The Muslim Brotherhood claims that you do not believe in jihad, and that you have made attacking the Brotherhood and the mujahideen your policy in this life.

The questioner : The second question—and I also know that it is not correct, but we want to convey it to the people—they say that you do not believe in jihad, and that you have made attacking the Brotherhood, the mujahideen, and the preachers your policy in this life. Forgive me for conveying this speech. Your attacks on the mujahideen, the Brotherhood, and the preachers are met with silence and quiet regarding the tyrants who spread corruption on earth, ally with the enemies of Allah, and make their sacred rights permissible. The truth is that the actions of the mujahideen in Syria at the beginning differed from the reality when the tyrants resolved to kill everyone who says: There is no god but Allah. Forgive me for the length of this, thank you, and please proceed with the answer.

The Shaykh : You are welcome—Professor. This is also one of the strange matters that leaves a Muslim perplexed: the boldness of some Muslims in fabricating lies against innocent Muslims. From my writings that have not yet been published regarding the hadith: , and from my statements that have been repeated in many gatherings and heard by many, some of whom certainly remember it; as is my custom when I speak about some weak hadiths and advise the Ummah to warn them against them, I return to critique these weak hadiths in terms of their text and meaning. The famous hadith I mentioned earlier: is weak in its chain of narration. In my critique, I have not found anyone who alerted me to the following meaning, and I may have been preceded by someone, but I have not come across it. So I say: This hadith is not correct in terms of meaning; because returning from jihad in the path of Allah to ordinary life, we cannot call this ordinary life—no matter how upright the Muslim is in it and how much he strives against his own self—this jihad as the "Greater Jihad," and we call the real jihad, which is facing the enemies and offering the Muslim's life cheaply in the path of Allah, the "Lesser Jihad." This is contrary to reality; because the majority of the Muslim masses who perform the "Greater Jihad" according to the claim of the weak hadith are those who evade the jihad that the weak hadith calls the "Lesser Jihad." I wrote this twenty years ago, and it has not yet come up for publication in "The Series of Weak and Fabricated Hadiths," but this is what I testify to before Allah.
In addition to that, from my words and lectures that I delivered here during some of my visits to Oman, which can be about six or seven years ago, I delivered this speech at the Institute of Islamic Studies, and I began this speech with his saying—peace and blessings be upon him—and perhaps I mentioned this hadith in our previous meeting: ; so I do not know if it is permissible, by the Shari'ah and even by reason, for a person with this belief and this speech, without the occasion of jihad arising in any of the lands of Islam where the disbelievers are raiding; is it permissible to say that he also opposes jihad? Or that he does not see jihad, or similar expressions that I mentioned some of? If these people were people of Islamic character, which is not rushing to cast accusations without deliberation, it would have been enough for them that there is no text by my pen, nor have they heard from my lips this accusation that is attributed to myself. I do not assume that every person is aware of everything Al-Albani says in such a session, or what he writes and publishes in some of his books and treatises, but I assume, indeed I impose as an Islamic obligation, that the man not be accused; because they have not heard him shout in some occasions, and jihad is our noblest hope; because we do not have this grouping and this partisanship to declare it so openly and have it transmitted to the ends of the earth. We work for victory, and this work is what allowed us to continue in our da'wah, and under the shadow of the rule of the disbeliever in our lands; so how can it be understood that such a person is accused of opposing jihad? And at the slightest occasion he mentions the weak hadith and clarifies its weakness in chain and alerts to its weakness in chain and text, and on another occasion he cites the authentic hadith that mentions the sale of 'inah and comments on it, and delivers a lecture that took us more than an hour, but our problem today returns in other forms as it did before, and this saddens me to say this truth.
