First... wa alaykum salam... second... i'm late, very late, now for a very important date, i don't have much time to say yes or no... i'm very very late...
If it not up for debate then why have a forum in the first place? Why not instead have a website which has articles posted which people can read at their own leisure and that cannot be tampered with. The aim of a forum is to share opinions and information on a variety of ideas or notions, the aim of structured prose is to share the opinion of the author alone on a particular subject.
Quite, why have such a forum? Truthfully, and this is a FYI i found not long ago, TTI did not begin as a forum, that was added later on. I'm only a Moderator here, so I truthfully cannot suppose to know all the answers, (nor do i know them), but these forums have become a source of inspiration, knowledge, understanding, help, comprehension and a form of daw'ah for many of us including myself!! When I came here personally, it was to play games, just a pastime leisure, but now I feel the weight of responsibilty of being here. The chances that perhaps i do not have enough knowledge to refute something, or spot a misguidance, or perhaps that i cannot refute something, and it should be my abitlity as a Moderator to do so. It's like a contant failing and worry of WHAT IF? Because to keep something wrong here, and to have someone follow it, ulitimately, what if we others who saw and did nothing are held accountable? What if our sins are increased due to what we did not do or stop?! Can you imagine? It's a horror beyond words... oh my allah... i can hardly say anything. I mean, not only is it your own sins now, but also those of others!
We Mods don't want that to happen. We DON'T delete things or ban Users for such a purpose as our own whims or desires. We just worry of the conflicting consequences and sometimes have to make certain decisions or abide by the decision of the leader.
So to clarify, NO the aim of this forum is not simply that. It is not a free-speech website. We feel its benefits of support and unity amoungst our Ummah outweights its risks, and thus it is kept. It's much more helpful and interactive when we are allowed to have our input, but that does not mean that we will allow ANY such imputs and those that have WHATEVER say they wish in the matter?!
Subhan'allah... I don't want anyone coming here saying, (extreme cases) "Pork is Halaal!" "Hijab is not Fard!" and allowing them on the grounds of free-speech and opinion. If it is based as a question, sure, it's all good to answer it in the proper manner with links etc... but not as a definite statement.
Also although we, as mere Islamically uneducated people, have no right to argue/debate over a matter, providing information regarding differences in opinion with references to esteemed scholars and the reason for their conclusions is a completely different matter. Baseless and Un-Islamic opinions are one thing but taking from legitimate sources is a completely different one.
Here comes to the point: Who is a scholar and who is a speaker? And can we differenciate? Not everyone knows who scholars are, which ones are upon the correct manhaj and aqeedah, and which ones have corrupted beliefs. Say a Shia on here, they might say "Such and such an Ayahtollah said this..." or a Sufi might say "Such and such a Saint said this..." TO EACH respective person this other is referred to as a "scholar" persay, but to the rest it is NOT! This Ayahtollah might say, it is permissible to make tawassuf, and this saint might say, grave worship is perfectly fine! BUT would that make it true?! NO.
So therefore, as extreme examples as i use, it goes to show right? You might say that these are one of the "baseless or un-islamic" opinions, but again that's your opinion! To these sufis and shia these are perfectly fine! They'd be outraged! So EVEN when providing information, we have to be careful!
Also regarding difference of opinion, some scholars base their opinions on certain things. These may be a hadith... which was later perhaps found to be weak, or fabricated. A flaw not noticed when this scholar gave this fatawa, or perhaps certain things were abrogated, or have greater evidence, or something is the wrong interpretation. Is there a middle ground on this? It is not the scholars fault perhaps, but it's not correct in accordance to the Qur'aan, Sunnah and the Majority of the Scholars themselves. When something is wrong, it's wrong... the truth is made evident from the falsehood. Besides, even in the past... when some of the Great Imams, they heard even a single hadith which had a sound chain which went against something they said or did, they immediately changed their opinion. They weren't hardheaded when the truth came to them.
If the greatest scholars this Ummah has ever seen had differences in opinion (which they did, and they made no big deal about, never proclaiming they and they alone were among the guided...really we should all take note and develop some notion of what being humble truely is) then how can this forum assume that its members will not also hold differences in opinion owing to greatly renouned scholars?
As the Admin has said to me many times, they have differences in matters of Fiqh perhaps, but not greater things such as Tawheed and Aqeedah. These were minor things. ALSO they did not proclaim that they were alone amoungst the guided :astag: but as far as I know, they also sought to condemn the "scholars" who proclaimed and spread misguidance. At the VERY least they put down whatever was wrong in their beleifs. THis is not something new, rather it has existed for a while. If this was made as a mistake it was taken as such, but even after being shown the truth the person continued on with their path of misguidance, they scholars surely did not defend them on the grounds of "difference of opinion".
We on TTI do not have enough knowledge to... be able to explain everything and so we have to take our own measure for things we can. We do not know who is surely guided, and who is not of our own accord, and Allah always knows best.
ALSO in addition ( really have to go!!) this is great irony. OF COURSE we know that with all these members there are a difference of opinion. Me and the Admin have a difference of opinion in regards to what place a person has if they do not pray. We both accept the other having that opinion, and i still respect him greatly for it. Likewise, there are also other differences among the Moderators on certain regards. In the Hijab section for example, there are articles saying Niqaab is Fard, and then saying they are Mustahaab. Difference of opinoin no? SO in these permissible aspects, backed by scholars on both sides, we do allow and we do have. So i do not see what you sought to mean by this.
But they wouldn't be on TTI if
you knew, would they?
Erm... actually... i do KNOW a few of them. Not personally, but by username. We allow them fine. As long as they don't go about posting misguided or dodgy articles, they are as free to look and read as much as anyone else.
Not every..but some. Middle road between annoying, disruptive threads and unquestionable authority with no check-ups. And won't really need a new section for that either
Hmmm? HeeerrrrM?
Having one whole in the mosquito netting might lead to a swarm of mosquitoes.
However, we still do allow asking!! JUST please please... do it through PMs!! This is a headache! (hey hey! NOT me though! other Mods!!
)
wasalam