"Who are you?" "Are you better than scholars?"

I and other non-scholars are often confronted with "who are you" and "do you know more than the scholars?" retorts. So how one must respond? Personally, I am more bemused than offended. Of course, there is always the possibility that I failed to take into account certain facts or missed important arguments but then that holds true for everybody. Anyway, I thought I will share a short post on it.

For starters, my standard response is, I am an individual Muslim that's who I am, who was gifted a soul by my Maker and I was raised above Angels and Jinns and then I was gifted with the Quran through the Prophet of God. The very Quran that is by God's own assertion the "the best Hadith and "the best Tafsir" and preserved by God Himself for all times to come. It is this same Quran that found me and ordered me to use my brains to understand it and the sole responsibility of understanding the Quran was put squarely on my shoulders. In it I was guaranteed salvation by God as long as I believed in Him, the Last Day and do good deeds. All the rest is a bonus.I will be standing in front of my Maker alone on the Day of Judgmental. No scholar or Sheikh will be of any help to me on that day. Given their track record that has resulted in a horrendously divided Ummah, no thank you, I will pass.

Furthermore, the reason I am confident of my interpretations being correct is because they are not only logical and consistent with rational thought and in line with others who have chosen a similar path but most important I have surrendered to the notion of God being my teacher of the Quran. Before surrendering to the God of the Universe, I have personally verified that Quran is the actual word of God and I am convinced that the verses of the Quran are in an already explained state as claimed by God in the Quran. I have also taken to heart God's assertion that Quran is free of contradictions and free of abrogations, as one would expect from a Divine message. 

Anybody is welcome to argue against my position with facts and sound arguments. What I will not entertain is the mere citing of alternative interpretations. And if one must cite alternative interpretations then arguments presented in those alternative interpretations will have to be defended with other than an Appeal to Authority. If one can do that then I am always open to learning from their understanding. One needs to be convinced that the individuals claiming a position has thoroughly familiarized themselves with the issue at hand and hence worth exploring further. If not, then I have this to say, those who keep pimping scholars are a strange breed. They want to follow scholars because they claim they themselves are not qualified to interpret the Quran and/or even the "explanation" of the Quran. Even though they are not scholars by their own admission and yet they miraculously become experts on which scholar to follow.

One can understand why the foot soldiers of the various illegal and for-profit sects would pimp their scholars but what exactly is the excuse for the rest of them?