What is the ruling on praying behind an external imam who denies the attributes?

The questioner : The questioner says: In our country, most of the mosque imams are Khawarij. Is it permissible to pray behind a Khariji who denies some of the attributes of the Most Merciful, saying that Allah is in every place, denying the vision of Allah, and claiming that the sinners among the monotheists will remain in the Fire forever?

The Shaykh : I refer this person to the scholars of the Sunnah in their country to examine the status of these imams according to what the Shari'ah requires. I say: There is no doubt that whoever declares the Companions to be disbelievers is himself a disbeliever.
Because declaring the Companions to be disbelievers is an attack on the Companions, an attack on the Messenger, an attack on the Shari'ah, and an attack on the Lord, Mighty and Majestic. I seek refuge in Allah. Who brought the Shari'ah to us? Yes, my brothers, the Companions. Who supported the Messenger, honored him, aided him, fought with him, and accompanied him in times of ease and hardship, and in residence and travel? The Companions. So if we say that the Companions are disbelievers, then the companions of the Messenger who help him, support him, and honor him become disbelievers. And whoever accompanies a disbeliever is like him. Can it be that a believer accompanies a disbeliever? No.
It is an attack on the Shari'ah because the Shari'ah came through them. And who would trust a Shari'ah whose transmitters are disbelievers? I have been told: How much more so if a disbeliever brings us news? Is it fitting for the wisdom of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, to choose for His best servants companionship with disbelief, or is it not fitting? Answer, my brothers: It is not fitting. So this is an attack on the wisdom of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. The matter is great. The Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) have merits and virtues that this entire community has not reached. They have merits and virtues that necessitate the forgiveness of sins if they committed them, because Allah says: We cannot declare every Companion, even if he is a Bedouin in the desert, free from every sin. But they have so much correctness and hidden virtues that necessitate the forgiveness of what came from them, if it came. Most of what is seen in their faults is either lies told about them, or the result of ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) in which they are between one and two rewards. Because if they were correct, they have their reward, and if they erred, they have one reward, and the error is excused. Or it is something added to, or subtracted from, or diminished, because some people look at a hadith where the original hadith is authentic, but they add to it or subtract from it to reach their evil objective of attacking the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them).
And we bear witness to Allah in this place that there has never been a group of companions more devoted to a Prophet than the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). When Isra'il said to Musa: When he said to him, "O my people, be careful, my brother, be careful, you are a Muslim following a Messenger," he said: .
A holy land. And if it is holy, then souls yearn for it and strive to attain and obtain it, which Allah has written for you and promised you. He wrote it for you. He promised it. And yet what did they say? They said: "There are a mighty people in it, and otherwise we would enter it as long as they are in it." Or "We will never enter it as long as they are in it. So go, you and your Lord." I seek refuge in Allah. They were believers following him. "Go, you and your Lord, and fight. We are with you, supporting you."
So this is how the verse came. What did they say? "We are here in our place, sitting, not standing, waiting to see what happens. We are here sitting. I do not know if they have a concept of anthropomorphism imposed on them or not. The important thing is we are here sitting. Why should we move? I seek refuge in Allah. Even though their Prophet and their leader [led them to] this holy land, they said: "These are people who say..." What did the Companions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) say at Badr? They said: "O Messenger of Allah, by Allah, if you took us to this sea, we would follow you into it." "By Allah, if you took us to this sea, we would follow you into it." The children of your enemy, but we fight from before you, from behind you, from your right, and from your left. Do you want companions better than these Companions?
Do the Companions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) like these dare any person with the least faith or the least shame to attack them? Never. By Allah, no person with insight or faith dares to attack the Companions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), never, except a man who hates Islam and wants to change Islam from its root, from the side of its transmitters who brought it to us. So we say to this brother questioner: If you want to answer his question a second time, do not return the question to my brother until the answer to it is finished. Come with me.

The questioner : The questioner says: There are, there are more imams in our country who are Khawarij. Is it permissible to pray behind a Khariji? The one who denies the attributes of the Most Merciful and says that Allah, Glorified and Exalted, is in every place, and says that the sinners among the monotheists enter the Fire. Well, this speech...

