Thoughts on Brother Daniel - A Balanced View, Assalamu alaikum

Assalamu alaikum. I want to start by fairly acknowledging the good work brother Daniel has done. He’s taken a firm stand against liberalism, feminism, LGBT ideologies and has challenged imams or Muslims who push modernist interpretations of Islam. That effort to defend our deen is praiseworthy and needed today. He’s also engaged and debated people hostile to Islam and exposed weak arguments against our faith, which again we can appreciate. At the same time, lately he’s spoken on some core theological matters where he seems either misinformed or hasn’t studied deeply. That’s important because when someone with a big following speaks about fundamentals like tawhid, shirk, or the status of the deceased and gets them wrong, it can mislead many. For instance, he has suggested ideas like imams or righteous deceased people somehow having control over the universe, or that making dua to the dead or seeking their help isn’t necessarily major shirk. But the Quran and Sunnah keep us firm that we ask Allah alone - we say in every salah ‘iyyāka naʿbudu wa iyyāka nastaʿīn’. If someone is unclear on these basics, can we safely rely on their guidance without checking? So my advice to brothers and sisters is: be cautious. Don’t throw away everything he says - he does offer useful points - but verify any claims, especially on critical issues like tawhid and shirk. The sin of shirk is the gravest, so we must be careful and firm there. May Allah guide brother Daniel and guide us all, and keep us away from misguidance. Ameen.