[IvJlNwum]

Straight to the point. Getting a response from the 'Ulama is difficult. The 'Ulama have their email addresses and websites out in the public. When we try to contact them they NEVER reply let alone acknowledge.

The following 'Ulama in my experience are exemplary in this regard, they have always responded no matter how trivial the issue might have been.

1. Shaykh (Mawlana) Yunus Patel (His last reply to me was 2 days before he passed away.)
2. Mufti Abdool Kader Hoosen
3. Mawlana Ahmed Sadek Desai

The following 'Ulama, in the experience of other forum users, reply to all emails.

1. Mufti Ebrahim Salejee (www.alhaadi.org.za) [apa sudoku]
2. Mufti Ismail Moosa (www.fatwaa.com) [brother umar_italy]

[GetsTan]

Mufti Ebrahim Salejee of Isipingo Beach always replies, sometimes in less than a day. May Allah Ta'aala keep Mufti saheb with us for a long time, Ameen.

[IvJlNwum]

Mufti Ebrahim Salejee of Isipingo Beach always replies, sometimes in less than a day. May Allah Ta'aala keep Mufti saheb with us for a long time, Ameen.

I have not had much experience with Mufti Ebrahim Salejee. The once I emailed him and he did reply

Others can give their experience as well.

[IvJlNwum]

Yesterday, I emailed two Mawlanas (from the same organisation) and I also emailed a Shaykh whom some will say is Salafi-leaned.

I got a response from the Shaykh but not the Mawlanas.

WHY?

[CxofxJFm]

Some shuyukh may receive hundreds of emails filled with questions a day. After carrying out their teaching, family and community duties, they simply do not have the time to reply to everyone.

Wa'Allahu a'lam.

[picinaRefadia]

Straight to the point. Getting a response from the 'Ulama is difficult. The 'Ulama have their email addresses and websites out in the public. When we try to contact them they NEVER reply let alone acknowledge.

The following 'Ulama in my experience are exemplary in this regard, they have always responded no matter how trivial the issue might have been.

1. Shaykh (Mawlana) Yunus Patel (His last reply to me was 2 days before he passed away.)
2. Mufti Abdool Kader Hoosen
3. Mawlana Ahmed Sadek Desai

Same could be said for Mufti Ismail Moosa; if he doesn't reply it's because once in a hundred times he hasn't seen the e-mail, and as soon as you remind him of that, he will reply insha'Allah.

[IvJlNwum]

Some shuyukh may receive hundreds of emails filled with questions a day. After carrying out their teaching, family and community duties, they simply do not have the time to reply to everyone.

Wa'Allahu a'lam.

This argument hardly holds any weight. If Shaykh (Mawlana) Yunus Patel could sit and reply to emails from the Haram Shareef of Madinah then who are the young Mawlanas who most of the time do sit in their luxurious offices?

See this post:

We had the Euro-Sunni even last year in Dewsbury and one of the young Scholars said that he got affected by Tassawuff but wanted some questions answered. He decided to write to Shaykh (Mufti) Taqi Usmani (HA) but didn’t mail the letter because he thought why in the world would he reply to him.

After a long time he decided to mail it.

Shaykh (Mufti) Taqi Usmani (HA) in the meantime came to UK and then to Dewsbury and in the locality he asked for this Maulana to be brought to him and he said, “I have received your letter and I will reply to it but here is the response in general”.

Maulana asked, “Hazrat! You didn’t have to call me to respond?”
Mufti Taqi Usmani (HA) said, “You wrote a letter and its my weakness that due to many letters I cannot respond to them quick enough!”

Maulana asked, “Hazrat! Do you reply to all the letters?”
Mufti Taqi Usmani (HA) said, “Yes! People ask questions and it is my duty to try to serve their needs!”

Maulana had tears in his eyes when he told us this story.Br Umar & Br Al-Faruqi also heard this.

...

Responding to Awaam and laymen at the expense of their own comfort is something special to the Akabir of Deoband. The new graduates from “Western Darul-ulooms” don’t even acknowledge emails let alone answering them!

