beware: source of deen

beware of where you take your deen from

I do not remember if I have talked about Dr Khalid Zaheer, whom I heard on TV. He had a softly, softly approach, and on a question of three talaqs in one go, he disagreed with the validity of such a course. I considered his answer to be the correct, as validity of three talaqs in one sitting is against the Quran and Sunnah of the Prophet (saw).

I visited his blog, but ... read the full post here


immediately found a couple of posts to disagree with. My comments did not get published, so I sent him an email which he answered by asking me to send comments to his email account. I did that, but have had no answers from him. Maybe he is too busy. But I think I should now publish what I think of his ideas.

He and his mentor Javed Ghamidi take care not to reject all Hadith (like Ghulam Ahmed Parvez did), but they are selective in accepting from the Quran and Hadith. They also take liberties with the interpretation of what they take. This is not the right approach. The correct approach is that of the Salaf: the Quran as interpreted by the Prophet (saw) and communicated to us through Sahih AHadeeth by his Sahaba (companions). Thus Javed Ghamidi and Khalid Zaheer risk falling in the category of those about whom the Prophet (saw) warned that people will seek guidance from those who do not possess ilm.

May they see their mistake and corrrect it before they cause more harm to themselves and others who follow them.

Today I had the fortune to hear Shaykh Kamaluddin. I had heard about him in a positive way, and was delighted to have this chance. He spoke in English, interspersed with some Urdu couplets and sentences, and although he is reputed to have unimpressive command of Urdu, he ended his hour long lecture with a long, very long, dua in Urdu, which was pretty extensive and exhaustive. Unless he had learnt it by heart from his Shaykh, it showed use of words even I have no command of (well, that isn't saying much, because I have little command in everything), bur he was good. His accent was American, as you would expect.

About the contents, he spoke about "Fulfilling our trust to Allah".  This he did pretty well, and had me worried about the khyanah I have been committing in nearly everything, which brought me to the realization that I have not heard him say anything about Allah's Mercy. Maybe I missed it, and he did talk about it, but I will discuss it with other attendees of his lecture.

He teaches at LUMS, but will be leaving soon because the LUMS administration is not happy with his strict views. He is most likely the same traditional scholar Dr Khalid Zaheer talked about in his blog. Deobandi scholars are rather strict in that they regard anyone not following the Muftis of deoband as being on the wrong path.

In my view, the deoband Muftis have erred in this, as the right path is that of the Prophet (saw) and that communicated to us via authentic Ahadeeth. The Imams (including Imam Abu Hanifa) have also said that if a Sahih Hadith is found that goes against what he says, that his saying is to be cast aside, and the Sahih Hadith acted upon. This is about the opinion of the Imam, let alone that of lesser Muftis who pronounce fatwas in his name.

And Allah (swt) knows best.