Question:

In our recent Friday sermon, which was delivered by a brother who's not a scholar, the following claim was made: "It is our responsibility to learn the Quran by reading it and understanding it. Those people that tell you that Quran is for scholars only are misguiding you. Do not look at the face of a person, or his beard, or the color of his beard to follow him. This is how the cults started in Islam. One must evaluate everything on the basis of Quran and Sunnah and reject whatever is contrary to it. You cannot do this until you acquire the knowledge of the Quran." For some reason, this statement seemed extremely odd to me and I felt like almost confronting him about this. Can you please clarify if what he's stated is true and according to the understanding of the noble scholars?

Answer:

These statements are very general, as no Muslim can or would deny that we should follow the Holy Qur'an and Sunna. In fact there is a part of these sacred sources that every believer should benefit from. For example, reading the Holy Qur'an and seeing how Allah taala treated the misguided nations in the past and the many lessons in their stories, the exhortations to the believers of fearing Allah talla, the descriptions of heaven and Hell, the sins we must avoid and so on. These are things any person can understand and this aspect of the Holy Qur'an is what is meant for every one of us, as is the whole Qur'an's recital. Thus in this way without doubt every Muslim should make the Holy Qur'an a guide and read it daily for guidance. However there is an aspect of it that is to do with the Law. This requires deep knowledge of the Arabic language, Hadith, the principles of jurisprudence and other sciences related to the Holy Qur'an such as the Science of Abrogation. All of this takes many years to perfect. Only then can a person understand these texts in terms of jurisprudence. To offer one's own understanding of a sacred text, without the proper training is making a mockery of the Religion. It would be tantamount to allowing a person, who has read a book or two on surgery, to perform heart bi-pass on a patient, No one in the World would allow it because obviously, he has not gained the required skills and knowledge that come from spending a long time in-house under the tutelage of experts who pass on their knowledge to him. How then, is it possible for people, who have only read the English translations of a limited amount of the sacred sources, to be so ready to speak on the issue of the Deen? Yet the issue of the Deen is more serious than allowing an unqualified person to perform surgery, as in the latter case someone may lose their life, but in the case of Deen, a mistake could cost a person his Iman. Thus you are right to be wary of such hapless preachers and if you feel indeed he is of this inclination, then if at all possible a true scholar who follows one of the four schools should be sought.

Mufti Mohammed Sajjad

Wallahu Aalam bis-sawab

Please remember us in your Duas...

The answer to this question is the opinion of the scholar and does not reflect the opinion of other scholars of As-Suffa Institute and As-Suffa Institute as an organisation.