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Whoever has completed the religious education and has received the degree in theology in any recognized institutions or has been long recognized by the Muslims as an Islamic scholars are call by nowadays Muslims as Ulama.The title is given to them by the general Muslims public according to their understanding of who is the Ulama of Islam. No Institution has been accredited by the Muslims to be able to award the title Ulama to any Muslims in this world. The title Ulama is a title given by the general Muslims to a certain personalities that they believed to be pious and God fearing person. The title is given base on the general impression of the general Muslims. When certain group of the Muslims communities recognized certain individuals in the communities as pious and God fearing they call them Ulama while those Muslims that do not recognized the individuals as pious and God fearing would not call that particular person as Ulama.The title Ulama is very ambiguous and inconsistence. There is no standard being use in designating a person as Ulama. Because of this, the term Ulama is not a reliable indicator of a person well verse in Islamic theology and a God fearing. We may have a standard in Islamic theology but it is almost impossible to have a standard in God fearing qualities. How can we measure the quality of God fearing in a person?

Ulama can be defined as a person well verse in Islamic theology and a God fearing person. A person can be seen outwardly as God fearing by his attires. A God fearing person is a person who fears Allah and the signs that the person has the fear Allah, he or she obeys all the commandments of Allah in the ways of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w and they remain steadfast in the obedience of the orders of Allah in all condition. Steadfastness in the obedience of the orders of Allah in all situations is a sign of strong faith in Allah and the life of hereafter. The strong faith in Allah and the promise of Allah makes a person remain steadfast in the obedience of the orders of Allah in all situations. The first order of Allah is the propagations of the Kalimah Shahadah, I bear witness there is no God except Allah and Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah, to the non-Muslims and to the Muslims, to remind them about the meaning of the Kalimah Shahadah and to invite them to obey the orders of Allah. The second order of Allah is to pray the five obligatory solat in congregation like Prophet Muhammad s.a.w did. The third order of Allah is to perform one month fasting in the month of Ramadan. Many Muslims including those who are well verse in Islamic theology are not practicing the first order of Allah and only some of them are practicing the second order of Allah like what has been practice by our Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. Can we call those who are well verse in Islamic theology but are not even practicing the first and the second order of Allah like what has been practice by our Prophet Muhammad’s as God fearing person or otherwise. A God fearing person is a person who always obeys all the orders of Allah in the ways of our Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. They are not only observing the small Sunnah but they are very particular about the Great Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. The works of inviting the non-Muslim to enter Islam and to pray solat with congregation in the mosques are the great Sunnah of the Prophet s.a.w. Many of the so call Ulama is so particular about small Sunnah yet they are negligence of the great Sunnah particularly the work of inviting the non-Muslims to enter Islam and to pray solat with congregation in the mosques.

The titles Ulama are given by the people. When a person is truly learned and God fearing, Allah will put in the heart of the pious people of the communities that the particular person is Ulama. When Allah has accepted a person as Ulama, Allah will put in the heart of all pious people that the person is learned and God fearing or Ulama.The persons themselves does not claim that they are Ulama but all people from among the pious unanimously agreed that the person is an Ulama. Only the pious and the God fearing people can identify the true Ulama as they have light in their hearts. The non-pious and the non-God fearing people would not be able to identify the true Ulama. Since most of the people nowadays are ignorant and non-God fearing people, so the persons that they think are Ulama are usually not Ulama. Most of the persons whom the Muslims call today as Ulama are basically only learned Muslims who have studied and thought many years of Islamic theology .A person may be learned but they are not necessarily pious or God fearing but all God fearing persons are learned. They should be call only as learned Muslims but not as Ulama. All Ulama are learned and God-fearing but not all learned people are Ulama.

As most Muslims nowadays are themselves ignorant and non-God fearing, they start to call whoever is learned about Islam as Ulama, particularly when these scholars of Islam put on themselves the pious attires of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. A learned person wearing the pious attires of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w is not necessarily pious and God fearing as the qualities of piety should not be judged only by a person attires but more important by their actions. Actions indicate the level of belief that the person has. The actions of a person are influenced by his or her belief and not by his or her knowledge. A person who has knowledge about Islam is not necessarily practicing Islam until he or she has belief in Islam. There are many Islamic scholars who are not Muslims. These Islamic scholars have knowledge about Islam but they do not have belief in Allah and Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. It is a known fact that peoples do not do according to what they know but peoples do according to what they belief.

Learned Muslim scholars who are not practicing their knowledge certainly have weak iman or belief. They have knowledge about Islam but they have weak iman. Because of weak iman they are not capable of practicing the orders of Allah and as they are not practicing the orders of Allah, their iman become weak. It is a signs of weak iman that they are not capable of giving dakwah to the non-Muslims or to remind the Muslims about Allah and the orders of Allah. As they continue to disobey Allah, their iman continue to become weaker. They can wear the pious Muslims attires but they cannot obey the orders of Allah. They will obey the orders of Allah only to be seen by men. In public they appear very pious and God fearing but in reality they do not even have the slightest fear of Allah. When they are alone they will disobey the orders of Allah. Once the companion of the Prophet s.a.w asked the Prophet, who is the most wretched among mankind? Prophet Muhammad s.a.w replied with the approximate meaning, do not asked me negative question, the most wretched among mankind are the learned Muslims who does not practice what they know, they will enter hellfire earlier than the non-Muslims. In my opinion a person will not become Ulama if they do not have the fear of Allah. A person will have the fear of Allah only if they know Allah and have the true belief in all the qualities of Allah. A person will know Allah and have the true belief in all the qualities of Allah when Allah bestows in his or her heart the true iman. Allah will bestow in the heart of a person true iman when Allah loves the person. Allah will love the person when that person obeys all the orders of Allah, particularly the first orders of Allah that is the orders of inviting the entire mankind to Allah.

