Shaykh Muḥammad ʼAmān al-Jāmī:
Let me tell you a nice story in conclusion of this sitting.
A caller [dāʿī] from among your colleagues, who was a graduate of the Islamic University [of Madīnah], left to Africa as a student of knowledge. When the students [in Africa] came to know that this caller was a student of knowledge, steadfast upon the Sunnah and ʿaqīdah, they gathered around him. Having a large amount of students gathered around him brought resentment in the hearts of the Ṣūfīs. Thus their scholars became jealous of him; they began to trouble him when he would go to the masjid, when he would return home, and would throw harmful things at his door. His students said: ‘You should complain to the ruler, the Christian ruler who is a soldier’. He replied: ‘No! Should I complain to a non-Muslim, Christian? I’ll have patience’, and so he did.
So Allāh ﷻ willed for the Ṣūfī scholars to become impatient and eventually complained to the Christian ruler by saying: ‘Indeed an individual has come from the Ḥijāz and has changed our belief, creating unrest among our youth and has done this and that’. They brought the caller to the ruler, upon which the ruler asked; ‘What is your name?’ The caller replied; ‘My name is so and so’, Ruler asked; ‘Where are you from?’ He replied, ‘From Saudi Arabia’. The ruler was an educated man. He was an African who had studied in Europe. He asked [the caller]; ‘Do you have a certificate?’ He replied: ‘Yes I have a certificate’, The Ruler asked; ‘From where?’ He replied; ‘From the Islamic University of Madinah.’
So he looked at the caller and [then] at the Ṣūfī scholars.
The Ruler asked [the Ṣūfīs] ‘And you, Where did you study?’ They replied: ‘We studied here in our country.’ He said to them; ‘Listen, are you not Muslims? Was not your Prophet in Saudi? Your Prophet was in Saudi [Arabia]. He was in Mecca then migrated to Madīnah and was buried there.’
The correct religion is located where your Prophet was in Arabia, and this [caller] has come from Saudi. He has a [Islamic] certificate from the city of your Prophet ﷺ. [Therefore] he is the one upon the truth. If you want to learn from him, then the correct religion is that which he is upon and not you’. He told them that he and his colleagues had traveled to Europe and studied. He found that some of the rituals practised by the Africans in their churches [in his country] were not found in the Bible. [Likewise] I think the rituals that are with you are not found in Saudi. When the religion came, it came from there [Arabia]. So study with this [man who studied in] Saudi who has come from Arabia. Aside from this day, no one is to come complaining [about him]. Either you study under him or remain silent!
This is how Allāh gave victory to the truth. When this story was mentioned to me I remembered his statement; ‘Indeed Allāh may aid this religion by way of a sinner.’ The Messenger spoke the truth!