The scholars that should be followed have certain qualities and characteristics that set them apart from others. These qualities are as follows:

• Memorization of the Qur’aan – from the heart.
• Memorization of the pure Sunnah of the Prophet Õáì Çááå Úáíå æ Óáã – They have knowledge and understanding from the Fiqh of the companions of the Prophet Õáì Çááå Úáíå æ Óáã and the textual evidences from the Book and the Sunnah. They have knowledge of the understanding of the Sahaabah which the Sahaabah took from the Qur’aan and the Sunnah.
• In spite of these scholars having understanding of the Qur’aan and the Sunnah they take the Fiqh of the Sahaabah and utilize it.
• They honour the knowledge of the Qur’aan and the Sunnah of the Prophet Õáì Çááå Úáíå æ Óáã, holding it in high esteem. They also honour the Sahaabah and recognize their station; and they honour those that preceded them in knowledge from amongst the Salaf and considered their opinion also.
• They stop wherever the evidence stops. Once there is evidence they leave aside their own opinions and statements and they adhere to the truth, whatever it may be. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah ÑÍãå Çááå points out:
  “This group is stationery wherever the daleel (evidence) is stationery and they move with the daleel wherever the daleel moves. Once there is evidence they adhere to it and take it and they go to it collectively and individually.”
  The textual evidences are more magnificent in their hearts than the statements of anyone else. They do not put any analogy or opinion before the textual evidence.
• They are cautious and take their time before passing any type of religious ruling (fatwa) i.e. they are not hasty. Also, they would prefer that someone else passes a religious ruling instead of themselves, if there is another individual. They are also cautious in the area where they have no knowledge on a particular issue. If at a given moment they do not have at the forefront of their mind the evidence for a particular issue they will refrain from answering.
• They are concerned about conveying knowledge and passing it on to others, and also teaching and instructing others in the knowledge that they have been given.
• They are preoccupied with knowledge and putting it into practice.
• When they deal with knowledge – whether conveying it or acquiring it – they start with that which is most important and then that which is important – there is prioritisation. This is done without becoming bored or tired, although it is something that they do constantly.
• They have great concern for the knowledge; and for the areas of Tawheed and the Sunnah – that nothing touches these aspects of our Deen.
• They are the ones who stand in defence of the Qur’aan, the Sunnah, and for the Deen in general.
• They have humility and fear of Allaah and they depend on Him ÓÈÍÇäå æ ÊÚÇáì and they adhere to whatever He commands. Narrated by ‘Awf ibn Maalik al-Asja’ee ÑÖì Çááå Úäå that: “The Prophet Õáì Çááå Úáíå æ Óáã once looked at the sky and he Õáì Çááå Úáíå æ Óáã said “This seems to be the time of the raising up of knowledge,” so one of them said: “O Messenger of Allaah, how is it that knowledge will be raised up and we have the Book of Allaah and we read it and we study it and we teach it to our children?” The Prophet Õáì Çááå Úáíå æ Óáã said: “I used to consider you one of the most knowledgeable people of Ahlul Madinah, didn’t the Jews and Christians have their book with them?[5] Should I not inform you of the first of the knowledge to be raised up?” He Õáì Çááå Úáíå æ Óáã said: “khushoo and the fear of Allaah ÓÈÍÇäå æ ÊÚÇáì until you will not see a person having this type of humbleness in a state of fear in times to come”.”[6]
• They put knowledge into practice, so you find the scholar working with the knowledge that he has from the Qur’aan and the Sunnah, and being concerned about it. They practice the optional acts of worship, not to mention the compulsory acts of eebaadah (worship). They adhere to all these acts of worship, and they stay away from those things that are disliked and should be shunned.
• Their knowledge is in the heart and not on the tongue. Knowledge is of two types:
  1. Knowledge on the tongue – this is the evidence of Allaah ÓÈÍÇäå æ ÊÚÇáì that is used to convey to the people from the Qur’aan and from the Sunnah. The Prophet Õáì Çááå Úáíå æ Óáã mentions in the hadith: “The Qur’aan is an evidence for or against you.”[7]
  2. Knowledge found in the heart – this is the beneficial knowledge. Al-Hasan ÑÍãå Çááå said that “Knowledge is of two types, knowledge on the tongue is the evidence of Allaah against the children of Aadam as comes in the hadith: “The Qur’aan is an evidence for or against you.” and knowledge in the heart is the truly beneficial knowledge.”
• They do not try to find an easy life which goes against the Deen and they stay away from innovations and from discussions which have no basis in the Deen. When Ibn Rajab ÑÍãå Çááådealt with the virtue of knowledge of the Salaf over the Khalaf, this is one of the things that he pointed out as one of the characteristics that they (the Scholars) possess.
• They try to avoid hasty religious rulings or being involved in passing them. This is an aspect of the Deen which the Prophet Õáì Çááå Úáíå æ Óáã had much concern for – persons who pass religious rulings without being properly qualified. One of the reasons that we find the scholars of the past being very cautious is due to their fear of Allaah ÓÈÍÇäå æ ÊÚÇáì and the caution that they had in respect of their Deen, and a desire to free themselves form the responsibility of the fataawa that would be given. For this reason we find that this was the mannerism of the Sahaabah who were chosen to be the Companions of the Prophet Õáì Çááå Úáíå æ Óáã. They used to try and pass on the fataawa to someone else, who might be more knowledgeable in their eyes to pass religious rulings. Sometimes a person would come into Madinah and he would ask a question, and he would be told to go to someone else, and that person would say to go to someone else and he would go to that second individual who would tell him to go to a third, until he would go all around Madinah and return to the first individual. Because of this, we find in regard of the Mufti (the person who passes religious rulings) that he should have certain qualities.

