You said, O Shaykh, that the state of Islam cannot be established except through "purification and education" and the correct understanding of Islam.

The questioner : The second question: You said in your answer regarding the Islamic state that the state of Islam cannot be established for two reasons; one of them is that it cannot be done except through "purification," meaning the correct knowledge or the correct understanding of Islam; so what is the meaning of the saying of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him): ; does that mean that in the coming generations knowledge will be taken away, or do you mean that in the coming generations knowledge will decrease and be taken away? Does that mean that the Islamic state cannot be established?

The Shaykh : How is this statement? I think you have strayed far from the subject.

The questioner : You said that it is a condition for establishing the Islamic state.

The Shaykh : Be patient a little; I understood the question, but the end of the question appears to me to have no relation to the principle of the question and its beginning. We said and explained: What do we mean by "purification"? Purification means that the scholars in the past, when the Caliphate was continuous and uninterrupted in some centuries, but the Caliphate was, and the state was feared because of the establishment of the Caliphate; therefore, it came in some narrations in "Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah": "The affairs of this Ummah will not be set right except by a just or a wicked ruler." A just or a wicked ruler.
So the important thing is that we are today without a Caliphate, since the Ottoman Caliphate perished because of this wicked "Ataturk." So now we will not be able to restore the Islamic Caliphate, and that is not possible except by returning to the correct Islam on the basis of which the first Caliphate began, and then the Caliphs who came after them lived on the blessings of the first ones and the reading of the first ones. We lost all these blessings when the Caliphate was abolished. So now we must do a very great thing, which we explained earlier and summarized by "purification and education."
The meaning of "purification and education" is that we produce scholars, not that we eliminate the scholars to whom the Messenger (peace be upon him) referred in the hadith that you mentioned and I did not understand its connection to the question. The hadith says: , so we say now: Do we submit to this ignorance that has settled upon the masses of Muslims until they distanced themselves from the oneness of Allah, let alone some of the rulings of the Shari'ah? Do we submit to this reality, or do we try what I call "purification and education"? Now this question comes back to you so we can continue the research and see what the connection of this hadith is to your question.

The questioner : We are now.

The Shaykh : We inherited what we inherited of knowledge or ignorance, of righteousness and of corruption, but we believe in the like of His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He), which I did not enter into the evidence for: , we are now humbled; the Jews have colonized us, is it possible that Allah may help us without us helping Him? Of course not, and all of you understand what the saying of Allah means: , it does not mean that we prepare an army and fight with it so that we may help Him; far from it! But we help Him by holding fast to the rulings of the Shari'ah.
So from here the importance of the previous phrase appears: "Purification and education" is necessary. For us to help Allah in the correct scientific sense, we must know the rulings of Allah; right, yes or no? Good; and if we know the rulings of Allah, we must act upon them, as we admonished each other earlier. So what is the connection of the hadith: and so on, to my condition for establishing the rule of Islam on this earth, which is that "purification and education" is necessary? I did not understand the connection of that hadith to what you understood from me, and you repeated it to my hearing, and you said that you said that "purification and education" is necessary, correct, and I say and testify to Allah by it, but what is the connection of the hadith to this? I did not understand.

The questioner : The connection of the hadith is that as each generation comes after another, the work is taken away and there is no purification of the Islamic knowledge.

The Shaykh : Good; and what am I saying? We must purify, yes or no?

The questioner : Yes, you said: We purify.

The Shaykh : And who performs the "purification"? Those who have become ignorant heads?

The questioner : No, of course.

The Shaykh : So then?

Another questioner : The scholars.

The Shaykh : So there is something.

Another questioner : Our Shaykh, what is in his mind, and Allah knows best, I am saying.

The Shaykh : Bring it so we can see.

Another questioner : That in the end of times, Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) will help Islam, as you clarified in "Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah" that Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) will spread Islam and... so how is it that Allah promised us victory, and here in this hadith He is taking away the scholars; so how will the promised victory be established when we have the taking away of the scholars and knowledge?

