#innovaters

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It's almost 3 a.m. and I have a vocabulary quiz first thing in the morning and I should be studying for my SAT's so I'm not entirely sure as to why I made this my top priority. Maybe it's because when I'm taking notes about American government I'm jotting down writing prompts in the margins so I don't forget them later. Or maybe it's because I have scribbled character ideas in the spaces between my statistics charts. Or maybe it's because when I awaken from a nightmare the first thought in my head is, "that would make a great horror story." Maybe It's because we're the movers and the stirrers of this idle society that values grades above all else. And don't get me wrong, I do too. I'm trying to get rolling on all this college stuff, myself.

But we're thinkers and artists and our minds are vessels for battering rams that will knock down these walls that keep us narrowly imprisoned in a mindset that stifles our creativity. And that's what we want to do isn't it? We're innovators. In a day and age where everything has been done already we want to be the bunch that digs up the roots of something new, something not yet discovered, something that will inspire others so that we never reach a point where we say, "That's it. That's all that's left." So that things don't cease to grow. To pry us out from those stagnant ruts we often fall into. Art is way of being. Whether it be through words, a melody, a stroke of a brush, or whatever method transfers the cluttered madness from the confines of your head to the world. Art is communication. And it deserves to be heard.

Yes, the truth is to be accepted from whoever says it, and the Salafus Saalih did not abstain from accepting the truth, and with that  they never said, ‘take  the truth that is found in the books of the people of innovation and leave the falsehood.’. Rather they proclaimed with their loudest voice to leave them all together. Rather they made their destruction obligatory, and that is because the truth that is present in the books of the people of innovation can be found in the Book and the Sunnah and therefore it is obligatory to take it from its original source which is not contaminated with filth nor innovation, since it is the spring that is pure, and the water that is fresh.

An example of that: Two wells of water, one of them pure and clean and the other muddy filled with dirt and filth, so does one with intellect say: `Go to the second well and take from its water.’ The one with intellect does not say this.

So what if there was found one who was deterring people from the pure spring and calling the people to drink from the muddy well filled with dirt and filth…”

“And the Messenger of Allaah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam warned against reading the writings of the People of the Book even though they are not free of some truth.

On the authority of Jaabir bin Abdillah who said that Umar bin al-Khattaab came to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam with a writing that he had gotten from one of the People of the Book and he became angry and said:

`Are you in doubt O Ibn al-Khattaab?! By the One in Whose Hand is my soul! I have come to you with that which is clear, do not ask them about anything so that they speak the truth and you deny it, or they speak falsehood and you believe it, and by the One in Whose Hand is my soul, if Moosa was alive, he would have to follow me.’

-Collected by Imam Ahmad; graded hasan by Albaani

Shaykhul Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said,

`It is hated for the one who does not have the ability to critique and distinguish (between truth and falsehood) to look in the books that have a number of fabricated narrations, and misguided opinions like the books of the people innovation, and it is hated to take knowledge from the Qassaas (storytellers) and their likes who tell many lies in their speech, even if they speak much of the truth’.”

[End of quote, See an-Najm al-Baadee p. 27]

The statement of Ibn Taymiyyah sheds much light on this issue where he mentions that even if there is much truth to be found in their speech, it is mixed with lies and fabrications and therefore the one who does not have the ability to distinguish between truth and falsehood, Sunnah and Bid’ah, will become lost and become like the one who gathers wood at night! He will gather along with the wood, trash, dirt, and everything else that is present, as he does not have the ability of discernment.

Khaalid adh-Dhufairee in his book Ijmaa al-Ulemaa alal Hajr wat-Tahdheer min Ahlil Ahwaa (The Consensus of the Scholars Upon the Abandonment and Warning from the People of Desires) mentions in the chapter: `The methodology of the people of the Sunnah in dealing with the books of the people of innovation‘:

“Indeed from the calamities that have spread in these times, and its evil and harm have spread are those books that are filled with innovations, superstitions, and the calls to newly invented methodologies, for these innovated books have been a strong means for every innovator to spread his innovation and misguidance amongst the people and to beautify them so as to make its spread easier.

But there remains a question that needs answering and it is: “What is the path to safety from these books and to save the people of the Sunnah from them?

The path, it is the following the way of the Salafus Saalih in their dealings with the books of the people of desires and innovation. Their way was warning against these books, and leaving off looking into them, and warning from their authors, rather they ruled with the obligation of destroying these books and burning them.

And this is not oppression, rather it is the essence of justice since oppression is leaving these books filled with innovations and misguidance without warning or clarifying what is in them of falsehood, because of which many people become misguided and follow innovated methodologies that are in opposition to the Book and the Sunnah.

Our Sheikh, the carrier of the banner of criticism and praise in these times, Abu Muhammad Rabeeus Sunnah ibn Haadee al-Madkhalee hafidhahullaah, said in explanation of this issue on the cassette titled Manhaj Ahlis-Sunnah, hafidhahumallaah:

“So we advise the youth and the elders, and other than them from the Muslims that Allaah has opened their breasts to the truth, and adhering to it, to remain firm upon the straight way and to advise one another to remain firm upon this truth and this path, and not to expose themselves to the affairs of straying that has affected so many from those who the people of innovation and desires have drawn into looking into the books of falsehood and misguidance and listening to the cassettes that call to desires and innovations, with the argument that they will listen and read and whatever is from the truth they will accept it, and whatever is from falsehood they will reject. But in reality they are in the position of the one who does not have the ability to distinguish between truth and falsehood, Sunnah and innovation, between Tawheed and Shirk. So they fall into misguidance, straying, and innovation, and many from this kind become enemies to the truth and enemies of the people of truth.