Salafaees (at their sites/blogs/forums) have adopted this matter and excel at responding to laymen.

[IvJlNwum]

Same could be said for Mufti Ismail Moosa; if he doesn't reply it's because once in a hundred times he hasn't seen the e-mail, and as soon as you remind him of that, he will reply insha'Allah.

Brother umar, I have now changed the OP to include the mentioned Mufti's. Is the website address correct?

[IvJlNwum]

From the example of our Akabireen:

Pearl 1:

Fazal Kareem Khan Hussain (Assam,India) was a student at Darul-uloom Deoband during the year in which Shaykhul-Islam Hussain Ahmed Madani (RA) passed away and studied some of the Lessons from the Shaykh (RA), himself.

Fazal Kareem Khan Hussain narrates that Shaykh (RA) used to pleasantly and happily answers all the questions which were posed during his lesson, no matter how absurd or irrelevant the questions were Shaykh (RA) never got angry or showed disdain towards the students.

Last year a student started asking too many questions to the extent that the other students felt the excessive questioning and tried to rebuke him but Shaykh (RA) reprimanded all the students and told the one asking the question, “You may ask and I shall answer”.

Students came up with another tactic to stem the flow of excessive questions from their fellow student. They knew the love of Shaykhul-Islam Hussain Ahmed Madani (RA) for his beloved teacher Shaykhul-Hind Maulana Mahmoodul-Hasan Deobandi (RA) and his desire to imitate him so they replied, “...But Shaykhul-Hind used to reprimand students on these sorts of questions?”

Shaykhul-Islam Hussain Ahmed Madani (RA) replied, “Shaykhul-Hind (RA)’s lecture (of Hadeeth) was so thorough and encompassing that there was no need for further questions as all the doubts were removed during the Lecture. Who am I and where is my knowledge (in comparison)? So how can I show anger or displeasure (at asking questions)?”

Source: "Al-Jamiat"/ "Shaykhul-Islam Number" and the book printed by Jamiatul-Ulama Hind (India).

[IvJlNwum]

The question is: Are the 'Ulama accountable to the public?

For example; an 'Ulama organisation represents a community/state/region. Are they accountable to the Ummah in that region whom they "represent"? Is it too much to ask them about certain affairs...

I need clarity on this.

[bashansasasasa]

The question is: Are the 'Ulama accountable to the public?

For example; an 'Ulama organisation represents a community/state/region. Are they accountable to the Ummah in that region whom they "represent"? Is it too much to ask them about certain affairs...

I need clarity on this.

No, the Ulema alone are not accountable to the public. How will they be accountable when the masses don't need their services. What ever services these Ulema and their organisation offer are voluntary on their behalf.

The Ulema felt a need and went ahead and formed these organisation. May Allah reward them for their efforts. They are doing the best with what is at their disposal.

The deviant groups are successful due to multiple reasons. They make use of every information medium to reach out and spread their deviance. REACHING OUT to the masses was and is the most effective way of addressing the general masses.

On the other hand, what the masses need, these Ulema and their organisations are not offering. But we can't lay the blame solely at the Ulema. Each Muslim has to play his part in bringing about a change in the society and the humanity at large

[FailiaFelay]

The question is: Are the 'Ulama accountable to the public?

For example; an 'Ulama organisation represents a community/state/region. Are they accountable to the Ummah in that region whom they "represent"? Is it too much to ask them about certain affairs...

I need clarity on this.

If you personally meet them am sure they will answer you. But what proof do we have that they read our emails?
Lets suppose an aalim gets 100s of visitors asking him questions. He meets each and everyone of them and answers him or her. There simply could be no time left for him in day to check emails.
Is he going to give his time replying to emails or replying to people who have actually come to meet him? Am sure you would agree that preference will have to be given more to real visitors.

[IvJlNwum]

...

