When the Prophet (saw) wanted to send Mu`adh to Yemen, he asked him, ”How will you judge when a case is presented to you?” He said, ”I will judge the book of Allah.” He said, ”What if you don`t find it in the book of Allah?” He said, ”Then through the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (saw).” He said, ”If you don`t find it in the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah or in the Book of Allah?” He said, ”I will make an effort with my opinion and I will spare no effort.” The Messenger of Allah slapped his chest and said, ”Praise be to Allah, who allowed the emissary of the Messenger of Allah to do what pleases the Messenger of Allah.” (Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi) There are no shortcuts, no magic solutions. We can get some emotional relief by abusing those who abuse us in return, but this is only temporary, discouraging and destructive relief, as we are always fully aware that it will make the situation worse. The output is the slow to listen to the other and to be heard, the type of conversation. How is this done in practice? Group leaders meet privately and begin to confirm what is common ground between them, and then they listen, talk, and exchange some deletions about why one takes that position on a particular issue and the other takes another position on that issue. If such a meeting is not practical for leaders, they can ask their deputies to go to the meetings of the other group, only with the intention of listening and learning what they think about it and why they are holding it. Finally, it may be possible for groups to make public together and explain to their people in a polite and polite way what they agree on and what they disagree on. And this affirms both what Allah has said several times in the Qur`an: that after acquiring Knowledge, people do not agree and disagree, and that He will settle these differences below, so that no resentment remains in the hearts of believers and their greeting is ”peace”. The business model of social media platforms (such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and others) depends on attracting and selling human attention. Your advertising revenue is calculated based on the number of people who ”subscribe/follow” or ”like/dislike” what is shown on the platform. Nothing attracts attention more easily[2] than winning or losing. For the business model, it doesn`t matter who or what wins or loses; What matters is that something is ”fashionable”, that is, it now receives the most attention. It follows that winning or losing must be ”amplified” in order to attract and hold attention.
So it doesn`t work to just say, ”Mufti X doesn`t match Mufti Z”; no, you must say ”Mufti X proves Mufti Z wrong”; or ”X crush Z”, ”X destroy Z” or ”X a Z: Boom!” I have simplified too much, but only a little; Everyone will recognize the real picture quite well from my description. Second, on what basis are you able to maintain the judgment that ”they” (other groups) are the misguided ones who mislead others, and the confidence that ”we” will be able to correct them through public argument? As explained above, public protest, especially on social media, encourages the exchange of ridicule and abuse. Due to a perceived increase in a group`s popularity (a debate ”gain”), some people may postpone joining that group. But this is not evidence of persuasion, of a real change of mind and heart, of ignorance to knowledge, of deception to leadership. It is more likely to be a simple change in loyalty and loyalty, a change from one group to another that is perceived as more ”successful”. Members of the group that has ”lost” the debate can then harden their opposition to the ways of the group that has ”won”, become much more intensely faithful to their own ways: after that, these members will survive and function as a separate sect cut off from the larger group of Muslims. What was really won then? In terms of the perception of truth, disunity is an ancient phenomenon in the intellectual history of humanity. The belief that there is only one truth does not diminish the possibility of attaining it.
This is an issue that everyone can pursue within the framework of their social and intellectual possibilities. However, such prosecution should not serve a person`s personal interest. One of the things we have to do if we want to have this Islamic civic education, this label of disagreement, is that we have to set our priorities correctly. We will have to understand that there are certain things in Islam that are not subject to compromise. In this context, I remind you that the Prophet (the Prophets) returned to Medina in the 9th year of Hijra (Mecca was conquered in the 8th year) and that year a whole series of tribes came to Medina to swear allegiance to the Prophet in order to accept Islam. There was a tribe called Bani Thaqeef from Taif, and they came to the prophet(s) and said they didn`t want to make salah. The Prophet (s) told them that there is nothing good in a religion that does not have Salah. They then said they wanted to keep our idols. The Prophet (s) said to them, ”No, you are going to get rid of these idols now.” They said that if they destroyed the idols, their people would go to Bizirk.
The Prophet (s) said that he would send someone to break the idols for them. And then they said they didn`t want to wage jihad. The Prophet (s) said okay. Then they said they loved women and wine. The Prophet (s) said that these things are forbidden. Then they said they didn`t want to pay Zakat. The Prophet (s) said that you will pay. What is it? When they said, ”We want to keep our idols,” what did the prophets say? ”You`re going to get rid of these idols now” – because it`s a violation of Tawhid and it`s something we can`t compromise on, but when they said, ”We don`t want to fight jihad,” what did the Prophet (the Prophets) say? He reportedly said, ”We`re going to work with/on it.” Did he give the same priority to everything? No he didn`t do it.
A debate is usually a public occasion; What is said should be heard by the public and receive their attention, approval and applause. What is said in a debate is not in the interest of the person or the point of view being discussed. On the contrary, the main purpose and joy of debating is to defeat the person or point of view with which you disagree. The goal is to bring down the other, to win at his expense. Some debates even have a public vote at the end to show which side won, who got the most likes. In this regard, debates, such as sports competitions, are entertainment. Debates may claim to be instructive, but in reality they are not. The Prophet (s) said that his ummah would not accept a mistake. He(s) didn`t say you`ll never make a mistake, or I`ll never make a mistake, we make mistakes all the time, he said the whole ummah won`t make a mistake. This is something we need to remember. We must return to the Sunnah of the Prophet (s) in Islamic civic education – how to live together. In Spain, it was said to be aslama faqad tahadara, which means that all those who become Muslims acquire hadaarah (civilization), the ability to live together.
Knowing that in this room no one is ma`sum (infallible) and in the absence of the prophet(s) who was ma`sum, we have no choice but to continue talking about these differences. Debates conducted in this way rarely, if ever, resolve disagreements, prolong them and generally harden them. They do not loosen differences, so that people can live with them in a friendly or even peaceful way. Even worse, they often cause disagreements that heat up. The superficial appearance of a reasonable argument based on ”evidence” quickly gives way to ridicule, abuse and insults, until both sides sooner or later realize that the other has no value and therefore should not be treated, not even in the debate. But this is not the end: winners and losers usually continue to attack each other`s point of view while speaking directly only to their own side. Thus, the already hardened differences are institutionalized as social divisions, hostile factions that are proud of them and prove their loyalty by never listening to the other. In the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Merciful.
And upon you be the peace, mercy and blessing of Allah. This is an important question. .