Personal because this is my own view on the development of the recent terror fitnah being perpetrated by Muslims that has gripped all corners of the world as we know it. Terrorism because that’s exactly what is, nothing less. Thoughts because I’ve witnessed all this first-hand and have a religious duty to clarify. Stability because it was being moderate and stable in ones religion that I found to be the key salvation point of all practising Muslims from being swallowed up into the trap of takfīr and killing.

Let me start with stability because as you will have seen in the last few months with the continuous outpouring of “reformed” Muslim media representatives, from “Islamists” to “ex-Jihadists”, all willing to make their points and analysis heard which has been based on nothing but ignorance of His Book and ignorance of His Message. Indeed, the only thing in common between such people is how “deformed” their thought has become and just how little they knew in the first place, and just how little they know now. One only had to read a few passages of the infamous “Islamist” to see that, and one only had to hear the shocking perversion of His Book on Newsnight the other day by one such character to confirm it.

So, the real common factor was a lack of stability. They were unstable then, and they are unstable now – like leaves floating around in the wind, changing religious direction with every puff as if Islam was some kind of a game. Just as such people were not to be trusted in their deviation then, we have little reason to trust them now.

Actually, it is a lucky few that start their Islamic development on a moderate path and maintain that throughout the years, without going to extremes, without ending up contradicting their entire methodology within the space of just a few years such as one has seen with the much tainted “Sufi to Salafi” and “Salafi to Sufi” switches, or more vividly the “Radical to Pacifist” switch of recent times. Your community representatives, teachers, elders and leaders should be chosen for their continual balance and stability over the last twenty years and not the last twenty months, for it is ‘ilm and hilm attained over a long period of time that are the pillars of such calmness and wisdom that helps a community in difficult times such as now.

Talking of instability, it seems only like yesterday when one of the key characters of the fitnah we are experiencing today, Abu Qatada, started off his foray into takfīr and thus inevitably the passing of a fatwa on the permissibility of killing civilians. It was about ten years ago when my teacher Shaykh Kehlan allowed me to sit in on his discussions and debates with Abu Qatada after he wrote an unbelievable “fatwa” declaring it permissible to kill the innocent wives and children of those suspected Algerian security service members who were blamed for the murder and pillage of Muslim households during the GIA fitnah that gripped Algeria in the 90s.

At that time, Abu Qatada was surrounded by many Muslims who saw him as a sincere figurehead of the authentic struggles of the Chechens and Bosnians after their lands and people had been massacred by neighbouring countries. Unfortunately, this just proved to be a cover for his own extremism and many innocent well-meaning Muslims were sucked in to his trap, despite the efforts of the scholars at the time such as Shaykh Suhaib Hasan, Shaykh Salah of al-Muntada al-Islami and Shaykh Kehlan. It was not long before Abu Qatada’s true colours were revealed and his deviation, although not as extreme as some of the other fringe movements at the time such as the Khalifah movement started by a group of Arab rebels in Afghanistan, became clear. Shaykh Kehlan wrote a complete refutation of his methodology and fatwa in the then well-respected magazine al-Hady al-Nabawy (which became the name of our da‘wah organisation “Prophetic Guidance”), which started off a period of turmoil between the Muslims in Manchester, which had vociferous supporters of both parties, culminating in the ex-communication of each other no less by Abu Qatada and the then Imam of Didsbury Mosque, Shaykh Sa‘eed. Likewise, the supporters of Abu Qatada created a tense and dangerous environment thereafter, initiating violence in the Houses of Allah and even forcing teachers and scholars to leave Manchester altogether such as Shaykh ‘Abdullah al-Juday‘.

Our respected teacher Shaykh Kehlan taught us a valuable lesson then, withdrawing from the fitnah at it’s earliest stage after he had thoroughly established the position of Orthodoxy, and it has been his distancing from all extremist elements throughout his tenure as one of the main scholars in the UK that has led to his quiet acceptance as a true leader of the community – a model of knowledge, stability, moderation and balance.

It is important to say this now, because Abu Qatada and his ilk have continued unabated over the last decade, leading to collaborations and off-shoots initially with Hizb-ut-Tahrir, then al-Muhajiroun and then whatever crackpot splinter-group that would form and lead to the development of young maniacs who are trying to pass off today as advisors and reformists.

Trust the wise and stable. Trust the established ones – old really is gold. What cured this problem in the first place will be what cures it again now, not the new-fangled ignorant assessment of the deformed. Scholars do change opinions but they don’t change absolute principles of belief and practice like black to white, and they certainly don’t change from one religion to another as one wonders whether the terrorists are indeed doing exactly that.

And Allah knows best.