Blind partisanship is now doing its work in the hearts of those who are partisan to it or for it, just as sectarian fanaticism did throughout the past centuries. You undoubtedly know that the blind, fanatical followers—I do not mean the followers of a madhhab—the blind, fanatical followers of what they found their fathers upon, when they read or hear a word encouraging adherence to the Sunnah in all matters of our religion, for example, the adhan beginning with Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, and ending with La ilaha illa Allah, a Sunnah in which there is no disagreement between a Salafi or non-Salafi, all the madhahib, all the fuqaha, when they mention the adhan, they mention it this way as it came in the Sunnah. Yet, when we remind them that they are contradicting the Sunnah and that it is obligatory for them to adhere to it, we are accused of denying the salutation upon the Messenger—peace and blessings be upon him! Why? Because we say that the Muhammadan adhan ends with La ilaha illa Allah, and this is an addition to the adhan that the Messenger taught to Bilal, Abu Mahdhurah, and 'Amr ibn Umm Maktum. They turn the facts upside down and say: He denied the salutation upon the Messenger—peace and blessings be upon him! This is how the story returns now regarding jihad.
We say: Jihad is the peak of Islam, as it came in some hadiths, and we say that the honor of the Muslims is not realized except through jihad, and we say from the jurisprudential perspective that jihad is of two types: jihad of individual obligation, as is the reality today, and all Muslims are falling short, and we say this always and forever, and the other jihad is a collective obligation, if some perform it, it drops from the rest. And we say in this second jihad, and perhaps I wrote something of this in some of my books and treatises, that there are today some Islamic writers who do not see this collective obligation, they restrict jihad only to when we are attacked, we only repel the attack. Articles were written in Egypt in this meaning, so they nullified a ritual of Islam, which is jihad in the path of conveying the Islamic da'wah and expanding the area of Islamic land, and they said: Jihad is only for self-defense. We have lived all this for many years by the grace and mercy of Allah, but we say—and here the similarity between the previous example and this subsequent reality appears—when we say: Adding to the adhan is a religious innovation, they say: He denied the salutation upon the Messenger—peace and blessings be upon him!! When we say: Jihad in the path of Allah requires preparation of both moral and material types, and that our brothers here entered the battle before preparing for it, this is my belief, and I do not care if people are pleased with me or angry and say: He denied jihad!

The questioner : It was so at the beginning, we are with you.

The Shaykh : The important point, Professor, is that I am now stating my opinion on the matter. One who denies jihad is a disbeliever, and one who fights against it is even more of a disbeliever. However, I believe that jihad requires massive preparations, and I believe that to this day, there are no such preparations. This is my belief: to this day, there is no preparation that would enable Muslim individuals, even if they are living under the rule of tyrants, because this relates to creed and upbringing. As for the material, armed jihad, this is one of the most difficult things for Muslims to prepare for in the present time, in terms of material readiness close to the government, the gang, or those who control their weapons, meaning close to that. But the first preparation is the first obligation, in my belief, for Muslims.
And when we speak of this issue, I draw attention to it so that it is not misunderstood. I said this before our brothers who are with us often, and before some of our other brothers. I say: When I address the issue of jihad in the cause of Allah and the obligation to prepare for it, I do not say that this is obligatory upon eight hundred million or nine hundred million Muslims; that is impossible. Because we believe that among the eight hundred or nine hundred million counted, there are those who are not of them, or only by name. But I want any group that truly wants to fight in the cause of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to take, without doubt or hesitation, the two means mentioned: the spiritual, religious means, and the other, material means. As for the religious means, which is the foundation and is referred to in many verses: ; this does not require anything other than the jihad that the Messenger (peace be upon him) named or mentioned in the hadith in "Musnad al-Imam Ahmad" from the narration of Fadalah ibn 'Ubayd, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: .
Therefore, in my belief, Muslims must understand Islam correctly. I should not say "Muslims" to limit the statement, so I say: the group that wants to fight in the cause of Allah truly must, all of them, individually—this is an individual obligation—must all understand Islam correctly in terms of creed, and in terms of rulings. It is obligatory for a group among them to understand the rulings correctly. In my belief, I have not found a group that prepared itself for jihad in the cause of Allah, the known legal jihad which is confronting the enemies, preparing themselves in both aspects: the religious aspect and the material aspect. This is what I was saying and I am still saying, because the surprise that appeared with some of our Muslim brothers there in Syria was merely a revolution that took place without any preparation, neither religious nor material; so this was the error, and what Muslims in Syria, men, women, and children, are facing today, its cause is improvisation and lack of preparation, not doing what Allah (Mighty and Majestic) commanded of preparation to confront the disbelievers.
