What is your opinion of the Tabligh Jama'ah, and do you advise going out with them? What is the role of scholars and students of knowledge toward them?
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The questioner : First, let me tell you that I love you for the sake of Allah.
The Shaykh : May Allah love you for the sake of which you loved me.
The questioner : What is your opinion, O honorable one, of the Tabligh Jama'ah? Do you advise going out with them, and what is the role of scholars and students of knowledge toward them?
The Shaykh : We have mentioned our opinion of the Tabligh Jama'ah repeatedly, and the summary is that the group, as a group, may desire good, but good is not found except in the path that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) came with. This going out is an innovation of the present age, unknown to the scholars of the Muslims, the later generations, let alone the earliest generations. They often argue with some hadiths that are against them, not for them. Therefore, we have advised and continue to advise them to go out in the path of seeking knowledge, and to gather in the houses of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to study, recite, and understand the Qur'an, and to seek knowledge of hadith and Islamic jurisprudence. For they have been accustomed to boldness in delivering sermons and giving advice and counsel, and many of them do not know how to recite a verse of the Qur'an as it was revealed.
What we see is that going out with them, if they permit enjoining good and forbidding evil, is from the category of the individual obligation of conveying the call to those who need it. But what we know in many Arab countries, let alone non-Arab countries, is that they do not allow the advisors to advise them or call them to act according to the Book and the Sunnah, except within the limits of the methodology they have set for themselves. That methodology is very narrow and conflicts with the texts of the Shari'ah, which command at least a group of the Muslim community to perform the duty of enjoining good and forbidding evil.
This is our opinion in brief regarding this group. We have spoken about them repeatedly and often, as required by the duty of advice mentioned in the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): They asked, "For whom, O Messenger of Allah?" He said: Sahih Muslim 55a This is our opinion of them. Please, go ahead.
The Shaykh : May Allah love you for the sake of which you loved me.
The questioner : What is your opinion, O honorable one, of the Tabligh Jama'ah? Do you advise going out with them, and what is the role of scholars and students of knowledge toward them?
The Shaykh : We have mentioned our opinion of the Tabligh Jama'ah repeatedly, and the summary is that the group, as a group, may desire good, but good is not found except in the path that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) came with. This going out is an innovation of the present age, unknown to the scholars of the Muslims, the later generations, let alone the earliest generations. They often argue with some hadiths that are against them, not for them. Therefore, we have advised and continue to advise them to go out in the path of seeking knowledge, and to gather in the houses of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to study, recite, and understand the Qur'an, and to seek knowledge of hadith and Islamic jurisprudence. For they have been accustomed to boldness in delivering sermons and giving advice and counsel, and many of them do not know how to recite a verse of the Qur'an as it was revealed.
What we see is that going out with them, if they permit enjoining good and forbidding evil, is from the category of the individual obligation of conveying the call to those who need it. But what we know in many Arab countries, let alone non-Arab countries, is that they do not allow the advisors to advise them or call them to act according to the Book and the Sunnah, except within the limits of the methodology they have set for themselves. That methodology is very narrow and conflicts with the texts of the Shari'ah, which command at least a group of the Muslim community to perform the duty of enjoining good and forbidding evil.
This is our opinion in brief regarding this group. We have spoken about them repeatedly and often, as required by the duty of advice mentioned in the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):