What is the reality of the Salafi da'wah? For the Salafis have been accused of being occupied with the details of Islamic jurisprudence to the neglect of refuting the communists and others!

The Shaykh : Indeed, all praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own selves and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide; and whomsoever He misguides, none can guide. And I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah, alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. , As for what follows:
Indeed, the best of speech is the speech of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and the worst of matters are their innovations, and every innovation is a religious innovation, and every religious innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire. And after that:
Now, it is obligatory for me personally to answer some of the questions, and I hope that our Lord—Blessed and Exalted is He—will grant me success in answering all of them, or most of them, or some of them. If I am granted success in answering some of them, that is a favor from Allah—Blessed and Exalted is He. As for what I am unable to handle, I entrust the knowledge to its Knower. And true is the saying of Allah the Mighty when He says: . This is what concerns me. As for what concerns you, O listeners, it is that you maintain the order in directing your questions, and that you do not direct them orally, but rather in writing. Now, our brother Abu Ishaq is directing the questions he has, and we ask Allah—Blessed and Exalted is He—to grant success to us and to you.
Al-Hawini: Our Shaykh, what is the reality of the Salafi call? For many people take this statement as a bad omen: that they do not care about anything except the secondary details, such as the position of the hands after bowing, or descending with the hands or the knees, or the qunut in the Fajr prayer or its absence. They leave aside the refutation of the communists, the secularists, and the destructive schools of thought. They say: The battle of the Salafis is only with the Muslims, unlike others, whose battle is with the enemies of the Muslims?

The Shaykh : My answer to this doubt is that it is "a tune we know from Akhzam." These people who accuse us of not researching or calling except around these issues they cited as examples—this, in its reality, returns to one of two matters, with no third: either ignorance of the reality of the Salafi Islamic call on one hand, and my call related to the people of the Salafi call on the other hand; or the matter returns to their ignoring the reality of the call and the callers. It is either ignorance or ignoring of this good reality, which is obligatory for every Muslim to be aware of. As is said on such an occasion—and the sweetest of them is bitter—I say a clear word: We do not refute the communists, nor the materialists; because when Allah—Mighty and Majestic—sent His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and the messengers before him as bringers of good news and warners, they did not concern themselves with the concern that these people have who complain about the Salafi call for not addressing communism and the like. That is from our following the call of our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), for his call, at its first starting point, was that they worship Allah and avoid the tagut. So now, these people who accuse us of this accusation—there is no doubt or hesitation that they know that the Salafi call, first of all, begins by addressing the creed, and correcting people's concept of tawhid (the oneness of Allah) in its three types, which children in their schools know correctly as it came in the Book and the Sunnah, better than these callers who claim to have taken up the banner of refuting the communists and the atheists. In our belief, these callers who refute the communists and the like, first of all, refute what relates to tawhid al-rububiyyah (oneness of lordship). As for what follows tawhid al-rububiyyah, namely tawhid al-uluhiyyah (oneness of worship) and tawhid al-asma' wa al-sifat (oneness of the names and attributes); this tawhid, the knowledge of the one who says "La ilaha illa Allah" is not complete unless he first knows what is the difference between tawhid al-rububiyyah, tawhid al-uluhiyyah, and tawhid al-asma' wa al-sifat? He must know the difference between all of that, and then it must be accompanied by firm belief in it, acting upon the saying of Allah—Blessed and Exalted is He: . So whoever has been occupied for a long time calling the masses of Muslims to know the reality of "La ilaha illa Allah," and that there is no worshipped entity in existence with truth except Allah—Blessed and Exalted is He—how is it correct for one who is truly a believer and fears his Lord—Mighty and Majestic—that he fabricates against the believers, or accuses them of being preoccupied with the creed by the secondary matters, as they say?
