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madeenahsh
05-24-2007, 10:03 PM
as-salamu `alaykum wa rahmatullah:

The following question and answer may be of benefit;

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salamu alaykum

in a intrnet forum where members talk about islam does this count as remembereance of allah as mentioned in the followin hadith :

"When a group of people assemble for the remembrance of Allah, the angels surround them (with their wings), Allah's mercy envelops them, tranquillity descends upon them and Allah makes a mention of them before those who are near Him.''
[Muslim].
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as-salamu `alaykum wa rahmatullah:

Internet forums are of two main categories;

1. Those with a beneficial purpose

2. Those with other than a beneficial purpose.

The first category includes forums administered by scholars, or shaykhs, or well-known students of knowledge. It may be used for the benefit of the students, to submit questions for example, like in the case of the forum of www.albaseerah.org - in which the students can log in and submit questions for upcoming lectures with the scholars and the shaykhs that cooperate in teaching there.

The second category includes all forms of internet forums wherein the participants as well as the administrators are not known, even though some of them may know the identities of each other.

On such forums, those who post are not known, using names that do not indicate who they are, as well as the administrators; it is not known who they are or what qualified them, or who endorsed them in their administration of the forum.

Forums in this category - which may focus on anything from Islamic topics to tips on cooking or other than that - and here we are talking about forums administered by Muslims - they have used a tool and idea of the non-Muslims in a manner that is not Islamic.

Meaning; it is not known who the writer is, nor the person in charge of approving, or deleting, or the like.

So in this case, such a gathering is like a gathering of people in the dark, none of them can recognize any of the others, and none of them knows who the speaker is, and the leader of the gathering is not known, and none of them even know exactly where they are, etc.

Since such case is among the most useful of tools for Shaytaan and his workers, then after popularity of such forums spread, they became a focal point for the shayateen among jinns and humans, whispering in the hearts of men and women, encouraging them each to speak what is on their mind, and to say, in writing, what they would otherwise never have said.

And, as is recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim and others, with different wordings, that the Messenger of Allah, sall Allahu `alaihi wa sallam, said:

"Indeed Allah has allowed for my ummah what is whispered in the breasts, provided that they not speak on it or act on it." Or as he sall Allahu `alaihi wa sallam, said.

But the shayateen not only whisper in the hearts of humans, but make evil seem good, and encourage them to justify and speak on it and act on it.

So whoever follows the whisperings of the shaytan, then the above narration does not cover them, and they are under the threat.

Then, these forums - the "we are free to speak as we like" forums, administered and attended by those following the whisperings of shaytaan, who made the "free-speech" idea seem good to the non-Muslims, and then the Muslims after them - except whom Allah had guided - feature all sorts of evils, from holding anarchic mob trials on individuals - which their shayateen have convinced them are "Islamic," to supporting every ignorant foolish person with a crafty tongue to display what appears to be their knowledge for their anarchist followers, who develop an admiration for them. So every student among them will find a shaykh to (mis)guide them, and every shaykh will find his students among these anarchists against Islam among the Muslims to follow him.

Sadly, after this, the “shaykhs” among them went even further upon the instigation of those whispering in their hearts, entering into the "blog-a-sphere."

And these blogs, while they have many of the same problems, they also contain others that are more grave. For example, there is hardly one that you can find, in which you will not see them advertising and referring you to cohorts of theirs at other blogs, wherein every kind of kufr and shirk are discussed, aside from all sorts of lewd, evil behaviors and ideas.

All of this, from one idea: "freedom of speech."

So they are all like the hadith of the Messenger, sall Allahu `alaihi wa sallam, recorded in the Sahih, wherein he gave a parable of the hudood, or regulations of Allah, and he explained that by a ship with different levels. The people on the lowest level wanted to get water and some of them suggested that rather than going up and down all of the time, and bothering everyone on the level above them, it would be better that they simply make a hole in the side of the ship so they can get their water.

And as he, sall Allahu `alaihi wa sallam, said, if the others do not stop them, they will all perish.

So most of these forums are like that, and the claims and ideas of their writers as well, as ridiculous as what the people on the lower level of the ship said, while there is hardly anyone on the ship of the forums to stop them, in fact, usually they all agree - democratically - that it is a good idea.

So through these means, they are made to see evil as seeming good, and to cooperate in it together, encouraging unity in that.

As for advice, Allah bears witness of those who have advised those responsible for such forums, while it is not reasonable to think that every single one of them has been advised, but it is known that many of them have been, and numerous times as well.

Finally, if a forum fits in the first category mentioned above, wherein the people are encouraging each other to the truth and encouraging each other with patience, then it can not be denied that there is some remembrance of Allah in that.

