The Secularists: Are They to Be Prayed Over?
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The questioner : May Allah reward you. The secularists in the public sphere display Islam in some of their speech and writing, and perhaps they even witness some of the prayers. However, it is well-known, widespread, and mass-transmitted that they hate Islam, deter people from it, and fight it as much as they are able. So, is it permissible to pray over such people?
The Shaykh : By Allah, if one knows that a person is a hypocrite, he is not to be prayed over, even if he prays with us. This is because the hypocrites used to witness the prayer with the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). But when do we know? The problem now is that we have spoken with some of them, or with those who are said to be their leaders, and one of them said, “Absolutely, I only took this path because there is an extreme, atheistic, disbelieving secularism, and he took this path to rescue the youth from this disbelieving, atheistic secularism. So, it is as if he wants to take a path between two paths.”
But is this methodology correct? Yes, if he rescues them from this atheistic, disbelieving secularism and then brings them closer to Islam, and builds his speech on correct Islamic etiquette after the etiquette of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, then perhaps we can say he intended good. And if he strengthens the community, gives charity, and does good with his wealth, then we may think well of him. But a man who does not know of this matter and says, “Absolutely, our path is the correct one,” and we know that he wants to deny the religions, but he uses poetry and poets and the like to reject religion, that is a different matter.
The questioner : But is widespread knowledge sufficient, O Shaykh? If direct knowledge is not possible, is widespread knowledge not sufficient?
The Shaykh : By Allah, my brother, look, Khalid, we were told, “The Sufis are the Sufis,” and the Sufis have some [defects] and some [do not]. We have seen some of the Sufis who have nothing but a slight disagreement, meaning a slight disagreement.
The Shaykh : By Allah, if one knows that a person is a hypocrite, he is not to be prayed over, even if he prays with us. This is because the hypocrites used to witness the prayer with the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). But when do we know? The problem now is that we have spoken with some of them, or with those who are said to be their leaders, and one of them said, “Absolutely, I only took this path because there is an extreme, atheistic, disbelieving secularism, and he took this path to rescue the youth from this disbelieving, atheistic secularism. So, it is as if he wants to take a path between two paths.”
But is this methodology correct? Yes, if he rescues them from this atheistic, disbelieving secularism and then brings them closer to Islam, and builds his speech on correct Islamic etiquette after the etiquette of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, then perhaps we can say he intended good. And if he strengthens the community, gives charity, and does good with his wealth, then we may think well of him. But a man who does not know of this matter and says, “Absolutely, our path is the correct one,” and we know that he wants to deny the religions, but he uses poetry and poets and the like to reject religion, that is a different matter.
The questioner : But is widespread knowledge sufficient, O Shaykh? If direct knowledge is not possible, is widespread knowledge not sufficient?
The Shaykh : By Allah, my brother, look, Khalid, we were told, “The Sufis are the Sufis,” and the Sufis have some [defects] and some [do not]. We have seen some of the Sufis who have nothing but a slight disagreement, meaning a slight disagreement.
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، 1901 - العلمانيون هل يُصلى عليهم؟ الكافي في فقه الإمام أحمد بن حنبل - ابن عثيمين — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.