What is the way to work for Islam?

The Shaykh : Please, go ahead.

The questioner : We know that Islamic work is divided into two parts: working in Islam, and we, praise be to Allah, work in Islam in worship and other matters; and working for Islam. So what is the correct way to work for Islam?

The Shaykh : My brother, you took the answer without asking the question. I have clarified the way for you now. I ask you, and it seems you did not notice that the answer was implied in the previous discussion of this subsequent question: Are there individual believers who understood the Book and the Sunnah and applied them practically in themselves? Do such people exist or not?

The questioner : They exist.

The Shaykh : They exist. Good. Are these people scattered or gathered?

The questioner : Scattered, of course.

The Shaykh : So the answer is: when these believers gather, assuming two things. The first is that they have gained knowledge of the Book and the Sunnah and were raised upon it. The second is that they gathered upon it. This does not exist. So the work starts from here; from here we launch. That is why I told the brother here, pointing, that I have a recorded word, repeatedly and repeatedly: purification and upbringing are necessary. You are saying now that they exist, and I testify with you, but many of those who think they are upon the Book and the Sunnah are not truly upon the Book and the Sunnah. This is a bitter reality, unfortunately, but we must acknowledge it. Like a sick person, or a man afflicted with a disease, it is not befitting for him to conceal his illness; rather, he must reveal his illness so that he can be treated. So now, the Muslim communities in all Muslim lands, if you look at them, you will find there are very few individuals who are lost in that multitude which the Messenger (peace be upon him) described as . Now, in this society, I mean the Jordanian society, how many schools of thought exist? How many ways control the minds of people? And leave aside the new, sudden parties. What is the weight of these individuals? And what is their proportion? I mean those who understood Islam with a correct understanding and applied it with a correct application. This, unfortunately, is rare and very precious. So before us is a long and very distant journey to prepare the causes for that gathering which is necessary, which must be upon the Book and the Sunnah, and which must be a gathering in one place. Then the believers will rejoice in the victory of Allah. Yes.

Another questioner : If, Shaykh, they gather in one place these days, they cut off their water.

The Shaykh : How?

Another questioner : If they gather in one place, they do not cut off their water.

The Shaykh : What is it like? Ah, and therefore a person must know his reality and start as we said in a verse that preceded: . We find that many Islamic groups have, unfortunately, fallen into haste in the matter, and they are deprived of the outcome they seek. I believe that any group and any faction in any of the Muslim lands that works in the political field in this time is an unsuccessful work, at the very least. I do not say this because political work is not befitting; rather, it is obligatory. But this political work should not be a political work like any political work in any of the disbelieving or openly sinful states. It must be a political work distinguished by its principles and rules from the political work of other groups or other parties... that the political work be from a Muslim nation, i.e., a Muslim group, and that they have completed the first stage which is necessary and with which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) began, which is the call to Islam. And the first thing a Muslim starts with is that he starts with tawhid (the oneness of Allah). Now, I do not want to name them, so that each one of the attendees now remembers one of the Islamic groups that works for Islam, and perhaps they have a lot of enthusiasm. But did they start with what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) started with? We all know that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) started with what his predecessors, his brothers the Prophets and Messengers, started with, as his Lord of the Worlds commanded him in the Noble Qur'an: . He started with the call to worship Allah alone, having no partner. And so, among what he (peace and blessings be upon him) was commanded in the Qur'an, a command directed to his person, and the intended meaning is his nation, is: . So now, I said just now, reflect on any political group: did it start with what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) started with, calling at least, I do not say the whole nation, but calling the companions and followers who gather around it to tawhid and correct tawhid? This, unfortunately, is a missing thing. And then this is not sufficient for us today, because Islam came upon the Sunnah of Allah in gradualism. But we today have received Islam in its entirety. When it was said to him (peace and blessings be upon him): , meaning, at the first descent of revelation upon him, there was nothing called prayer, nothing called fasting, up to the last of the five pillars of Islam. There was only the first pillar, which is tawhid. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) started with that, then he started calling people to what Allah revealed to him of fundamental, basic rulings. So we today must start with what the Messenger (peace be upon him) started with, and pay attention to the rest of Islam. And as it was said:
"Knowledge, if you seek it, is much, and life is short for acquiring it.
So present the most important of it, then the most important."

The questioner : We stop at the question, Shaykh.

The Shaykh : No, there is no room for stopping now. And with this, I say that political work must be preceded by correct knowledge of Islam as a whole, which is not divisible. And in terms of starting, we start with what the Messenger (peace be upon him) started with. And I know that the Islamic political parties have contradicted the guidance of the Messenger (peace be upon him) in terms of what he actually started with and in terms of what he commanded in speech. It came in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim from the hadith of Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) that when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sent Mu'adh to Yemen, he said to him: . And so, this is the classification of priorities. So the Messenger (peace be upon him) sent Mu'adh to Yemen and said to him in clear Arabic: . We today, as Muslims, it seems to many of us that we are not in need of calling Muslims to the testimony that there is no god but Allah, because we are not calling disbelievers, but rather we are calling Muslims. And Islam is, as you heard, , and our Muslim brothers testify that there is no god but Allah. So we are not in need of calling Muslims to the testimony that there is no god but Allah. I say, likewise, we are not in need of calling them to say it, for they have said it. But we are in need of calling them to understand what they said. They have said the word of Islam, "La ilaha illa Allah." Did they understand it? Here, with great regret, we say no, they did not understand it. And this is a long discussion concerning tawhid and its divisions: tawhid al-rububiyyah (oneness of lordship), tawhid al-uluhiyyah (oneness of worship) or servitude, and tawhid al-asma' wa al-sifat (oneness of the names and attributes). Most Islamic parties do not know this detail at all. So how can we hope to establish the state of Islam on the hands of people who first did not understand Islam with a correct understanding? And even if they understood it with a correct understanding, they want to reach the pyramids in one jump, and do not walk upon the cosmic and legal norms to start with the most important, then the most important, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did, and as he commanded Mu'adh when he sent him to Yemen. This is what I have as an answer to this question. And the discussion is long, and perhaps this is sufficient, if Allah wills. Do you want me to drink?

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : Good, in the name of Allah.