle or Aunty or Imam (with broken English)” is telling them to do.

Exceptions apply ofcourse.

Those who are trying to counter this approach (inadvertently) reinforce it by giving a name instead of evidence i.e. the famous incident in London where a well known Shaykh was told to follow “Shaykhul-Hadeeth (Maulana) Zakariyya Kandhalwi (RA)” because he taught Hadeeth for 50 years!

It was deemed that this would be enough to present as evidence.

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#4 [Permalink] Posted on 2nd October 2014 12:15
Well, here ghayr-Muqallids use more polemic & rethoric than evidence & proofs. Even after returning from their studies in Saudi their analogies and deductions remain totally absurd and have no academical head or feet. So, the youth abandoning Taqleed here are rather emotionally driven than rationally. Maybe the situation here differs, because most of them are not from a Desi background.
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#5 [Permalink] Posted on 2nd October 2014 13:37

True Life wrote:
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We are coming at the issue from two different perspectives.

One is the mindset and the other is the argument, I am looking at former while you are looking at later.

Following Dr Zakir Naik is a "mindset" issue as well as an "argument"

Those watching Dr Zakir Naik in a suit and tie on their TV screen may also have hidden feelings against their "Maulana" who:

  1. Is wearing a Kurta
  2. Doesn't speak English
  3. Doesn't rattle out references
  4. Doesn't quote modern science

Only defeating the argument is 50% effective (in my opinion).

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#6 [Permalink] Posted on 2nd October 2014 15:19
Bro the issue is that many of our ulema do not have the ability to counter their views. If one takes my local masjid for example which is run by bangladeshi brothers the 2 imams speak very little English. All the talks are in bengali. The imam does taleem from a salafi version of riyad us saliheen. So you cannot blame a layman for inclining towards salafis who hold study circles each week in English, who print literature in english. So I would say the reason people are leaving madhabs is;

1. Due to a lack of scholarship from our side
2. A lack of proper explanations of these terms.
3. Lack of media resources

With regards to Madinah University grads or grads of other Saudi unis in most cases I would say in ilm they excel in comparison to darse e nizami grads. There is no point comparing weak saudi grads with excellent darse a nizami grads this is the general perception.

The other local masjid close to me is slightly better with many English programmes etc. I think they would have a lesser issue with salafis due to their ulema being of a higher academic standard, more classes etc.

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#7 [Permalink] Posted on 2nd October 2014 16:05
Assalamu Alaikum

I can relate my own experience from about 10 years ago. The salafis bring their evidences to show that saying Allah is everywhere is incorrect, and they gave you a copy of Shaikh Al Al bani's book on salah.

1) Now some people will stick to what they learn from childhood and not be bothered. Some Maulanas also recommended this to me, don't question everything just accept and follow our Ulama. I think this is dangerous actually because what if the person sticking to what he learnt is a qadiyanai or shia, then this attitude will never allow him to accept the truth.

2)Some people never went maktab, and have no real connection with any Ulama, so they automatically believe what the salafis say as it comes with evidence. They do not see the need to check what they learnt and see if they were evidences for that as well.

3)Alhamdulilah I went to maktab and knew a lot of Maulanas, but I was never too interested in Islamic knowledge and was just practicing Islam without giving it too much taught; not concentration to much in salah, not reading too much Quran, having not learnt tajweed after 14 years in maktab being taught by various Maulanas and Imams! The points raised by the salafis actually increased my zeal for knowledge. So before throwing everything I learnt out of the window, I said I would check what I learnt and see if they are any evidences backing it up.

Now if it was not for Sunniforum and the various fatwa websites I would have never gotten any answers or support for how I was thought to pray etc. For the most part, the Maulanas I asked either did not know about these matters, preferred to not to answer, or told you not to question and went on the defensive. Later on however one Mufti who had now graduated from India was well versed in these areas and masha Allah provides excellent answers.

I remember one of the first questions I asked was about where is Allah and I explained the salafi view, and the Maulana actually replied to me and said they are correct in what they are saying. Then at that time the various fatwa websites like askimam and others had totally conflicting answers, from Allah being everywhere to Allah being on the throne to Allah being free from place and time! Most Maulanas still reply by saying Allah is everywhere. Of course now I know the topic its more complicated and involves more than one sentence

Then they were those issues which they got me on which I thought were sunna but were not , like saying ya noor after salah and blowing on the fingers and rubbing the eyes, congregational dua after salah.

Alhamdulilah things have changed, both amongst the salafis and amongst the Maulanas, some salafis seemed to have eased up a bit and are more accepting of the madhabs and less harsh, and due to more Maulanas being on the internet and smart phones and social media they are also more aware of whats going on. Still some of the answers given by the Maulana's make absolutely no sense, and some still refer to salafis as "Salaf". I don't think those extreme books from South Africa almost making tafkir of ibn Taymiyyah and bashing salafis like if its the worst thing in the Muslim Ummah help very much, ( I cant speak for other parts of the world and their situation).

