Who exactly does Hamza Yusuf think he is?

I would like to say with pure sincerity that I dislike to point out the faults of other Muslims or at least by name, but I recently received a You Tube video sent to me by a friend and it was a video by Hamza Yusuf and I replied to him by saying that I do not follow Hamza Yusuf or his videos, neither do I choose to watch them because the last time I watched one of them I was very disappointed in what he had to say about our Islamic scholars. On the 25:21 of the video Hamza Yusuf says:

"...the great teaching institution that produced high caliber scholars no longer exist and that people in the Arab world know that you get great grades you go to medical school, good grades engineering school, reasonable grades agriculture, political science and if you get really bad grades you go to Sharia college, so what we've got are a bunch of third rate, unfortuneatly, with respect to you know, people and their abilities, but we have a lot of people who are not up for the challenge in the religious sphere."

Now, if you cannot see what is wrong with this then please re-read it and sit back and think, because this totally made me shake my head in disbelief, but what is more astonishing is that, noone commented on this video in regard to this statement of Hamza's. So, now I will delve into this and insha'Allah can make clear what Hamza has stated.
First of all, I would like to ask who is Hamza Yusuf? I mean I know that he has some sort of Islamic Knowledge and that he spent time with the bedouin out in the desert, but what else do we know about him? Remember this as it will be relevant later.
What Hamza said in laymens terms and straight to the point is that we have a bunch of Muslims who could not get the grades required to go to a college of a secular nature and from Hamza's statement, obviously more important than Islamic college, as our sheikhs and scholars of the religion of Islam. He's saying that:

1) Those of our scholars who choose this profession for themselves did so only because they could not hack it in a real college, i.e. Medical, engineering, agriculture.

2) That our Islamic institutions like Madinah University and the Numerous other Islamic colleges hand out Masters degrees and phd's by the bunches, as if they do not know how to properly evaluate the quality of students they have.

3) He is somehow qualified to make this pronouncement, which in turn would put him in a position above these same Islamic scholars that he demeans.

When I told this to my friend who sent me the video, he didn't believe me and asked for the proof, but what he said was, "I don't think Sheikh Hamza would say that." and I had to step back and say, what? Did he just call Hamza Yusuf Sheikh?
What I am getting at is, we use the term Sheikh too freely now a days. A Sheikh is one of two things or both; An old Man and/ or an Islamic Scholar. We can clearly see he is not an old man and if you know where to look, you can also see that he is not an Islamic Scholar either, which is apparent from his on and off again beard that he sports. For the laymen like us, we might be able to get away with that, but for a "Sheikh" who we are dependant upon to learn from and teach us the Adab (Mannerisms) of a Muslim, then this is not acceptable. You see in Islam, the word scholar takes a different meaning than the western one whereas the scholar in the west is a person who has attained a required amount of knowledge or has been awarded a scholarship. In Islam the scholar is one who has attained the required amount of knowledge and implements it into his everyday life, one who leads by example.
Proof that it is obligatory to where the beard is the book "The Beard Between Salaf and Khalaf" by Sheikh Muhammd Jibaly.
The point is that Hamza Yusuf cannot compare to the likes of our real Shuyukh like Muhammd Jibaly, Sheikh Salim Al Hilali, Sheikh Sulaiman Umar Al Ashqar or even Jalal Abualrub who is also from the Sunnah, but he talks badly of our quality of Scholars. And if he is not talking about them, then who because these are some of our leading scholars. Another thing I have witnessed is that these Scholars are experts in the doctrine of Islam, not comparative religion or the Bible as we see this trend with this new wave of "scholars" who only want to debate the Bible and authenticity of Christianity. This is not what you want to call a Sheikh. We need to get back to the fundamentals of Tauhid, Aqeedah, Hadith, and Arabic studies and leave the debates for the christians to indulge in amongst themselves. this is not to say not to debate at all, but we should not preoccupy ourselves with studying the Bible vigorously to win a debate when we have not learned the fundamentals of our own religion. We must save ourselves before we can save others, if that is the real goal, because from my perspective, the debates done today are done for fame and for vengence, not for Dawa like they used to be.
I urgently ask you brothers and sisters to watch what some of these "Scholars" say and judge them accordingly and do not be so quick to award a scholarship to anyone who has an understanding of the basics in Islam and can speak Arabic. I speak English, Spanish and Arabic (Sort of). Am I a Sheikh? Of course not! But I do love the Ulema, the upholders of the religion of Islam. (Attached is the video where Hamza Yusuf calls our scholars "limited in their abilities")

Salamu Alaikum

What's wrong with comparative debates?

First off, I would like to say I'm a big fan of comparative religion debates and especially the debates of the late Ahmed Deedat, but I think the new wave of debaters have lost the touch and instinct that Ahmed Deedat had, and what I mean by that is that most of today's debaters get away from what makes a great debate. We have young and inexperienced debaters challenging more experienced competitors and being exposed for their inexperience as a result. There are numerous young talents coming from the Islamic realm who have a bright future in this field, but some of them are not ready yet and it is apparent by their actions and their attitudes in these debates. As a Muslim it is obligatory to hold your composure and be respectful in religious matters and yet we find brothers using disrespectful language and arrogant speech to demean their opponent. This is not the Sunnah of Muhammad, and in fact the opposite. Allah subhana wa ta ala said:

"And do not dispute with the followers of the Book except by what is best, except those of them who act unjustly, and say: We believe in that which has been revealed to us and revealed to you, and our Allah and your Allah is One, and to Him do we submit." Al-Ankaboot: 29:46

But, we find that there are a lot of brothers who attack their opponent with name calling and aggressive speech. This is not to say that we should not be assertive in our speech, but there is a difference between assertiveness and aggression. Assertiveness puts both individuals on the same playing field as each other which means that you respect someone's opinion and others right to believe as they do even though they may be wrong. Aggression on the other hand is the total disregard of other person's beliefs and feelings and the idea that the person you are debating has ideas and beliefs that are inferior to yours.

