new comers to islam and already muslims should remember that truthfulness and sincerity are basics of true faith, this means that one should not just accept what is told by others but rather be truthful and sincere in reasoning wether what is said is true or not or can not be known, know that there is no compulsion in the religion, and that those who try to push towards what they think is true should be avoided, even if they claim they are scholars and should be obeyed or the most pious people on earth, because in the end we all will stand before Him alone by ourselves, and we all be responsible for our individual choices, even as to what we accepted or rejected. Fear Allah alone, We will not be able to push the guilt of following a liar upon the liar. In reference to this i give you this verse:

chapter saba "Sheba" vers 32: The arrogant ones will say to those who had been weakened(were weak): "Was it we who kept you back from Guidance after it reached you? Nay, rather you were criminals.

Verse 33:Those who had been weakened will say to the arrogant ones(those who took authority without right): "Nay! it was your plotting by day and by night: Ye (constantly) ordered us to be ungrateful to Allah and to associate others with Him!" They will make the remours "a secret" when they see the torment: And we  put the yokes on the necks of the Unbelievers: will they then be rewarded except for that which they used to do.

This means one will not be able to push the blame upon those they followed, because for someone to follow a liar the person has to be a liar/corrupted himself, Fear of Allah in all matters is a requierment, one who fears Him alone will fear doing injustice because he or she realizes that one will be held accountable for all the decisions made, If one accepts a lie and the truth reaches him and he arrogantly still persists and then denies this truth, it means he valued something more then he valued Allah, He is The Truth, and only the truth will He accept, valueing something other then Him as more important is in a degree associating someone or something with Him(shirk). if it happens that a somewhat truthful person follows a liar, it will only be for a certain time, and during this time his or her heart will always be in conflict, it will not be at peace, because that which he or she follows is a lie, and eventually this person will turn away from the lies, and will not be ruined. The door to repentance and bettering oneself is open untill death, there is no turning back after that. This is for one who fears Him and the last day and hopes for His mercy.

you may ask yourself,"what is he asking us to follow if not the scholars?" the answer is:"the trod/way of Abraham". The Prophet (saws) and the believers are all commanded to follow the way of abraham.

The message of Abraham(Ibraheem) which was that There is only One god, and that He is to be worshipped, was not taught to him by his father, because his father was an idol worshipper. But before his forefathers was Noah, and Noah also worshipped only One God. It seems mankind has a tendancy towards idolatry, even though they started out as monotheist. This means one should always be on his or her guard for idolatry. Idolatry is the worship of anyone or anything else then The One and Only god, The god of Abraham, The god of mankind, idolatry is to worship something else then or together with The Only God, ascribing power and might to another then He who created and sustains everything and to whom belongs all the power and might. It is also to value something or someone as more important then Him, this can be done for instance by valueing a man's words as more important then His, sometimes this is done when someone accepts a man's words without testing them to the words of The Only God, either out of ignorance of His words, or because this person values that man, and maybe his group greatly. usually when the words of Allah are told to such a person, he will only hear what agrees with his views, the views of the "group", and wont hear all the rest, he is deaf to them, he will try to fit everything he hears into the guidlines set by the leader, and if he is confronted with Allah's words by someone and can not do this, he will go to the leader(s) for an answer, and will adopt a given answer as his. When the leader can not answer a question he will usually resort to redicule the one who confronted the questionner, the questionner himself or even get angry. But they are very cunning since they had alot of experiance and time. They nearly got an answer to any argument that would prove their wrong, and these answers do not come from any of the books of Allah, rather from man made sources. They convince their followers that they should follow these sources as they claim they have come from Allah, otherwise you are a herretic(you are not of the group) "christians" say the holy spirit told them to write it down, "the jews" say the rabbis should be obeyed( they are the longest around doing this kind of stuff) and "the muslims" say that it is narrated (words) from the Prophet himself, and that we should obey the "religious leaders". Since we have the koran (The guidance of Allah) and realizing that man can lie deceive and be erronous(make mistakes) it is impossible for someone of sane reason and faith to accept these words, except when they are in full harmony with the koran. And it gets even worse when some of them even claim that some verses, that just happen to go against their views are "abrogated" in other words these verses of Allah's book do not count anymore. What needs to be understood is that the koran should be read in arabic with hope for His mercy and fear. "Iqra" read is the first word sent down to the Prophet, so if one really wishes to follow the prophet then let him follow the first command given to him by Allah, Iqra bismi rabbika allathee khalak"read in the name of your Lord(Allah) who has created. Hate is a sickness of the heart just look how unjust your judgements are when you are angry...the cure for it is al quraan"shifaa li maa fee assudoor wa hudaan wa rahmatun lil mu'mineen"10:57 O mankind! there hath come to you a direction from your Lord and a healing for the (diseases) in your hearts,- and for those who believe, a guidance and a Mercy.

In the book of islam, the koran, the messenger is commanded to 6:161 Say: "Verily, my Lord hath guided me to a way that is straight,- a religion of right,- the path (trod) by Abraham the true in Faith, and he
(certainly) joined not gods with Allah. chapter 6:161

" The koran refers to abraham as being "haneef" they translate it as "true in faith","the true", "sane in faith", to me it means one who seeks Allah and His nearness.

6:76When the night covered him over, He saw a star: He said: "This is my Lord." But when it set, He said: "I love not those that set."

6:78. When he saw the sun rising in splendour, he said: "This is my Lord; this is the greatest (of all)." But when the sun set, he said: "O my people! I am indeed free from your (guilt) of giving partners to Allah.

6:79. "For me, I have set my face, firmly and truly, towards Him Who created the heavens and the earth, and never shall I give partners to Allah."