Many people these days are resorting to self-reasoning, free-thinking and opinion.

Answer

This is the age of atheism which is the product of the atheist system of western secular education. It is the age of kufr and ilhaad. These developments have been predicted by Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam). The era of ilhaad and kufr had in fact commenced in the very age of Khairul Quroon. Today it is a different kind of ilhaad and kufr.

The thrust of western education is atheism. Imaan is corrupted and destroyed by western education. It is for this reason you will find numerous Muslims today questioning Deeni masaa-il. They want to know the reasons and the 'philosophy' underlying the masaa-il. They want to know why is this divine command so and what is the rationale for that Qur'aanic command and that Hadith, etc. If any of the ahkaam of the Shariah is beyond their corroded intellectual perception, they summarily dismiss it, and to camouflage their kufr, they attribute it to opinion of the Aimma-e-Mujtahideen.

Hadhrat Mujaddid Alf-e-Thaani (rahmatullah alayh) said that questioning the reasons for the ahkaam is tantamount to rejecting Nubuwwat. The obligation of the Mu'min is to obey the Qur'aan and Sunnah, that is the Shariah, regardless of understanding or not understanding the reasons for the laws.

Hadhrat Maulana Ashraf Ali Thaanvi (rahmatullah alayh) said that the doubts which modernists suffer (regarding Deeni ahkaam) have two causes: (1) Lack of respect for Allah Ta'ala, and (2) Lack of love for Allah Ta'ala. These doubts vanish once Azmat (honour/ respect) and Muhabbat (love) have been cultivated. By submitting to the Shariah and adopting the Sunnah, these two essentials are cultivated.

The system and ethos of western education emphasize the rejection of Deen. Beliefs are antiquated issues in this kufr educational system of the west.. Almost all Muslims who had undergone the calamity of western indoctrination at academic level are in reality kaafir. They are in fact munaafiqeen masquerading as Muslims. They perform Salaat, fast, pay Zakaat, perform Hajj, etc., whilst their hearts reject almost all the detailed ahkaam of the Shariah. You will therefore hear these modernist zanaadiqah speaking about 'reinterpretation' and 'ijtihaad'. Every Tom, Dick and Harry among these modernists juhhaal whose Imaan has been destroyed by western education considers himself qualified to scrutinize and interpret the Qur'aan and Hadith whilst they are deficient in even Qur'aan recitation and basic Tahaarat masaa-il. Their stupidity precludes them from understanding that they are just plain morons.

Those Muslim wasting their time, energy and brains sitting at the feet of kuffaar masters, spend half of their lives in the suhbat (companionship) of k u f f a a r, m u n a a f i q e e n, zindiqeen, fussaaq and fujjaar. These are their tutors. Is it now possible to expect any virtue from the protégés of Allah's enemies? Regarding the suhbat of fussaaq, fujjaar and kuffaar, Hadhrat Hakimul Ummat (rahmatullah alayhi) said: "Nooraaniyat (i.e. the Noor of Imaan) is extinguished by association with kuffaar and fujjaar (immoral persons). Zulmat (spiritual darkness) then develops. The knowledge which emanates from the niches of Nubuwwat contain Noor, and what emerges from the heart of a faasiq is zulmat (spiritual darkness and Satanism)."

The attitude to which you have referred is kufr in disguise. May Allah Ta'ala save the Ummah from this greatest of all calamities in which millions of so-called 'enlightened' born Muslims are wallowing. Whilst they profess to be Muslims, they fail to realize that in reality they are Zindiqeen. Referring to the preponderance of munaafiqeen and zindiqeen in the Ummah of later times, Ha-

dhrat Abdullah Ibn Umar (radhiyallahu anhu) said: "There will dawn a time when people will gather in their Musaajid and perform Salaat whilst not a single one of them will be a Mu'min." They will be professed Muslims whilst their hearts will be bereft of Imaan. We are living in such an age of kufr today. All these modernist morons whose brains have been deranged by western secular indoctrination are bereft of Imaan, hence they dwell in bewilderment and confusion in an ocean of doubt and kufr.