I doubt very many people stick to one Imam or Scholar today - more so because only a few of us actually go down the tariqah line and give bay'ah to one.

In the days gone past, upright and honourable scholars and imams would be found at each street corner. Sadly, that reality is long gone. The schoalrs and imams today, paradoxically, have much more pressure upon them to cater for all of the needs of the muslim community, than the early imams and shuyukh did.

some imams/scholars are really good, they are very 21st century. Like:
>Shaykh Muhammad Al-Shareef (Al-Maghrib Institute & Heart Wheel Journal)

>Shaykh Abu-Yusuf Riyadh Ul Haq(Al-Kawthar Institute)

>Mufti Muhammad Ibn Adam (Darul Iftaa)

they are the ones that i like and have actually listened to, but i think Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and Imam Suhaib Webb are really cool too.

the thing about most of them though is that when you're listenin to them its cool, and you feel inspired, but when you go, you don't know how to implement the stuff into your life. Well that's what i find anyway.

Courage wrote:

How many of you are likely to trust or defer to one Imam?

Im guessing not many

Courage wrote:

Do you feel that Imams are in touch with modern day Britain?

No

Courage wrote:

Do you think they do enough?

No

Courage wrote:

Do you think they handle issues well?

No

Courage wrote:

Are there any particular Imams, scholars or speakers that you like?

No

Courage wrote:

And more importantly what can they do to improve?

Stop contradicting themselves.
preach the Quran not their own views!

Is it just me or is there an increase in Imams/scholars in 21st century Britain? Anyone and everyone claims to be a Imam/scholar.

I think alot of them contradict each other and then the people become a lil confused as to whose right and whose wrong. And anarchy ensues.

Thats why really your meant to stay with one imam. like if you want a question answering, you only get the answer off one mufti.

I was speaking to a Sheikh at IslamExpo. He said that if you can't find one who has knowledge of the society you live in (as well as Qur'an and Sunnah), then you should keep looking!

In Syria this is less of a problem! There really are knowledgable scholars on every street corner! Alhamdulillah! If only I understood Arabic! Insha'Allah!

Courage wrote:

And Naz, maybe there's just one scholar that you think is better than the others? One you think that has the potential?

No

You cant just pick and mix scholars and their advice. Thats not how this works.

Muhammad Al Yacoubi is truly enlightening. Hamza Yusuf and Abdal Hakim Murad are excellent too however the latter is more of a sufi so requires alot of attention.

BD Brother wrote:

Muhammad Al Yacoubi is truly enlightening. Hamza Yusuf and Abdal Hakim Murad are excellent too however the latter is more of a sufi so requires alot of attention.

Are you sure about Abdal Hakim Murad sufi?

Naz, it deeply pains me to hear that you feel that way about our blessed scholars today. Listen/watch a lecture by Abdal Hakim Murad, and I GUARANTEE that your mind will boggle with wonder and amazement with what you hear. Many ulema do good works for our community. It isnt necessarily advertised or paraded around town for all of us to be aware of.

May Allah aza waj'al bless us with the company of the shuyukh, the heirs of the prophets (alayhum salam)and allow us to benefit from the lantern of knowledge that they carry. Ameen.

Salam

Wahhabi clerics are dangerous. They tend to brainwash kids.

No one should trust them.

When I go to Friday prayers, I am shocked at their speeches.

Young minds are easily manipulated by twisted interpretations of Islam by these dodgy speakers.

Omrow

Amal wrote:

May Allah aza waj'al bless us with the company of the shuyukh, the heirs of the prophets (alayhum salam)and allow us to benefit from the lantern of knowledge that they carry. Ameen.

ameen!

Amal wrote:

BD Brother wrote:

Muhammad Al Yacoubi is truly enlightening. Hamza Yusuf and Abdal Hakim Murad are excellent too however the latter is more of a sufi so requires alot of attention.

Are you sure about Abdal Hakim Murad sufi?

Naz, it deeply pains me to hear that you feel that way about our blessed scholars today. Listen/watch a lecture by Abdal Hakim Murad, and I GUARANTEE that your mind will boggle with wonder and amazement with what you hear. Many ulema do good works for our community. It isnt necessarily advertised or paraded around town for all of us to be aware of.

May Allah aza waj'al bless us with the company of the shuyukh, the heirs of the prophets (alayhum salam)and allow us to benefit from the lantern of knowledge that they carry. Ameen.

why use the word blessed?

Ive only attended/listened to very few talks given by scholars so i cant really comment on whther one is better then the other as i do not know them well enough. If a scholar does say something and backs it up with a quote from the hadith or Quran i will always double check the citation for the simple reason that i dont blindly follow everything a Imam says.

