What is the solution you see regarding this problem, which is that the prevailing foundation in matters of declaring someone a disbeliever is adopted by those who oppose the methodology of the pious predecessors, and it has had a negative impact?

The Shaykh: Go ahead.

The questioner: Our esteemed Shaykh, may Allah reward you for what you have presented. You have informed us about what the Salafi youth, in particular, should do, which is to hold fast to this protection, and that they should be in the state they ought to be, as well as their role in learning the Sunnah, holding fast to it, and conveying it to the people. However, there is a difficulty that arises among the Salafi brothers, especially in this later era, which is that these issues of declaring someone a disbeliever, which you mentioned are currently circulating, should not be the focus of our concern. They are now being established with a new and modern foundation, and people who hold, so to speak, religious degrees are standing on this matter, and their words are being heard in this time. We have faced many of these difficulties, especially in the Holy City of Madinah, and in Saudi Arabia in general, even here, where the feet of many Salafi brothers have been dragged along behind these difficulties. The reason for this is that this foundation was established by people who claim Salafism, or who, so to speak, embody Salafism and the methodology of protection. However, the fact that there were not scholars of great stature, such as the Shaykhs of the Salafi call or students of knowledge, to stand against such people and establish the Salafi methodology in this chapter themselves, allowed such people to speak and caused many Salafi youth to be dragged behind them, especially since it is considered the topic of the day in this time, and the youth, with their emotions, were dragged behind these labels. What is the solution if, for example, the Salafi students of knowledge and Salafi Shaykhs have, so to speak, not stood against these people by establishing these issues, and we have left the establishment to those people? How is the solution, then?

The Shaykh: Knowledge is not a means for us other than knowledge; indeed, knowledge is acquired through learning.

The questioner: But the establishment of this issue by the Salafi Shaykhs, so to speak, there are books, there are many books that have been authored by those, for example, who adopt these ideas, and sometimes they are volumes, and sometimes in the form of small treatises.

The Shaykh: Our volume on the denial of the punishment of the grave. . .

The questioner: Yes, for example, this man is now speaking in a chapter other than his own, but those people are speaking, and sometimes they distort the religious texts and intentionally do this distortion to lead the people to a specific methodology they want. So this distortion, I mean, there were no Salafi students of knowledge, nor any of the Salafi Shaykhs that we know, to establish the correct Salafi methodology in this chapter. Consequently, the issue remains open, still as you mentioned, these books are coming out in heaps now, for example, from publishing houses, and many of the youth have been dragged into this chapter, and we do not find anyone to bring them back to the right path.

