List of symptoms of modernism disease which eventually leads one to apostasy - abandoning Islam in totality or the foundation and doctrine of Islam.
The list is based on my personal observation, so please feel free to add more or correct my list, insha'Allah
The symptoms are in order:
1 - Apologetic Methodology: In nutshell, it is falling in the traps of the kuffaar and answering them on their turf using their standards and principles. So, the person will end be focusing on appeasing the kuffaar or give them 'logical' answers to their questions against Islam. It is no big deal if we have to go against orthdox sunni understanding by rejecting the understanding of the people of knowledge because it is "against" the Qur'an and Sunnah and/or it does not give 'logical' answers. Even if some ahadith do not make sense or ahad (singular), we say they are not authentic
2 - First step to kufr methodology: We must answer to kuffaar logically so that they can embrace Islam or understand Islam better. There is no problem if we invent new interpretations, which were alien to Muslims for 14 centuries, because no scholar is perfect and scholars are not sources of Islam: we must take from the Qur'an and Sunnah and understand it ourselves. There is no problem if we appeal to odd opinions of scholars if it serves us. And there is no problem if we reject many ahadith because they 'contradict' the Qur'an; thus, they are not authentic.
3 - Modernist Methodology: We should interpret the Qur'an ourselves and not refer to 'jahil' scholars as they only come up with extreme interpretations and make Islam look bad and create divisions. Thus, there is no problem if we reject many parts of the Qur'an and Sunnah, specially if they have to do with hadoud, women issues, etc., because they were only time limited (** main problem is that they do not work with their intellect or appease the kuffaar so they have utilize back door to explain their kufr **)
4 - Super Modernist Methodology: The Sunnah is not an Islamic source as the Qur'an does not tell us to follow the Prophet (peace be upon him). We should only refer to the Qur'an; the Sunnah is man-made invented by these 'jahil' scholars after 2 centuries of Islam to support their 'extreme' interpretations. (** yet, they think they believe in the Qur'an and appeal to historical accounts **)
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