[eFDMBwKH]

I have noticed that the ulemah in SA have this special trait of responding to emails very quickly

being from the UK it would probably be better for me to contact the ulemah within the UK, i emailed one of the UK ulemah 2years ago and only got a response a few days ago!

[IvJlNwum]

I have noticed that the ulemah in SA have this special trait of responding to emails very quickly

This is a special quality that few 'Ulamah have, and this is not only unique to South Africa.

The purpose here is to highlight that many 'Ulamah in general do not reply or even care to acknowledge a question.

The fact that they are very busy and do not have time is baseless.

[eFDMBwKH]

This is a special quality that few 'Ulamah have, and this is not only unique to South Africa.

The purpose here is to highlight that many 'Ulamah in general do not reply or even care to acknowledge a question.

The fact that they are very busy and do not have time is baseless.

so far the ulemah mentioned are from SA...lets see if a pattern emerges as the thread continues

[IvJlNwum]

so far the ulemah mentioned are from SA...lets see if a pattern emerges as the thread continues

There are a few more that I would mention but for now I will not say anything. Obviously this is my experience and since been from South Africa questions are asked to my local 'Ulamah. Would love to get more insight on other 'Ulamah elsewhere.

[eFDMBwKH]

There are a few more that I would mention but for now I will not say anything. Obviously this is my experience and since been from South Africa questions are asked to my local 'Ulamah. Would love to get more insight on other 'Ulamah elsewhere.

here in the UK unless you are well connected its very hard to contact the well known ulemah, like i said one replied after 2 years...some replied after 6months and some i never got a reply from, some i had to go through different people which i gave up on because it was taking too long and i didnt want to send my query to random students

Most of the ulemah i contacted in SA i get a reply within a couple of days

i dont know about other countries...never tried them

[FailiaFelay]

This claim is rubbished by the example of Mufti Taqi 'Usmani mentioned earlier. Can these 'Ulama claim to say that they are busier then Mufti Taqi 'Usmani?

The purpose here is to highlight that many 'Ulamah in general do not reply or even care to acknowledge a question.
The fact that they are very busy and do not have time is baseless.

Why are you bent on proving that they don't care to reply out of arrogance?
Why don't you sit down and think the reasons that could be behind this?
Is it not possible that they are not very technology savvy and do not check emails regularly? Maybe they do not have proper internet connections and rely on others to forward emails to them. And when they do check their inbox after a gap of some days it must be filled with hundreds (or even thousands) of emails! Is it possible for them to even read each one of them?

If some of the ulama have managed their work so as to give equal importance to emails this is very good but it does not mean the others do not care to acknowledge. Go meet them once and ask a question, if they don't care to answer then come back here and highlight "that many 'Ulamah in general do not reply or even care to acknowledge a question."

They haven't take money from you so that it is mandatory for them to reply to all of the emails they must be getting every hour.

The fact that they are very busy and do not have time is baseless. Then why don't you give your own opinion as to why they don't reply? Do they think they have got too much of this ego thing? What exactly do you want to imply?

[Thigmaswams]

Why are you bent on proving that they don't care to reply out of arrogance?
Why don't you sit down and think the reasons that could be behind this?
Is it not possible that they are not very technology savvy and do not check emails regularly? Maybe they do not have proper internet connections and rely on others to forward emails to them. And when they do check their inbox after a gap of some days it must be filled with hundreds (or even thousands) of emails! Is it possible for them to even read each one of them?

If some of the ulama have managed their work so as to give equal importance to emails this is very good but it does not mean the others do not care to acknowledge. Go meet them once and ask a question, if they don't care to answer then come back here and highlight "that many 'Ulamah in general do not reply or even care to acknowledge a question."

They haven't take money from you so that it is mandatory for them to reply to all of the emails they must be getting every hour.


Then why don't you give your own opinion as to why they don't reply? Do they think they have got too much of this ego thing? What exactly do you want to imply?

thumbs up to most of the above. heck i have issues too wrt ulama's lack of engagment etc but know they simply cant respond there and then for many reasons! (some as above)