Those people who are occupied with refuting the communists do not refute based on the study of the Book and the Sunnah, but rather they start from the study of jurisprudence. And I do not say, in principle, opinion; that is: they make their minds the judge, which relies in general on Islam, but they do not know Islam in its reality as Allah—Mighty and Majestic—sent it down in His Book and in the Sunnah of His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). We know from the reality of studying knowledge that any student of knowledge who studies knowledge on the scientific methodology starts with what is most important, then what is most important, as it was said:
"If you seek knowledge, it is much
And life is short in acquiring it
So prioritize the more important of them over the less important."
So is it more important for the Muslim to concern himself with others, the polytheists like the communists and the materialists? Or should he start with himself and reform it, by making it follow what came in the Book and the Sunnah in the creed before everything else, then in the acts of worship, and in the morals, and in the behavior? So the accusation is completely reversed upon them, and the saying of the one who said in the old proverbs becomes true for them: "She threw her illness at me and slipped away." For if we ask these people who claim and boast that they refute the communists, and the atheists and the materialists; if we ask them about tawhid, or even about the meaning of the word , they would be perplexed in the answer, and they would not know the correct answer in that. And this, in reality, includes many of the Muslims who belong to some of the schools of thought followed since ancient times, along with those who boast of their refutation of the communists. Tawhid al-asma' wa al-sifat (oneness of the names and attributes) is the thing they are furthest from knowing. And so, as long as we have discussed many of them with what came in the Book and the Sunnah of noble verses and hadiths regarding what they say with their tongues in their prostration, and when faith does not enter their hearts, unfortunately, they say with us in prostration , repeating it three times in every prostration, and in every rak'ah of the prayer. So if you ask them the question we inherited from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when he asked the girl to test her about her faith: , and she answered: "In the sky." If we direct this question to these people who accuse the innocent of what is not in them, this question: Where is Allah? Their eyes would roll in their sockets in confusion and misguidance! And some of them would increase in misguidance, saying: This question is not permissible in Islam! And they know or do not know—Allah knows best what is in their hearts—that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is the one who established for the Muslims, truly, this question to know the faith that saves with Allah from the faith that does not save. They know or do not know, but by the grace of Allah—Mighty and Majestic—we have received the hadith containing this hadith or this question from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) from the paths of the Imams of hadith, like Imam Muslim in his "Sahih," and before him Imam Malik in his "Muwatta," then Imam Ahmad in his "Musnad," and others of the Imams of the Sunnah. They narrated the hadith of the girl, and it is a known hadith. I do not want to go beyond answering the question by quoting it in its entirety, but the point is that when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked her: , she said: "In the sky." He said to her: , she said: "You are the Messenger of Allah." So he turned—peace and blessings be upon him—to her master and said to him: .
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) considered her answer, “Indeed, Allah is in the sky,” as evidence of her faith. So what do we say about the faith of those who accuse the innocent, and then seek to guide those whom Allah has led astray, such as the communists, the materialists, and their like? Even if they were to guide them, they would not lead them to anything more than the belief that Allah exists. That is, they would not be able to establish for them anything beyond what the polytheists of the first age of ignorance, and of every age of ignorance, and in every time and place, believed, which is the existence of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). As for this Necessary Being, as some scholars say, that is, this Allah (Mighty and Majestic), what befits Him? And what is it obligatory for every Muslim to believe regarding the essence of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He)? This is something they do not know in the first place. Rather, they go further and deny those who believe in what came in the Book and the Sunnah. We have mentioned what most of you know: when we direct the Prophetic question , they reject this question, and consequently, they are not able to answer it. In fact, their answer would be to share with all believers in the first type of tawhid, tawhid al-rububiyyah (oneness of lordship). Their answer is that because they have not been guided to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) through His Book and the Sunnah of His Prophet, it does not benefit them in any way. This is because their answer would be: “Allah is everywhere! Allah is in all existence!”
