A Bad Method; There is no Objection to Using it!
 

What is put forth for discussion, with the goal of diverting attention from a scholarly response to what someone articulates, is his statement saying: “The matter does not exceed being merely stirring questions of methodology and scholarship about the injustice meted to al-Zahra’ (A.S.) in addition to other subjects relevant to the doctrine, to history, to the Qur’an, etc.”
 

We have pointed out that such is not acceptable from a scholar who is supposed to answer people’s questions, especially the commoners among them. We also said that if one stirs questions only, why does he not support them with proofs which cannot be refuted, hiding behind the front of stirring questions?

We do not know whether this person is serious or even realistic about casting his questions. Or does he consider us among the people of misguidance, those who are his opponents in as far as the creed is concerned, so he grants himself a license to use a method which he himself has described as “bad and corrupt,” one which he himself uses against his enemies and “misguided” people?! Does he wish to use the same method with us, as if we were among those enemies who, according to him, are “straying from the right course”?!

If the answer is the first, then we really have a catastrophe at hand. But if it is the second, then the catastrophe is even greater, more bitter and more intricate.

So let us listen to him as he discusses the story of [prophet] Salih and [the people of] Thamad:

“The attempt of the arrogant ones to stir the doubt of the underprivileged with regard to the Message, through putting forth a naive question, has the appearance of seeking the truth, but it is inwardly an attempt to promote misguidance in order to dupe them into thinking that they have to reconsider their convictions on the basis that the issue includes giving and taking and does not go beyond the level of clarity so that they may discover that it does not represent the sure truth. But the underprivileged stood strongly to emphasize their belief in a method that made those folks discover their own identity of disbelief, stubbornness and violent resistence.”

Then, having described this method as “bad and corrupt,” he goes on to say,

“It is one of the methods of disbelief and misguidance when they talk to us in a friendly and flattering way as if they say: Are you serious or not when you announce your belief in what you believe or in the issues which you bring forth for discussion? Then they add saying: We do not believe like that because you, in our view, are in a level of awareness and knowledge which places you in a scholarly position which refuses to accept it; so, how can you believe in it?! It is a corrupt method which tries to turn the issue of belief and doctrine into one that insults man’s dignity due to its mistreatment of his intellectual capabilities.”

Then he goes on to say,