Prophet Muhammad s.a.w said in the meaning, I have left you with two things, Alquran and my Sunnah. As long as you stick to these, you will not be deviated. This was a very important advice that the Prophet s.a.w wants his Ummah to know and to follow. He spoke to all the companions that had gathered in large numbers in the field of Arafah. That was the first and the last pilgrimage of the Prophet s.a.w. He begins the sermon by saying that this probably the last sermon that he will give to the companions and he asked to all those who were present to listen to his sermon attentively and to convey it to those who were not present. Muslims scholars and leaders should explain this very important advice of the Prophet s.a.w to the Muslims in the whole world. They should try to make all Muslims throughout the world to understand and to follow the advice of the Prophet s.a.w. When this advice not correctly understood and followed by Muslims, they will be deviated. What a great tragedy will happen to the Muslims and the whole humankind when Muslims are deviated. When Muslims are deviated, the whole humankind is in total darkness.
What are Alquran and Sunnah? Alquran is words of Allah that expound the desire and wishes of Allah to His beloved creation, the humankinds. Allah has the desires and wishes that the entire humankind that has been created by Allah as the best creation to have iman in Allah and to obey all the orders of Allah. Sunnah is the actions that Prophet Muhammad s.a.w did to fulfill the desires and the wishes of Allah. What Prophet Muhammad s.a.w did to fulfill the desires and the wishes of Allah is known as Sunnah. In order to fulfill the desires and wishes of Allah, Allah ordered Prophet Muhammad s.a.w to go to every one of the humankind without exception and call them to Allah. What is the meaning of calling people to Allah? According to Hazrat Abdullah ibn Abbas, to call people to Allah means is to call people to accept and to recite the Great Kalimah; there is no God except Allah and Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah . Whoever have accepted and recited the Great Kalimah, they have entered Islam and Allah ordered the Prophet s.a.w to remind those who have entered Islam, about Allah and the orders of Allah. When they want to obey the orders of Allah, Allah ordered the Prophet s.a.w to teach them about the orders of Allah.
Allah ordered the Prophet s.a.w to teach them the orders of Allah practically. This can only happen when the Prophet s.a.w himself practice the orders of Allah. The greatest Sunnah of the Prophet s.a.w is to do the work of dakwah to the non-Muslims, the work of reminding the Muslims about Allah and the orders of Allah, and the teaching of those who has entered Islam practically about the orders of Allah. These are the Great Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. Other small Sunnah of the Prophet s.a.w is only of values when Muslims are practicing the Great Sunnah. When Muslims are not practicing the Great Sunnah, the practice of small Sunnah is only the practice of the shape or the appearance of Sunnah. It is devoid of soul and fragrance when done without correct iman, without sincerity and without the correct ways like the ways of the Prophet s.a.w. Once Muslims are not doing the work of dakwah to non-Muslims and the work of reminding the Muslims about the Great Kalimah their iman are weak. Please read my articles on the work to increase iman CLICK and the work of renewing iman CLICK. Without correct iman, the Muslims cannot understand how to practice Sunnah correctly.
Jemaah Tabligh is not doing tabligh or dakwah because dakwah or tabligh means to convey the Great Kalimah to the non-Muslims. Jemaah Tabligh is also not doing the work of reminding the Muslims about Allah and the orders of Allah. They make lengthy lectures, which they claimed as dakwah, and in the lectures they mention about the greatness of Allah and the importance of the obedience of the orders of Allah but the purpose of the lectures are only to ask the Muslims to spend forty days, and four months in the ways prescribe by Jemaah Tabligh. When they have people willing to spend times for forty days and four months in the so call going in the path of Allah, they think they have achieved the purpose of the lecture. Most of the content of their lecture is correct but they do not practice whatever they lecture and listen in the lecture. The purpose of the lectures is to ask people to spend times in the so call in the path of Allah for forty days and four months only. Jemaah Tabligh believes that we must lecture and listen repeatedly until Allah gives us the taufik to practice whatever we lecture and listen repeatedly. As they spend more times in giving lectures and listening to lectures and not doing the work of dakwah to non-Muslims and to remind the Muslims as Prophet did, generally the iman of most members of Jemaah Tabligh are very weak. Because they have weak iman, they cannot practice whatever they lecture or listen in the lectures. As we know, we can only practice what we lecture and listen when we have strong iman. The Sunnah that Jemaah Tabligh in Malaysia and Thailand is very fond of doing is to eat, sleep and to marry more than one wife and Samsuddin Ajaib practice even the marrying of underage girl as to him that is Sunnah CLICK .
Once I touch on these issues in my lecture to Jemaah Tabligh in Masjid Seri Petaling. They misunderstood me as humiliating the practice of Sunnah and the Imam of Masjid Seri Petaling Ustaz Abdul Hamid, openly asked me to recite the Kalimah again, in front of the audience as to him I have becomes non-Muslim. Because of this, their elders in India stop me from giving lectures to Tabligh Jamat for about two years.
Generally, many members of Jemaah Tabligh are only good in talking and listening to lectures while their iman is very weak and they are able to practice only the shape of Sunnah as to what happens to Samsuddin Ajaib who wants to follow Sunnah and end up marrying the underage girl of age only eleven CLICK. The practice of Sunnah in Jemaah Tabligh is only the practice of the shapes of small Sunnah. Jemaah Tabligh like to make large gatherings, which they call ijtimak and they like to make lengthy lectures and when they can produce large numbers of peoples to spend forty days and four months out of the Ijtimak, they think the Ijtimak is of a great success. While spending forty days and four months they are not learning about how to do dakwah or tabligh or about how to remind the Muslims about the orders of Allah or about how to perform solat properly but they are busy learning about the small Sunnah like the way the Prophet s.a.w eat, drink, sleep, and going to toilets. When they sit in the morning lecture and in the morning readings of Kitab, most of Jemaah Tabligh sleep. They will learn only about this small Sunnah, sleep in the morning lecture and during the reading of the Kitab, the complete forty days and four months. CLICK and CLICK
As a result, although Samsuddin Ajaib has gone to nearly 26 countries for dakwah as understood by Tabligh Jemaah, his iman is still weak CLICK . With weak iman, he is not able to understand the syariat of Islam and to understand the true meaning and practical application of the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. There are many Samsuddin Ajaib in Jemaah Tabligh CLICK .
Dr.Nasoha Saabin
March 2010
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