And Alhamdulilah I am still willing to learn and will not be biased and say the Deibandi opinion is the only correct one for the whole world to follow, and it seems that they are other views on taqleed as expressed by other Hanafis and Shafis, and regarding aqeeda Mufti Taqi Uthmani has mentioned in the article on deband.org article that Ibn taymiyah's beliefs are also within ahlus sunnah wal jammah. www.deoband.org/2010/04/hadith/hadith-commentary/the-issu...
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#8 [Permalink] Posted on 2nd October 2014 18:54
al-salamu alaykum,

I believe abandonment of following qualified scholarship is more than just the problem of Salafis. Slowly, there have been educated Salafis (I don't see the point of using this word as it does not describe them correctly) who have been open-minded and more tolerant of differences of opinion. The madkhali brand has became lame and within few years, it is my hope that they would become completely irrelevant. Their group may fade out but their mentality might remain in some minds just like the mutazilites are not alive as a group but people with their beliefs are still here.

Past 2 years or so, there has been an increase from what I notice that even cultural Muslims whether it is from back home or immigrants in the West are found of listening to people like Nouman Ali Khan, Omar Suleiman, Mufti Muhammad ibn Adam, Faraz Rabbani and others who present Islam to them which calls them from their hearts to the beauty of Islam and not just the Law aspect (at the same time teach them proper fiqh).

We still have a lack of proper explanation and presentation of Islam to the people whether they are intentionally bigots trying to defame the schools of fiqh or are sincerely confused about how can there be difference of opinions. There is a lack of understanding of how fiqh works and that our bigger concern and central outlook is not the furu' masa'il of deen.

Young scholars need to take the initiation under the guidance of open-minded and educated senior scholars. Calling directly to taqlid shakhsi would not be wise, rather call them to a group of scholars whom they can trust and can learn from them the sunnah and implement in their daily lives. We have to also realize that most of these anti-taqlid audience just have the ability to comprehend the fiqh of worship and not really beyond that. They don't want to become that talib al-ilm but just want to know the rules of worshipping their Lord.
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#9 [Permalink] Posted on 2nd October 2014 21:52
Concerned wrote:
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Hey, you sound just like you're walking in my footsteps. I know exactly what you mean.

Alhumdulillah, the stuff here is plenty to answer the Salafi questions. Its a shame the Ulama aren't doing too much and we have to resort to forums and make a judgement ourselves. Luckily the work here is backed with evidence and scholarly references.

Alhumdulillah I feel safe knowing that I follow a school filled with gems.
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#10 [Permalink] Posted on 8th October 2014 22:26
As-salamu 'alaykum,

I agree with a lot of the posts in this thread. There is a great need for talks, lessons, education, books etc. in English and other European languages.

Here in Denmark most converts end up "Salafised" simply because the Sunni mosques in most cases don't offer lessons in Danish (or English) and only cater to Arabs, Somalis, Pakistanis, Turks etc. The Salafis on the other hand have durus in Danish.
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#11 [Permalink] Posted on 23rd October 2014 10:16
The first step towards abandoning taqleed is, distancing oneself from the ulma-e-ahnaf/deoband.

Years back the content and the language used by the khateebs was at the lowest standard. I remember the khateebs calling people who were learning english or local language as kaafirs, dogs and pigs. Added to that funny stories like "when you teach your child TATA he will lift BATA (shoes) on you, later". Objection using street language towards what they dress, how they eat, what they eat, sending children for secular education etc. The list is big.

So the first symptom was that the gap between muslims and the ulema got widened. 90 percent crowd enters the masjid when the arabic khutba starts. The Islahi majalis are attended by the routine crowd.

So the lamadhabis easily poached on these brothers.
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#12 [Permalink] Posted on 23rd October 2014 11:11
Salafism is easy, you can decide how to live.

1. It gives freedom for men to come out of the Arabic culture(jubba, dhaadi, topi) and women to look like ghair muslims; as intention is important.
2. In office, you can skip the mujahida of taking water inside the toilet and washing the feets or using khuffs. Cotton Masah.
3. No need to go for jamaat or gasht, no evidence.
4. No need to carry tasbeeh in pocket, no evidence.
5. No need to study a lengthy Shaykh Ashraf ali thanvi SB RAH tafseers.
6. No need to have a sunnah beard.
7. No need maulana/mufti Saheb.
8. No restriction to discuss the issues of ummat with sisters in round table conference.
9. Just 8 rakah in taraweeh, no need to wake up for Shab e barat.
10. Finally no need to follow any one of 4 imams, you can became a new Imam.
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