Allah blessed me to study in Madinah for ten years. During that time, alhamdulillah I avoided the hard-core, over-zealous crowd (those who considered everyone a deviant or misguided). Yet, surrounded by books and studying classical texts hundreds of years old, I found myself internally criticizing many of the activists and scholars living in the West, and feeling that if I had the chance I would do things differently. Once, one very famous activist visited me in Madinah, and I remember advising him about a strategy of his and telling him that it was not appropriate of him to do that. I remember exactly what I said and all of my points to him vividly. It has been almost ten years since I left that beautiful bubble of knowledge, and immersed myself in dawah and with the masses here in the West. During this second phase, I have found myself criticizing activists and scholars less and less, and instead making more and more excuses for them. And a few years ago, I found myself doing EXACTLY the same strategy that I had, more than a decade ago, criticized in that other activist. And I remembered all of my points to him, yet I realized that experience and real-life interactions teach you more than books and classical texts. And I regretted chastising my brother in Islam for something that I myself now saw the wisdom in. My sincere advice to my younger brothers and sisters, who are just starting to study Islam, or are studying full-time overseas is: leave the criticism of others, and concentrate on your studies. Islam will survive, and the Ummah will continue down its path, without your input. Dont be overzealous and think you know it all. Wait until you yourself become active with the people, and see real-life problems that the classical texts havent taught you to handle. It takes zero qualifications to be a critic. Yes, in order to be a student of knowledge or scholar, you need to study the tradition. But thats only half the battle. The other half is to understand your people and community, and that is something you will have to do on your own, with time and experience, and not with the aid
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:33:25 +0000
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