If You Obey the Majority

That is a fact of the first importance set down in the Qur'an: that were you to obey the majority of those upon the earth — the majority of its inhabitants at any given time — they would lead you away from the path of Allah. And why? Because most people are ignorant. Imam al-Dhahabī has said that if there is one malady, one sickness, that will always be a disability to the Ummah, or to people in general, throughout history, it is ignorance. By ignorance is meant that one does not know what Islam truly and rightly says. So a man may be a Muslim and yet be assuming; there is much cultural admixture, much misunderstanding, much exaggeration, and the true knowledge is lost. To such people the true knowledge is lost, and that is the ignorance. And when people are ignorant and yet believe themselves right, that is worse still: to have just enough knowledge to think oneself right, and not enough to know where one is wrong. It is a matter of real importance. A man has a little information; he supposes himself to be on to something; and he has not enough to see that he has not enough.

Allah then says, in the same verse 116: in yattabiʿūna illā al-ẓanna wa-in hum illā yakhruṣūn. They do but shoot in the dark. It is all conjecture; they invent as they go. It is what they suppose; it is what has been made fair to their minds, out of various biases and causes — Shayṭān, and the rest.

It is your Lord who knows best, and is most aware, of who has strayed from His path, being also most knowing of those who are guided. That is a fact of great importance. It needs to be truly understood.

It deserves to be laboured somewhat, for our survival as an Ummah — not in this world alone but in the Hereafter, and in this world especially: our unity, our collective effort for what is right, our motivation — can come only from true knowledge; and for that a man must study. Look about you and consider: the Islamic knowledge a man has, unless he has formally studied — and it is the minority of us who have formally studied — think of others in your own family. If you have studied and they have not, whence comes their Islam? Their Islam will be simply what they have assimilated. If they were born in a Muslim house, their Islam will be what they took in as they grew: the fragments heard from parents, who are not necessarily the best teachers. They were good, mā shāʾ Allāh — and if they made us Muslims, may Allah reward them — but they were not scholars. They do not teach us Islam formally. Then perhaps the teacher in the madrasah, in the maktab, or in the masjid one attended. But one was young when that was told. When a man has become mature and discerning and adult, and looks at things as an adult — consider it: many have had no direct input of Islam since. They go by what they studied when young, by what they observe, and by the few forwarded messages they receive. There is no formal study; no book has been read; very few do it — and this though so much is available, in video, in audio, in writing. Take courses. It is truly important to make concentrated study of the various subjects, so far as one can; one has one's life in which to do it. Otherwise we shall be among those very people who lead a man away from the path of Allah, who follow conjecture, who follow the prevailing opinion and their own inclinations.