How do we respond to those who cite the Companions’ travels to call people to Allah in many lands as a justification for permitting the Tablighi group’s travels for da'wah?

The questioner : We constantly hear them saying—and they argue for the traveling by saying: Look at the Companions from Makkah and Madinah; their graves are in Bukhara and Samarkand. These people traveled to convey the message. So what is your response to that?

The Shaykh : I wish we could travel as those people traveled. They went out as mujahideen, as warriors in the path of Allah. They did not go out in this manner, which, unfortunately, is not accompanied by them or by other Muslims, because the conditions, as you know, do not help Muslims to fulfill the obligation of jihad in the path of Allah, where this jihad has become an individual obligation (fard 'ayn) for all Muslims. I wish their travel would be so that we could go out with them to fight in the path of Allah, as those first Companions did after them, when they went out as mujahideen in the path of Allah to the farthest corners of the world. This is what is called, in the expression of the jurists, an analogy with a difference (qiyas ma'a al-farq). Those people went out as warriors fighting in the path of Allah, whereas these people do not go out, and we, unfortunately, do not exonerate ourselves; none of us goes out for jihad in the path of Allah, and this is an individual obligation. We have been attacked in our own homeland, as you know. But it is the truth that we must recognize the error and acknowledge it, because our acknowledgment of it will lead us to treat it with whatever means are available to us. If we deny the truth and invert reality, we will remain far from the truth, as far as the sky is from the earth. So if they want to go out as the first ones did, who would deny them?
Our concern is that people who admit they have no knowledge are going out to convey Islam. One who lacks a thing cannot give it. Therefore, there is a vast difference between the analogy and the thing being compared.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you. Do not take a phrase from my words and circle around it. First, they are a Tablighi group; what do they convey? The Torah? The Gospel? Islam? They convey Islam. They admit that they are not jurists in Islam. So, "one who lacks a thing cannot give it." We do not deny enjoining good and forbidding evil, or mutual advice and understanding; no Muslim denies that. But we deny this organization titled "Tabligh." Conveying what? Conveying Islam. And we did not want to delve into the details. They do not engage in deep understanding of the Book and the Sunnah, because they say this causes division. We see that calling to the Book and the Sunnah is the obligation. Perhaps I am not presenting something unknown to you, though I believe it is unknown to many people. Among the names of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that many Muslims have overlooked, due to directions that may have come from us or from others—meaning, they may have come from us, we Muslims, or they may have been inspired to us by others—among his names (peace be upon him) is al-Mufarriq (the Divider). Do you know this? Among his names (peace be upon him) is al-Mufarriq. What does al-Mufarriq mean? It is very clear: he divides between truth and falsehood, between the believer and the mushrik, between the one who affirms the oneness of Allah (tawhid) and the disbeliever, and so on. So when we want to call to Islam, we must say "Allah said" and "The Messenger of Allah said," and we must not say "we do not investigate these issues." There is no issue on which there is consensus except what is few and rare. Even in tawhid, there is disagreement. Some members of the Tablighi group wrote a treatise that I read in Damascus more than ten years ago. When he came to explain the phrase "La ilaha illa Allah," he interpreted it by saying: "There is no worshipped entity except Allah!" How can there be no worshipped entity except Allah when the objects of worship in reality are many, and very many? But the people of knowledge say in interpreting this beautiful phrase: "There is no worshipped entity with truth except Allah." Otherwise, al-Lat and al-Uzza were worshipped, and now the worshippers of cows exist, and they do to Muslims what they do, while living alongside them. Yet he interprets this beautiful phrase in a way that leads to shirk (associating partners with Allah) rather than pure tawhid, by saying: "There is no worshipped entity except Allah." This is from one who knew the doctrine of the unity of existence (wahdat al-wujud), which the extreme Sufis believe in, led by the one known by a name other than his own, Muhyi al-Din ibn 'Arabi, who is buried in our Syria. He who knows the doctrine of this man who says: "Everything you see with your eye is Allah!" And who says: "When the Majus worshipped fire, they did not worship except the One, the Subduer!"
So everything worshipped in the universe is a god. This incorrect and deficient interpretation supports the unity of existence, which the extreme Sufis claim, and the scholars of the Muslims from the people of hadith, the Maturidiyyah, the Asha'irah, and the Mu'tazilah have agreed that the claim of the unity of existence is more disbelieving than the claim of the Jews and the Christians. Especially since this Ibn 'Arabi says in his book "Fusus al-Hikam": "The Jews and Christians disbelieved because they restricted Allah. The Jews restricted Allah to 'Uzayr, and the Christians restricted Allah to the Father—in their claim—and the Son and the Holy Spirit." He said: "As for us, we have unified Allah in everything. Everything you see with your eye is Allah!" This deficient interpretation came about due to their lack of interest in beneficial knowledge. So he interpreted the word of tawhid, which is the divider between the believer and the disbeliever, with a phrase that equates to the unity of existence: "There is no worshipped entity except Allah!" The truth is that the meaning of this beautiful phrase is: "There is no worshipped entity with truth in existence except Allah." In it is the affirmation of the oneness of worship (tawhid al-uluhiyyah) for Allah alone, and the negation of the other false objects of worship.
I was compelled to speak about this to draw your attentionThe questioner : that the issue is not an issue of da'wah whose features are understood, nor whose goals and implications are clear. Rather, we are going out for da'wah! What is da'wah? If you asked them about tawhid and its categories? Tawhid al-rububiyyah? Tawhid al-uluhiyyah? And tawhid al-asma' wa al-sifat? If you asked them, they would not give you an answer. And if some of them know that because of their association with some groups of tawhid and the callers to the Salaf al-Salih, they know it, but they do not spread it among them, because this causes division. The Messenger of Allah, among his names, is al-Mufarriq, who divides between truth and falsehood. So we must not be shy of the truth, and we must not say: "We do not clarify the truth because this causes division." It divides between whom and whom? If we Muslims are united in following the Book and the Sunnah, and you see a person who has erred, and you clarify his error to him, or he sees me erring and clarifies my error to me; where is the division? This is among the meanings of His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He):