The Ruling on Belittling the Rulers and the Difference Between That and Advising Them
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
May Allah reward you, Your Excellency the Shaykh. May Allah bless you, your knowledge, and your benefit to Islam and the Muslims. Honorable Shaykh (may Allah preserve him), many people who speak about the rulers in this time try to transgress by citing the actions of some of the Salaf who criticized some of the young men collectively.
The Shaykh:
I have a Saudi.
The questioner:
So that we can respond to them, may Allah protect the students.
The Shaykh:
We told you in a previous question that the hadiths of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) take precedence over the actions of some people. The Messenger prohibited that; he prohibited belittling the rulers. As for the ruler admonishing the scholar, that is something required. Those you mentioned only admonished the ruler with an admonition. As for those who curse him in gatherings and belittle him among themselves, that is what is intended now. There is a difference between advising the ruler in his presence, which is what the Salaf did—they advised him in his presence—and one who is alone with his companions or the common people and speaks about the rulers while they are absent. This does not achieve a goal; rather, it spreads corruption and evil. Yes.
The questioner:
May Allah send blessings upon you.
May Allah reward you, Your Excellency the Shaykh. May Allah bless you, your knowledge, and your benefit to Islam and the Muslims. Honorable Shaykh (may Allah preserve him), many people who speak about the rulers in this time try to transgress by citing the actions of some of the Salaf who criticized some of the young men collectively.
The Shaykh:
I have a Saudi.
The questioner:
So that we can respond to them, may Allah protect the students.
The Shaykh:
We told you in a previous question that the hadiths of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) take precedence over the actions of some people. The Messenger prohibited that; he prohibited belittling the rulers. As for the ruler admonishing the scholar, that is something required. Those you mentioned only admonished the ruler with an admonition. As for those who curse him in gatherings and belittle him among themselves, that is what is intended now. There is a difference between advising the ruler in his presence, which is what the Salaf did—they advised him in his presence—and one who is alone with his companions or the common people and speaks about the rulers while they are absent. This does not achieve a goal; rather, it spreads corruption and evil. Yes.
The questioner:
May Allah send blessings upon you.
Source
شرح كتاب الكبائر للإمام محمد بن عبد الوهاب، بداية من باب الاستخفاف بأهل الفضل — islamhouse.com (57:25)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.