28– ANIMOSITY TOWARD SCHOLARS

Mockery of Islamic knowledge or Islamic scholars causes disbelief. Anyone who swears at or speaks ill of an Islamic scholar will become a disbeliever and an apostate. Fisq or bid’at (on the part of a scholar) makes it necessary to take a dislike to him. Yet it is sinful to dislike him for worldly considerations. So is the case with disliking sâlih (pious) Muslims. Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sal-lam’ states in the following hadîth-i-sherîfs: “Three things increase the taste of belief: loving Allâhu ta’âlâ and His Prophet more than everything else; loving a Muslim for the sake of Allâhu ta’âlâ though he may not love you; and disliking enemies of Allâhu ta’âlâ.” And “The most valuable worship is loving for the sake of Allâhu ta’âlâ ‘Hubb-i fillâh’ and disliking for the sake of Allâhu ta’âlâ ‘Bughd-i fillâh’.” It is necessary to love more a Believer who performs more worships than a Believer who performs less worship (’ibâdat). It is necessary not to dislike more the disbelievers who rebel more and who spread sinning (fuhsh) and disbelief. Among the ones which are necessary to dislike for the sake of Allâhu ta’âlâ, the man’s own nafs comes first. To love them means to be in their path and to be imitating their ways. The sign of belief is loving for the sake of Allâhu ta’âlâ (Hubb-i fillâh) and disliking for the sake of Allâhu ta’âlâ (Bughd-i fillâh). Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sal-lam’ states in the following hadîth-i-sherîfs: Allâhu ta’âlâ has some slaves. They are not prophets. Prophets and martyrs will envy them on the day of Rising ‘Qiyâmat’. They are Believers who live far away from each other but they love each other for the sake of Allâhu ta’âlâ even though they do not know each other,” and “In the Hereafter, everybody will be with the people they loved in the world.”

If they do not follow the path guided by those whom they claim to love, their love will not be true. One should be friends with

-144-

pious people in whom one has confidence in terms of faith and probity. Jews and Christians say that they love their prophets. But, since they are not following their path and, instead, following the wrong paths concocted by the Jewish religious authorities (hahams) and priests, they will not be together with their prophets in the next world. Even worse, they will go to Hell. The book Could not Answer published by Hakikat Kitabevi explains subjects regarding Jews and Christians in depth. Lofty souls attract people they love up toward spiritual heights. Conversely, lower spirits attract them down to lower levels. A person can understand where his spirit will go after his death by looking to his friends in the world today. A person loves another person either because of his nature or because his reasoning (’aql) requires him to love that person or on account of the kindnesses he received from him or for the sake of Allâhu ta’âlâ. Souls of people who love each other in the world attract each other. Similarly, they will also attract each other in the next world. Enes bin Malik ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’ states that no news made Muslims happier than did the news reported in the hadîth-i-sherîf quoted above. Those who love disbelievers will go to Hell with them. One cannot help following the path guided by a person one loves. The strongest sign of one’s loving someone is to love what he loves and dislike those things he does not like.