Asalaamu alaikum wa rahmatuLlahi wa barakatuh Shaykh may Allah preserve you and honor you and may He accept all of your good efforts and excuse you for any wrongdoing. Would it be better to go to some of our scholars whom you’ve been blessed to establish relationship with and bring them this narration and others similar to it so that they can endorse our understanding and application of them in our situation as duat and imams or in the context of things that have occurred to you personally as well as several of our elder Imams and callers?
Imaam Yahyaa ibn Maeen rahimahullaah was from ahl as sunnah and like imaam Ahmad rahimahullaah he rightly believed the quraan was the speech of Allaah Almighty not created, but when he was threatened with violence for having this correct aqeedah, he hid it to avoid the harms of the oppressors, but he quietly believed what was correct the whole time even under duress, so he is excused inshaaAllaah. Imaam Ahmad rahimahullaah was a lion of the sunnah and was not pleased with this, and criticized Imaam Yahyaa and explained that being threatened with harm is not enough and was not the same as actually undergoing the harm as he himself had to endure, yet was still patient and did not hide his defense of the truth despite being tortured. He truly aided islam like few others. Imaam ‘Ali ibn Al-Madeeni, the Shaykh (teacher) of Al-Bukhari may Allaah have mercy upon them mentioned “Truly, Allaah, The Exalted, reinforced and supported this religion by two men, to whom there is no third: Abu Bakr As-Siddeeq may Allaah be pleased with him during the Riddah (apostasy) Wars, and Ahmad ibn Hanbal may Allaah have mercy upon him during the Great Trial (of the false claim of the jahmiyyah zanaadiqah of the creation of the Quran).”
While I enjoy seeing Dawud do his own thing away from the Tabloid Salafis, it's so disappointing to see him using the same tired old 'United States of Shaytan' trope. One, it's reminiscent of Khomeini jargon and two begs the question, if you hate America so much, why haven't you made Hijrah to a Muslim country? These types of moieties are one of many that made me choose to no longer be Muslim. But to each his own. As Muhammad wrote: "To you be your religion, to me be mine."
لكم دينكم ولي الدين Is an ayah revealed in the Qur'an from Allah عز وجل to Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم to say to the disbelievers of the Quraish. You no longer being Muslim (if you ever were) has no connection to others. It is what Allah knew was in your heart and He left you on that. You are your own problem (reason for being upon kufur).
May Allah guide u back to the truth before your soul returns to him n may He the most high protect all of the muslims from being tested with that which he tested you with n may he shield our hearts eyes n ears from being affected in any way by deceptive speech like this....AAMEEN!!