The questioner : No, I did not intend this; I intend by this that you said that the condition for establishing the Islamic state is the correct purification for the correct understanding of Islam.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : And I said that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: .

The Shaykh: Good.

The questioner : The rest of the hadith.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : We said: As each generation comes after another, knowledge is taken away, so ignorance becomes among the people, and even the Muslims, I mean the committed Muslims, have become parties and sects, and each of them has an opinion; so how will the correct religion, the correct understanding, remain for us and for the common people?

The Shaykh : Perhaps I understood something new, and that is the doubt in your mind; meaning you understood from my words that no knowledge remains on the face of the earth?

The questioner : A day will come.

The Shaykh : Be patient a little, please.

Another questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Clarify, yes.

Another questioner : Our brother intended that as each generation or era comes, knowledge and scholars decrease in it.

The Shaykh: All right.

The questioner: Yes, you are correct.

Another questioner : That is exactly what our brother intended; so how, since knowledge and scholars are decreasing, do we obtain "purification and education"?

The Shaykh : With this small number that he acknowledges.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : With this small number that he seems to acknowledge.

The questioner : It is not a unified small number; meaning it is not unified, but rather it is sects.

The Shaykh : Ah, I said earlier, and if you go back to the recording, I said: either individually or as a group; do you remember this word?

The questioner : No, I do not remember.

The Shaykh : No, if it were easy, we would say to one of them, but it is not important, I am sure that I said this, and now I am bringing this saying closer to you.
This is a small community; if there is one or two scholars among you, and he is always concerned with you, advises you, and lives with you; how will this community become? Is it not better than a community that is similar to you in number but has only an ignorant head or ignorant heads? Is this not different from that?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : In the result. Good; but on the other hand, there is another community that is similar to this community, a number similar to this, more or less, it is not important, and Allah has provided for it a scholar from the sincere scholars who know the Book and the Sunnah. These small communities, when Allah permits the establishment of the Islamic rule on earth, will gather and agree and cooperate to establish the rule of Allah on earth by one means or another. We do not know what will happen now at all, rather it is completely veiled from us. And perhaps what removes the doubt from its root is that many people confront us with words that do not occur to me; meaning words that do not occur to my mind at all. Good; now, for you to reform these millions of Muslims, how much time do you need? They understand that I am dreaming—let alone thinking—in my sleep, they think that I want to reform nine hundred million Muslims. I do not dream of this thing, nor do I think about it, consequently. I dream that there will be, as (peace be upon him) in some authentic hadiths: ; do you know this hadith?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : I believe that if Allah were to enable these twelve thousand Muslims—yes, indeed—to undergo the upbringing and purification in the detail we mentioned, and to unite, which is part of the completion of the upbringing, because the hand of Allah is with the group, and this is included in that, and if they were to have good expectations, there is no doubt that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) will grant them victory over America, Russia, and the whole world. This is because we will not overcome these millions of wretched disbelievers, especially those they call the great powers, by our own physical or mechanical strength, but rather we will overcome them by our faith in Allah and His Messenger, and He is the One who promised us victory over our enemies. Therefore, I do not think about reforming the society that they call an Islamic society today, especially since it is possible to carry out a rapid process of selection, a process of selection for nine hundred million people. There are people among them who are atheists, and we do not give them any weight; there are people among them who are called Muslims, such as the Druze and the Alawites, and others, and we do not give them weight; these are not Muslims, even if they are counted among us as Muslims, and so on, until we purify ourselves from among those who call themselves the people of the Sunnah and the community. We purify from them what Allah wills, because among them are those who permit calling for aid other than Allah, seeking nearness to Allah through a means other than Allah, making vows to other than Allah, and so on. Do you see how this purification is a calculation? It is not of the type of the previous purification we mentioned, but it helps in understanding the previous purification. I do not want to purify the minds of all the millions, but the group that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) wills to establish the rule of Allah on earth cannot be anything other than upon this divine methodology: the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of His Messenger, and acting upon them both.
Shaykh, let us move on and give the turn to the remaining three brothers.
Please proceed.