Can these people call the disbelievers to the tawhid that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) commanded Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) to call to when He said: ? We all know that “one who lacks a thing cannot give it.” So, if we assume the impossible assumption that these people, who are so concerned with others and forget themselves, were able to make the communists believe in Islam, but if we asked those who were guided by the guidance of these people to Islam: What is the tawhid that you understood? My previous answer returns: “One who lacks a thing cannot give it.” Therefore, in reality, they contradict principles in the Noble Qur'an, including . So we say to those who deny us and accuse us of what is not in us: Have you understood the truth of “La ilaha illa Allah” (There is no god but Allah) and the truth of “Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah”? If you have done so, then there is no harm in calling people to what Allah has guided you to. But if you remain for a long time not understanding the word of tawhid except in the meaning that the people of the first age of ignorance understood when they said: “There is no Lord but Allah,” . Therefore, they do not resent the Muslims for believing in the existence of Allah, for they share that with them, but they differ from them in that they worship other gods alongside Allah.
Do these accusers of the Salafis, who attribute to them what is not in them, do they understand the meaning of this tawhid, which is “La ilaha illa Allah,” and that there is no worshipped entity with truth in existence except Allah?
... to this day, they do not know the meaning of worship. What is the worship that, if a Muslim directs it to other than Allah (Mighty and Majestic), he associates partners with Allah, and nothing he says of “La ilaha illa Allah” benefits him?
I know that some shaykhs in Damascus, Syria, composed a treatise titled “La ilaha illa Allah.” When it came to explaining it, he said: “There is no Lord but Allah.” So what did this Muslim, who claims to be a Muslim, do? He interpreted the word of tawhid with the meaning of tawhid al-rububiyyah (oneness of lordship) only, the tawhid that the polytheists believed in. But they, I mean the polytheists, when “La ilaha illa Allah” was said to them, they would become arrogant. These polytheists, whom you heard earlier, when asked: Who created the heavens and the earth? They said: Allah. At the same time, when they heard the Messenger (peace be upon him) calling them to “La ilaha illa Allah,” they would become arrogant about this word and mock the one calling to it. Why?
Among the wonders of matters is that those polytheists, in their misguidance and their shirk (associating partners with Allah), knew the meaning of “La ilaha illa Allah” truly. Therefore, they fled from this correct meaning and became arrogant about saying “La ilaha illa Allah,” because it means something else, more than what those polytheists were upon, which is to worship Allah—this other meaning—to worship Allah alone, with no partner. They would deny that and say, as the Noble Qur'an relates: .
We find the Islamic world today, with great regret, drowning in the shirk of worship, or shirk al-uluhiyyah (oneness of worship), and shirk of the names and attributes. They say “La ilaha illa Allah,” but the Islamic world today, which those Islamic callers, who claim to be such, have neglected, and who accuse the Salafi callers of being occupied with matters they call trivial, such as some of the examples mentioned in the question. The Islamic world today is drowning in the ignorance of the polytheists to whom the Messenger (peace be upon him) was sent. So, due to their ignorance of Islam and their ignorance of the truth of “La ilaha illa Allah,” they think that the Muslims are in a good state. Therefore, they turn away from them to those polytheists. We do not repeat the phrase of the communists and their like, that the Muslims are in a good state, even though in many Islamic countries, not only some or many of the non-Arab countries, but also some of the Arab countries, shirk is still doing its work. They pray and fast and testify that there is no god but Allah. So why did those callers leave these Muslim brothers, who are their brothers by the saying of the Exalted: ? Why did they leave them in their misguidance—not in secondary matters, but in the root of belief, which is tawhid?