The Shaykh : We also look into this; it denies the attributes of Allah. What does it mean to deny the attributes of Allah? Where is the questioner? Where is the questioner? Please, go ahead. Yes, fine, ask. To deny the attributes of Allah means to deny and negate what Allah has described Himself with. For example, they say that the intended meaning of the hand of Allah in His saying, the Exalted, "Nay, both His hands are outstretched," is power. Does Allah have two powers? Strange! The power of Allah is one. from The power is one; that there be two powers, glory be to Allah.
And what is obligatory for us regarding this verse and similar verses concerning the attributes of Allah? We must say that Allah has a real hand befitting His majesty, Mighty and Majestic. It is obligatory for us to believe in this with everything in it It is obligatory that we believe that Allah has a real hand, indeed two real hands, but they do not resemble the hands of the created beings, because Allah says He says that he denies the seeing, the seeing of what? That Allah sees the servants, or that the servants see Allah? The second one, or the first?
That Allah sees the servants, or that the servants see Allah? The second one. Perfect. He says that the servants do not see Allah. It is fitting for the one who denies the seeing of Allah, which the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of His Messenger, and the consensus of the Salaf indicate, it is fitting for the one who denies it to be forbidden from it on the Day of Resurrection. In the Noble Qur'an, gazing. We say, good, gazing, we say good. Nay, she is gazing at her Lord. She looks at Allah. The looking in the hereafter is attributed to the faces. What looks with the faces? The nose? Does the nose see or not? The mouth smells, and the mouth eats and tastes. What sees?
The eye. So these faces see Allah with their eyes. And on this basis, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) interpreted that and said, like the moon, or as you see the sun on a clear day with no clouds between you and it. Do you want a clearer example than this? That we see Him with our eyes. But if we see Him, do we comprehend Him? Strange. No, because Allah has made it clear that we see Him without comprehension. He said, And the negation of comprehension by the eyes indicates the establishment of the principle of seeing, because the negation of the specific indicates the establishment of the general. And if the general did not exist, it would be more deserving of negation than the negation of the specific.
Pay attention, O student of knowledge. In the Qur'an there are verses indicating the seeing of Allah, among them this verse, and the eyes will not comprehend Him. And among them is His saying, the Exalted, "For those who do good is the best [reward] and more." What is the more? Looking at the Face of Allah, as interpreted by the most knowledgeable of creation regarding the speech of Allah, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). And Allah, the Exalted, said, And He, the Exalted, said, So His saying "We have for them more" is like His saying, And He, the Exalted, said, .
And the word "you will look" includes every object of vision that a person enjoys looking at. On the thrones, meaning the beds or what is similar to them, they look. It includes every vision that a person enjoys looking at. And the most intense enjoyment of vision is the vision of the Face of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. As for the Sunnah...
The hadiths regarding this have been mass-transmitted from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). I recited to you some time ago two verses regarding what is mass-transmitted. What is on the left? Two verses regarding what you see of the hadiths. What am I naming? Yes, what? Music. At the beginning. Where? Yes, continue. The Shaykh. The Shaykh. What Allah willed. He is the one who started coming, but... May Allah keep you safe. If Allah wills. May Allah improve us with the ring, my son, no, no, no, it is not on you. And they sat to pray for him. It is not on you except well-being, if Allah wills, but... Say, "I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Shaytan." To return to Tabuk, to return to Tabuk, to return to Tabuk. And every... Yes, from his knowledge, except by Allah. Allah. May Allah welcome you. The first. And I will not fear the matter. Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. Help from Allah. There is no god but You. There is no god but Allah. O Allah, I am... and without a servant and without Your community. There is nothing. Welcome, welcome. And my heart. And this is my uncle and my mother. Yes. What do you drink? What do you drink? What are you saying, dissatisfied? Yes. There is no power and no strength. Your name. Your name. My young men, your halal... I. Yes, indeed. Yes. Listen, Dash. Ah, from what, from what is mass-transmitted: a hadith from one who lied and built a house for Allah and counted it. And the vision of intercession and the Pool and wiping the... some of the pronouns... his saying... and the vision of... he made it from the mass-transmitted, and this is what the people of the Sunnah and the community agreed upon. So we ask Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) to guide the one who denied the vision to the truth, and we ask Allah the Exalted not to deprive us of seeing Him in the Gardens of Pleasure. Indeed, He is a Generous Answerer.
As for his saying that he says, "Allah is in every place." By Allah, I ask you, does a rational person say that Allah is in every place? If he says Allah is in every place, it means He is in the mosque, in the market, in the house, in the desert, in the sea, in the clouds, in every place, in places that are abhorrent and we cannot speak of them. Does anyone say this? He will say... and the strange thing is that the one who says Allah is in every place, when he supplicates to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), where does he raise his hands? No. If he says He is present in every place, he directs it to the hearing. If he says, "O Lord," what becomes of it? It is in the sky. If he believed that He is in every place, he would say, "O Lord, O Lord, O Lord, every place," but he [directs it] to the sky. So where is Allah?