Some say that the existing groups are complementary to one another, and their disagreement is like the disagreement among the four schools of jurisprudence.

The questioner : Shaykh, some say that the current groups, in their present state and with their current methodologies, are complementary to one another, that their existence is a good thing, and that we should cooperate among them, and that the disagreement is like the disagreement among the four schools of jurisprudence?

The Shaykh : This statement is correct in light of what you heard just now. When the methodology is one, the creed is one, and the reference is the Book and the Sunnah, then they complete one another. But to say, they say this is not the time for it; this completes that? This is impossible. I tell you a story: when I was a teacher at the Islamic University, we were gathered in the house of one of our brothers among them at that time—remember him well—the library director was 'Umar al-Ashqar, do you remember him?

The questioner : I remember him, yes.

The Shaykh : Good, and there was Hasan al-Tufayy.Al-Halabi : Do you remember him well?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : And some of our brothers, the room at that time was close to this one, and the brothers all attended and leaned against the four walls when a man entered whom you know well, but I do not like to name individuals. He is the head of one of the Islamic groups, a man with a loud voice, a preacher, who claims to be a Salafi and to have a book on prayer. When he entered, none of us stood up for him. This was the first shock for him. It happened that I was sitting at the door threshold, as if I were here in the place of this brother. So he began shaking hands with one after another, and I was studying his face and seeing the expressions change. When he came to me and shook my hand, being the last one to shake hands, I said to him, "Mr. Aziz, without standing up"—this is how they say it in the Levant. He rushed to say, "Mr., these are trivial matters, and we are now busy with a more important matter. We must work on the more important matters and leave these shells and these things. As you know, we must fight the communists and the Ba'athists, and so on, and we do not differ in anything." I said to him, "Mr., this is dangerous talk. 'We do not differ in anything.' You know that the Muslims in this time have differed in the interpretation of the word of salvation from eternal abode in the Fire. The good word, *La ilaha illa Allah*, was interpreted by a Shaykh of ours in Syria who wrote a treatise and interpreted *La ilaha illa Allah* to mean 'There is no Lord but Allah,' not 'There is no true object of worship in existence but Allah.' So the difference exists even in creed. Does the meaning of your talk imply that we turn to fighting the Ba'athists, the communists, the materialists, and the like, and leave our Muslim people in their error, deluded? Is that the meaning of your talk?" He said, "Yes, we must leave all differences and turn to fighting these people." I said, "Shaykh, how will you fight them? If they are truly polytheists and monotheists only in word, and faith has not entered their hearts, how can you manage to fight them?" This is the head of one of the groups existing today on the face of the Islamic earth. Therefore, the word I mentioned, that every group completes the other, is correct, and this is what we say when they are on one methodology and one call, not differing, with this one saying he is Hanafi and this one Shafi'i, this one a party member, this one a liberal, and so on. No, this talk is completely contrary to reality. This divides the Muslims, and our reality today is the greatest witness. But when the Muslims respond to us and are with us in the call to truth, returning to the Book and the Sunnah and on the methodology of the righteous Salaf, as I said earlier, I am a man who works on hadith, so-and-so works on jurisprudence, another works on exegesis, another works on engineering, physics, chemistry, and other sciences which are collective obligations. So each of us completes the effort of the other, on the condition that we are on one word. This condition is missing today. And what we said about individuals, we apply it to groups exactly. If they unite on one methodology and each group specializes in performing a duty, then at that time the believers will rejoice in the victory of Allah. But this call is among the misguidances of the groups for these Muslim peoples, who want to mislead the people from the call to truth, meaning that every group completes the effort of the other. This talk is not correct. If they remain as they are, continuing to be distant from acting upon the Book and the Sunnah and from submitting to the ruling of the Book and the Sunnah, how do they say that working now on correcting hadiths and weakening them, and saying that this is Sunnah and this is innovation, is all premature? What must we do in this time? It is that we work to