Al-Imam Ash-Shinqeeti, may Allah have mercy upon him, mentioned in his book ‘آداب البحث والمناظرة’ some of the etiquettes of debate which is appropriate for the Muslims to adhere to when debating, from those etiquettes:
1: That they both should restrain themselves from prolonging the speech of which there is no benefit in and from abridging it to the point it causes a lack of understanding for what was intended by the speech.
2:From them (i.e. the etiquettes): Is that they both should avoid unfamiliar wordings and generalities.
3: And from them (i.e. the etiquettes): Is that both of their speech should be relevant to the topic of discussion whereas it is not side-tracking from which they are both debating regarding.
4: From them (i.e. the etiquettes): They both should not mock or ridicule one another.
5:From them (i.e. the etiquettes): Is that both of them should aim the appearance of the truth even if it may be on the hand of his opponent.
6: From them (i.e. the etiquettes): Is that one of them should not object to the speech of the other up until what is intended from his speech is understood.
7:From them (i.e. the etiquettes): Is that each one of them should wait up until the other ends his speech and he should not cut him off in his speech before he completes it.
8: From them (i.e. the etiquettes): That he should avoid debating with who is from the people of high regard and respect , so his opponent does not remove his focus and distracts him from bringing forth his hujjah (points of debate) as he should .
9: He should not assume his opponent is a low-class person, because that will cause him to not give efforts in clarifying his hujah, whereas it would be a reason for the weak opponent to overcome him, while the overcoming of a low-class peer is more appalling than being overcome by a high-class peer.