We know that the Messenger (peace be upon him) and his noble Companions lived in Makkah for thirteen years, and they were facing the harshest torment. And of course, if Allah (Mighty and Majestic) had willed, He would have obligated jihad in His cause upon them there, but the wisdom of legislation requires gradualism: first, in the upbringing of Muslim individuals, and second, in preparing them for this jihad in which one sells one's soul cheaply in the cause of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). So I was saying and I am still saying this, and this does not mean that I am fighting against jihad, but rather I want us to prepare for jihad so that we may reap the fruit of jihad; because our Lord (Mighty and Majestic), when He says: , this is a condition from Allah upon us, and its answer is guaranteed one hundred percent. And there is the other clear, evident verse which says in the Noble Qur'an: . I take the last part of the verse—and it is the foundation of Islam, as you all know: . Of course, you agree with me that the majority of Muslim masses today have not understood tawhid in its three divisions that our scholars and great, verifying Shaykhs like Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim mention: tawhid al-rububiyyah (oneness of lordship), tawhid al-uluhiyyah (oneness of worship), and tawhid al-asma' wa al-sifat (oneness of the names and attributes), let alone believe in it. And I do not want every individual among them to give a lecture on tawhid al-rububiyyah, tawhid al-uluhiyyah, and tawhid al-asma' wa al-sifat; I only want them to distinguish what is tawhid al-rububiyyah? It is what the disbelievers used to believe in, yet they did not become Muslims. What is tawhid al-'ubudiyyah or al-uluhiyyah? It is that no one is worshipped with Allah and nothing is associated with Him. And what is tawhid al-asma' wa al-sifat? That the Messenger (peace be upon him) is not addressed with something like his saying:
"For from Your generosity is the world and its neighbor, *** And from Your knowledge is the knowledge of the Tablet and the Pen."
In my belief, this tawhid which is the foundation of Islam, I have not found, I have not seen—and I hope that I have not seen it and it exists—I have not seen a group that united to declare jihad in the cause of Allah on this basis of tawhid, let alone what is beyond that of referring to the Book and the Sunnah for judgment.
We, Professor, lived in Syria for half a century and did not find a group that agrees with what we call them to: . So this preparation is the foundation for me, and this does not exist in my belief, and I sincerely hope that I am mistaken, but I am as certain that I am correct, unfortunately; so before we enter a battle like this battle, we must prepare ourselves in terms of tawhid, which is an individual obligation for every person, and the facts testify that it is not so.
Brothers come here from Syria from the mujahideen, and discussions like this take place on occasion and off occasion, and you hear shirk (associating partners with Allah) explicitly from some of them while they are fighting in the cause of Allah!! It would have been better for them to fight what they call the greater jihad in the weak hadith, and leave the lesser jihad based on the weak hadith—also—and understand their creed of tawhid and what falls into such shirk and polytheism. What does this person gain if he dies in this jihad in the cause of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) while [lacking] the tawhid which is the foundation of Islam, and if it is gone, the entire work of the Muslim collapses; as He (Glorified and Exalted is He) said, addressing the Ummah of the Messenger (peace be upon him) in the person of the Messenger, because the Messenger is exalted from associating anything with Allah; yet He said to him: ?
Then, Professor, let us be frank; jihad in this sense, which is establishing the individual in creed, action, and upbringing, does not happen overnight, and it cannot be achieved while we are in the battle. If we can achieve it, we can achieve it before we enter the battle, forgetting everything, forgetting ourselves, because we want to sell it cheaply in the cause of Allah, forgetting our women and children, and so on. There is no longer room for us to return and correct our ideas and correct our Islamic concepts. Therefore, I fully believe that this jihad currently taking place, as for their intentions, we do not doubt them at all, but as for their preparation, we have all the doubt.
And here, this discussion reminds me of another lie, and perhaps the magazine, al-Mujtama' magazine, either stated it or hinted at it... from them?
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