The Shaykh’s explanation of his clear stance toward the Muslim Brotherhood fifty years ago, mentioning his mingling with them, delivering lessons among them, and the influence on many of them

The Shaykh : Our stance regarding the Muslim Brotherhood has been clear since the old days, when the Muslim Brotherhood had their freedom in Syria and had their headquarters in many locations. I was with them in their meetings, travels, and trips, as if I were one of them. And the result of that, and the praise belongs to Allah alone, is that many of our Muslim Brotherhood brothers received the Salafi call with great joy and happiness. We do not need to cite many examples of this fruit that we harvested from that companionship with the Muslim Brotherhood, as we mentioned in their trips and travels. It is sufficient for us as an example two men who are famous in the entire Islamic world, not just among the Muslim Brotherhood: one is our brother, Professor Isam al-Attar, and the other is our brother, Zuheir al-Shawish. This is from one side. From the other side, after Allah the Mighty and Majestic decreed that these groups would be dissolved because of the sinful, wicked ruling there, we continued in our call to the Book and the Sunnah and upon the methodology of the pious predecessors. Even though we were prevented many times, we would try and find ways to return things to their proper course so that we could continue our lessons. The point of this is that we are not exaggerating when we say that most of those who attend our circles and lessons there—I do not say only in Damascus, but also in Aleppo, Latakia, Idlib, and other regions—most of those who used to attend our lessons were from the Muslim Brotherhood. Therefore, from a realistic standpoint, it is impossible for a person who lived among these people, who visited them when they had the opportunity to hold their gatherings, and then the situation reversed and they visited us when we were exercising our freedom in writing and calling to the Book and the Sunnah, considering that our call is not a political call, for such a person to be an enemy of the Muslim Brotherhood. This exchange and this companionship are among the clear, obvious proofs that it is impossible for such a person to be an enemy of the Muslim Brotherhood.