Take for example my local Imam. He was telling ppl in the mosque that this is your mosque (which is true coz all the funding for building it came from the ppl) and come and pray, seek knowledge bla, bla bla. Next week he said someone left leaflets near the shoes rack advertising their business. They are not to do this without the permission of the committee. By permission he meant the person leafleting is to pay the committee members a sum of money for advertising their business in premises they have paid towards. Theyr all corrupt, no wonder ppl are always cussing molvis.

I thought most ppl would have picked up from my previous posts that i just like saying the word NO

Oh well never mind.

Courage wrote:

I can sort of understand why the Imam siad no, that he'd have to pay the committee. He's advertising a business, not some Youth Group at the mosque so I don't think it's actually that unreasonable, from what you've described.

But he wasnt advertising something haraam either. It was just his business which in turn will feed his family and pay for the mosque.

The committee members act like its their mosque and its not. Everyone has paid towards it. They have even banned someone from the mosque coz he stood up to a committee member!

Courage wrote:

Naz wrote:

Courage wrote:

I can sort of understand why the Imam siad no, that he'd have to pay the committee. He's advertising a business, not some Youth Group at the mosque so I don't think it's actually that unreasonable, from what you've described.

But he wasnt advertising something haraam either. It was just his business which in turn will feed his family and pay for the mosque.

The committee members act like its their mosque and its not. Everyone has paid towards it. They have even banned someone from the mosque coz he stood up to a committee member!

Do you really think the mosque would even LET him advertise something haram, let alone ask him to pay?

If they were getting paid for it then i would bet my life on it that they would allow haraam to be advertise.

Courage wrote:

You know, if you advertise a business on a website or any other place normally you have to give a small fee. Now if that's what the committee asked him to do, then I don't see anything wrong with that.

Advertising on the net,paper or shop window is completely different to advertising in the mosque. The net, paper or shop is owned by a individual/s a mosque belongs to all.

If that person had paid a small fee to the committee members then they would have pocketed it instead of using it on the mosque.

Courage wrote:

But tell me about the guy who got barred for "standing up" to the committee.

Not entirley sure (only listened to half of mother dearest was telling me lol) but i think it was because the committee members were using the money that ppl contributed to the mosque for their own purposes and he challenged them about where all the money had gone. I find out for defo when i see mother dearest.

I respect Naz's view. And I respect Amal's view. I am using these views as a shorthand for opposite sides of the spectrum, but of course there are many, sophisticated nuances to everone's approach to Islam.

I think the main problem is polarisation. In my opinion we shouldn't be completely against ALL scholars and we shouldn't follow anyone blindly, either.

One of the things that appealed to me most about Islam and led to my conversion was the fact that we, individually, are all accountable for our actions, and we cannot say 'but so-and-so told me to do it' (no matter how big his/her beard, long his/her thobe or how many follwers he/she has).

Scholars CAN light our way to Allah (swt), of course they can, but in the end it is Allah (swt) Himself Who guides us to Him. And no two people will take exactly the same route to Allah (swt).

This is why language such as 'follow the footsteps of so-and-so (ra)' sounds dangerous to me. It is almost as if you are trying to absolve ourselves from personal responsibilty, which of course we won't be able to do on the Day of Judgement.

This is not to say that I think we should 'go it alone', of course we should listen to scholars of all colours and no colour and THEN ask Allah (swt) to 'guide us to the strait path' (which we do is all our prayers while reciting al-Fatiha). In the end, we are alone in all our choices, whether we like it or not.

To sum up: As Muslims we should be finding the mean between two extremes: in this case one extreme is trying to be our own Alim, and the other is blindly following somebody else.

we have sahih al bukhari and sahih muslim because of the scholars, without them, we wouldn't have the knowledge we have. there are a lot of sincere shayukh out there, we just have to go out and find them.

Imam Shafii studied many subjects, and mastered them all. He should know.

Naz wrote:

Amal wrote:

BD Brother wrote:

Muhammad Al Yacoubi is truly enlightening. Hamza Yusuf and Abdal Hakim Murad are excellent too however the latter is more of a sufi so requires alot of attention.

Are you sure about Abdal Hakim Murad sufi?

Naz, it deeply pains me to hear that you feel that way about our blessed scholars today. Listen/watch a lecture by Abdal Hakim Murad, and I GUARANTEE that your mind will boggle with wonder and amazement with what you hear. Many ulema do good works for our community. It isnt necessarily advertised or paraded around town for all of us to be aware of.

May Allah aza waj'al bless us with the company of the shuyukh, the heirs of the prophets (alayhum salam)and allow us to benefit from the lantern of knowledge that they carry. Ameen.

why use the word blessed?

