ok, another post on this site made me go back to islam-qa - a site which I am not a fan of, especially since it seems to present itself as such an authoritative place...
The first link was asking about greeting non-muslims and how Muslims should act upon a specific hadith.
The answer was full of bluster and pride about how not to cower etc, but it lacked context, and hence the truth.
So what is the context of this hadith?
It was from a time of war - the Muslims were at war with some tribe and the Sahabahs asked the Prophet something like "we are at war with Tribe X, so saying 'peace be upon you' when meeting them on the streets does not seem to be correct, so what should we do?"
the reply was that unless the people from the warring tribe also offer you peaceful invocations, do not give an introduction of peace as it can be considered wrong or even worse, a lie - they were at war.
What this context shows is that the context of the hadith is limited to a specific group of people and is not a general implementation, where greeting first and warmly is allowed and done as such in other ahadith.
I thought these people were supposed to be scholars? I am not one and I know the context - admittedly after it was brought up in some forum topic and the issue discussed on this site, based off my interpretation of this post (My analysis of it is the next post and the discussion starts much earlier).
Worse, even if they did not know the context, when answering a question, giving a fatwa, it is their religious duty to investigate the information before giving their fatwa.
Scholars have a duty when making edicts, a responsibility to investigate and try their damndest to get all the facts. The people at Islam-QA are found wanting.
Comments
Asalaam Alaikum, without further investigation what you say looks plausible however should you be calling the scholars of islamqa ‘morons’? By your own admission you’re not a scholar and a level of respects should be shown to people of knowledge and one should appreciate that they are human and will make mistakes.
You may also be causing unnecessary fitna as this post appears quiet high on Google results when searching for any subject with Islamqa in the string. I stumbled on it by searching for ‘islamqa black seed’! What if this post persuades a newly practicing Muslim away from islamqa to a deviant qa website? This post may act as a witness against you on the day of judgment. I would suggest it is removed and if you have an issue with how a question is answered by islamqa and your intentions are sincere you raise it with the administrators of islamqa, ensuring you are aware of the Islamic etiquettes of debating.
Please forgive me if I have said anything that may have caused offence.
Allahu ‘Allum and Ma Salaam.
Hmm, Nassir Hussain, im under the impression your part of the IslamQA, since you did, in another post give a link to the website and your backing it up too!
I'm sure it was simply an opinion, which everyone is entitled to and should not be taken too 'personally'.. Though some of your points are kind-of understandable..
@Nasir Hussain - I think people will find my post informational, and will be able to have a better understanding in order to judge the answers at Islam QA which IMO are not rigorous.
If that means they look at/fior alternatives, that is not a bad thing especially if I think they can misrepresent the islamic sources.
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.