Futile Debates

Futile Debates – الامام الطيبي

Imam al-Tibbi wrote 700 years ago in a similar context:

. والمنازعة في ذلك كمن يأتيهم كتاب من سلطان يأمرهم فيه وينهاهم، وهم يتشاجرون في أن الكتاب: كيف خطه، وكيف عبارته، وأي شيء فيه من صنعة الفصاحة والبلاغة؟ ويذهلون عن صرف الهمم إلى الانتداب لما ندبوا إليه”.
“Quarreling about these issues is like the example of a people to whom their king sent a letter in which he commanded them to do certain things and forbad them from doing certain things.
What they did instead is: they quarrelled among themselves about the letter itself:
HOW did he write it?
HOW did he phrase it?
WHAT kind of eloquence and rhetoric does it contain?
And their astonishment at these issues distracted them from the actual mandate which they were assigned to do.”

And also:

فالسبيل الأمثل والطريق الأعدل- أيها الإخوان من الطائفتين- أن تتركا المنازعة والخوض فيما لم يشرع فيه أصحاب النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم. فاعملوا في تلاوة كتاب الله وتدبره والعمل بما فيه
“O my brothers from both of these opposing camps: The best and fair way forward is to abstain from disputing and delving into issues altogether which the companions of the Prophet did not indulge in.
Act on what you recite from the Book of God, reflect on it and simply perform what is mentioned in it.”

[“Futuh al-Ghayb”, 1/629].

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For 1,000+ years, we have debated topics like:

Did God speak with Sound (صوت) – or No Sound?
Did God speak with Arabic Letters (حرف) – or No Letters?
Is God’s Speech Eternal (كلام الله قديم) – or can it be new?
Did God Speak Within Himself (كلام نفسي) or not?

I’ve researched & heard about these topics for nearly 20 years, and the truth is – there is a time and place for these discussions in academic circles – but there is no real benefit in any of these discussions for us laymen.

Trust me on this – I’ve been there.

If you are young and new to these debates – yes, its cool to belong to a cause and diss your opponents – but you will reach the same conclusion after 20 years … so take it from me and save yourself 20 years!! 😉

The best way for us is to leave all of this and stop where the Sahaba stopped.

Simple.

If you look at these debates without sectarian bias, you will see that: Ash’ari, Maturidi and Athari are all Sunni ‘Aqidah schools.

Just like we have 4 Fiqh schools, we also have 3 Aqidah schools.

Their differences are all ijtihadi.

All these schools are man-made endeavours in search of truth.

They all contain what is correct and what is incorrect – but their mistakes are forgiven and rewarded, because its all ijtihadi.

If you look at the reasoning of each school, you will see that they all have valid points.

The truth floats within these Sunni schools.

However, no single school or scholar has a MOPNOPOLY on the ENTIRE TRUTH.

Sometimes, the truth will be with the Ash’ari,
sometimes with the Athari.

Sometimes, the truth will be with the Hanafi,
sometimes with the Maliki.

However, the Sunni mujtahid Imams will be rewarded, even those who were mistaken.

The truth does not fall outside these Sunni schools.

The major scholars of the past acted on the following formula:

مذهبنا صواب يحتمل الخطأ
ومذهب مخالفينا خطأ يحتمل الصواب
“Our Madhab is CORRECT,
but it could be INCORRECT.
The Madhab of our opponents is INCORRECT,
but it could be CORRECT.”

If only we had this same mentality today.

May God unite the ranks of ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jama’ah and unite our word , Ameen