Narrated 'Abdullah:
The Prophet said, “Near the establishment of the Hour, there will be the days of Al-Harj, and the religious knowledge will be taken away (vanish i.e. by the death of Religious scholars) and general ignorance will spread.” Abu Musa said, “Al-Harj, in the Ethiopian language, means killing,” Ibn Mas’ud added: I heard Allah’s Apostle saying; (It will be) from among the most wicked people who will be living at the time when the Hour will be established."
-Bukhari
'Abdullah b. 'Amr b. al-'As reported Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: Verily, Allah does not take away knowledge by snatching it from the people but He takes away knowledge by taking away the scholars, so that when He leaves no learned person, people turn to ignorant as their, leaders; then they are asked to deliver religious verdicts and they deliver them without knowledge, they go astray, and lead others astray.
-Muslim
Today our ulema are being assassinated left n right, still we accuse, slander, oppose them, question their status amongst other things.
Why is that? Is it some insecurity? Desire to be part of this world and so fighting (finding excuses) against the haq by attacking the people of haq? What do you think makes us fight/oppose the ulema?
Before anyone tells me “oh it’s because they themselves don’t follow Islam” or “they call towards bad” or “we don’t need scholars, we can read quran and sunnah ourselves”… before anyone says that, just click the back button!
are ulema killed at a rate disproportionate compared to the rest of the public? does somewhat make them targets i guess but not in any way close, as far as i know, to a group at risk such as policemen.
are ulema killed at a rate disproportionate compared to the rest of the public? does somewhat make them targets i guess but not in any way close, as far as i know, to a group at risk such as policemen.
its a basic premise isnt it, 'ulema are being slaughtered left and right' with the threat of them being eliminated completely as per the ahadith?
im just asking if its really the case. if its happening at a disproportionate rate you do have an issue.
it might not be happening at the* rate* which you think would be deserving of some concern/discussion. but it's happening and without any reason. as a believer and student I find it my duty to highlight this issue.
just wanting to be empirical CP. you say you're a student, take it from another researcher, if you're trying to establish if something is an event you do need to look at the baseline. its telling that you didnt even attempt to argue that Ulema, who are are 'killed left and right', are killed at an abnormally high frequency.
to give you a better example, consider starvation in Somalia. It is likely that any ulema in somalia would also face the same hunger. it wouldnt then make sense to say 'Ulema are starving left and right' you dont care.
I believe ravage has a point about the rate of killing of scholars, but I think the point that cricketplaya has made can take more manifestations above and beyond the killing of scholars.
Primarily I do not believe that true scholars will be harmed by the sword, rather they will be shielded away from the people not being accessible to them. There are scholars today who are not in any political power because people are "turning to the ignorant" not that scholars are being taken away by 'killing' but rather being taken away in terms of access, propaganda and a degrading of the traditional teaching methods. We can see for one that most pioneering research is not being undertaken by Muslims today.
So if we consider the whole array of how scholars are being taken away from us we can see that cricketplaya's message has firm grounding, in areas other than scholars being killed.
Note: There was a time during the 90's when Saudi scholars were being killed and arrested for speaking against the government regarding letting foreign forces in to the country.
you can say the influence is arguably waning. Although even that is a bit alarmist. In my experience people are much more likely to visit religious sites etc now than in the late nineties. But thats just anecdotal, no evidence to back it up with.
The importance of the Ulema (scholars) is stated very clearly in the Quran below.
[Quran 9:31 - 32] They have set up their religious leaders and scholars as lords, instead of GOD. Others deified the Messiah, son of Mary. They were all commanded to worship only one god. There is no god except He. Be He glorified, high above having any partners.*They want to put out GOD's light with their mouths, but GOD insists upon perfecting His light, in spite of the disbelievers. *
If you consult the "Muslim scholars" about worshiping God alone, and upholding the word of God alone, as taught in this proven scripture, they will advise you against it. If you consult the Pope about the identity of Jesus, he will advise you to uphold a trinity. If you obey the "Muslim scholars" whose advice is contrary to God's teachings, or if you take the Pope's advice instead of God's, you have set up these religious leaders as gods instead of God.
Remember what Prophet Muhammad will say on the day of Judgment...
[Quran 25:30] The messenger* said, "My Lord, MY PEOPLE have DESERTED THIS QURAN."
Peace
OP- who are the ulema ? the graduates of a certain school of ur liking ? or supporters or opponents of a particular govt ?
if ur trying to paint a doomsday scenario by quoting these ahadith ( which i do not deny) then let me tell u that muslims have been doing that since the first century hijri .. read about the oppression by hajjaj b yusuf of iraqi scholars
OP- who are the ulema ? the graduates of a certain school of ur liking ? or supporters or opponents of a particular govt ?
if ur trying to paint a doomsday scenario by quoting these ahadith ( which i do not deny) then let me tell u that muslims have been doing that since the first century hijri .. read about the oppression by hajjaj b yusuf of iraqi scholars
The ulema who have studied quran and sunnah, who live their life according to the quran and sunnah and spread their knowledge.
im not painting any scenario, just trying my best to show respect to our scholars, which is lacking amongst some of our brothers and sisters on this site.
and let's say we agree that muslims have used these hadiths to paint some doomsday scenario, same way, muslims have made effort to respect the ulema since first century. =)
The definition of the "scholars" in this thread is very very limited, and perhaps an indication of why Islamists do not produce / value ALL the scholars even outside the tiny circle of a religious sect.
Quran-e Karim does not limit the scholarly works to ONLY Hadees and quran. it includes all the fields knowledge.
Second point about killing of religious scholars!
Nothing new. Read the history of Baghdad (from abbasi period) and you will know that mostly the religious scholars issue fat fat fatwas of "Kafir/Kazzab/Murtad" against fellow religious scholars, and then their followers go kill the opposing sect's scholars.
On the other hand, the real scholars such as Alims of science, may disagree but they cannot issue fat fat fatwas to kill their opponents.
The ulema who have studied quran and sunnah, who live their life according to the quran and sunnah and spread their knowledge.
im not painting any scenario, just trying my best to show respect to our scholars, which is lacking amongst some of our brothers and sisters on this site.
and let's say we agree that muslims have used these hadiths to paint some doomsday scenario, same way, muslims have made effort to respect the ulema since first century. =)
bro muslims have been oppressing the religious muslims since the first century these are bitter facts ....
problem is seperation of religion and state i.e the creation of a "ulema" class by rulers to sanctify their actions and those religious people who donot do that are declared enemies and apostates by the state paid mullahs
there should be no ulema class rather most religious people should be the leader in deen and duniya
Quran-e Karim does not limit the scholarly works to ONLY Hadees and quran. it includes all the fields knowledge.
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but a chemist and a doctor is not the same level as a scholar who is expert in quran and hadith ...ur diverting this to a whole different plane
e.g the apostate Hudbhooy ! why should i take my religious views from a physicists like him ?