What is your opinion of those who speak ill of Shaykh 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Baz for his statement about seeking the aid of disbelievers during the Iraq war?

The questioner : Some committed Muslim youth in this country are attacking Shaykh 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Baz and speaking ill of him, his knowledge, and his virtue. They say, for example, that he is a government scholar or that he issues rulings based on his region. They also accuse him of having a hidden motive, claiming that he did not say what he said regarding seeking the aid of disbelievers except for such and such reasons. Yet, none of these people have taken the trouble to know, hear, or understand the evidence and proofs he relied upon. They simply object because he contradicted their desires or their opinion. What do you say about people like this? May Allah reward you with good.The Shaykh : What do you say about people like this? May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : Which country do you mean?

The questioner : Jordan.

The Shaykh: Here.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : I believe that those who say such things are, first of all, not among the scholars of the Muslims. Second, they may belong to non-Islamic parties; they may belong to non-Islamic parties. I am saying this with caution, as you see, but in any case, I say that such speech is not permissible regarding a scholar who has reached a very great stature in the Islamic world and in knowledge of the Book and the Sunnah. However, I believe that such speech comes from people who, if they are truly Muslims, are ignorant. They do not know, first, that the greatest scholar in the world since Allah sent Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) until Allah inherits the earth and those upon it cannot be infallible in everything he says. This is the first point. Second, there is a rank for forbidding evil: high, medium, and low, which is known from his saying (peace be upon him): to the end of the hadith. Then there is a word in the Noble Qur'an that has become an Islamic principle upon which branches of jurisprudence are built, taken from His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He): . Those who speak ill with their tongues of Shaykh 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Baz (may Allah preserve him) or of others who follow his path regarding his fatwa on the event taking place today are not prophets, first, as we mentioned earlier. They are not infallible, neither in terms of being protected from falling into scientific error, nor in terms of contradicting the Shari'ah in practice. Here are two points, as you feel with me, and perhaps the matter is clear to you by now. That is, any person after the Messenger (peace be upon him) is not infallible. If he issues a fatwa, he is not protected from making a mistake. The second thing I wanted to clarify is that any person other than the Messenger (peace be upon him) is not protected from having his knowledge contradict the truth. He is a human being, not infallible. It is clear.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Now, but is the Shari'ah standard that we seek out the slips of scholars to misguide them, declare them disbelievers, or remove them from the circle of scholars because of a slip on their part, whether it is ideological or practical? This, of course, can only happen to one person: the one who follows his desires. And the one who follows his desires has fallen into more than what he has criticized in the Shaykh and his like. That is, there is no infallible person. If the people of knowledge are not infallible, as detailed earlier... this matter does not require much clarification. And since we know that the scholars of the Salaf themselves differed on some issues, but they did not attack each other in their sincerity or in their religion. Rather, they excused one another because they knew that each of them was a mujtahid. "So whoever is right has two rewards, and whoever is wrong has one reward." Yes.