Ive only attended/listened to very few talks given by scholars so i cant really comment on whther one is better then the other as i do not know them well enough. If a scholar does say something and backs it up with a quote from the hadith or Quran i will always double check the citation for the simple reason that i dont blindly follow everything a Imam says.

Take for example my local Imam. He was telling ppl in the mosque that this is your mosque (which is true coz all the funding for building it came from the ppl) and come and pray, seek knowledge bla, bla bla. Next week he said someone left leaflets near the shoes rack advertising their business. They are not to do this without the permission of the committee. By permission he meant the person leafleting is to pay the committee members a sum of money for advertising their business in premises they have paid towards. Theyr all corrupt, no wonder ppl are always cussing molvis.

I thought most ppl would have picked up from my previous posts that i just like saying the word NO

Oh well never mind.

Naz wrote:

why use the word blessed?

Muhammad described muslim scholars as the hiers of the prophets (alayhum salam). They are shining examples for us to follow. It is through them that we learn the requirements of our faith, they are sources of knowledge, wisdom and guidance - and our links to the blessed prophet (saw). One of the salaf used to say that upon hearing the death of a scholar, used to feel as though a piece of his limb had been ripped off. :shock:

Naz wrote:

Ive only attended/listened to very few talks given by scholars so i cant really comment on whther one is better then the other as i do not know them well enough. If a scholar does say something and backs it up with a quote from the hadith or Quran i will always double check the citation for the simple reason that i dont blindly follow everything a Imam says.

Take for example my local Imam. He was telling ppl in the mosque that this is your mosque (which is true coz all the funding for building it came from the ppl) and come and pray, seek knowledge bla, bla bla. Next week he said someone left leaflets near the shoes rack advertising their business. They are not to do this without the permission of the committee. By permission he meant the person leafleting is to pay the committee members a sum of money for advertising their business in premises they have paid towards. Theyr all corrupt, no wonder ppl are always cussing molvis.

My angst is that you do not feel that you can confidently consider or regard any one scholar today as doing good works today. Having said that, as you havent had the opportunity to listen and/or been exposed to many talks by respected scholars, then I honestly understand why you feel this way.

From what I gather from what you have said, most of those that you have met are masjid imams. Undoubtedly, they, for the most part, knowledgeable in the deen, honourable, respected and assist their respective communities, but they certainly do not represent the entire scholastic population as a whole.

Undoubtedly, some numbers of muslim ulema have sold their Iman, and function with the want of money, power and fame. :x I am as frustrated and angry as you are when I hear of Masjid committee members contolling the masjid, overriding the Imam, and the Imams themselves engaging in this type of horrific behaviour. At the same time, however, it would be a great injustice, and a real shame not to recognise and give due regard and respect to the real scholarly gems in our community. Of particular concern to me, as well, is the ease with which we can destroy our good deeds by pointing undeserving criticism, denigration and sometimes outright insultation on our scholars.

I am against giving undeserving reverence, praise and honour to all scholars - an extreme example would result in their worship - which is shirk. A prime example is the excessive reverence given to Isa (Jesus) alayhis salam). We know that this resulted in him being labelled the son of god. One my my all time favourite childhood stories was the story of Ibrahim (alayhis salam), who questioned and pondered on everything around him (my teacher at school said one of the gods was made of sweets lol ) Questioning and contemplating is part of our obligation as muslims. Is it any wonder that many of the prophets (alayhum salam) were shepherds?

But we need to recognise our scholar's worth and valuse the treasures that they keep. As I've said previously, and I'll say it again, our beloved prophet called them the hiers of the prophets. It is said that even looking at their face is considered ibadah. :shock: In fact, one of the signs of youm al-Qiyamah is when the ulema will be disregarded and respect for them removed. The rasulAllah used to make du'a to Allah aza waj'al that he not be alive at a time when scholars were not followed or respected! :shock:

I am constantly reading, hearing and gaining and understanding new drops of knowledge on islam. But I listen to everything with a pinch of salt, believe me, I am not one to blindly follow anyone that comes my way, and I question whatever I do come across. But do not feel confident enough to literally take the law into my own hands, and apply the deen accordingly to my own understanding, or rashly open my mouth about what I hear. This is not what is expected of us, nor what we are permitted to undertake as lay people. Sometimes the questions or problematic areas? I carry with myself are resolved upon hearing/learning some new piece of information. I suppose you could say that I reserve my judgement? But ignoring the bearers of knowledge is akin to medical self diagnosis.

Courage wrote:

I don't think even Naz syas, we should "take the law into our own hands".

That refers to examining and applying fiqh. There is no other inference to be drawn or intended.