Discussion of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Tahrir Party, and discussion of Sayyid Sabiq and his book *Fiqh al-Sunnah*

The Shaykh : I know that the Tahrir Party rejects the method of ruling by parliaments, and the Muslim Brotherhood does the same. So why did some members of the Tahrir Party enter parliament at one time? And why did the Muslim Brotherhood also enter, with groups of them doing so in this era? And why do the Muslim Brotherhood differ, with some supporting entry into parliament and others rejecting it? Do you know this or not? What is the meaning of this party if the same party is divided, with some differing from others? We know this from the Levant, before we settled in this country recently. The brother here asked me earlier what books of Islamic jurisprudence we recommend, and among what I mentioned was *Fiqh al-Sunnah*. The author of *Fiqh al-Sunnah* is Sayyid Sabiq, and he is one of the great leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, or as it is said, one of the disciples of Hasan al-Banna (may Allah have mercy on him). What is your opinion? The Muslim Brotherhood today are divided over this book and this author. A group of us in Damascus, in their known organizational headquarters, teach this book so that they may gain knowledge of the religion. And this is our advice to them: go to the Muslim Brotherhood in northern Syria, in Aleppo, and in the expression of the people of Fustat of Aleppo and Deir al-Zor, they say, "This is a book that is not permissible to teach. Its author is a Wahhabi, and these and those—what are they? Muslim Brothers? We have no intellectual methodology." The Tahrir Party differs from these people in that they have an intellectual methodology, but in limited matters. As for Islam as a whole, we have no study. And I say to this day that the Muslim Brotherhood have passed sixty or seventy years—I do not know exactly—and the group has not produced a scholar among them to whom they would turn for what they need of interpreting a verse, or knowing an authentic hadith from a weak one, or knowing the disagreement of scholars and what is correct, as the brother asked earlier. Where did that brother go? He is not far from us. Yes, one has not yet emerged from them. So what is the benefit of calls and parties? And so on.Al-Halabi : The people of Fustat of Aleppo and Deir al-Zor say, "This is a book that is not permissible to teach. Its author is a Wahhabi, and these and those—what are they? Muslim Brothers? We have no intellectual methodology." The Tahrir Party differs from these people in that they have an intellectual methodology, but in limited matters. As for Islam as a whole, we have no study. And I say to this day that the Muslim Brotherhood have passed sixty or seventy years—I do not know exactly—and the group has not produced a scholar among them to whom they would turn for what they need of interpreting a verse, or knowing an authentic hadith from a weak one, or knowing the disagreement of scholars and what is correct, as the brother asked earlier. Where did that brother go? He is not far from us. Yes, one has not yet emerged from them. So what is the benefit of calls and parties? And so on.