For those who degrade the traditional Ulema and say that Moulvis, Ulemas, Muftis etc of India do not possess sufficient or authentic Islamic knowledge...
Nice answer by Syed Iqbal Zaheer, the editor of Young Muslim Digest:
"We feel quite concerned over the rise of a new class of the so-called educated people, who have no or little knowledge of the noble religion of Islam. All of their knowledge is from gossip, or books that contain half-cooked information. Their leaders are as ignorant as their followers. A great majority of them do not know any language well enough. They cannot write a paragraph in any language without committing an error in every line, and cannot speak out well enough in any language – including their mother tongue. They do not seem to be sure of any specific part of Islam. If they are asked a question concerning any issue in Islam, they look back with a blank face or murmur out a few incoherent words. They are in a pathetic situation. They are fodder for every wrong movement, and riders of a boat that sails from a shore, to another part of the same shore, and then back, round and round, without taking them anywhere in the path to God.
We are also aware of a campaign by this untaught and unschooled class of people to discredit Indian scholars. They do not realize that their efforts to cut their relationship with the scholars, without knowing who is who, is playing right in the hands of Shaytan. But, they are too ignorant to realize any danger in their doings and loose talking.
Like a non-Engineer does not know the difference between classes of bolts and nuts, this class does not know the difference between a simple Moulawi who teaches Qur’an to their children, and a more knowledgeable person who delivers Friday sermons, another who delivers lectures before a religiously educated audience, yet another who has done an Ifta course, yet another who is schooled in various disciplines, or yet another who is an authority in a discipline or yet someone else who specializes in several disciplines.
This ignorant class is like a villager. The rustic comes to town and has absolutely no idea that everyone who can speak a little English is not a Professor, that there are school dropouts, high-school finishers, certificate holders, graduates (passed and failed), master degree holders, PhDs and so on, many, many classes. To him, everyone he comes across who can blabber a few words in English, is an intellectual bombast.
Similarly, to the newly cropped class of people we are discussing about, every pyjama-wearing, cap-donning, beard-sporting man is a top-grade scholar of Islam. They ask them stupid questions and receive stupid answers, and they part, both as confused at the end, as they were at the start. They end up expressing their dissatisfaction, and condemning the entire scholarly class, as unworthy of the name.
They cast allegation against scholars. But do they know any? None. Actually, they are scared of scholars; afraid that he will expose their ignorance. They are also afraid that they will come to know true Islam from them, which they have no desire to accept because it is so inconvenient to practice.
So they keep a safe distance from the scholars who hold senior positions in the fields of knowledge, like in Deoband, Nadwah, Saharanpur, Banaras, Umarabad, Sabeel-ur-Rashad, etc. Some of them do not intermix with any scholar, top class, or bottom class (if they can distinguish between the two).
They stay away from all because they need a distance to shoot arrows at them and conceal their own identity. They are a mischievous class, and they are a dangerous class. The first victims of their mischief and danger are their own children. They will give them a messy religion and put them on a boat which has lost its anchors. All that matters to them with regard to their children, is a degree in science from a Western university. Theirs is a pitiable situation, and their children will be in a more pitiable situation. Like father, like son."
(YMD, May 2014)
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Note:
For more facts and proofs of the knowledge of Indo-Pak Ulema see this brilliant article by Mufti Muhammed bin Adam Al-Kawthari of UK:
Are Indo-Pak Scholars Strong in the Islamic Sciences?
So they keep a safe distance from the scholars who hold senior positions in the fields of knowledge, like in Deoband, Nadwah, Saharanpur, Banaras, Umarabad, Sabeel-ur-Rashad, etc. Some of them do not intermix with any scholar, top class, or bottom class (if they can distinguish between the two).
They stay away from all because they need a distance to shoot arrows at them and conceal their own identity. They are a mischievous class, and they are a dangerous class. The first victims of their mischief and danger are their own children. They will give them a messy religion and put them on a boat which has lost its anchors. All that matters to them with regard to their children, is a degree in science from a Western university. Theirs is a pitiable situation, and their children will be in a more pitiable situation. Like father, like son."
(YMD, May 2014)
* * * * *
Note:
For more facts and proofs of the knowledge of Indo-Pak Ulema see this brilliant article by Mufti Muhammed bin Adam Al-Kawthari of UK:
Are Indo-Pak Scholars Strong in the Islamic Sciences?
