Dear Mr. Yousuf,
Hope you had a great time around muscat and it was productive visiting muscat.. I was a volunteer for your event on Thursday and mashallah you are indeed a good speaker.. But several questions had raised in my head after your talk ..which i wished i could meet up and ask you but i was so occupied with work that i dint even get the chance to attend the dinner on Saturday...Hence a volunteer (ramla, bint abdullah), passed me your email id and said that inshallah you would answer my questions..
Before the questions let me introduce myself a bit..I've been a muslim since birth, alhamdulillah but never practiced islam as a religion but rather i practiced it as a custom.. Alhamdulillah, 2 years back my brother sparked me a bit about islam and by the guidance of Allah swt, I accepted islam and since then i've been tryin to follow islam to the best i can.. I left the woman i loved ( as she was christian and refused to marry me), I left the friends i had.. But alhamdulillah Allah swt has rewarded me with things much much better then what i left...Am 22yrs old and am working as an "Assistant Finance Manager" in www.nafalco.com. I study while i work, I also teach and i workout regularly without comprimising with my islamic commitments...alhamdulillah..
So let me post the questions as follows:
1) Which are the 6 most authentic books of hadeeths to be followed?? I've heard Bukhari and Muslim are the most authentic books after Quran and 99% of the hadeeths mentioned their are saheeh and hence all can be followed.. But when i narrate the hadeeth to an Omani friend of mine he rejects and says that the narrator is not famous and hence he dosn't believe it to be saheeh... Wat do i do in this situation?
For ex. Am sure you are well aware tht according to the sunnah we most fold our hands and place them on the chest while standing in salaah.. But locally guys dont do tht and they leave their hands on their sides and when i narrate the hadeeths to them they give the same reason as mentioned above..Some tell me we are ibadis and not sunnis..what do you have to say about that???
2) I try to follow the Quran and Sunnah to the best possible way, alhamdulillah (sometimes i fail too) and also stop people from my family and friends who do otherwise and invite them to follow quran and sunnah. Some of them call me Salafi (those who respect me) those he get angry they call me "wahabi"..LOL..( wat do you i do in such a situation ) is it okay to call myself a salafi??
3) If i am giving a speech in public and i know there is some real wrong beliefs in the crowd (example majority is a muslim crowd with wrong beliefs), then would'nt it be my duty to talk about tht matter and clarify their heads before i do general dawah(though their exists a risk of being shouted at rather then receiving claps)??
4) Lastly a few people say that your are "Ikhwani" i.e. you call all muslims as brother if they are labelled muslims no matter they have saheeh aqeedah or not, you call all muslims to agree on common terms and ignore the differences.. is it true??
Please if you could kindly clarify my above doubts i shall be very thankful...
Thanks and salaamalaikum
Syed Ilyas
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Bismillah Rahman Raheem
Salam alaykum,
You have discovered the very same thing I discovered after coming to Islam years ago. The Muslims are divided up into groups. This is forbidden according to the Quran (Surah Al Imran 3:103)
The prophet, peace be upon him, warned us about the dangers of dividing up. He mentioned we would be divided more than the Christians and Jews and we are. He also said all of these divisions would be in Hell, except one: the one he and his companions were on at the time.
He used the term "salaf" referring to the first companions and many are taking this to justify their group called "salafi".
The group called "Wahabees" is having a number of problems with even the name itself. The people who were against a group of students of Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab, hated him and called his students "Wahabees".
The "Shiites" claim to follow Ali, radiallahu anhu, and even exaggerate him up to the level of prophet and say "alayhis salam" after his name.
The "Sunnis" think they are right, but some are more like the "sufies" praying to people in the graves.
There are so many different groups and each one is claiming they are on the right path. It is sad to see them fighting and hurting each other and destroying families, communities and relationships.
There are some differences of opinions on where people can put their hands in prayer, but this is not as serious as having different beliefs and that is where the real problem comes in. Some of the followers of the Maliki fiqh do pray with their hands down, a do the Shiites, but this is not as serious as other problems.
The best way to handle the problem where you live is to leave them alone on these issues, as they will never leave it for you and not even for big scholars. Just drop it for now and focus on keeping the brothers close to Allah, inshallah.
We don't say Dawah is for Muslims. It is for Non-Muslims. The word for helping Muslims in learning and practicing Islam is "islah" not "dawah".
Just talk about getting closer to Allah and don't bring up the big topics until you are really skilled in this area.
That is my advise.
Regarding the hadeeth - ALL (not just 99%) of the Hadeeths in Bukhari and Muslim are correct. It was Imam Bukhari who actually invented the whole concept of verifying these hadeeth.
We are not allowed to pick and choose hadeeth according to what we like. That just doesn't work out.
Hadeeth have been preserved and passed on to us by word of mouth, generation upon generation.
Just think of yourself as a Muslim that really cares about all Muslims and make dua for them all, as we do here.
We only claim to be "MUSLIM" nothing more.
Hope this helped, inshallah.
Jazakallah khair was salam alaykum,
Yusuf Estes
www.YusufEstes.com <> www.GuideUS.tv <> www.IslamNewsroom.com <> www.TubeIslam.com
