Forcing some parties to pledge allegiance to their followers and obey the prince?

The questioner : In a question, O Shaykh... and it is the issue of authority in the da'wah, such that there are some groups, or even among the Salafis, who demand authority. They cite the hadith of the journey, and they also oblige those who are with them to accept authority by saying that "the believers are bound by their conditions," and also by the vow, that this is analogous to a vow, that if a person makes a vow, he is bound by it, and so on.

The Shaykh : Pardon me, I did not understand the last part. What is it?

The questioner : The vow.

The Shaykh : What is the matter with the vow?

The questioner : That if a person commits to a vow, it is obligatory for him to fulfill it, and so if a person enters this group and submits to this prince, it is obligatory for him to obey this prince by analogy to the vow, and by analogy to his saying: in sales and other matters. You find them appointing a prince, and this prince may not be one of their scholars or of the scholars in general, but only that he be an organized and managing man, and he may be a person with an ordinary job, an engineer or a doctor or the like.

The Shaykh : Yes, the first thing that comes to my mind is to ask: who made this analogy? Is he a scholar or an ignorant person? It will be said that he is a scholar. Is he a scholar in the true, legal sense, or is he a follower of taqlid? And he may not even be a scholar by taqlid! This is one of the wonders of what happens in this time: those who do not know how to follow a scholar are doing ijtihad. Why? To implement rulings and mislead the people in the name of what? Qiyas. Qiyas, O our brothers, is the fourth proof, as you know, and it is not resorted to except out of necessity, except out of necessity, as Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) said in some of his books, and it is probably "al-Risalah": "Qiyas is a necessity, so if there is no necessity, then resorting to qiyas is not prescribed." Now, these people cite such matters as I mentioned, including qiyas, to smooth out their reality that contradicts the Shari'ah and divides the Muslim community.
As for the one who is Salafi in creed, and who is, of course, knowledgeable about the Salafi da'wah based on the Book and the Sunnah and on what our righteous Salaf were upon, he finds that these arguments are only a matter of scattering dust in the eyes to tell people: "We have evidence from the Book and the Sunnah and correct qiyas." So we say that the Muslims in the early period followed the legal pledge of allegiance, then—regrettably—the Muslims later split into small states resembling our current small states, perhaps fewer in number and wider in scope. None of these states followed the path of these groups and parties to justify this division that existed between the Islamic states at that time, because they still had some knowledge regarding their scholars. As for the new generation today, and those who call for some kind of clustering and party affiliation, they do not have what those had of scholars, true scholars, at least scholars of a madhhab. These people do not have true scholars, nor scholars. And Dr. al-Bouti, when he named himself and those like him as scholars, he was actually making a slip; but it was a shot from a non-shooter! He hit the truth without intending it. There were among them at that time at least scholars in a figurative sense, meaning scholars of a madhhab. And there are no such rulings in the madhahabs that you mentioned just now, let alone that they be found in fiqh derived from the Book and the Sunnah. These are rulings issued by some heads who do not understand Islam in its correct way, to smooth out their reality and to catch people and add them to them.
Therefore, we say that the Muslim state will not be established except on two foundations—and for about forty years I have been saying this in two words—and I have given many lectures on it: "Purification and Education" are necessary. Purifying Islam from what has entered it in all aspects of Islam—and you do not need any detail—then combining education with this correct knowledge. So where are the scholars who should be in the thousands in this great Muslim society? There should be scholars in the thousands among them, and many years have passed for them while they educate the generation living among them on this correct knowledge. There is no existence of this or that. So who will establish the Muslim state?!
Therefore, the first foundation for establishing the Muslim state is what is taken from His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He): There is no doubt that Allah's victory is acting according to His rulings, but Allah's victory today resulting from acting according to His rulings is not like Allah's victory on the first day when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was sent and taught Islam directly. As for us, we need long studies and many, very many years until we can produce thousands of true scholars and jurists with the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and on the methodology of the righteous Salaf.
Look now at the difficulty of obtaining correct knowledge, and the ease of obtaining knowledge at that time. We now need many means and intermediaries. We now need to know something other than the Book and the Sunnah, which we always talk around, and that is knowing what our righteous Salaf were upon. How can we know what our righteous Salaf were upon? We cannot except:
First: by the Book. Second: by the Sunnah. Third: by the Salafi athar.
So we now do not find scholars in the tens who master the knowledge of the Sunnah. So where are these scholars in the hundreds and thousands who are good at knowing what our righteous Salaf were upon from the athar they left behind? Because it is their saying or doing and application of the Book and the Sunnah. Now there are many difficulties in the path of the da'wah workers today, truly. These difficulties did not exist in the early centuries, due to the closeness of the era to the revelation of the revelation to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). So we are now in need of huge and very wide efforts. These meanings are not thought about by the general Islamic da'wah workers. They do not know that this Islam today requires the special Muslims to study many and very many sciences, including tracking the Salafi athar so that they protect themselves from being a sect of the misguided sects, like the Mu'tazilah, the Khawarij, the Murji'ah, and the like. Because these people relied on their heads and interpreted the verses and hadiths with their minds, and did not try to seek help from what the righteous Salaf were upon. Even so, these sects were close in time to us; between them and the Messenger (peace be upon him) were two hundred or three hundred years. Now between us and him (peace be upon him) are fourteen centuries.
So purifying the knowledge requires a long and broad time, and then the era of education on this knowledge also requires huge and very huge efforts. So where are these scholars in this number, without which the correct idea is not realized except with correct knowledge, and this is not achieved except as we explained by the Book and the Sunnah and the Salafi athar, and then that correct education is combined with this correct teaching. Without this and that, it is not possible for the Muslim state to be established, in which all Islamic da'wah workers participate in word, but differ in methodology and application. And the easiest thing is for one of them to say: "We want to establish an Islamic state," even if they do not know anything about Islam!
There is a Syrian joke that says: A man from the non-Arabs met a Jew on his way, and he said to him, armed with a dagger, saying...: "Islamize or I will kill you." He said: "Dakhalk, what do I say?" He said to him: "By Allah, I do not know." So he is enthusiastic about his Islam and wants to kill the disbeliever, but when the disbeliever surrenders and tells him to teach him what to say, he tells him he does not know.
These are the ones who want to establish the state of Islam. The state of Islam needs a constitution, and it needs an interpreter of this constitution, which is called today what? Law. Where are these people? In my opinion, the issue of Afghanistan will be a great lesson for the Muslims, because if they are victorious—and we hope that will be soon—and they drive out the tails of the Soviets and the communists from Kabul and other capitals there, and the mujahideen occupy them in the path of Allah, what will be the character of this state that they are singing about establishing as an Islamic state? At best, they will establish it as a Hanafi state. I do not want to say from this, "Leave them alone and do not help them drive out the Russians." No, by your compassion! Some evil is less than some other, but we must look at the consequences. "Whoever does not look at the consequences, the age will not be his companion." They will establish it as a Hanafi state. What is there in this Hanafi state?