Explaining the Difference Between the Salafis and Other Islamic Parties and Groups in Adjudicating by the Shari'ah

The Shaykh : The Islamic groups that exist today imitate this and that and this and that. This is very apparent in their leaders, who have been given a share of knowledge, but have not been given anything, not even a small share, of the knowledge that is the knowledge of the Book and the Sunnah. Rather, it is the knowledge of eclecticism; they take from every school of jurisprudence whatever suits the general conditions of the Muslims in general, and their specific condition, meaning their partisanship. They adopt any statement of any of the scholars because they have not made the statement of Allah and the statement of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) the criterion. This is one of the wonders in this place, because they claim that they call for the realization that sovereignty belongs to Allah (Mighty and Majestic). Therefore, they appear to oppose all the rulers because they do not rule by what Allah has revealed. Well, there is no difference between these rulers and these ruled, who do not adopt in themselves the adjudication of the Quran and the sovereignty of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). I recall that when I was in Damascus, I attended a mosque in the camp where I was residing, called Yarmouk Camp. A young man from the Muslim Brotherhood group went up and delivered a sermon in which he did not say "Allah said" or "The Messenger of Allah said" at all, except for these passionate sermons inciting against the rulers who rule by other than what Allah has revealed, and that sovereignty must be given to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) alone. I noticed in it—I no longer remember now—whether it was before the prayer or during the prayer, a deviation from the Sunnah. After he finished the prayer and went out, I walked with him and spoke to him privately, drawing his attention to the fact that what he did was contrary to the Sunnah. He answered me with complete indifference, saying, "But the Hanafi school says so." And what about the sovereignty of Allah that you are shouting and crying about? We only ask the rulers to rule by what Allah has revealed, and we do not apply this to ourselves which we call people to. So the difference between us and these groups is like the difference between light and darkness. We first call the Muslims to what their Lord, the Lord of the Worlds, called them to in His saying (Mighty and Majestic) in the previous verse: to the end of the verse. Many of them explicitly say and state, "This is not its time. Your call is true, but this is not its time." When is its time? After they have united the Ummah under the name of Islam. If that becomes easy for them—and it will not become easy for them—if it becomes easy for them, then the division will begin, because they gathered on Islam, but we said Salafi Islam, Khariji Islam, Shi'i Islam, Zaydi Islam. At that time, the division will begin among them. And so we say, always and forever, that the call of these people is based on a bloc, not on a methodology of adjudicating by what Allah has revealed. As for our call, it is the opposite of that.