Salamun Alaykum A Truth Seeker is here. Thank You!

[Calmness]

In the name of Allah the Merciful the Compassionate!Thank you for adding me to this forum. I just want to introduce myself. Since my childhood, I get attracted to occult, esoteric and spiritual phenomena and the reason might be that my father is a spiritual person who is in the field of mysticism since his childhood. By nature, I am a deep thinker and most of the times I raise questions to seek answers. There are several questions for which I didn’t get answers. I spent my childhood in a way that I always wanted to make sure that I never miss any opportunity to do some good deed. Then I went to a university and I learned the Arabic language and I enjoyed it and I started to love the Arabic language because of its beauty and clarity. I also studied Arabic poetry and I also studied some courses in Islamic Jurisprudence which is called Fiqh in Arabic. It was a good experience but my major subject was economics but I got attracted to other subjects. I used to spend a lot of time in libraries and I enjoyed reading books. The English language also impressed me and I also get a taste about how the Western World thought about life and events. I got interested in languages in general. I also studied some books in logic, philosophy and psychology. Soon I became a thinker and even today thinking is the thing which I love the most. One day I was reading a book in philosophy and it said that the first and most important lesson for a philosopher is skepticism which means that if you want to seek and find the truth you must be skeptic about everything. So skepticism is the test which every truth must pass and if something cannot pass the test of skepticism it cannot be a truth. Then a thought came to me that a Saying of Muhammad PBUH is that the question is the half of knowledge. Then another thought came to me that Allah says that don’t fall on my verses blindly. Then another thought landed on my heart that the truth will never fear a question instead the truth will encourage questioning because this is the way the truth will become established. Then I thought that real believer is he who starts with skepticism . So questions and skepticism are the tools to find the truth. One night I was thinking about Allah and about the Quran. A thought came that a WORD is something very important and interesting because The Quran is nothing but a collection of words and Hadith is nothing but a collection of words and Fiqh is nothing but a collection of words. Once a poet said that most energetic thing in this universe is a WORD and he said if you don’t believe me just praise someone or abuse someone. He added that when you will do this you will realise the power of a word. One day I realized that Allah has blessed me with the power to see the secrets hidden behind the words. So I love to see the secrets hidden behind the words. By my nature, I am open-minded so I believe that there is some truth in everything and everyone. So I tend to consider everyone’s thoughts but the thing which dominates my mind is spirituality and mysticism. I love to listen to the Quran especially from native Arab reciters and my favourite speakers are Syed Riaz Hussain Shah, Allama Talib Jauhari, Doctor Israr Ahmad, Doctor Zakir Naik, Javaid Ahmad Ghamidi, and Molana Abu Al Ala Maudoodi and sometimes Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza attracts me and one more person is Professor Ahmad Rafiq Akhter but this does not mean that I am in complete agreement to them. Thank you for listening.

 

['Abdullah]

Welcome to the forum.

One day I was reading a book in philosophy and it said that the first and most important lesson for a philosopher is skepticism which means that if you want to seek and find the truth you must be skeptic about everything. So skepticism is the test which every truth must pass and if something cannot pass the test of skepticism it cannot be a truth.

Who wrote this book, if you don't mind asking? Seems like a Western ideology.
I am not saying that Islam does not encourage questions, but there needs to be a fine line drawn once we accept Islam is the true religion. For example, Quran is the speech of Allah and we can't look at every verse of Quran with the lens of skepticism, if we start doing that trust me we will be in deep trouble. Refer to verse 3:7 to understand what I mean.

The Quran is nothing but a collection of words and Hadith is nothing but a collection of words and Fiqh is nothing but a collection of words. ​

This is exactly the problem when one starts being skeptical and focus too much on philosophy. Is Quran just a collection of words?

So I tend to consider everyone’s thoughts but the thing which dominates my mind is spirituality and mysticism. I love to listen to the Quran especially from native Arab reciters and my favourite speakers are Syed Riaz Hussain Shah, Allama Talib Jauhari, Doctor Israr Ahmad, Doctor Zakir Naik, Javaid Ahmad Ghamidi, and Molana Abu Al Ala Maudoodi and sometimes Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza attracts me and one more person is Professor Ahmad Rafiq Akhter but this does not mean that I am in complete agreement to them.

As a Muslim, one need to be careful who one seeks knowledge from. Some of the speakers you have mentioned are very problematic in that sense especially Javaid Ahmad Ghamidi who considers hadiths as historical data which is not reliable, does not believe in the second coming of Jesus (peace be upon him), thinks women can lead prayers etc.
Talib Jauhari is Shia who just like other shias have issues with the companions & our mother Aisha (may allah be pleased with her).
Prof. Rafique Akhtar is a Sufi who found more pleasure is mystic music and dance which has no basis in Islam. There are clear hadiths which says listening to music is haram but speakers like him only select some hadiths which fit their narrative. He is nothing more than a philosopher and one should not seek Islamic knowledge from him. Come on, the guy smokes in public while giving his speeches. How can one take Islamic knowledge from him?

I have read some books of Maudoodi and he seems to be a good scholar. ​

Other than Dr. Israr Ahmad & Dr. Zakir Naik I don't recommend listening to other speakers.

Sorry for being too critical but it is for your benefit, stay on the right path. If philosophy would have brought anyone close to truth then like of Confucius, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Pascal would have accepted Islam.
And Allah knows the best!