As'salaamu 'alaykum folks
I found this article insightful and pertinent. (For those with limited attention spans: its a tad long)
My Sheikh, Your Sheikh, Let's Go Have a Milkshake
By Altaf HusainYou know the drama all too well. Perhaps you have been an actor in the drama or a silent observer or, dare we say, the instigator. With variations in the actual script of the drama, the all-too-familiar scene could unfold like this: A group of sincere Muslims have gathered to worship Allah Almighty. They are preparing to pray and then, after prayer, they will head out to a restaurant for dinner.
SCENE 1
Sincere Muslim #1: Wait, did I just see you put water on your socks?
Sincere Muslim #2: Yes, I'm perfoming wudu', as if that was not obvious enough.
Sincere Muslim #1: But you didn't wash your feet!
Sincere Muslim #2: Wiping my socks is just like washing my feet! My sheikh says it is.
Sincere Muslim #1: Your sheikh? What does your performing wudu' have to do with your sheikh?
Sincere Muslim #2: My sheikh has taught me everything I know, including how to perform wudu'. Who is your teacher?
Sincere Muslim #1: Well, I am a very independent-minded person and I am self-taught. I do not need a sheikh to tell me how to perform wudu' or how to interpret Islamic teachings. I can do it myself.
Sincere Muslim #2: Suit yourself. I just feel it is much easier to have a reference point, a person who is learned and who can facilitate the learning process. That's why I like to refer to my sheikh.
Meanwhile, a few other members of the group are chatting before prayers about where they might like to go and eat dinner. The following scene unfolds.
SCENE 2
Sincere Muslim #3: Hey, what about dinner? Where are we going to eat?
Sincere Muslim #4: It doesn't really matter. I just want lots of food, cheap.
Sincere Muslim #3: It does matter where we eat. The place better serve halal food.
Sincere Muslim #4: Chill, sister! No one is thinking about eating pork tonight.
Sincere Muslim #3: I didn't mean pork when I said it better be halal; I meant we should find a place that serves halal meat — what's so difficult about this?
Sincere Muslim #4: Well, first of all, my sheikh says all the meat in America is essentially halal, except of course pork. So we can eat meat at any restaurant.
Sincere Muslim #3: How's that possible? My sheikh says we are allowed to eat meat prepared by the People of the Book (Christians/Jews) but he says meat consumed in most restaurants can hardly be considered as prepared by the People of the Book!
Sincere Muslim #4: So where do we eat? As I said, I want lots of food, cheap. But most of your halal restaurants are so expensive.
Sincere Muslim #5: Listen, you guys, between eating meat allowed by your sheikh and my sheikh, we're not going to eat anything tonight. Can we just go have a milkshake instead?
The Debrief
You might have related to the characters in both of the scenes above. Let's look at each scene carefully. The conversation in the first scene ends with one young person advocating for learning from a trustworthy, learned person — in this essay, we refer to such a learned person as a sheikh. The other young person finds it difficult to have to listen to and learn from a sheikh and prefers teaching herself. She characterizes herself as being an open-minded person as well. In the second scene, one young person insists on following her sheikh's interpretation that only meat slaughtered and prepared by Muslims is permissible or halal to eat; and her friend insists that, according to her sheikh, allowable meat is just that, allowable meat, which is all meat except pork regardless of who slaughtered it or prepared it.
Everyday Challenges, Real Solutions
During the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad, the Companions turned to him with all of their inquiries, ranging from questions about activities of daily living, such as what happens if you forget and eat while fasting, to questions of a more transcendental nature, such as how you can assure that you will enter Paradise. In response to their everyday challenges, Prophet Muhammad provided real solutions, real responses, revealed and reaffirmed by divine inspiration from Allah Almighty through the angel Jibreel. The Qur'an offers a clear approach, addressing believers as follows:
[Oyou who believe! Obey Allah, and obey the Messenger and those charged with authority among you. If you differ in anything among yourselves, refer it to Allah and His Messenger, if you do believe in Allah and the Last Day: That is best and most suitable for final determination.](An-Nisaa' 4:59)
In fact, as the verse delineates, believers are instructed on two matters: obedience and conflict resolution. Believers must, in this order, obey Allah, the Prophet, and then those in legitimate authority over us. Essentially, those placed in authority over us derive their power from Allah Almighty, and if they ever tell us to do something that contradicts Allah's commands, then we should disregard them and obey Allah, and similarly we obey them as long as what they expect of us is in agreement with what the Prophet has instructed us. With regard to differences in religious interpretation between individuals or groups, the above verse instructs us to refer the matter back to Allah (through the Qur'an) and the Prophet (through the Sunnah).
Read the rest of the article here: source
Are the people always advocating learning from a scholar afraid of being left out of the loop?
I disagree with the assault on the cyber students/shaykhs in that article. It is hyperbole and I have been told by scholars (not online ones, but thsoe that walk in the real world) one of the reasons for Jewish nations in the past losing their way was because knowledge of the religion was made to be exclusive to the religious authorities. The everyday layman was not well versed in religion and exclusively relied on the religious authorities who could then - because they were human - diverge from the well trodden path to suit their own agendas.
It seems to me these scholars are advocating the same thing, and its not only through insincerity that things could go wrong - sometimes you can clearly see the jumps in logic they employ.
I do agree with the overall message thought about differences of opinion and that people should strive to learn knowledge.
(ftr, I skim read the rest of the article)
"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.