Reasons why misunderstandings have occurred about Islam

[فداء الرسول]

We were discussing the reasons why Muslims have differed, fought each other and
gone away from the path of Islam that Muhammad (peace be upon him) taught his
Companions.
We mentioned last time the ideas of ta’assub (sticking rigidly to a particular idea or
way of thinking) as well as not having knowledge.
Today we will mention two more ideas: taqleed and ghuloo. 1
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Taqleed literally means following someone or something unquestioningly.
In general, Islam does not favour this type of approach to religious matters.
Taqleed has been the cause of many problems throughout the history of Islam –
people follow religious or political leaders without ever checking whether the leader’s
statements are correct or incorrect, ie in accordance with what Muhammad (peace
be upon him) taught.
So if the leader has gone down the wrong path, then all of the people who make
taqleed of him will also go down the same path.
As with ta’assub, taqleed is found amongst non Muslims as well as the Muslims.
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Ghuloo means taking something to excess.
In this context, it refers to the excessive praise that certain Muslims direct towards
religious leaders - until they actually start directing worship (eg prayer, sacrifice,
etc) towards that person rather than to Allah.
Islam forbids this completely, and orders all Muslims to direct every aspect of
worship to Allah.
We have come across this concept before – it is called tawheed in Arabic, and refers
to singling Allah out for all worship. Tawheed is the single most important idea in the
whole of Islam.
Sadly this ghuloo of ‘religious people’ is seen in many Muslim countries nowadays
When Noah (peace be upon him) called his people away from
worshipping the pious people, they replied:
'You shall not leave your gods, nor shall you leave Wadd, nor Suwa', nor
Yaghooth, nor Ya'ooq nor Nasr."
Surah Nuh (the 71st surah) ayah 23
And these were the names of pious people who had died and whom the people had
taken as the names of idols.
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NEXT TIME:
We will discuss two further causes of people making mistakes in their belief:
Lack of reflection on the universe that we see all around us.
Lack of importance given to learning