Statement: I found Islam in the West, but I did not find Muslims
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
This questioner says: What is your opinion of the statement that says, "I visited the lands of the West and found Islam, but I did not find Muslims, and I visited the lands of Islam and found Muslims, but I did not find Islam"?
Answer:
This is attributed to Muhammad 'Abduh the Egyptian, and Allah knows best, but this statement is false. The Muslims are better than the West, whatever the case may be. The Muslim is better than the disbeliever, even if his Islam is weak or his faith is weak; he is better than the disbeliever. So the disbeliever is not preferred over the Muslim.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh
This questioner says: What is your opinion of the statement that says, "I visited the lands of the West and found Islam, but I did not find Muslims, and I visited the lands of Islam and found Muslims, but I did not find Islam"?
Answer:
This is attributed to Muhammad 'Abduh the Egyptian, and Allah knows best, but this statement is false. The Muslims are better than the West, whatever the case may be. The Muslim is better than the disbeliever, even if his Islam is weak or his faith is weak; he is better than the disbeliever. So the disbeliever is not preferred over the Muslim.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh
Source
شرح العقيدة الواسطية، العقيدة الواسطية 16-01-1438هـ — alfawzan.live (44:40)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.