In the second category, it can also not be denied that there is some remembrance of Allah, but in this case, while scholars and shaykhs have warned of the dangers of such forums, and told the people to abandon them, and the evil they contain should be clear, then us saying that they are places of remembrance is like saying that about remembering Allah in a business that sells khamr, or deals in adultery, or the like, because in the spread of lies and falsehood, slander of the sacred honor of the Muslim, backbiting and gossip, utterances of statements of kufr wantonly, etc., are many major sins, some of which are certainly worse that adultery and khamr.

So to be just, it can not be denied that Allah is remembered in any of those cases, while it also is clear, that none of them could be named with the term: "remembrance of Allah," in truth.

See the following for more regarding this matter, and some replies from two Shaykhs about it:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/quranw...h/message/1217

and with Allah is the facilitation to what is right.

Was-salamu `alaykum

Abu Khaliyl
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madeenahsh
06-03-2007, 04:37 AM
MashAllaah to akhi abu khaliyl
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madeenahsh
12-18-2007, 11:10 PM
as-salamu `alaykum wa rahmatullah:

We wanted to ask some of the scholars about our observations regarding internet forums, which can be viewed in the question below. On March 11, 2006, the question was posed to Shaykh Salih as-Suhaimi in the on-line class at www.albaseerah.org, the link for the translation of the whole lecture and the other questions asked is


http://www.albaseerah.org/forum/show...nternet+forums


I would like to encourage everyone who has not registered at www.albaseerah.org to do so, to attempt to attend the regular classes, and the regular general lectures, as we know the brothers reponsible for holding these classes, and the character of the brother in charge, Abu Sufyan - in my estimation - is impeccable, and he is known to the Shaykhs and scholars, and I do not publicly endorse people lightly, and none sanctifies except Allah.

The following question was also asked in another session with Shaykh `Ali al-Halabi, and he replied: "I agree with what has been stated in the question...." and continued, and I do not think that his lecture has been transcribed as of yet.

Below are my observations, and I endorse the view of Shaykh Salih as-Suhaimi, and Shaykh `Ali al-Halabi, and the names of these people of whom I speak are not all unknown to me, rather, to the contrary, and many of them have been advised previously...and with Allah is the facilitation to do what is correct, and I ask Allah to lighten the way for us all through His guidance...

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Question: Through the observations of some of the students of knowledge here in America of the Internet forums, certain concerns have come up. We present our concerns to the scholars to direct us, and we seek a solution to our concerns and problems.

• Many of the forums are managed by unknown personalities, thus the information is managed by a majhool person. This also makes it impossible to contact them in order to correct what is wrong and advise (them) when needed.
• Many of the visitors who post are unknown/majhool characters as well. On top of this, the information they author in most cases is not related back to any of the scholars, but is merely a concatenation of their own opinion and/or imagination.
• These authors have taken it as a pastime of theirs to stress the khilaaf/difference between the scholars, thus causing further splitting of the Muslims. To add water to the mud, the issues these characters stress, are issues many of us are in absolutely no need to have knowledge of, for they are above our level as well as theirs.
• On these forums the blind are leading the blind. That is every teacher (poster) finds students (observers) and every student finds a teacher.
• The people – both poster and observers – spend their time in these forums bypassing the online activities the scholars are holding, such as this one (albaseerah).
• The good is little while the harm is great. Both the observer is being misguided and the author/poster is misguiding others.
These are some of the observations in short. These observations reflect the state of affairs of these internet forums.

Please give us the verdict on these forums concerning:
1. The permissibility of attending the forums?
2. Who should be allowed to post based on the Shari`ah of Islam, and not their so called: “freedom of speech”?
3. Also many of those seeking good and to advise try to reply with posts of their own, only to be overwhelmed and attacked by the replies received back. So what is the correct manner in fighting this war against the misguidance and ignorance being spread, and the further dividing of the Muslims, all leading to further weakening of Islam and it people?


Answer: The Shaykh said that first of all everything mentioned in the question and the examples given in the question requires us to turn away completely from these types of open forums where anyone can say what they want to say and where many of the people, whether they be supervisors or writers are unknown. That which I advise you with is to make I’raad (إعراض) i.e. to turn totally away from these types of open forums – jumlatun and tafseelan i.e. completely, turn away from it – all the way!