That is because they do not know tawhid! They understand tawhid as the common people do, and that the common person who prays and fasts, if he circumambulates graves or makes vows to them, or calls upon them other than Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), this, in the claim of the aforementioned callers, does not contradict their saying: “La ilaha illa Allah.” And so they left the majority of Muslims, and even some of the elite, in their misguidance, deluded. Then they turned to calling, guiding, and directing whom? Those who do not believe in Allah, even with the belief of the polytheists, such as the materialists, for example. And they left the people who live among them, who are disbelieving in the testimony of “La ilaha illa Allah” practically, believing in it verbally but disbelieving in it practically. That is because the polytheists were more understanding of this word than they are, and therefore they said: . As for these later people, or these so-called callers, they did not understand that the completion of this tawhid is tawhid of worship, and that this necessitates that none be worshipped except Allah, not by turning to the grave of a wali (close friend of Allah), nor by calling out to him, nor by seeking aid from him, and the like. Due to their ignorance of the truth of Islam, they turned away from what we are directed to, by the grace and mercy of Allah, to being occupied with others, calling them to faith, which does not fatten nor satisfy hunger, if they were to believe in the call of these callers. Because these callers themselves are not aware of the saving faith with Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He).
This is first, and the summary of it is that it is a blatant and terrible accusation when they ignore the call to the truth, the call of “La ilaha illa Allah” and its explanation to all Muslims with the truths upon which the scholars of the Salaf agreed. They ignore these truths and accuse the Salafis that they do not do and do not call people to anything except raising the hands and moving the finger, and the like of these sunnahs (recommended practices).
Second, we have stated more than once, following our imams before and after us, that the Noble Qur'an cannot be understood except in light of the Sunnah; because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) addressed His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: . So we say to these so-called callers: Do you agree with us that the Book cannot be understood except through the path of the Muhammadan Sunnah? I think their answer will be agreement, at least verbally, and we are not obligated to know what is in their hearts. In that case, we say to them: Do you know that things have entered the Sunnah that are not part of it? If they also answer in the affirmative, we say: Is it necessary, from the necessary knowledge, to purify this Sunnah from what has entered it? Or is purifying this Sunnah one of the trivial matters? Or is it something that is merely a voluntary act, or is it one of the obligations without which the Qur'an cannot be understood except by purifying this Sunnah? If they agree with us—and I think they have no choice but to agree with us—then we say to them: Have you done anything in this regard? Or are you even capable of doing anything to purify the Sunnah and distinguish its authentic from its weak? If they say: Yes; we say to them: . And we do not need to demand proofs from them, for in their books that they author in refuting the disbelievers in general, we often find interpretations of verses that contradict what came in the transmitted exegesis, and we often see that they contain hadiths that have no validity, neither hump nor rein.
We do not want to say that it is obligatory for all Islamic groups to work, and for all of them to perform the duty of purifying the Sunnah from what has entered it, but I want to remind these people of the like of His saying (the Exalted): . They know that those who purify the creed from what has entered it of shirk and idolatry are the Salafis, they are the supporters of the Sunnah, they are the people of hadith, they are the group; the names vary due to the difference of countries, but the name is one.
Those who purify the creed from what has entered it that is not part of it are the Salafis, the ones they accused of being occupied with trivial matters. Likewise, they know with certainty that those who purify the Sunnah from what has entered it of weak and fabricated hadiths—and many of these hadiths were fabricated by some of the sects that sought to plot against Islam and Muslims, and they wanted to divert them from the religion in the name of the religion, so they fabricated those weak and fabricated hadiths—they know truly that those who perform this purification are also the Salafis, and not those so-called callers who are concerned with refuting the communists and their like.
Then who are those who are concerned with correcting the worship of Muslims, such as prayer, fasting, Hajj, 'Umrah, and knowledge of zakah, its establishment and its conditions, and the like? No one can undertake this except one who combines the Book and the authentic Sunnah. There is no doubt that accusing the Salafis of what was mentioned from some of the examples, this blessed community in these sacred lands is indeed the greatest proof that the Salafis are innocent, innocent as the wolf is from the blood of the son of Ya'qub, of that accusation; because it is supposed that we, and praise be to Allah, should be on a common word, that we know tawhid, and we know prayer, and we know Hajj, and the like. And yet we spoke in many gatherings, not about purity, and not about raising the hands and folding them and the like, but we often spoke about principles related to the Islamic rules that those people are ignorant of. Perhaps with this word I have answered the question, or is there something remaining in it?
Other than that?