Does the current stance of the Salafis, namely not pledging allegiance to a ruler, subject them to the Prophetic warning regarding one who dies without having a pledge of allegiance on his neck?

The questioner : Does the current stance of the Salafis, namely not pledging allegiance to a ruler, subject them to the Prophetic warning regarding one who dies without having a pledge of allegiance on his neck? I think this should be the last question on the sheet, because the brothers want to ask questions.

The Shaykh : Glory be to Allah. Yesterday, two men from the Hijaz were with me, and one of them asked this same question. This hadith is greatly misunderstood in this age, namely his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): The Salafis understand that this hadith is specific to the major pledge of allegiance, which has no second, and that is the pledge to the Muslim ruler who governs the Muslim land from all its corners. Then, from his side, he appoints in every region and every province someone to rule with what he rules by, from the Book of Allah and the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). As for understanding this hadith in the sense of some Islamic groups or parties, where every group and every party appoints a ruler over them and then pledges allegiance to him on obedience and submission, this leads them to contradict the explicit saying of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), which is: These parties and these divided groups, some against others, are sufficient in their division in their methodologies and their methods, and then in what results from this partisanship and this clustering: the splitting of the ranks and the division of the word. Then this split and this division increase with the pledge of allegiance, which means that the one who pledges is not permitted to break his pledge and must hold onto it until the last breath of his life. Glory be to Allah, this pledge increases the fire in burning and the corruption in corruption. The reason is that they misunderstood this hadith. It does not mean that one who dies without a pledge of allegiance to a specific person, for example, this group here pledges to the Shaykh, and the group there pledges to another person. This does not die the death of ignorance. This is not the intended meaning.The Shaykh : The greater intended meaning of this hadith is what is imagined: the intended meaning is that Muslims should strive earnestly to be able to establish the land upon which Islamic rule can be established. This requires that there be a ruler who rules this land and the community upon it with what Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has prescribed. This ruler is the one who should be pledged to. Where is this ruler? Where is this land? None of these prerequisites exist today. Therefore, the meaning of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): is if there is a person who has been pledged to to rule the Muslims, and then some individuals deviate and do not pledge, while this pledged ruler exists, then if those who did not pledge die, they die the death of ignorance. So this hadith encourages striving to find the ruler who rules by what Allah has revealed, and not to pledge to just anyone, especially if they are clustered against one another. For this reason, we say that the Salafis, by what Allah has bestowed upon them, and the praise is for Him first and last, because they understood the Sunnah, including this authentic hadith, with a correct understanding, they never think about pledging to a person upon whom the Muslim community has not agreed to pledge, because this increases division and misguidance among the Muslims. For this reason, he (peace and blessings be upon him) affirmed the unity of the pledged ruler, if that is the correct expression. He (may Allah pray upon him and grant him peace) said: Do you see how many people today should be fought and killed if we applied this hadith? And the pledged rulers are many, very many. We say that what is built on error is error. This pledge and that one are errors. Therefore, we do not apply this hadith unless there is one person who has been pledged to as the ruler of all Muslims, and then another man stands up and seeks the pledge for himself. Then he is killed so that the Muslims do not divide because he will be pledged to as another caliph. All right.

The questioner : May Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : What else do you have?
The Shaykh: Please, my brother.