I Surpassed My Teacher, Yay!
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم،
Before I say anything, I would like to assure the author that my writing here is not about them. So feel at ease.
The “duʿāt” who only go out to study for one year and then start teaching—years later, you see them at the same level, while the people they used to teach come back, correct them, and have more knowledge.
It shows they didn’t grow.
No, it shows they didn't seek knowledge nor were they teaching.
Sheikh Muqbil once said, "people could study with us for a year and a half, and then they could go and do their own daʿwah".
Sheikh Abdu al-ʿAzeez ar-Rayyis was once asked by someone who claimed to be a beginner and only had two years under his belt, and so the sheikh said, "What?! No, no, that is not little, two years? You are already in and spent a good amount of time on this path", or something to that meaning.
Sheikh Abdu al-Ḥamīd once said, "Three (or two) years and still hasn't authored a book? What is he doing?", or something along that meaning.
Of course, it depends, some people need more to be considered able to do what these scholars affirmed for them, but the idea is that duration is not a strict metric. It helps, but it is useless in isolation.
This mentioned type of people seem to only want the position and status, they were not seeking, as evident by their "stagnation", or more accurately, hollowness.
Sheikh al-Fawzān once took a teaching position simply so he could stay sharp and revise with the students.
Actual teaching helps you grow organically and automatically. If that doesn't happen, please put quotes around the term "teaching".
Another thing is, I warn my brothers and sisters to drop these comparisons, especially to people who they deem are in a higher status than their current one.
While it is true that some of those people are not ideal and could use some improvement in their approaches, that is not something to be fixed by these narratives I keep seeing.
It is also not always the case, because the other side is not innocent, young students often have a subconscious desire to control and climb those they see above them.
For this, they will use a lot of tricks and strategies, they vary from picking issues they memorize to try to wrestle those above them, they might also dig at morals, manners, and etiquette.
Anything that causes damage to that teacher or senior. They might also decorate it with concern and "so sad, he has potential but only if he had better [whatever that beginner things has leverage on the teacher]".
Some even go to the extent of sharing "secrets" about their teachers.
ولا حول ولا قوة إلا بالله.
It is quite toxic, and it is a mess, and looks like a high school drama show.
Wallāhi, it is so sad, we're like the kuffār, entertainment, just wearing a thobe and uses transliteration macrons.
Scholars affirm that the quarrels between duʿāt and knowledge seekers are merely control and domination attempts wearing the cloak of virtue and concern. You think just because you affirm Salafī creed you are immune to sickness of the heart?
You are more prone to it because shayṭān would attack that next, and he will gladly help you feel virtuous.
And where does all of this stem from?
Lack of actual knowledge, lack of depth, and then pretending to be knowledgeable and being out of depth—even if one says they are "just a miskeen".
Once you touch real knowledge, you will feel extreme discomfort for anything that smells like drama, which is why we rarely see drama from actual scholars.
Just the fact I write about this makes my heart feel tight, but just in case someone out there has no idea and would find this as a wake-up call. Even it is just one, that'd be satisfying. Numbers are for Ikhwān and Ḥarakis.
So, I would advise staying away from these comparisons even if they are true, and you are not someone who stirs these dramas. Starve it. You have better examples and analogies to use.
Again, just in case: I, in no way, mean the author. May Allāh bless them and preserve them and grant them joy in this life and the hereafter. The channel they write in is currently the only English channel I follow, it doesn't disturb my inner peace (which I protect aggressively), والحمد لله.
May Allāh grant us all barakah in our efforts and cleanse our hearts from sickness.