The Albaani Site

Continuing from the previous post.

Al-Albaani: Today, regretfully, my brother, the situation of the Muslims is very precarious. Today the Christians, rather the Jews, in fact the Magians live in an Islamic country as natives and the ruler does not differentiate between a Muslim and a non-Muslim, all are covered by the term citizen, and our Lord the Mighty and Majestic says, “Then will We treat the Muslims like the criminals? What is [the matter] with you? How do you judge?” [Qalam 68:35-36] for this reason this society which has reached this level of corruption … it is not permissible for an individual, righteous Muslim who acts upon his knowledge to confront this society with force because he will have to make an about turn, but rather [he should use] the force which cannot be overpowered, and that is the force of proof/evidence and clear statements [explaining the truth].

Next question.

Questioner: Also, as a completion, O Shaikh, ya’ni, a Muslim’s compassion for such a person before, ya’ni, establishing [the proof] …

Al-Albaani: It is that, all of that … ya’ni¸“Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction …” [Nahl 16:125] that is what this means, and in this regard I say that many of our brothers who are enthusiastic for the correct Islaam [wrongfully] look at other Muslims, who have deviated due to their ignorance of the Book and the Sunnah, with a look of scorn and contempt and spite and buried hatred.  For example, many [astray] Shaikhs permit seeking succour from the Allies [of Allaah] and the righteous, they permit other things even more readily [like] seeking intercession through them instead of the Lord of the Worlds, they permit frequenting their graves and seeking blessings [from them] by coming to them and so on. And another type [of Shaikh] forbids following the Book and the Sunnah based upon the fact that [according to them] the general folk do not understand the Book and the Sunnah, and they impose blind-following on them, and then the stance of the other people who are with us upon the Book and the Sunnah and the methodology of the Pious Predecessors is to have enmity towards these people and to hate them in a most severe manner, such that it is not possible that this person will meet that one–this is a mistake.

I say: these people [who call upon the Allies of Allaah and the righteous etc.] … I do not refrain from calling them by their [rightful] name … [i.e.,] people have ‘deviated from the truth [daaloon]’ and when I [do] say that they have ‘deviated from the truth’ there is no problem in using this expression from an Islamic perspective, for Allaah the Mighty and Majestic used this expression concerning His Messenger عليه السلام [stating] that before the revelation was sent down to him, “And He found you lost [daal] and guided [you].” [Duhaa 93:7]

Thus, there is no doubt that these people who oppose the Book and the Sunnah are misguided/lost [daaloon] … what I want to say is: as long as they are like that then they are ill and it is obligatory for us to be compassionate towards them and to deal with them with gentleness and to call them [to the Truth] as is mentioned in the previous aayah, “Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction, and argue with them in a way that is best.” [Nahl 16:125]

And we remain in this state until it becomes clear to us from one of them that he is haughty and denies the truth and that kindness and softness have no benefit at all with him, it is then that the Statement of our Lord the Mighty and Majestic comes in to play, “… and turn away from the ignorant.” [A’raaf 7:199]

Bring the next question.

Questioner: I mean, O Shaikh, now … so that we can move on to the second question [let me just ask about this final point] because it [i.e., the second question] is totally separate from this one … [so] is this [i.e., the answer you just gave] regarding Jamaa’ahs as a whole or [is it applied to] people on an individual basis … when it becomes clear that all of them as a group or sect or such are haughty [subsequently] when someone meets one of them individually should he apply this to them on an individual level?

Al-Albaani: No. That which is applied to a Jamaa’ah is not applied to the individual.

We say, for example, the system and laws of some of the factions present today in the Islamic world, unfortunately, are ones of disbelief, like the Ba’ath Party for example and the Communist Party, there is no doubt that these forms of government are those of disbelief, and that whoever adopts them as religion is a disbeliever.

But we know that as regards the reality in many Islamic countries, especially Syria for example, many of those people who used to affiliate [themselves] to the Ba’ath [Party] used to pray and fast and totally guard the obligatory duties, and [that] when they would be reminded and warned from affiliating to a sect such as it they would say, and their statement was invalid [i.e., incorrect] … but we understand that they have not adopted Ba’athism as a replacement for Islaam [and we know this] because they would say, ‘Yaa akhi, what can we do, we want to live,’ so the example of such a person is like any other obstinate sinner [faasiq] who does something forbidden in order to live … in order to earn a living.

And how many trades, professions and businesses many of the Muslims pursue nowadays which contain forbidden things, and when you remind them and tell them that this and that are haram, they’ll say, ‘Yaa akhi, what can we do,’ and the good one from among them will say to you, ‘Wallaahi, I’m thinking about getting something … [getting] another job which will be [Islamically] legal but until it becomes possible I’ll carry on doing what I’m doing,’ and so on. This all shows that it is not possible to declare these people to be disbelievers in the same way that we declare the system and all those who [actually] adopt it as a part of their ’aqidah to be disbelievers.

Therefore, it is possible that individuals in these factions can be found who really are disbelievers because they have adopted their system as a replacement for Islaam and [at the same time] there are individuals amongst them who are not like that and who only, as I gave you an example of just now, take it as a means of living–[but by me saying this] I do not mean that this way is permissible, what I mean is that as long as the individual has not adopted it as creed, as a system [which replaces Islaam], as an ideology, then it is not allowed to deal with them as the system itself and those who do adopt it as ’aqidah are dealt with.

End.

Al-Huda wan-Noor, 735.