The Salafi Hijack

al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani mentioned about Shaykh....... in his al-Durar al-Kamina (1:153-155) from Najm al-Din Sulayman ibn `Abd al-Qawi al-Tufi al-Hanbali (d. 716 AH) who said:

He became convinced that he was a scholar capable of independent reasoning (mujtahid). Henceforth he began to answer each and every scholar great and small, past and recent, until he went all the way back to `Umar (r) and faulted him in some matter. This reached the ears of the Shaykh Ibrahim al-Raqi who reprimanded him. Shaykh........ went to see him, apologized, and asked for forgiveness. He also spoke against `Ali (r) and said: "He made mistakes in seventeen different matters."

Rasūl Allāh ملسو هيلع هللاىلص mentioned the following ḥadīth,

"One of the most detested people in the Sight of Allah is he who is obstinate and argumentative." [Bukhārī]

By constantly debating and discussing a person's heart becomes hard, his ibādāt (acts of worship) become mechanical and all he thinks about and is perturbed about are the fine points of religion, which are best left to the Ulamā (scholars), whilst at the same time neglecting the major aspects. This leads to a character of criticizing others starting by those around him, followed by those in religious authority (present and past) and even as far as criticizing theṢaḥābah (Companions of Rasūl Allāh ملسو هيلع هللاىلص, may Allah be pleased with them). Debating, criticizing and obstinacy stem from arrogance.

However the teaching of Islam is that rather being critical of others, a person should be critical of himself. Before thinking of criticizing others a person should ask himself whether he is in a moral or scholarly position to do so and whether it is the genuine, sincere and constructive criticism a Muslim imparts to his fellow Muslim referred to in the ḥadīth,

"A believer is a mirror of a believer." [Abū Dāwūd]

What this means is that if a Muslim sees a fault in his fellow Muslim he should sincerely advise him in the best way possible.

Well brother, how is your journey going.

There have been many responses, could you please update us, Jazakallah.

A verse from the Qur'an getting a thumbs down? La hawla wa la quwatta illah billah

I'm sorry about that, I didn't intend to put a thumbs down for the ayah itself, I just thought it was irrelevant to post it there and thought the brother was also taking it out of context

[quote="abu mohammed"] things are starting to become a lot clearer for me...... I'm not 100% sure yet but I think their way seems a lot clearer than ours

Is this also their way, as the mentioned brother is part and parcel of the same school of thought as your friends, just listen to the first 40 seconds

My Dua is you remain a Muslim, wether Hanafi, Shafi, Maliki or Hanbali as long as you dont go against the Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaa'

(and I'm not talking about the Barelwi Hanafi)

I think a lot of that which is said on this thread falls under major backbiting, slander, nameema etc. I can say this because I've heard both sides of the stories.