Dr. Nasoha Saabin
May 2010
Head of Dept. Optometry
International University College of Technology Twintech
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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There is only one correct path and there is only one true path. The true path is the path threaded by our beloved Prophet Muhammad s.a.w and his companions. Many people think that the true paths can be many. They say all paths are true as long as all the paths will make us to reach the same destination. They argue that we can follow many different paths, as we like, as long as all the paths will make us to reach the same destination. They say, for example, there are many ways or roads to Kuala Lumpur. When can take any roads we like since all the roads will lead to Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately, we cannot apply the same argument in Islam. The path mention in the Quran is not the same path or the roads leading to a place. The path mention in the Quran is the ways of life. The correct ways of life is the ways of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w and that way of life will lead us to Allah. The destination that we have to reach is not a place but the destination is having the love and the acceptance of Allah until we become the lover of Allah. The ways of life of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w is the ways of life love by Allah and whoever follows that way of life he or she will becomes the lover of Allah. Once a person becomes the lover of Allah, he or she has reached his or her destination and he or she has become successful in this world and hereafter.

To become successful is the aims and the desire of every person in this world. Everyone wants to become successful and Allah, who has created us, wants us to become successful. Allah wants us to become successful more than we want ourselves to become successful. The path that will lead us to success is the path taken by our Prophet Muhammad s.a.w and his companions. The path or the ways of life taken by the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w colored by the aims of life of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w .The aims of life of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w is to please Allah until Allah is pleased. Allah is pleased when all the entire humankind belief and obeys Allah. He stops business and concentrate wholly with the work of dakwah CLICK. He spends time doing the work of dakwah from morning until evening and he met everyone and call them to Allah. Prophet Muhammad s.a.w did the work of inviting the non-Muslims to accept and to recite the Kalimah I bear witness there is no God except Allah and Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah CLICK. When they becomes Muslims, Prophet Muhammad s.a.w will asked them to obey the orders of Allah and the first order of Allah is the work of dakwah, which is to invite the non-Muslims to enter Islam.

Nowadays Muslims are not in the path of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w since the work of dakwah which is the work of inviting the non-Muslims to enter Islam is not become the work of any Muslims. Nowadays Muslims have forgotten that the work of dakwah is the main work of every Muslims and it is the first order of Allah upon entering Islam, and the work of dakwah is obligatory on all Muslims. All Muslims including the learned Muslims have totally forgotten the work of dakwah on non-Muslims. Muslims are very unaware of the fact that the works of inviting the non-Muslims to enter Islam are their work and the negligence of that work will bring the wrath of Allah upon the Muslims. When Allah is not pleased with the Muslims, Allah will not answered the prayer of Muslims, Allah will not grant whatever the Muslims ask from Allah and Allah will not help the Muslims against their enemies. The enemies of the Muslims will always overpower the Muslims when Allah’s help is not with the Muslims. The condition of nowadays Muslims is because Allah is not with the Muslims. Allah is not with the Muslims because the Muslims have neglected the work of inviting the non-Muslims to enter Islam CLICK and the work to reminding the Muslims to do the work of inviting the non-Muslims to enter Islam CLICK.

When Muslims are neglecting the work of inviting the non-Muslims to enter Islam and reminding the Muslims to do the work of inviting the non-Muslims to enter Islam, Muslims will not be in the correct path.  To be in the correct path Muslims must follow the Sunnah of the Prophet and the Companions of the Prophets s.a.w. The Sunnah of the Prophet and his companions begins with the work of inviting the non-Muslims to enter Islam and reminding the Muslims to obey the commandments of Allah. The first Sunnah or the first order of Allah is the work of inviting the non-Muslims to enter Islam. When Muslims are not following the Sunnah of the Prophets and his Companions, the Muslims are not in the correct path. Prophet Muhammad s.a.w used to say with the approximate meaning that my umat would divide into seventy-three groups and only one group is following the correct path. When his companions asked who are in that group. Prophet Muhammad s.a.w answered that the one in the correct path is the ones that follow my Sunnah and the Sunnah of my companions’.  Both the Prophet s.a.w and his companions do the work of inviting the non-Muslims to enter Islam and to remind the Muslims about the work of inviting the non-Muslims to enter Islam, but we do not do that same work as they did. Are we in the correct path or are we in the deviated path. Until and unless we do the same work as our Prophet Muhammad s.a.w and his companions did, we are in the wrong path. We do not like to be on the wrong path and neither we like people to tell us that we are in the wrong path. We always like to be in the correct path and we like people to tell us that we are in the correct path. We like to be in the correct path does not mean we are in the correct path. The correct path in the eyes of Allah is the path taken by the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w and his companions and the path begins with the work of calling the non-Muslims to enter Islam and to remind the Muslims to do the work of calling the non-Muslims to enter Islam.

To be in the correct path we cannot follows other than the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w and his companions. We can only follow the scholars that follow the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w and his companions. We cannot ask the people to follow the scholars when the scholars do not follow the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w and his companions. We may call the scholars that do not follows Prophet Muhammad s.a.w and his companions as ulama’ or those who fear Allah but in the eyes of Allah they are not ulama’ as all ulama’ follows the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w and his companions. All ulama’ do the work of inviting the non-Muslims to enter Islam and reminding the Muslims to do the work of inviting the non-Muslims to enter Islam.

Dr. Nasoha Saabin
May 2010
Head of Dept. Optometry
International University College of Technology Twintech
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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