The Albaani Site

[1] Chapter: The Definition of Creed [Aqeedah]

The Imaam said, “Creed is everything that is connected to the world of the Unseen to which a ruling regarding actions is not connected.”

[2] Chapter: The Importance of Calling to Creed

“My opinion is that we must talk about creed in all of the Islamic world, and [talk about] the failure of the entire Islamic world in turning away from [the affairs of] creed and from clarifying it to the people.  The greatest proof is that the well-known Islamic sects, [which have] large numbers and have been around rallying for a long time, hold that busying oneself with calling to Allaah and correcting [people’s] views is a mistake.

And we have had many unfortunate experiences [in this matter].  More than thirty years ago when I was in Madeenah, we were sitting in a gathering exactly like this one, but we were sitting as they do in an Arabic gathering, on the floor, and I was sitting in the place where this brother Maneer is sitting, i.e., [I was] the last one.

A man entered who was an eloquent orator [khateeb] and the head of an Islamic group which was well-known in some lands.  So he gave salaam and started to shake [everyone’s] hand.  I noticed his facial features started to change [i.e., he was upset and started to frown] as occurs in the hadith.  And the reason was that nobody stood up for him, and there is no doubt that this is something which is not common in such gatherings, [especially] for someone entering [who is] of his standing in society.

[He carried on] until he reached me and I was the last one sitting there, right next to the door, so I said [trying] to [console] him, “O Ustaadh! As we say in Syria, ‘[You are] honourable without [anyone even having to] stand up,’” [I said this] because I felt that he felt something in himself due to these people not having stood up for him.  He had hardly heard these words when he exploded and said, “O Ustaadh! We now want to busy ourselves with such details and such and such …” and he was boiling as they say in the Arabic language [yahdur]: boiling … and he was a khateeb, [and he was saying], “And we have to be united, and we are living with the Ba’athists and the Shi’ites and …” and so on.

So I left him until he finished and then said, “O Ustaadh! Does it suffice me to say based upon what I have heard from you that it suffices us to unite upon [the declaration of faith], ‘None has the right to be worshipped except Allaah,’ without understanding?” He said, “[Yes], even without understanding.”

What do you think?  The head of an Islamic group!

And I know that these sects live on this principle.  They are satisfied that the generality of the Muslims say, ‘None has the right to be worshipped except Allaah,’ even if they have not understood that this declaration of faith or that these good words demand disbelieving in the false objects of worship [taaghoot].  But not [just] disbelieving in the false objects of worship which only refer to the present day meaning, because this too is from the present-day calamities–[that] many of the Muslim youth nowadays [hold that] the false object of worship [taaghoot] is the ruler who does not judge by what Allaah has revealed, whereas [the reality is that] there are many different types of false objects of worship … these vows and oaths and supplications directed to other than Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic, these negate the declaration [that], ‘None has the right to be worshipped except Allaah …’ in the eyes of the one who understands [that], ‘None has the right to be worshipped except Allaah,’ means tawhid al-uluhiyyah and tawhid al-ibaadah.

The Islamic world lives like this, for this reason it is upon the callers to Islaam to truly gather, not only on good technique, which their talk is always centred on, but rather [to gather on] correct knowledge from the Book and the Sunnah along with that, this is what the Islamic world is in need of …”

Mawsoo’atul-Allaamah, al-Imaam, Mujaddidil-Asr, Muhammad Naasirid-Deen al-Albaani,  of Shaikh Shady Noaman, vol. 1, p. 169-170.