Towards A Refined Maturity: Etiquettes of Disagreement

by Hamza Yusuf & Shaykh Bin Bayyah

One of the greatest problems confronting modern Muslims is our inability to tolerate each other, let alone others. Our tradition has a rich science known as “the courtesies of differences and the etiquette of discussion.” In this edifying talk, The Etiquette of Disagreement, one of the greatest scholars today, Shaykh Abdallah bin Bayyah, illuminates the essential aspects of this subject.

All Muslims who plan to engage in any conversation should listen to this talk over and over again until its meanings are internalized and they understand that the secret of interlocution is a desire to know and not a desire to conquor. Only when we sublimate our egos and have a desire to engage in genuine dialogue with others do we achieve a spiritual status of what the English refer to as “the gentleman” and what the Arabs call al-adib – “the gentle one.”