Mazhab Wahabi

 

When you "sign up" for Islam you see the five pillars of Islam. And the set of beliefs. Its interesting that no one who "counseled" me at the time said that you now have to choose a madhhab.

 

I do agree that the schools of thought differ and so one should aim to be consistent in one's life.  But it is ODD to imagine that people upon meeting people will give themselves a label. Unless you are going to marry or have some deeper relations not sure why it would come up.

 

 

And really, as people born into Islam, how many people study and truly choose a madhhab? People tend to inherit from their parents etc. So most people don't study and make a conscious choice.

 

And meeting people in my travels, it was interesting  to see Muslims label each other, like whispering to me " she's a so and so." As if those labels had any meaning to me.

 

Are Muslims any different from wanting to be "in group" or out of group. And in places where Muslims dominate, well, we all need to feel belonging to a more inclusive group. I think you see less of that in a way in the west as people more past the labels as well, we are Muslims. There is  some sepration between Shia and Sunni, but no one I"ve met has ever given me  a madhhab they belong to.  And they may very well follow one or another. But I don't know it, and really in meeting people what does it matter?

 

I think this happens more in places where Muslims are the majority.

Brother, with all due respect, you tend to go too deep into the literal meaning of words. But even if taken literally, there is nothing 'christian' abt the term, niether did I find any such roots when I looked it up.

Essentially the english language and its development is inseparable from the history of the Christian people. Ive lived in this country long enough to know how it used to be used and how it is used today among other terms. You are right about the literal aspect sister, generally i am interested in the reality of things, there state or condition in relation to how Allah created our nature and how he has asked us to be i.e Islam. Ive found that people who tend to focus entirely on what people imply and not what they say are essentially susceptible and suffering from waswasa if not outright slaves to it and thats putting it nicely.

This isnt something ive realised out of thin air this is plainly what Imam an nawawi himself said among many other Uluma who have described the human condition and states in relation to spiritual and physical influences such as shaytan [hmm....that sounds like the title of a thesis].

peoples behavior is dictated by how society acts and behaves as it defines the norm, most are not inwardly strong enough to resist such influence on there minds. When you let Allah decide what is normal in your life by giving his will the importance it deserves in your life and you live in an Immoral society/world/time what is normal to most people is not normal for you, there are people of different insights levels of intelligence and other factors which allow people to see the reality of things [essentially humans are deluded otherwise this world would be different] to differing degrees so you may not reach the same conclusions i have even though we may study the same thing, Having said all that i am not a saint sister or perfect.

Da'wah and nahi-anil-munkar are duties of a muslim, I agree. But when one says that they are not being self-righteous is when they are admitting thier fallibility, and possibility that they may be wrong.

I will admit im nitpicking here but certain terms hit a nerve with me especially when Muslims use them. The word is currently derogatory in western society and does nothing more than to stop people from thinking along righteous lines.

Words influence peoples psychology not just the word but the way it is phrased or how the language is structured it promotes certain behavior or attitude and conjures up imagery in the mind which a person then relates to or disagrees with. If arabs spoke the same arabic that the Quran uses which essentially was the normal language of Arab society back then that alone would have been enough to right most wrongs in the muslim world today. Why do you think the non muslims in the prophets time used to cover there ears when the Quran was being recited not because it had magical properties [although the words of allah do have a spiritual effect] but because of the way its language was structured which allowed it to penetrate there minds [or psychological barriers] and caused them to think along the correct lines or correct trains of thought.

It literally raised people UP morally by hearing it, sayidinah Umar [ra] is one such example.

Maybe i could go further into why these terms are Christian in nature and the result of that religions impact on peoples psychology but ill leave it here as the post is long enough as it is.

Brother, not all sahabah could prevent sects,

Although you are right in saying the sahabah could not stop sects from forming that wasnt what i was referring to. i meant the sahabah disagreed among them selfs and they couldn't all come to the same conclusion on everything.

By suggesting that I am trying to do something they couldnt, you seem to be implying that I am wrong, or I shouldnt dare go where the Sahabah didnt/couldnt ! (with all due respect to the sahabah)

You are wrong in calling for the unification of the madhhabs by getting rid of labels and with all due respect its naive and ignorant of what it is the madhhabs are and the actual work they have done. Dont take my words in the general sense im being specific and brief as i dont want to sit here and explain the different Principles and Ijtihad that the Ulumah have done over the years in various sciences such as Aqeedah, language and tafsir which can never be combined.

No one has absolute knowledge to say this sahabahs opinion was right and this other one was wrong you can only have opinions about the matter.

Brother, you seem to have gone off the tangent from defending the madhab labels to now justifying sects/rifts !

im not justifying sects, if you knew the proper islamic definition of what a sect is then you would see that. Many ignorant people i met [referring to the older arab generations] actually think a difference in Fiqh constitutes a sect, an ounce of common sense would tell you if you where to count all the different groups who differed in fiqh the number would be in the hundreds not 73 and thus that hadith can never refer to simple or slight difference in fiqh so these groups are not as doomsday as people are making them out to be.

regarding rifts i am saying you cant stop them the problem isnt the labels its the people.

This is why the USA can attack a muslim-country today and it is no longer considered an attack on muslims today, rather an attack on a 'nation' ! We have Afghanistan back-stabbing Pakistan, Kuwait backing attacks on Iraq and whatnot. Our identity as a muslim should NEVER take the backseat to our nationality. I do not consider nationalities unislamic. 

You are clearly confusing nationalism with islam, i would also suggest studying islamic history as muslims did not create these countries they where forced on us, divide and conquer was the imperial slogan.

Brother, I would appreciate if you coul pl give an e.g out of Hadith/sunnah.

rasul allah [sallah llahu alaihi wa sallam] in a hadith said that he would have answered all our questions i.e resolve all the issues but he didnt want to burden us with to many laws like the jews where burdened becouse they kept asking Musa [hs] about the minutest things. There are also clear instances in which the sahabah came to him having interpreted his words in various ways and he absolutely stayed silent on the matter he wasn't waiting for Gibril to bring him an answer he knew what he said beffore and didn't clarify. If i had time i would look up the hadiths there authentic.

sorry for the long reply.

 The sects are very much a reality. There is no running away from it now. If the Ulema of the middle ages or recent past did not do anything good to resolve the differences then it is no use denying them. The sects are mentioned in the Quran and it is advised that Muslims should not divide into sects... Something that was forbidden is already here with us.