Question:
How correct is the following statement?
“Fanaticism to statements and actions or to so-and-so from amongst the people is an attribute nobody is free from.
But people are of different levels in this, from them are those that have little and from them are those that have a lot, and there are those that manifest it and those that don’t.”
Answer:
The statement “nobody is free from” contains a generalisation which is not permissible.
Because it includes the Prophets and the Companions and the Imaams of the Salaf and other than them, from those who are Imaams in regards to ‘following’ (of the proofs and evidence) and are deemed above following of desires.
Allah, the Most High, said:
(وَمَا يَنطِقُ عَنِ ٱلْهَوَىٰٓ)
“Nor does he speak of (his own) desire.”
[An-Najm:3]
This in regards to the Prophets.
And Allah, the Most High, said about the Companions:
(فَإِنْ ءَامَنُوا۟ بِمِثْلِ مَآ ءَامَنتُم بِهِۦ فَقَدِ ٱهْتَدَوا)
“So if they believe in the like of that which you believe, then they are rightly guided”
[Al-Baqara:137]
Due to their perfecting of their ‘following’, Allah made the tracing of their footsteps a sign of guidance.
Answered by:
Shaykh Abu Hatim Yusuf Al-‘Inaabi Al-Jazaa’iree – may Allaah preserve him.
Source:
t.me/abouhatem/221
Answered on: 11th, Rabee’ Al-Aakhar, 1438H.
Translated by:
Abu ‘Abdirrahman ‘Abdullaah bin Ahmed Ash-Shingaani.