Do Not Always Praise People Who Change Their Minds
Many Muslims tend to shower praise on people who change their stances on religious issues, for it supposedly demonstrates their intellectual honesty and sincerity.
That may be the case in many scenarios; however, in many other situations, the person in question is more worthy of blame than praise. Why?
Well, in many instances, you would discover that the person in question publicly and confidently propagated ideas without having fully and properly done his research first. If someone went public in such a manner with particular views because he did taqlid or out of a sectarian drive or because of sloppy research, and then when he gets corrected and changes his mind, I am not going to shower praise on this person for something he should be doing. He is expected to change his mind if he fears Allah or has any integrity.
People should not feel comfortable asserting their views and opinions publicly with such confidence while knowingly not having done their homework properly at first. They cannot say to themselves, “Oh well, if I find out that I am wrong later on, I will just change my mind and will be rewarded by Allah for my sincerity.” This is a wrong way of thinking.
The people who are worthy of praise are those who, despite having struggled earnestly to discover the truth at first and went public with their views confidently, found out that they were wrong and then retracted their views.
Moreover, many people who change their minds only end up making the same mistakes. One could observe clear examples of people who left their ignorant and sectarian ways in the past, only to embrace and adopt a new form of ignorance and extremism. I will not praise such people simply for “changing their minds”! The question is: did they change their corrupt way of thinking? Did they genuinely learn from their mistakes? If not, then what is so praiseworthy about changing from one form of ignorance to another?