Ways of Acquiring Sustenance

Abu Iyaad Amjad bin Muhammad Rafīq

Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “The people of Islam are strangers amongst mankind. And the believers are strangers amongst the people of Islam. And the people of knowledge are strangers amongst the believers. And the people of the Sunnah who separate it from the desires and innovations, they are strangers. And those who call to it and have patience upon the harm of the opposers, they are the severest of them (all) in strangeness. However, they are the people of Allah in truth. There is no strangeness for them (in reality), (rather) their strangeness is only in relation to the majority about whom Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, said, “If you were to obey most of those upon the Earth they would misguide you from the path of Allah” (6:116).

So the ones (mentioned in the verse) are (the real) strangers to Allāh and His Messenger and their strangeness is the deserting (type of) strangeness even if they are well-known and pointed towards.” ‘Madarij al-Salikeen’ (3/186)