assalamu 'alaykum brothers and sisters Should refutations be devoid of da'wa. Or are refutations and da'wa two completely different activities. Refutations serve their purpose and da'wa its own. Do not people talk about spreading the flag of the ahl al-sunnah all over the earth? How can this happen only through refutations that are designed to insult and push away the deviants. Brothers and sisters here refute the deviants, but at the same time, also try to make the deviants understand what is right, and that they should change their ways. There is a phrase that brothers and sisters from the Sub Continent repeat and that is do SHIDDA on the ahl al-bid'a. What I am asking is, with this behaviour of strictness and harshness that we must show towards the ahl al-bid'a, should we also have the ideal underneath that we want the ahl al-bid'a to understand and come back to the right Path. Ofcourse, Allah alone gives Hidaya, not us. There must be some meaning to this Shidda on the ahl al-bid'a. It must not be just shunning, attacking, and insulting them. It might be good as such for the shayateen, but for the deviant commoners, they would just be pushed away and will never listen. We would love for the deviants to join the ahl al-sunnah back. I will give an example. In Egypt, after the advent of Sayyidina SalaH al-Din Ayyoubi raHimahuAllah, he unleashed an army of sufi da'is who deseminated into the Egyptian masses, and once again refuted the ahl al-bid'a there and invited them back towards the ahl al-sunnah through an intensive simultaneous da'wa; and this resulted in Muslim Egyptians becoming 100% Sunni once again. Imam Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili raDyAllahu 'anhu used to engage in active debates with the ahl al-bid'a with the purpose of showing them the right path and so that they rejoin the ahl al-sunnah again. Or are such debates a different category to refutations. What are the purposes and principles and methods according to our elders to be employed in raDDs? Should da'wa be in the purposes? jazakAllahu khairan for any input.
