A description of one of the many concerning characteristics of the Khawarij, and how hastiness led to the development of that characteristic.
After advising us not to abandon lessons after attending the first few, our teacher, Ustadh Musa Richardson, may Allah have abundant mercy upon him, stated the following:
An additional benefit that is related to our salafiyyah and our distinction from the Khawarij of today is that there is a special attribute that the Khawarij have — specifically the Khawarij who call to rebel against the rulers. You might say ‘this is a strange connection’, but I will tell you the Khawarij of today have no patience in Talab al-Ilm. They have no patience to continue [upon it] and study day after day, week after week, and year after year. While they may have acts of worship which are great and other things that they perform with diligence, [having patience in] Talab al-Ilm is very hard for them in this era. Why — I do not know. Why do I say that — it manifests itself in their claim when they speak about the scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah. [From] the evil nicknames that the Khawarij invent for our scholars today are that they are the scholars of women’s underpants (i.e. menses, the colour of the blood, when it is pure and impure).
What is the secret behind this claim, aside from them being khabith and having filthy accusations? Why do they pick this issue out of all of the issues in the religion, saying that the scholars are busy with this? They could say that the ulama are busy with sheep and cows, dividing them up for zakah. They could say that the ulama are busy with raising your hands or not raising your hands in takbir. If they wanted to speak about the ulama, they could say so many things.
Why did they say that the scholars are people who are so busy with issues of women’s purity? This is because they attended the first few lessons with the scholars; they tried to seek knowledge — they tried but they did not get past taharah (purification)! So, in their minds, the ulama are still teaching menses after 25–30 years. They came to a few lessons and saw the ulama of Islam dealing with the texts of the Book and the Sunnah in great detail and precision, making tahqiq, and showing how the issues about taharah are to be understood properly — and one of the issues [was] women’s menses. This is an issue from our din. So, when they couldn’t bear it and they did not have patience to go beyond that and gain real fiqh in the religion, they immediately jumped to the newspapers, seeking fiqh al-Waqi, and [ran] to the political activities propped up as scholars, getting behind them, trying to replace our scholars with [these] political activities. What made them make this jump? What made them leave the lessons with the ulama in the very beginning? It is their lack of patience. So be a Salafi. Be distinguished. Be patient upon Talab al-Ilm. It takes patience for you to study a book from beginning to end.”
From the words of Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan:
“This is the path to understanding your religion. This is the path to being firm in your aqidah and being rightly guided as the Companions were rightly guided. This is the path to salvation.”
“So be patient and ask Allah for consistency, patience, and persistence upon this good you are on right now.”
Source: Shaykh al-Fawzan, Masa’il al-Jahiliyyah as taught by Ustadh Musa Richardson ~ Class 01
Transcribed by: Umm Sufyan Fatimah
This article was originally published on TROID.org. May Allah reward them.