Some takfirist groups refuse to attend the Friday prayer and congregational prayer with the Muslims; what is their argument in this?

The questioner : We have in one of the Dutch cities a group that brought an idea, and in our opinion, the source of this idea is Egypt, and it is takfir and hijrah.

The Shaykh : Takfir and hijrah, yes, this reached the lands of Algeria.

The questioner : So in one of the Dutch cities, there is a group that does not pray in the mosques and declares other brothers disbelievers, including the Salafis who say that they pray behind this imam because he is an innovator, and because of this, and because of that. So they now say: If they hear a fatwa that permits them to pray in these mosques, which are the same image or the same mosques as in the Islamic countries, the same imams who came to the Netherlands and bought mosques, praise be to Allah, meaning the Muslim community, and brought an imam and gave him a salary, so there is no difference between this imam, for example, in Morocco or Algeria or Egypt, and this one, for example, in the Netherlands. And they say, “We do not pray behind this imam.” So I went to them once and I said, meaning, I discussed with them a little. In the end, they said to me: Our withdrawal from these mosques is our expression of dissatisfaction with these innovations and these wrongs present in these mosques, according to their expression. So is it permissible for them to remain in that state, or should they pray, meaning, like the rest of the people?

The Shaykh : The problem with these people, my brother, is much more dangerous than the image you mentioned, and that is that they do not pray in the mosques of the Muslims. Behind their refusal to pray in these mosques is not that there are, for example, imams who are not sincere in prayer, or that they lead the people for a salary, or that there are many innovations and new occurrences in these mosques. This is not the problem. The problem is that these people consider others disbelievers; because first: in the Islamic countries, let alone in the Netherlands, Poland, and the like, and let alone, even the Muslims who live in the lands of Islam like these countries and others, let alone the Muslims who live there in the lands of disbelief. The Muslims who reside in the lands of Islam are disbelievers in their view, and they chain disbelief from the ruler to the ruled, and they apply the saying of Allah the Exalted: to all the rulers of the Islamic states, they do not distinguish between any of them, then they chain the issue to the mosque attendant, and not only to the imam or the mu'adhdhin, but also to the mosque attendant. Why? Because these people appoint the ruler and are satisfied with his rule, so they chain the disbelief that they started with the ruler to the smallest of the ruled, so all these people are disbelievers, and therefore they refrain from praying for this reason, and not because of innovations or matters or sincerity or the like.
And this is a nonsense we know from Akhzam, and we have been afflicted here with some individuals from the Muslim youth whom we thought were with us and of us and in our fold, and indeed I was amazed at them; because they used to cite my books, benefit from them, and state this openly. So we gathered with some of them here, they were refraining from the Friday prayer and the congregational prayer, they do not pray at all, and the reason is what I mentioned to you just now. So their error starts from the noble verse where they understood it with an incorrect understanding, and following that are many and very many errors, among which: they err in the narration that says: that Ibn 'Abbas, when he interpreted the mentioned verse, said: “Disbelief less than disbelief.” They said: This narration is not authentic, and they are ignorant, they do not know the science of hadith or the science of al-jarh wa al-ta'dil, and their religion is their desires, exactly like the first Khawarij. So whatever pleases them is their religion, and whatever does not please them, they reject it and cast it away like a pomegranate seed.
So these people, in reality, we may find among them a group of sincere people, but they are misguided; because they walk without knowledge, so they are in need of scholars who stand in their way; therefore, arguing with them must start from their declaring Muslims disbelievers, and they, as I told you, are people of desires who take from every text what they desire. Our Lord says: they take it by its apparent meaning.
First: they do not look at whom the verse was addressed? And they are the Jews, where the Jews were two groups:
One group had authority over the other group, and they took from them a toll or a tax or the like. So when Allah sent Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and they found in him truth and judging by the right, but they denied it out of envy and tyranny from themselves, and as the Lord of the Worlds said in the noble Qur'an: , nevertheless, the lower group among them said: We will judge by Muhammad, that this which they take from us, the greater and higher group among them, do they have the right to that? If he answers you with what agrees with you, take it, otherwise reject it. So Allah the Mighty and Majestic revealed this verse that they wanted to take from the judgment of Muhammad while they are disbelievers in him. So first: the verses mean those who do not believe in Islam, and do not mean those who believe in Islam but fall short in applying one aspect of Islam, this is first.
Second: they do not know a linguistic and legal reality that disbelief has degrees. For example, his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): So fighting a Muslim is disbelief, is it the disbelief that the Lord of the Worlds intended in the previous verse ? The answer: No. Also his saying (peace be upon him) in the hadith that the imam al-Bukhari narrates in his Sahih from the narration of Jarir ibn 'Abd Allah al-Bajali, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) gave a sermon in the Farewell Pilgrimage and said to Jarir: They were silent until they heard what I say, so he gave a sermon to them (peace and blessings be upon him) and said to them: Disbelievers in the sense of exiting the religion? No, you do the action of disbelievers, striking the necks of one another. From here, the interpreter of the Qur'an, Ibn 'Abbas, said in the interpretation of the first verse: , he said: “It is not as they think, rather it is disbelief less than disbelief,” and this hadith is authentic in its chain, no one can doubt it, but those people, when they found it shocks their direction outside of Islam, they said: This is not authentic.
And thus: His saying the Exalted: He judged the tyrannical group with what He judged the group that was tyrannized against, two believing groups, although the hadith, what did it say: So Ibn 'Abbas was truthful when he said: “Disbelief less than disbelief.”
These people are ignorant, and it is enough for you to know that they are uneducated, meaning: young people, there is no man who has reached the age of sixty or seventy and is studying knowledge, and the intention is not that he has reached a great age and is ignorant - no - he has not reached an age in the study of knowledge, until he knows the abrogating and the abrogated, and the general and the specific, and the absolute and the restricted, then he knows the athar of the Companions, what is authentic of them and what is not.
In conclusion, I say: These people have exited from texts of the noble verses, among them, and with this text I conclude this session, if Allah wills, for the hour is now eleven, He the Exalted said: , these people followed them other than the way of the believers, because there was not a single obstacle, these people followed other than the way of the believers, because fourteen centuries have passed over the Muslims, and the Khawarij, the Mu'tazilah, and the Murji'ah came among them, and nevertheless the Muslims, even the first ones, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib and others, said about the Khawarij: “Are they disbelievers?” He said: “No, they fled from disbelief.” Surely these people dare to declare all Muslims disbelievers except this small group which was not given anything of knowledge that entitles them to issue very terrible judgments, and they are ignorant of the Book and the Sunnah.
I hope you now ... .

The questioner : No, there are no questions, but there are other issues that are still with us.

The Shaykh : Never mind, you can call me on the phone, if Allah wills.

The questioner : A small detail, but Shaykh, just.

The Shaykh : May Allah guide you, do you guarantee that it will be the last?

The questioner : If Allah wills, I guarantee it.

The questioner : I have one after the last - the students laugh - .

The Shaykh : No, no, peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : If anyone has a question, let us take this opportunity; please go ahead.