Table of Contents
Based on what the Major Scholars have explained, we must distinguish between the following scenarios:
01 When making biographical accounts, in this case, everything that is known, good and bad, is mentioned about a person, and this is what we find in works such as Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubulāʾ of al-Ḍhahabī for example.
02 When refuting and warning, and this is what we see as a methodology in the Qurʾān, the Sunnah, the way of the Companions and the Salaf. The intent here is to prevent people from falsehood and being enticed by it, and here it is not necessary, nor required, nor desireable, nor from wisdom, to mention the good of the one being refuted.
The scholars explained why.
Firstly, it weakens your refutation and warning.
Secondly, the good of that person is disfigured and compromised by his evil in any case.
Thirdly, you are confusing people and leading them to believe it is still permissible to benefit from the deviant or innovator, which defeats the objective altogether.
03 The use of the wisdom in the course of refuting. This does not mean mentioning the good of a person to please those being addressed, but it means being gentle in speech and not speaking overly harsh about a person, but using words which are palatable and acceptable. This is what Shaykh al-Albānī (رحمه الله) explained.
To illustrate, with respect to Sayyid Quṭb, when addressing those who are fanatical to him, attached to him, misled into believing he is an “Imām of Guidance”, you would not say for example, “Look at what this Bāṭinī Khabīth says about some of the Companions…”, but you may say, “May Allāh forgive him for this grave and serious error, look at what he says about the Companions…”
04 Where those being addressed with the refutation or warning seek clarification and ask questions pertaining to the areas of agreement or disagreement so they can be clear about what divides the person of truth from the person of falsehood, and in the course of which the need arises to mention what the people of falsehood may have of the truth. However, this is an exceptional situation and is not to be taken as a rule, or principle.
To illustrate, you are refuting an individual and someone in the audience has a question and asks, “What is this person’s view on al-Qadr, or the Companions, or the Ṣifāt?” He is seeking clarification about areas of misguidance from what is besides them and that maybe for a reason. Perhaps he has listened to this individual and wants to know areas in which he may be safe or in which his knowledge may be compromised. So this is a particular scenario where mention of what innovators and deviants have of the truth may need to be explained.
05 When mentioning the errors of a person to him, then in order to encourage him to leave his errors, repent and return to the truth, he can be reminded of the good he has with him. This is unlike open warning and refutation, when one is not to mention the good points of the deviant or innovator.
Alḥamdulillāh, all of these affairs have been clear to Salafis since the late 1990s.
However, the likes of al-Maʾribī and al-Ḥalabī came along in the early to mid-2000s, and they sought ways and means to justify what they were doing of cooperating with the People of Innovation and Misguidance, visiting them and accommodating them. So they sought to defend their actions by innovating principles and explanations from themselves, all under the guise of the “maṣlaḥah” of the daʿwah.
Finally, when a person is found in a situation where there is an audience that is attached emotionally and invested in a particular deviant caller or innovator, then he can simply explain this principle.
Meaning, it should be explained that we are not obliged to mention the good points of a person, and that whatever good the innovators have, so long as their innovation is not disbelief, then that is between them and Allāh, but we are here to warn you from error and misguidance and advising you to be cautious from people whose deviation may not be apparent to you.
Further, that you should not take knowledge except from one who is clearly and manifestly upon the way of the Salaf, and that one should not be deceived just because someone refutes the Atheists, the Wokeists, the Rāfiḍah and their likes, since many of the Innovators that the Salaf spoke very harshly against, they had tremendous efforts in this respect, but their good was never mentioned, because that defeats the objective from the outset.
So it is better to explain the principle so the audience understands and further, we are not there to please all the people, we are there to simply explain the truth. As for who listens and accepts, becomes happy or unhappy, comes forward or turns his back, then Allāh is the one who opens the hearts and grants success.
And Allāh (عز وجل) knows best.