establish the state of Islam. But how can the state of Islam be established on knowledge? Or on ignorance? The matter is strange, and it is one of the contradictions that forces us to say sometimes that many of the party members are not sincere in their call to Islam, even if it is a general Islam. Why? Because they do not care about understanding Islam. And if Allah the Exalted has made it easy for them to have someone who explains Islam to them, they reject him to be one of them. It previously happened in Damascus that some of our brothers submitted a request to the Muslim Brotherhood in my name, wanting to join the Muslim Brotherhood group, and it was rejected. Why? Because this man is a Wahhabi. A Wahhabi man who calls to the Book and the Sunnah, and you call him a Wahhabi. I know the reason. The reason is that if I entered the Muslim Brotherhood group and considered myself one of them, the group would suffer a great and very dangerous intellectual revolution for them, and they want to form a bloc. I know that one of their leaders is a Salafi in creed in himself, but when he met one of the Sufi Shaykhs, he would kiss his hand. How is this? Politics requires it. But we do not want the Muslim brother to submit in this submission. And how good is the word of Ibn 'Abd al-Barr (may Allah have mercy on him) when he said, "Kissing the hand is the small prostration." So we do not want our Muslim brothers in general to prostrate a small prostration through this submission to the leaders or the elders or the like. For this reason, they do not accept. And I say a word of truth, but most people do not realize it. You will not find a scholar in the Muslim Brotherhood. You will not find a scholar in the Muslim Brotherhood. Why? Because this scholar would call the people to the call of truth, and the call of truth divides the ranks, and they want to form a bloc and gather. And we used to say, and we still say, the difference between our call and the call of others: our call is based on the foundation of culture then bloc, the call of others is based on the foundation of bloc then culture, and then no culture and nothing after that. Because we find, for example, the Muslim Brotherhood has passed half a century of time, and one of them lives without knowing the creed of the slave girl. The creed of the slave girl by which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) tested her by saying: Ask whom you wish from the heads of these groups, "Where is Allah?" They say, "My hair stood up from what you said." This is a question that is not permissible in the Shari'ah. Allah is the Greatest! How, Shaykh, is it not permissible? And the Messenger is the one who directed such a question. And that was his teaching to us. How do you say it is not permissible? Well, my master, I made a mistake, I did what the Messenger did with the slave girl, but I made a mistake, so I want the answer. What is the answer? The answer is "Allah is everywhere." This is the creed of the Mu'tazilah and the creed of the Asha'irah, in which they truly opposed the people of the Sunnah and the community. So what is the benefit of this bloc formation? Fifty years and more pass for them, and they have not learned anything of Islam in correcting the creed, at least. As for the acts of worship, as for the prayer, here the hadith that is not valid applies to them: The old women, yes. So they pray as they found their fathers and grandfathers. They do not know the description of the prayer of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). One of them performs Hajj and does not know how to perform Hajj? Is it ifrad, qiran, or tamattu'? Why? Because he has not studied the Hajj of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and has not studied what the Messenger (peace be upon him) concluded in his saying in the famous story in the authentic Sunnah when he ordered them to break their state of ihram. He said: What do they do? This is how it is today. Because they do not know. So what is the benefit of the noise and raising the voice and shouting about jihad? And he is our leader and our Messenger, and so on. Then nothing. No progress in politics, no progress in creed, no progress in worship, and nothing at all. Because in reality, the matter is as Allah the Exalted said in the Noble Qur'an: These people, and Allah knows best, do not strive, and they seek to exalt the word of Allah the Exalted, as came in the hadith of Abu Musa in the two Sahihs, when a man said, "O Messenger of Allah," The third and fourth said, and finally they said, "And who is in the path of Allah?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And I believe that these people work only for politics, and consequently, in the correct expression, only for the position, to be leaders in the state and sit on the chairs and control the necks of the people. With what?

Another questioner : Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings. With an Islam that has no concept in their hearts; please.