What is the ruling on the establishment of contemporary Islamic groups, and what is the ruling on joining them?

The questioner : He says in his question: In this time, when the forces of evil have combined to overthrow Islam and its people, and there remains no one to whom one can point as representing the Muslim community, a group of those zealous for Islam has emerged with objectives entirely aimed at establishing the religion and exalting the word of Allah so that it may be supreme. However, they differed in the method of applying this principle, which gave rise to a set of contemporary Islamic movements. What is the ruling on the establishment of such groups, and what is the ruling on joining them?

The Shaykh : This question has become frequent in recent times, and our answer is as follows: If each of these groups works in what it is good at or in the field it specializes in, without the other groups, and if they meet with them in the fundamental principle that unites all Islamic groups, provided they are submissive to the ruling of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) as is required of them, then they fall under the general meaning of the statement of the Exalted and Majestic: . However, if each group works alone and is unable, on its own, to work in all the Islamic fields, which cannot be established for the state of Islam except through the combined efforts of all these groups, then if a single group claims that it is good at working for Islam in all aspects, first: it is completely mistaken, and second: it must not separate from the other groups, but rather it must cooperate with them within the circle of Islam, which encompasses everyone who belongs to the testimony that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. I say that any group existing on the face of the earth today among the Islamic groups is in the same position as individuals. We mentioned earlier that there are aspects of knowledge that an individual cannot gather, but rather they are distributed among the body of Muslims. Likewise, if every group has a special concern for one of the Islamic aspects, that is beneficial, but on the condition that they do not conflict or fight with the other groups. So, when every group is based on this foundation of cooperation, each group completes the work of the other group. It is regrettable to say that the reality today is not so, and the reason is that the general Islamic culture in all the groups is not as it should be. For example, the statement of the Exalted: is not considered today a reference for all groups; rather, one group adopts this, and another group says, "We have greater problems than this problem." Then these groups become divergent, distant, and hostile to one another. Then the problem occurs that Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) warned us about in more than one verse of the Qur'an, such as the statement of the Exalted: . Therefore, whoever asks such a question must verify in himself the statement of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He): . And in order to be with the truthful, it is necessary that he knows the fundamentals of the religion, of which it is not permissible for a Muslim to be ignorant of anything. Among the fundamentals of the religion is that the religion is what Allah said and what the Messenger of Allah said, and nothing else. So, whoever seeks to abandon this fundamental of the religion and tries to gather the Muslims on the mere name of Islam, that does not benefit or satisfy hunger, because Islam is speech and action, speech and belief. If the Muslim does not study these fundamentals, or studies them and turns away from them and leaves them aside, then he will remain separated from any other Islamic group. As for the details mentioned earlier, if they are all on a common word regarding what came in the Book and the Sunnah, they cooperate in that, but the methods may differ, and there is no harm in that. For example, a group of Muslims may concern themselves with aspects related to physical sports, for instance, and there is no harm in that. This is an example that clarifies the viewpoint I presented earlier. If there is an Islamic sports association, there is no harm in that, because it performs something of what Islam brought, such as the statement of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him): . But on the condition that this association is within the broad framework of Islam, which encompasses all other groups, each group in its specialty. If we assume now that this sports association contradicts the Islamic Shari'ah in some of its actions or in some of its directions, then it becomes a faction that is not among the factions with which Muslims can cooperate. A simple example of that is: if there is an association that practices some of the sports known today, such as basketball and football, and the like, but they hold matches that contradict the Shari'ah in some of its rulings, for example, they hold matches such that they imitate the disbelievers by exposing their private parts. These people have not cooperated with the other Muslims who advise them and say to them, for example, and they are from the people of knowledge, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . And the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . So, if this sports association works within the limits of Islam, it is a completion of an obligation that a group of Islamic groups must perform. But if it stands separate from the Islamic rulings, then its case is like the case of any other faction that does not profess Islam. They hold matches, for example, at the time of the 'Asr prayer such that they miss the 'Asr prayer and do not pray until after the Maghrib prayer. This is, of course, not an Islamic action. And say the same about whoever works in politics, whoever works in the economy, and whoever works in any aspect of Islam. If they are within the circle of Islam, then all of them perform an obligation and all of them complete one another. And otherwise, they will be among those who are divided in the religion, as the Lord of the Worlds mentioned in the previous verse. This is the answer.