The Shaykh : By Allah, my brother, this is a question that cannot be answered. It is like a patient who is on the verge of death; what is the means to save him? You know the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): The matter has now gone out of the hands of the scholars, despite their fewness, in the entire Islamic world. It has gone out of their hands, and nothing remains but the good word that a scholar throws out, given the scarcity of these scholars and the very, very limited occasions. So, what is the solution to the question you are asking? There is no solution except that we remind people of, first: Second, His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): And in its meaning, the well-known hadith from his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): So, I give you an example. I am a person who is asked to write on such-and-such a topic and such-and-such a topic, but For example, the largest part of my knowledge is in serving the Sunnah. That is the largest part. I do not serve, for example, the science of tafsir except to the extent that it relates to the Sunnah, and so on. There must be other people like me. If I did not say by the thousands, at least by the hundreds, they serve the same service. And hundreds, if not thousands, serve the tafsir of the Qur'an, they serve fiqh, and the fiqh that is called today comparative fiqh, and so on. If there are not such people, if they do not exist, how can one demand that a person, or five, or ten, in this vast expanse of the Islamic world, solve a problem that has arisen in the present time, between those who, as you mentioned earlier, claimed affiliation to the pious Salaf? But I want to, and I just remembered, if you remember with me, Subhan Allah, if Allah wills a thing, He prepares its causes. When we divided people into students of knowledge and the general public, and we said it is obligatory for students of knowledge to know the truth with its evidence from the Book and the Sunnah, but as for the general public, we said this means it has a specific research. Now look, its occasion has come. I am saying now that the general public, whom you are referring to, who were swept along with the current of those people, and so on, these people, in fact, the problem is very difficult because of the accumulation of ignorance among the Muslims throughout these long centuries. I assume that there should be a general awareness in the entire Islamic world, shared by the specialists and the general public, the scholar and the student of knowledge, and other Muslims. This general awareness is completely missing among the general Muslims. I want to reach from this brief introduction to the following reality: Many Muslims are confused between a scholar and a student of knowledge. One of these people says, "My brother, by Allah, we are confused. This scholar says such-and-such an issue is forbidden. This student of knowledge says it is disliked. That third one says, what? It is permissible. You have confused us." I say, if he had awareness, he would not be confused. But the lack of this general awareness is what leads to this confusion. The way to dispel such confusion in this small example is how this confused person compares a scholar. I do not say compare a scholar and a student of knowledge, but compare a scholar and a student. How does he set this one against that one? He has no perception, he has no intellect that this is a noble scholar who has spent decades in knowledge. Should he be measured against a student? It should not be such a comparison in the mind of any Muslim, even if he is illiterate, cannot read or write, and barely knows how to pray the obligatory prayers. We should rise—peace be upon you—we should rise a little from comparing a student to a scholar. My brother, it is also forbidden for you to compare a scholar with a student of knowledge. You fall into confusion: "This scholar is saying such-and-such, and so-and-so, the student of knowledge, is saying such-and-such." It must not be that this confusion exists. Where does the confusion come from? Even so, if there is awareness and general culture, the confusion will disappear. The confusion may be somewhat acceptable if two scholars, one from the East and one from the West, in the same country or different countries, it does not matter, differ on an issue. This is a reality, this is a reality, and it is impossible to escape from it absolutely. And as He said (the Exalted): But should all Muslims remain confused between these two scholars? I also think that if I were to build his culture and awareness, if he has any of it, the confusion would disappear. How? It is necessary that one must not, it is not possible that you find two scholars equal in every aspect of knowledge, in aspects of the Sunnah, in aspects of righteousness, in aspects of being among the scholars of the image, as al-Ghazali (may Allah have mercy on him) said, being, for example, not employed by a tyrannical, oppressive ruler. It is not possible that two scholars who differ on an issue are equal in all these qualities. If such a thing is found, this person is excused in his confusion. Even so, this confusion will disappear with one hadith, which is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): But even so, you will find one of the scholars distinguished from the other by one trait or another. But bring the people, bring the nation that discusses issues of disagreement with such a precise scale. I excuse them, why? The same scholars who exist today on the face of the earth, and before today for many years, did not educate the people, did not educate the nation with this general culture and awareness, so that the illiterate Muslim who understands nothing of knowledge except what is presented to him by the scholar, and two scholars presented to him an issue on which they differ, so he is confused. But this confusion disappears with such comparisons, if these comparisons were presented to the entire nation and became a tradition among people and became a custom. Then you would find the people at ease, reassured, not confused. Whereas today you find the previous example: a student defies a noble, virtuous scholar. "We are confused, you have confused us." Yes, they have the right to be confused. Why? Because the scales by which they measure are not the straight standard. Now, your question, may Allah reward you, I believe it is not easy to answer in this time, because the scholars, as we mentioned in the previous hadith, are few, and very few. Added to that is a great calamity: the Muslims today feel a reality that is a source of joy, which is that there is now what is called the Islamic awakening. I say this awakening, first, in its beginning, is like a sleeper who has woken up but has not yet fully mastered his legs and has not returned to his senses as it should be. He is in its beginning. And suppose he woke up completely, but this awakening will not change anything in the morals of this society. The morals of the society are still as we inherited them from our fathers and grandfathers. Did our fathers and grandfathers have an intellectual awakening? There was nothing of that at all. But the awakening came by the grace of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and the origin was about fifty years ago approximately. But with these fifty years, nothing has changed in the morals of the Islamic society. And this is a great calamity. Therefore, you may find a Salafi man in his prayer, in his worship, in his creed, but his morals are not Salafi. Why? Because he is a new one in this call and was raised upon it in knowledge, but he was not raised upon it in behavior and morals. And until this awakening bears its required fruit in the Islamic world and this Islamic world is adorned with the morals that this intellectual awakening presents, this in fact requires a long time, and a very long time. I do not exclude now that there are people who claim Salafiyyah and are truly Salafis, but they are not Salafis in morals. And I mean, for example, that he is a Salafi, why? The environment helped him to be so, but he wants to appear, he wants to become a head. Yes, this desire.