Al-Fawzaan Asked Whether Refutations Harden the Hearts and Who is Supposed to Carry them Out
October 18, 2013 § Leave a comment
Questioner: Do refutations against the people of falsehood harden the hearts? Because there are people who distance us from the books of the people of knowledge that refute the people of falsehood?
Al-Fawzaan: Not refuting the people of falsehood is what hardens the hearts, because their doubts enter the hearts which then become hard. As for rebutting them and clarifying the truth then this is what softens the hearts and turns them back to the truth. So do not pay attention to such false statements which come from people who want to circulate falsehood and doubts and have no one object or refute them, saying, ‘This is freedom of opinion, and this is the other opinion,’ ya’ni, the religion has become opinions [now]? Allaah did not entrust us to our opinions and intellects, rather he ordered us to follow the Book and Sunnah and to understand and act on them both and to refute the doubts and false statements that oppose them. And if it weren’t for the rebuttals against the people of falsehood the truth would not have prevailed or become clear to the people.
But I say, and I continue to say: only the people of knowledge refute the people of falsehood—as for someone learning, and the student of knowledge, or the one feigning knowledge, it is not allowed for them to refute such issues, because maybe such a person will refute based upon ignorance and as a result his refutation will be more evil than the evil of the one being refuted, because when a refutation is not done with knowledge its [resulting] corruption becomes more than its benefit.
Al-Ijaabaat al-Muhimmah fil-Mashaakil al-Mulimmah, pp. 239-240.
Gifts of Knowledge 
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