Mind, Body, Soul

Soccer fans are a roudy bunch, in fact, they can be pretty violent.

Why is that?

I’ve often said that such people are simply fanboys, people who are not good enough to play the game, becoming mindless drones for their team.

Muslims have fanboys too. Some are violent ones, others are folks who like to condemn others as shirk and bidaa mongerers… and then there are even others who simply hate the other ‘side’.

So Muslims also have people who don’t play ‘the game’, some fanboys may even practice externals, but does their character change from their affiliation for any of them? Is Prophetic character entering their heart? Is tolerance, compassion, love entering their heart?

Do they absorb continued book knowledge, which gets them to admire such and such scholar or learn such and such hadith for such and such opinion, all while not implementing the end goal of good character in their entire life?

Are they mere imitators of Western soccer fans?

I’ve seen broadcasts of supposed Muslims holding strange signs calling for death and screaming as an outlet for their hatred. I’ve seen people issuing the strangest statements defending terrorist teachers. I’ve even heard of marriage proposals going sour because the ‘other’ wasn’t ‘Sufi’ enough.

This is the kind of fanboy-ism which strikes me as ridiculous.

These are people for whom the religion has changed nothing, not opened up their mind to more reason or intellect. They cannot judge their own actions to the high standard of the religion. They cannot accept that a popular lecturer may be someone who espouses violence, since people associate popularity with quality. Many of todays lecturers are indeed complicit in an ideology of hatred and violent post-modern jihad rhetoric. In a day and age where the masses are ignorant, popularity should count for very little.

This even translates into spouse selection! They cannot understand that it is sincerity and honesty and good character which makes a good spouse, not affiliations with this or that group. The Hadith of the Prophet (Sallahu’alaiheewassalam) which tells us a good spouse is one strongest in their religion, does not mean the strongest fanboy of their religion. Rather, religion is the understanding that “On the Day of Resurrection, nothing will weigh heavier upon the scales than good character” (Abu Dawud and Tirmidhi).

So, now when I hear of ‘Sufi’ fanboys, I’m flabbergasted. I am very used to seeing sites from Salafi’s declaring such as such Sheykh an ‘Ashari dog’, the continuous assertions of Bidaa and ‘multiple levels of’ Shirk, speakers not being accepted in programs.

But Sufis doing the same?

It is absolutely hypocritical to turn spiritual teachings of Sufism into fanboyism. We don’t need that kind of support.

People might say, “Well, Yursil, you are the biggest fanboy I know”. Alhamdulillah. That may be. I may most likely even worse than that.

However, I would assert that those people who I ‘call out’, and those groups I call out, they are perpretators of either violence or intolerance. This, to me, is part of our commandment to speak words against injustice.

My specific stance on Wahabis / Salafis is not because they are bad people or not because we dress differently. In fact, as our Khwaja has said, in fact, we may come across very similar externally.

For me, the issue is that their faith is one entirely derived in fanboyism, that their policy of takfirism is one which has led, in the past, to the deaths of countless scholars of other schools of thought. Their faith is based on the rejection of others, not on the tolerance of others. Overseas their ideology continues to lead people to support aggression and continued violence.

In today’s watered down Islam of America, they simply fight any entertainment of the Sunni approach in teaching, when they achieve power, they kick Sunnis out of musjids and community activities. The excuses given are shirk and Bidaat.

It is only a matter of time for Mahdi (AS) to arrive, and we need to be asking ourselves some hard questions. Are we ready to stand by our fanboy ideology without actually improving one iota internally?

Sheykh Abdul Qadir Jilani (AS) said:

O young man! Have you no sense of shame? Weep for yourself, because you have been deprived of right direction [sawab] and the help you need to succeed [tawfiq]. Are you not ashamed? One day you are obedient, then disobedient the next. One day you are sincere [mukhlis], but the next you are a polytheist [mushrik]. The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) is reported as having said:

If both days are the same for a person, he is defrauded [maghbun], and if someone’s yesterday was better than his today, he is deprived [mahrum].

Are our days improving?

If we need to speak out against anything, it needs to be with sincerity and in a matter fitting to the subject. We need to fight true injustice, wherever it may be, whether it is within our supposed ‘community leaders’ or even if it is within our own hearts.

We need to stop being fanboys of ideologies, but practioners of the tenants of that faith. When we see people the only thing we need to call them out for is their injustices, the zalim which lives within them not their ‘soccer team’.

By the way, to the supposed ‘sufi’ who turned down the spouse with good character, you missed out bro, you missed out.