What is the meaning of the hadith of Hudhayfah (may Allah be pleased with him) that you mentioned, where the ship has many holes and we are unable to stop them?

The questioner : Regarding the hadith of Hudhayfah, the hadith of the ship.

The Shaykh : Which hadith?

The questioner : The ship.

The Shaykh : The ship.

The questioner : Because the ship has many holes and we are unable to stop them, so instead of drowning with them, should we leave it to... or leave it?

The Shaykh : To what?

The questioner : I say I have nothing [The questioner laughs!] ... Some of our brothers went in it!!

The Shaykh : The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said... Look at how people, with their desires and equal understanding, deviate from the Sunnah. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: to the end of the hadith, meaning: few. Then the previous hadith I mentioned to you regarding the strangers, who are they? , these are the responsibility of the questioner - I say: the responsibility of the questioner - these people judge the entire Ummah as being in error, and the reality is that it is an error. And this - also - reminds me of a hadith: - and the hadith is in "Sahih Muslim" - : or two narrations, or , and each of the two narrations has a very beautiful meaning. As for the first narration, it is: ; meaning he is more misguided than them. As for the second narration, it is more eloquent; meaning: he is the cause of their destruction; because he leaves them in their misguidance and then withdraws from them far away, as the professor said there... So we answered this; we said: The hadith revolves around changing the evil there at the first level, but if that is not possible, what do we do? Who said that we leave this society and do not move from the first level to the second level? Rather, who said: we do not move from the second level to the third level? Where is the place of this hadith?
The Shaykh: The levels are three. The place of this hadith is in societies where the evil is little or much. If the evil is little, the enjoiners are few; meaning the issue is supply and demand, as they say. And if the evil is much, the forbidders are many. But these forbidders are those who are eager to apply the Shari'ah truly, in its entirety, not taking one text and leaving the texts, but rather gathering all the texts together. These people come to us with one hadith ordering us to leave the people in their misguidance, and we are able to forbid the evil even at the lowest level. There is no such hadith ever. On the contrary; the previously mentioned hadith of Ibn 'Umar: ; this calls the Muslim to be - as they say today in the language of the present age - social; not to be isolationist as is the methodology of the Sufis. The Sufis are an easy and cheap methodology; because it means leaving jihad, which includes the tongue, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the authentic hadith: . So withdrawing and secluding and going out - for example - to uninhabited lands or barren deserts is an easy matter. But do these people think that these individuals will remain in the desert living for as many years, or even centuries, as Allah wills, and continue in purity and clarity? Or will history repeat itself and the evil begin to spread its horn? What will they do? Will they keep moving from place to place? This is not the guidance of the Messenger (peace be upon him), .
The Shaykh: Of course ; these people will say: the group holding fast to the Book and the Sunnah; we say: Yes, and the issue is relative. Bring us a group holding fast to the Book and the Sunnah that is better than the others, and we will tell you: go to them. But that you leave these people and be neither with these nor with those; this is a serious and very serious deviation.