We should suffice ourselves with the sites of the ‘Ulema – people of knowledge. Those are known for not being hasty in giving their fataawa and who are known for their strength and firmness in knowledge – the likes of: the mufti Shaykh Abdul Azeez ala Shaykh, and the likes of our Shaykh Salih al-Fawzaan, and Shaykh Abdullah al-Ghudayaan and Shaykh Salih al-Luhaydaan and likewise our beloved Minister of Da’wah Shaykh Salih ibn Abdul Azeez ala Shaykh and Shaykh Abdul Muhsin al-Abbaad al-Badr and Shaykh Rabee ibn Hadee al-Madkhali and Shaykh Abdul Muhsin al-Ubaykaan and Shaykh Salih as-Sadlan حفظهم الله and other than them as I did not intend to mention all of them, but rather to give an example of the ones that I was referring to.

We should also return to the sites of our elder scholars, the ones who have past رحيمهم الله – the likes of our Shaykh Abdul Azeez ibn Baaz the scholar of his time, and the unique one of his time as it relates to his manners, his moral integrity and his knowledge. Likewise, the scholar of his time - Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymeen who gave all of his life to knowledge and to the students of knowledge. And also to our Shaykh Muhammad Naasiruddeen al-Albaanee – the one who gave light to the Sunnah in this time period.

We should not be fooled by those who say that there is a difference of opinion amongst the scholars as it related to Shaykh al-Albaanee. This is a bunch of nonsense. Shaykh al-Albaanee رحيمه الله was the one who gave light to the Sunnah in this time period and he is respected by all of the scholars, even if there are differences of opinions amongst them as it relates to issues. All of their manhaj was one and it is the manhaj of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama’ah. As for the ones that I did not mention from amongst the scholars then I hope that they would excuse me as my intention was to mention the example and not to mention all of them. Likewise, the ones who follow the manhaj of the ‘Ulema i.e. they start with Aqeedah in their call to Allaah سبحان و تعالى and that which the a’immah of the Da’wah were upon. It is the manhaj of the Sahabah رضى الله عنهم before all of them.

So we should stick to what has been reported on the websites of the Kibaar ‘Ulema (Major Scholars) of this time. We should strive to do that which brings us closer to Allaah سبحان و تعالى by listening to their tapes and reading their books. Do not pay any attention to the people who are not following this manhaj or those who may speak about some of those Scholars. That is because speaking about the people of Sunnah is a sign of people of bid’ah. Likewise, most of these open forums have people that use fake names or give each other such great titles that even the Sahaabah would have been embarrassed to have for themselves.

The Shaykh then mentioned some poetry about Andalus – the Muslims of Spain at that time. The meaning of the poetry is that after Andalus had been conquered by the French, or even before when it had been split up, every little place in Spain had someone who called himself ‘king’ although he only ruled a very small portion of it. Then the French conquered them. The point that the Shaykh was trying to highlight by the poem was that even though someone calls himself a ‘king’ or a ‘prince’ it does not make him that.

The people on these sites use false names and they praise one another and praise those that do not deserved to be praised, and this leads to differing amongst the Muslims. So the Shaykh advised on boycotting all these websites. He said: “By Allaah, you will be asked about the time you spent on these types of websites.” We should listen to the tapes – the beneficial lectures of the ‘Ulema. We should not be fooled by websites who act like they are with the scholars but they have a hidden agenda and it is nothing but a lie. They are disgracing the scholars, speaking badly about them and defaming them.

We should look for the ones who are in fact following the ways of the ‘Ulema in actions, Aqeedah, Methodology, application of Fiqh and other than that. Stick to the ‘Ulema and don’t be fooled by the people who (especially in Saudi Arabia) ride around in cars and skid around in the streets and do things to be seen and heard amongst the people. Our Shaykh Ali Naasir al-Faqhee … (the Shaykh mentioned something that the translator did not get). Our Manhaj is very clear – it is the way of the Salaf as-Saaalih, the Sahaabah, Imaam Ahmad, Shaykh ul-Islaam ibn Taimiyyah, ibn Qayyim, Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab and all those who follow the path of the Sahaabah.

In summarizing the Shaykh advised staying away from these websites that have a lot of talk and that we stick to the websites of the ‘Ulema. The best thing to do is sit with ‘Ulema if you are able to, if you do not have the ability to do so, then benefit from their tapes and books. If whilst benefiting from their tapes or books you have a question about what was said/mentioned then call the ‘Ulema themselves and ask about the issue you didn’t understand from the tape or book. Their phone numbers are well known – they are even advertised in the newspapers. Do not be fooled by numbers that you may see on websites that say to call this place or that place, rather return to ‘Ulema ar-Rabbaaniyeen – those who are well known for their ability to nurture and cultivate, and those known for seeking out the evidences and giving fataawa based upon evidences.

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for more information:

http://www.albaseerah.org/

was-salamu `alaykum

Abu Khaliyl
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Ummu Sufyaan
03-28-2008, 06:24 AM
:sl:
*bump...
nice one, jazakallahu khair...
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