Allâh Ta’âla reminds us to:

"be merciful in our dealings (with each other) and to be firm with the disbelievers". The Qur'an 5:54

But this does not mean to attack them and demean them, it means to be firm and unwavering in your position with the disbelievers and to be kind and forgiving to your brothers.

Allah said:

“And by the Mercy of Allah, you dealt with them gently. And had you been severe and harsh‑hearted, they would have broken away from about you; so pass over (their faults), and ask (Allah’s) forgiveness for them” The Qur'an 3:159

And the sheikh Abd al-Rahmaan al-Sa’di (may Allah have mercy on him) explains this:

"A good attitude on the part of a religious leader attracts people to the religion of Allah in addition to the praise and special reward they bring to the one who has that attitude. A bad attitude on the part of a religious leader puts people off the religion and makes them hate it, in addition to the condemnation and special punishment they bring to the one who has that attitude. Allah said this to His Messenger who is infallible, so how about others?

Is it not of the utmost importance and necessity to follow his good example and deal with people as he dealt with them, with kindness, a good attitude and friendliness, in obedience to the command of Allah and so as to attract the slaves of Allah to the religion of Allah?

Then Allah commanded him to forgive them for their shortcomings towards him, and to pray for forgiveness for them with regard to their shortcomings towards Allah, and to combine forgiveness and kindness."

So, this is the adab of the Muslim, not the raising of the voice and the verbal attacks we see on You Tube debates of late. These debates do not have the substance of the Ahmed Deedat debates or the respect that Ahmed Showed for his opponent. But this is not to say that he did not go for the jugular in his debates, because he made it very uncomfortable for the opposing debater. When Ahmed Deedat brought his argument, it was flawless and that was where he broke his fellow debater down...with an air tight argument.
This is not what we see today, but on the contrary we have two extremes in today's debates. On one hand we have the brothers who attack their opponent and lose the audience in the same moment and on the other side we have those that are too easy and conceding with the non-Muslims. I recently watched a video where a fellow Muslim was debating Dave Hunt and he actually denied a Hadith in Sahih Al-Bukhari that is ruled mutawatir and is unanimously agreed upon by our 'Ulema, but we also have this epidemic of new faces in the Ummah today who have not attained a fifth of what our scholars have and challenge them at every turn. This is not to say that we should not thoroughly investigate our Deen, but keep your opinions to yourself, because the only opinion that matters is Allah's. Other than that opinions have no place in religion, because Allah has perfected Islam and does not need to be approved upon.
But back to the topic at hand, this same brother also said in his debate, to appease the Christians, that we should promote democracy in the Muslim world and that he thinks that it is in line with Islam, but this is not so, since democracy is a majority rules government and not necessarily a government for the people and their well being, so if the people vote to allow gays to live in peace in Saudi Arabia, then that would be the law as it was won by a majority vote, and this is not compatible with Islam, for Allah has gave us the law and we should abide by it. It is forbidden to rule by other than what Allah has revealed as it is made quite clear in the Qur'an:

"And rule between them by that which Allah has revealed and follow not vain desires, diverging away from the truth that has come to you." (Qur'an, 5:48)

"And rule between them by that which Allah has revealed and follow not their vain desires, but beware that they may turn you away from some of what Allah has revealed." (Qur'an, 5:49)

"And whosoever does not rule by what Allah has revealed they are kaafiruun." (Qur'an, 5:44)

"And whosoever does not rule by what Allah has revealed they are DHaalimuun." (Qur'an, 5:45)

"And whosoever does not rule by what Allah has revealed they are faasiquun." (Qur'an, 5:47)

So, democracy (as is generally practiced) is not permissible to promote or implement by a Muslim and those who say other than this have committed bid'a and have attempted to lead others to commit bid'a. Sheikh Faysal Mawlawi said:

"As for the true concept of democracy, it is not our main concern. We, Muslims believe in pluralism and political freedom as part and parcel of Islamic teachings. It is worth stressing here that we accept the articles and the principles of democracy that cope with the teachings of Islam and reject those principles that are non-Islamic. Our main reference is Islam when deciding whether to accept or reject any new ideology.”

So, we as Muslims need to take the middle route to this phenomenon which is the debate. Do not be ill-mannered in our debates and do not be too passive as to let the Christians, and the like, walk over us and force us to make concessions to them and renounce part of our beliefs to appease them as we see our brothers do too often. We need to stick to the Sunnah in spreading the Deen of Islam and trust those who have came before us with their proofs.

Salaamu 'Alaikum

Please contact me if you have any questions, or visit my website "Art Thou That prophet.com" the url is; http://abunoahsantana.bravehost.com

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This book "Art Thou That prophet?" is about the scriptural evidences in support of Muhammad in the Bible. It contains Biblical and Qur’anic scripture, History and quotes from prominent scholars of Theology.

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*Qur’anic verses in Arabic and English.

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"Art Thou That Prophet?" by Abu Noah Ibrahim ibn Mikaal (Jason Galvan)