Wahabbism. What does it mean actually? To be honest, i'm not quite sure myself, because the so-called "Wahabbis" don't call themselves that. Well I'm not here to give the history of the origin of that word, because I didn't take the 'History of Saudi Arabia' module. And, despite my title, that isn't what I want to discuss.
What is more pertinent here is the issue of Madinah students: why are they really hated/condemned by certain parts of our community? Well the easy answer would be ignorance, or sometimes, just blatant disrespect.
Usually, these people would (as always) justify their hatred of Madinah/Saudi people by quoting the authentic hadith, whereby Nabi s.a.w refused to recite doa for the people of Najd despite being asked by his companions, adding that Najd will be the place where the "2 horns of syaitan will appear." But is Najd really Saudi Arabia, as the anti-"wahabbis" claim?
Well, if we do not know, we should ask the experts in that particular field, and in the field of hadith, there are not many more expert than Ibnu Hajar Asqolani, a prominent scholar of hadith in the Syafii madzhab. According to him, in his book Fathul Bahri, Nabi saw was in Madinah while saying that line, and he pointed to the East while saying that; Ibnu Hajar came to the conclusion that Najd is actually Iraq. In fact, he quoted numerous scholars in that book, and none of them said that Najd is Saudi.
How then did the Najd=Saudi theory came up? Wallahu a'lam. I don't know whether it was done in spite or it was a genuine mistake or whether that is indeed the case.
Since there's so much ambiguity in that interpretation, let's turn to other sources of evidence that are less ambiguous.
Firstly, in kitab sohih Bukhari, there is a whole chapter on the superiority of Madinah: there is not 1 on Mecca, Yemen, Syria, Jordan: nope, there's none. Only Madinah. Surely, to the intelligent person, that means something.
Allow me to quote just 1 hadith from that chapter: Nabi saw said:
"Yemen will be conquered and some people will migrate (from Medina) and will urge their families, and those who will obey them to migrate (to Yemen)although Medina will be better for them; if they but knew.
Sham (Syria, Palestine etc) will be conquered and some people will migrate (from Medina) and will urge their families, and those who will obey them to migrate (to Yemen)although Medina will be better for them; if they but knew.
Iraq will be conquered and some people will migrate (from Medina) and will urge their families, and those who will obey them to migrate (to Yemen)although Medina will be better for them; if they but knew".-(aukama qal)
This hadith cannot get any clearer, yet people like to condemn Madinah and its people. Its one of the 2: either they did not come across this hadith, or they do NOT want to find it.
Well for those who's seen this hadith, please, don't hide the truth. And even if you haven't seen this hadith before, or you have some other interpretation to it, there is absolutely no reason for us to slander other people, just because our opinions differ from them, or just because they are from Madinah. Ultimately,our differences in opinion should not stand in our way of our unity.
After all, we're are but 1 ummah, not 2 ummahs.
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5 comments:
ceh ceh ceh.. dh back to blogging ah..
siapa ni yg dh tulis nonsense kat blog dorang?? eh asal aku mcm dengar *tulis 10 worst blogs I came across* kat belakang aku ni..
sabar ji, marah2 sume tk guna.. berdoalah, kerana sesungguhnya doa itu senjata org mukmin..
"I didn't take the 'History of Saudi Arabia' module"
hehe...kau nak amik module ni dgn aku tak...lecture notes semua aku sediakan...hehe
Tukar lah itu title. Tak yah in amsterdam. Tukar to whose line eh. Apt apa..
Wah Jen, skrg kau actively comment on others' blogs eh. Bagus2.
And ji, ni takde sindiran kepada siape2. Yang faham fahamlah, yang tak faham, buat2 faham. Haha.
And An, haha, I think i'll pass. Hahaha.
I’m sure that is not the only reason why people are wary of the scholars from Madinah. It’s definitely more than that. And I doubt so any rightful scholar or at least in Singapore would belittle the city of Madinah nor argue about its superiority over other cities although we have heard comments about you can find ulama in every corner and every streets of Yemen.
I think its more of the interactions that some had with the earlier scholars of Madinah rather than the perception of the state where they had their graduation ceremony.
Yes true, I do agree that the scholars of Medina have great intentions of correcting the innovations and traditions which have evolved over the years. But some have been really harsh in their approach that they disintegrate the muslim community and distanced themselves from being part of it.. Having said that, my 2 cents worth is that in the same way that we fault non-Muslims for turning the actions of a few into a condemnation of the many, let us be careful we do not do the same.
Mind you, I am not a “card-carrying Salafi nor Sufi” myself; but I do respect both for their methodology and recognize the benefit they have brought the ummah.
We as an Ummah need to mature. We can sit here all day and bash each other, but the fact of the matter is, nobody is going nowhere. The Sufis aren’t going to be geared into non-existence; the Salafis will not be refuted out of existence
Bashing of any sort is counter-productive; yet we must give our scholars some leeway in exposing another’s faults in belief with the utmost and highest of “adab”. I say this because if our scholars aren’t given the freedom to voice their learned opinion, then the laypeople will be left susceptible. Also, it is not just the scholars who are coming out of Madinah that do this. Imams considered moderate, by any standard, are also warning the people about innovations and traditions which are against the “aqeedah” by all measurements. All these scholars are doing is trying to educate us; any notion that they have some hidden “agenda” is baseless.
I have heard many a times about “khilaf" among the ulama as a rahmah to the ummah. But for the first time I heard someone saying that “khilaf” could be a disaster for the ummah. If we believe that this is true, then I guess whether we are a salafi or sufi…we do not understand the true meaning of ‘khilaf”. And for laymen like me who is struggling to be a good muslim due to my own imperfections, it is definitely a catastrophic disaster to truly learn, understand and grasp the religion of Islam.
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