A few Muslims swallow everything; they will not criticize what is dished out to them by the scholars of the past and elevate them to be divine and almost equal their work with the Quran. On top of it, they are hell-bent on criticizing those who question some of the stances of these scholars.
You will find not only blind among Muslims, but also others in every group of people, religious, social, political, or otherwise. The majority is not blind, they ask questions.
No one and nothing is beyond criticism; that is why God has endowed us with the ability to question, read (Iqra), understand, and accept. Thanks to the creator, my understanding of Islam, Tauheed, Prophet, and the Quran developed from severely criticizing it. Today, I am a confident Muslim, not based on the dished-out belief, but based on seeing the value and wisdom of what Islam presents. When I see something about Islam does not make sense, I know it is not Islam but the corrupted version of Islam.
Two years ago, Imam Mohamed Magid was upset with me for criticizing Muslim scholars of the past who screwed up the understanding of Islam and presented a wrong version. My article was: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-source-of-muslim-extremism_b_57843863e4b04041a9858324
A week later we met again on the west of Capitol Hill to speak at Muslim March – he told me, I don’t know what to say to you now anymore, Hamza Yousuf has written a similar article like yours. Yousuf wrote, https://seekersguidance.org/articles/prophetic-guidance/plague-within-hamza-yusuf/.
I have criticized Dr. Yasir Qadhi for his disturbing non-Islamic take on Jews. He was wrong, and I am glad later on, he apologized. Once again, it was not him, it was the rote learning he received from the schools he went to learn. Today, I came across this video by Memri. https://www.memri.org/reports/american-islamic-scholar-based-texas-sheikh-yasir-qadhi-defends-antisemitic-comments-memri
In this piece, Qadhi fleetingly mentions the hadiths written about 1200 years ago, literally alluding to that those men made a mistake. He did not, however, expand on that. One of the Muslim Scholars, Mohammad Yunus, justified some of the books written by those scholars as a response to the situation. What we have failed to do was accept that “timely but incorrect response” as gospel.
I urge Muslims to be bold- Condemn what is wrong and praise what is good without hesitation, no matter who it is. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was criticized by his associates, but he did not scold them to shut up, nor the others silenced them. Islam is about learning.
If it is not common sense, then it is not Islam.
Mike Ghouse is author of the book, American Muslim Agenda available at Amazon and the book stores – the book is about common sense, Islam.