:bism: (In the Name of God, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful)
(Peace be upon you)
@Huzaifah ibn Adam
I have seen many refutations of Sheikh Hamza Yusuf done online and most of the times they are distortions of his positions. For example, when you give the example of him saying that Jihad is not mentioned in the Quran, this is directly contradicted by this YouTube video called
Jihad of the Sword in Quran.
Secondly, there are people in our times who go on killing apostates and perceived blasphemers willy-nilly; so not applying
shariah (Islamic law) when you do not have legitimate state authority is actually about knowing that extremist Muslims are misunderstanding and cherry-picking Islam. For example,
Farkhunda Malikzada was killed by a mob for supposedly burning the Quran, which was later found to be an untrue rumor. Astaghfirullah. Killing a woman in a brutal way for supposedly blasphemy when she's a martyr. AllahuAkbar.
Thirdly,
jihad means struggle. Tell me something who did the Quran come for as Revelation? The entire humanity. Then how can we say that the
hadiths of RasulAllah :saws:
(peace and blessings be upon him) is only for us Muslims when Prophet :saws: had been reciting the Revelation to the pagans of Arabia? I do not see any
kufr (disbelief) in his statements because they're fighting a
jihad as well when they go into burning buildings trying to save lives of the innocent; to see
kufr in statements that can be explained away by
husn-dhann (good of opinion of others) is to not have
husnn-dhann.
Fourthly, I do not know if he does believe that the pleasures of Paradise are allegorical because he's talking in this
YouTube video about virgins in Paradise given to men.
No one can know when someone has died on
kufr (disbelief) or
iman (faith). It may be that a "seeming"
kaffir has died with
iman though you and I would not know that. If someone chooses to apply the
hadith (prophetic tradition) "Verily, having an excellent opinion of Allah is part of excellent worship of Allah" (Sunan Trimidhi 3970) by believing that Allah would have enabled those persons to die with
iman cannot be said to be in the wrong. It can take less than a nanosecond for Allah to grant any person
iman before that person dies as all Allah has to say with anything is "Be" and it simply is into existence.
There is a scholarly difference of opinion on
Milaad; I do not know if you know this, but awliyaAllah have been the foremost in love of Prophet Muhammad :saws:
(peace and blessings be upon him) and if you look deeper into the stories of awliyaAllah you'll find that they're the foremost in putting the love of Prophet Muhammad :saws: into the hearts of the people because you can only follow the one who you love anywhere and we're supposed to love Prophet Muhammad :saws: so that we come onto the Straight Path and real faith.
Genuine question: Have you ever talked to a self-confessed Daesh member? I have and more than one on another Muslim site. And yes, they do seem pathologically unwell. One member of
Daesh had been saying that he enjoys killing, and he boasted about the killing. Compare that attitude to that of
Sahaba (Companions) :ra: wherein their hatred and love was for Allah and so they did not fight because their
nafs (ego) enjoyed killing as that would have been a satanic attitude. In fact, Ali :ra: even refrained from killing a man with his sword when that person spat on him.
The thing is that I know you mean well; but
jihad has always been meant to be fought as a legitimate warfare. Currently, Salafist Islam in the case of
Daesh is really about cherry-picking how to do
jihad and in case you think I'm making it up, I'll tell you that I was part of a site that had many
Daesh fanboys and so I was reading everything that they were posting about how they were thinking and applying the
fiqh of
jihad. Most of it is copy-and-paste out-of-context quotes of classical scholars with inclusion of any and all minority opinions for sake of expediency. Now, I ask you, a person of knowledge studying to be a scholar, if someone cherry-picks the most minority and obscure of opinions of everything and anything for expediency's sake justifying it with the idea of fighting
jihad such as not allowing widows
iddah or mutilating bodies and burning people, will that religion come out to look like Islam?
I have already decided what ideology is compatible with Islam; Islam must rise the way it began; and
Daesh are part of the problem and not the solution. Just in case you think I'm wrong, I ask you what the purpose of Islam is. The purpose of Islam is to not to establish
shariah or even a Caliphate as that comes but
dawah, and even IslamQA has that opinion when it is a Salafi site and I myself am not a Salafi nor a proponent of that site; this does not even go into the facts of whether end-time prophecies support a rise of such Caliphate which it does not because Allah doesn't reward the unjust (i.e. Muslims) with goodness of power. Also, I've long come to the conclusion that Allah appoints leaders over us that we deserve based on the
hadith of RasulAllah :saws:. Since the
ummah is corrupt, unjust ones are going to be ruling over us. And anyone who tries to change that is going to be swept up in a tidal wave of tsunami of confusion; therefore, we should be patient and ask Allah to deliver us from punishment by sending us the man who could change all that with heavenly power and that is only Mahdi :as:.
:wa: (And peace be upon you)