Many young people are advised by others to go with certain groups in order to clarify matters to those groups

The questioner : Also, a note to the youth.

The Shaykh: Go ahead.

The questioner : Shaykh, there are many young people who are advised by others to go with certain groups in order to clarify matters to those groups. As you know, O Shaykh, clarification is clear when a person is sitting in his home, but when a person has taken on the role of calling people to convey the knowledge he possesses, how do they go with them and clarify to them? Especially since many young people have gone this way and did not return, as they joined those groups and did not return to the comfort of the Salafi path!

Another questioner : What is the difference between the Salafi call and the Islamic call?

The Shaykh : This is, in fact, a reality, unfortunately. We do not see any objection to a Muslim who holds fast to the Book and the Sunnah mixing with the other group, not for the sake of compromise or politics, but for the sake of calling to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), as we mentioned in the previous verse: . So we do not see any objection to the caller mixing with those other groups who are in need of our call. However, there is a condition that must be observed, which is that this person for whom it is recommended to mix with those people must be:
First: embodying in his knowledge what he calls to. And second: possessing good character and being well-mannered with the manners that he and his companions practiced on this methodology that he and his companions followed.
As for if he is weak in knowledge and weak in personality, we do not permit him to mix with those people, because they—as the questioner pointed out—The questioner : will drag him along. As the common proverb says: "A companion is a dragger." And the Messenger (peace be upon him) said: This is the meaning of that proverb; , His actions indicate his state of being—besides what he says—regarding the knowledge, character, and Islamic manners that you are in need of. Therefore, we must emphasize—and this is more important than the previous matter—that we do not see it permissible for the Muslim youth to travel from the lands of Islam to the lands of disbelief, lewdness, open sinfulness, and indecency in order to learn knowledge that, at the very least, is not an individual obligation or obligatory upon him. He goes there and is influenced by the environment he lives in, by the customs, traditions, and morals, and is influenced by what he sees of women displaying their adornment, open sinfulness, and lewdness. We do not see it permissible for these young people to go to those lands in pursuit of what may be permissible, only to return having lost something of their religion, or a name of... and their morals. Therefore, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: , and in another hadith: , meaning: mix with, , and in a third hadith: , and the fire of each is far from the fire of the other. Therefore, save yourself, keep away from being a neighbor to the disbeliever and the open sinner, because nature is a thief!
It may be useful to remind you of a hadith narrated by Imam Muslim in his "Sahih"—and perhaps al-Bukhari also in his "Sahih"—a very wonderful hadith in proving what some of the Muslim youth who study modern psychology in an abstract way, detached from the influence of Qur'anic guidance and Prophetic hadith, may think. They think that what they read in this psychology, the discoveries of the Europeans, such as their saying: "The environment has an influence, whether it is material or spiritual," is taken from our Shari'ah. So listen to the hadith of your Prophet that proved the influence of the environment, and legislated for us to live in a good environment and not live in a bad one so that we are not influenced by the morals of its people. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: His luck was bad; he asked about the most knowledgeable person on earth, and was directed to an ignorant man, but one who was devoted to worship. This is one of the misfortunes of people in every age and era; they think that the devoted worshipper worships with knowledge, as if they imagine that the combination of knowledge and righteousness is a necessary, inseparable thing. Unfortunately, that is not the case. How many devoted worshippers are ignorant! And how many scholars are open sinners! Rarely do knowledge and righteousness come together. Therefore, this wicked man who killed ninety-nine souls without right was rational when he asked to be directed to the most knowledgeable person on earth, but they directed him poorly and sent him to a monk. He came to him and said to him: , but he was a man determined to repent and return to Allah (Mighty and Majestic). He kept asking about the most knowledgeable person on earth until he was directed to him. He came to him and told him the story: , and the point in the following statement is: , it is the environment and its influence, , his departure is proof that he was serious in his repentance to his Lord, and Allah (Mighty and Majestic) willed that he should die while on his way to the village with the good people: , each of the two groups claimed that it was their right to take his soul. The angels of punishment knew that he had killed a hundred souls without right,
so who is more entitled to take his soul than the angels of punishment? The angels of mercy looked at the outcome and the ending, and as came in another hadith on a different occasion , so Allah (Mighty and Majestic) sent to them an angel to judge between them. He said to them—as if he were saying: the judgment is easy!—measure the distance between him and each of the two villages, and to whichever village he was closer, assign him to its people. They measured the distance between him and the village he left, and the distance between him and the village he was heading to, and found that he was closer to this village with the good people by the distance a person walks while walking. A person does not walk like this, but with some leaning forward: .
The point is , for it was an evil village from which he learned to shed blood, and he moved to the village with the good people. Therefore:
Do not ask about a man, but ask about his companion *** For every companion follows the one he is with
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