Intellectual awareness is must.

Sometimes, I think Muslims live in some sort of fairytale where they imagine that to be a good Muslim, we all have to be pushovers.  I understand that we must be kind, and loving and compassionate - to an extent.  But I also believe that we sometimes have to be harsh, and brutal and ruthless.  We are not shrinking violets.  If some of these "religious" Muslims were to read the sirah, the tarikh or any manaqib, their hair would stand.  And it is obvious that most Muslims do not know their religion or their history.

The companions were not one big loving family.  They were people.  'Aishah (r.a.) and 'Ali (k.w.) had a fight.  Khalid ibn al-Walid (r.a.) incurred the ire of 'Umar (r.a.).  ibn 'Umar (r.a.) disagreed with his father.  Hudzayfah (r.a.) argued with 'Umar (r.a.).  'Ali (k.w.) and Mu'awiyah (r.a.), 'Amr ibn al-'Aasw (r.a.) and 'Ali (k.w.), Abu Hurayrah (r.a.) and 'Aishah (r.a.)... the list goes on and on and on.

Imam ibn al-Mubarak (r.a.) clashed with Imam Abu Hanifah (r.a.), even though they were once best friends.  Imam Abu Hanifah (r.a.) disagreed vehemently with Imam Malik (r.a.).  Imam ash-Shafi'i (r.a.) had a huge disagreement with Imam ash-Shaybani (r.a.).  Imam al-Ghazali (r.a.) and Shaykh ibn Rushd (r.a.) were far from friendly with each other.  There were so many more.  They burned each others' books, threw them into the river, made takfir, even fought duels.

There were rivalry between madzahib and regions, and major disagreements with methodology.  Imam al-Bukhari (r.a.) famously disparaged Imam Abu Hanifah (r.a.) in his writings.  Imam al-Maturidi (r.a.) and the Hanafi madzhab discounted dozens of ahadits in Swahih al-Bukhari as ridiculous.  The Maliki madzhab disapproved of the speculative fiqh of the Hanafi madzhab.  The Hanafi madzhab criticised the Shafi'i madzhab's "slavish" adherence to gharib ahadits over reason.  The Atsari creed of the Hanbali madzhab criticised the Ash'ari approach to kalam, especially Imam al-Ghazali (r.a.).  The Hanbali madzhab made takfir of the entire Jariri madzhab and drove it to extinction.

There is nothing wrong with having strong opinions and characters.  Our religion was built on strong characters.  Now, we are an ummah of sheep lead by sheep pretending to be lions.  I believe that we should be lenient with our fiqh but strict with our 'aqidah, and we should not be afraid to fight fiercely for what we believe in.  And if something is out of line, then we must speak out, and not hide.  There is no place for cowards in Jannah