Anas reported Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: When one of you makes supplication, he should supplicate with a will and should not say: O Allah, confer upon me if Thou likest, for there is none to coerce Allah.

Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: When one of you makes a supplication (to his Lord) one should not say: O Allah, grant me pardon, if Thou so likest, but one should beg one’s (Lord) with a will and full devotion, for there is nothing so great in the eye of Allah which He cannot grant.

Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: None of you should say to Allah (like this): O Allah, grant me mercy, if thou so likest. The supplication (of his) should (be permeated with) conviction (that it would be accepted by the Lord), for Allah is the Doer of (everything) He likes to do, and there is none to force Him (to do or not to do this or that).

And the difference between backbiting and advice is that the intent behind advice is to warn the Muslim against an innovator or someone who can be a cause of fitnah (trial and tribulation) for him or from one who will deceive him or corrupt him.

“As for Mu’awiyyah then he is a poor man and as for Abu Jahm then he beats his women…” (Sahih Muslim)

Once the the audio and transcripts of the call were made public by The Advocate, a right-to-life student magazine at the University of California-Los Angeles, Planned Parenthood predictably apologized for the bad judgment of its staffer. But there is no indication that the staffer was fired or even disciplined.

Critics have long accused Planned Parenthood of concentrating their efforts in the black community and targeting other minorities.

Read the transcript of the call after the break.

Transcript released by The Advocate

I guess as I Muslim I put things in perspective and I never immediately assume everything is a “black and white” issue. I think culturally Black folk are extremely too sensitive. I’m am finding more and more now that an interesting thing is happening in our communities. We are so easy to call someone on seemingly racist behavior, especially White, however, we are closed mouthed when we see our sisters being pimped out in music videos. Why don’t we call these rappers on their depiction of Black women (big booties, big breasted, weaved heads, and babies mamas).

This reader is Not offended and I take issue with Black folk who are. Get a grip!

Banned episodes of ‘The Boondocks’ to be aired on Teletoon

Mar 13, 2008

“The Boondocks” is about to take a detour into Canada.

Two episodes of the edgy, animated series, which is based on Aaron McGruder’s explosive comic strip, are airing on Teletoon’s adult-themed “Detour” programming block after being pulled from their originating U.S. broadcaster, the Cartoon Network. The episodes in question, “The Huey Freeman Hunger Strike” and “The Ruckus Reality Show,” air this Sunday night and next Sunday at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT.

Make no mistake – “The Boondocks” is not a children’s cartoon show. In fact, it may be one of the most adult shows on television. The series offers a bracing black perspective on American society from the point of view of two angry children, Huey and Riley (both voiced by Regina King), who move from the sketchy south side of Chicago to the manicured suburbs with their crotchety granddad, Robert Freeman (comedian John Witherspoon).

Most episodes are peppered with the N-word, which would normally get it banned just about anywhere else on television. McGruder, however, is uncompromising on this point, suggesting to critics a few years ago when the series was launched in the States that the phrase “the N-word” was more offensive to him than the word itself.

Champions of McGruder’s work say he provides a rare window on issues such as race relations and juvenile delinquency in America. “As hilariously scalding on-screen as it is in the comic pages,” raved the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Melanie McFarland.

The episodes in question, however, are not banned in America due to concerns over taboo language or sexual content. Rather, the Turner Cable-owned Cartoon Network yanked the two half-hours because they savage another cable network, BET.

BET’s CEO, Debra Lee, is depicted in Sunday’s episode as “Debra Lee-vil,” a sinister Dr. Evil clone who kills underlings and rants about creating a network “that would accomplish what hundreds of years of slavery, Jim Crow and malt liquor couldn’t – the destruction of black people.”

BET entertainment president Reggie Hudlin – once a “Boondocks” executive producer – is depicted as Dr. Lee-vil’s Harvard-educated lieutenant whose bright idea is to steal five-year-old reality show ideas from MTV and graft them onto the BET brand.

Clearly, McGruder hates BET, and it is hard not to see the depictions in this episode as personal attacks. It’s like sitting in on the first giddy draft of a satiric sketch in the writers’ room, only to realize that it was painstakingly inked and animated. (A request was made through Teletoon to interview McGruder but he was unavailable in time for this article.)

McGruder pushes parody to the limits in a relentless attack which continues in the next episode, where Uncle Ruckus, a self-hating black man (voiced by Gary Anthony Williams), gets his own offensive BET reality show.

The Cartoon Network has not acknowledged that the BET attacks were the reason for pulling the “Boondocks” episodes. All a spokesperson there would say is that Turner Cable was not contacted by BET, Lee or Hudlin.

It’s not the first time that a TV show banned in the U.S. has aired in Canada.

Way back in the late ’60s, CTV stood by “The Smothers Brothers,” airing an episode of the edgy variety show that CBS pulled from its schedule. (At the time, CBS used the excuse that the brothers failed to provide an advance tape for the censors; really, the network was looking for a way to ditch the show after feeling heat over the brothers’ opposition to the war in Vietnam.)

Teletoon’s decision to air the episodes is already being hailed in the comment sections of animation blogs and websites south of the border. Others are praising it for different reasons. The Canadian airings are sure to lead to the episodes being posted on video file-sharing sites such as YouTube – meaning Americans can finally see them, too, without having to spring for the upcoming, uncensored “Boondocks” season 2 DVD.

Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist based in Brampton, Ont.