If you are clergymen ( Mujtahid ) [^3] we are too clergymen...

If you are clergymen ( Mujtahid ) [^3] we are too clergymen, the scholars in Al-Azhar and the seminaries of Damascus, Jordan and other countries have many clergymen amongst them. Why should others be compelled to accept your beliefs (on the issue of Monotheism and Polytheism) which are undoubtedly flawed in our view? They insist that what they say is Islam!!

What is their advantage over other Islamic scholars that they intend to enforce their belief on them, and why do they beat others with lashes?! They have no logical answer. Apparently they assume they sit on the peak of knowledge and piety and everybody else has fallen into the abyss of ignorance. This is something that nobody favors in today's world and there is no place for it amongst the Muslims. It is for this reason that we claim they are at the end of their term in this world.

A Bitter Memory! I cannot forget the first years of being blessed to visit the house of God, when I saw a very strange scene in Medina that left me deeply pondering. A group called "The Commanders to virtue" (form the fanatic Wahhabis) with long beards had surrounded the Prophet's (S) shrine.

Each one was holding a whip in hand and anybody who approached the shrine of the Prophet (S) to kiss it was whipped and told: "This sepulchre is nothing more than a piece of iron and wood, what you are doing is Shirk!

(Polytheism)." [^4] They did not realise that no rational being kisses wood and iron for being wood or iron, rather, such conduct is a symbolic act for expressing devotion, love and passion towards the owner of the grave, just as all Muslims, including the Wahhabis themselves, kiss the cover of the Holy Quran whether it is made of leather, cardboard, cloth or wood. Is the expression of love and devotion for the Holy Quran and the Holy Prophet (S) shirk?

No logic and rationale agrees with such belief. All the people in the world kiss the flag of their country and show respect to it. Is their intention to express devotion towards a worthless piece of cloth which was part of a bolt, a piece of which has become a flag and the rest turned into shirts and trousers? Certainly not!

Their aspiration is to show respect to the independence of their country and that is an exemplification of patriotism.[^5] Is there someone who considers respect towards his homeland and soil as Shirk?! Interesting is that all the Wahhabis show respect towards Hajar-ul-Aswad (the Black stone) and kiss it.