In other words, the claim that an act is from the Islamic Tradition is given legitimacy only when that claim receives the stamp of approval from a recognized body of scholars. The impressive collection of work produced by these scholars over the years is often referred to as the Islamic intellectual heritage; anyone who discards this does so at his own peril and not that of the Tradition itself.

Yet the points of contention in the Muslim community today exist precisely at the crossroads of those who lay claim to the Tradition and those historically entrusted with the task of preserving, transmitting and interpreting it.

The vast majority of Muslims find themselves caught up in a wild street brawl between two very vocal groups. Incidentally, they both stake their claims to the sunnah. One group posits its authority in a consciousness-fuelled by fear-that any omission, deviation or innovation (bid'a) from the Prophetic Way will most certainly result in misguidance and thus the displeasure of God and His punishment in the afterlife.

The other group offers a stark counterclaim. The Prophet, they say, was sent as the Messenger of Mercy; by being tolerant towards others, one is preserving his sunnah. Love and compassion, they reason, will lead to the pleasure of God in the afterlife and the company of the blessed Prophet.

Both groups delve into the books of hadith and cherry-pick whatever suits their individual predilections. To make matters worse, they consider their arguments and the claims they put forward to be a legitimate application of ijtihad, the engagement of a finely tuned intellectual mind, profound legal reasoning and deep spiritual reflection to resolve a matter that requires clarity in issues relating to sacred law. Yet they have none of the requisite skills to practice ijtihad. They might have the ability to appreciate what ijtihad is, much like a child might understand what syllogism is if you explain it properly. But to allow them the freedom to practice it is akin to allowing them to wield a butcher's knife in a surgeon's room. You don't do that unless you wish to kill the patient.

The architects of these two divergent projects claim they are rescuing the Tradition from paralysis; that they are giving life to an otherwise ossified Tradition. Rather, the opposite is taking place: Muslims without firm grounding in their Tradition have become rudderless ships aimlessly floating through life. 

The first grave mistake their high priests make is to unhinge the sunnah from the doors of the scholars. Without the scholars, Muslims have no access to the sunnah. That leaves them only with the books of hadith. They ignore the fact that to get from hadith to sunnah required a colossal intellectual effort. But there appears to be no shortage of hubris in their ranks. They become belligerent, angry and even foul-mouthed when cautioned that it is risky for an average person to discard the Islamic intellectual heritage. When pushed for the basis of their religious opinions, they cite modern scholars who either operate outside the Islamic intellectual tradition such as those in modern Western universities, or they pretend to operate from within the Tradition only to subvert it by callously rejecting and replacing unequivocal rulings from earlier masters.

The group driven by fear has delivered up an extremely long list of prohibited things, while those committed to free love have long discarded any list at all. It is a clash between a Literal fundamentalism on the one hand and a Liberal fundamentalism on the other. Both use the pulpit to preach their own version of the Islamic Tradition. The mass media embraces both with equal enthusiasm because they attack each other with acridity. When Professor Amina Wadud got up to deliver her one-hour-15-minute epic sermon at a Synod in New York City in the spring 2005, where men and women prayed side by side, young angry men pounded the pavement outside damning her and her followers to hell.

Many young Muslims living in the West are beginning to realize that anyone who rejects the scholars of Ahlus-Sunnah cannot claim to be people of the Islamic Tradition even if they are the most articulate spokesmen and women who appear frequently in Western or Eastern media outlets.

Young Muslims are learning to quickly detect a Traditional scholar from a fake. A Traditional scholar will embrace all four schools of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), while personally preferring one. He or she will adhere to one of only two acceptable schools of Islamic creed: the Maturidi or 'Ash'ari. Third, a traditional scholar will never dismiss Tasawwuf (Sufism), or the Islamic spiritual science, as hocus-pocus nonsense. These are the three cardinal pillars of the Islamic Tradition today.