Knowledge vs. The Appearance of Knowledge: Know the Difference!

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

“And when it is said to them, “Believe as the people have believed,” they say, “Should we believe as the fools have believed?” Unquestionably, it is they who are the fools, but they do not know.”

There are many, many people who call the believers fools in this day and age. Allah tells us that unquestionably, undoubtedly these people are the real fools and they themselves are unaware of this and do not know the truth.

Unfortunately, many Muslims do not realize this either. Instead of seeing the rejectors and deniers as fools, they are often seen as respected experts, scholars, intelligentsia, etc., and their work is even promoted among the Muslims to such an extent that Muslims start modifying and editing their beliefs to conform to the theories and ideologies of those who have very explicitly and adamantly rejected iman. And Muslims don’t see any contradiction in this.

And where it gets really sad and really pitiful is when Muslims look up to these people and because of their admiration and respect for them, they start denouncing their own scholars, calling the great ulama of the umma as essentially fools, who had limited intellects, were just speaking out of whim and desire, did not truly understand the meaning of the Quran and Sunnah, etc.

What is the cause of this?

One of the main factors is that these Muslims have been enchanted with ideas that they do not fully understand. When you don’t fully understand something, you have two options. You can just outright reject it (even when you don’t know why you are rejecting it). Or you can judge its value according to appearances. Does this look like something legitimate? Does this sound like it is coming from a learned place? Are reputable people endorsing this? Do the masses accept this? Is it popular? Basically, if something has all the appearances of knowledge, then that is good enough to accept it.

Much of what Muslims today accept of these various modernist ideologies are done on this basis. You do have a handful who will just reject things regardless. That is the safer path, but it doesn’t help the wider ummah.

Source: D Haqiqatjou