The Shaykh's advice against involving the Salafi da'wah and Salafi youth in politics and confronting the rulers.

The questioner: I have not seen an opinion that I would convey as speech.

The Shaykh : Hashim: Good...

The questioner: As for the opinion; we have no opinion beforeThe Shaykh : , soThe Shaykh : he is speaking to us about the political issue; do we enter and mix with it...? Perhaps we should hear his opinion?

The Shaykh : Hashim: Good, let us hear the opinion fromThe Shaykh .

The Shaykh: In any case, the truth is that every country has its own problems.

The Shaykh : Hashim: Good words.

The Shaykh: And working in politics, if by politics one means Shari'ah politics; this is an integral part of the Islamic da'wah.

The Shaykh : Hashim: May Allah reward you.

The Shaykh: But this intervention is not feasible in every place, in every region, and in every state.

The Shaykh : Hashim: Correct, correct.

The Shaykh: And we, in truth, do not know; we do not know the precise situation in Sudan from this perspective, but there is no doubt that the situation with you and the situation in Kuwait is different from the situation in Syria, and different from the situation in Jordan, and in many other countries.

The Shaykh : Hashim: Correct, yes.

The Shaykh: And political work, as you all know, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in the Meccan da'wah did not engage in anything called politics, but he engaged in what you know of the da'wah, and establishing the foundations of tawhid (the oneness of Allah) first, then training the companions around him in Islamic morals, and preparing them for jihad in the path of Allah if the caller calls, but in many Islamic countries they first organize on the basis of partisanship, and not on the basis of Islamic training, correcting 'aqidah (creed), correcting worship, correcting behavior, and the like, and we hope that the situation in Sudan is such that they have completed this stage, which we now temporarily call the Meccan stage, that they have completed it, and then circumstances helped them to work for the da'wah even within the scope of politics, but this situation is not possible in every country.

The Shaykh : Hashim: We know that.

The Shaykh: From two aspects, first: a section of countries does not have scholars like you who perform the duty of "purification and training" which I mean in many of my words; purifying Islam from what has entered it, and training Muslims on the basis of this purified Islam, so they carry out revolutions and coups, and then it returns to them as evil, as happened here in the Haram, for example, as happened in Syria, and as happened in Egypt, and so on; so politics must be considered, as I indicated regarding some of our brothers there among the da'wah workers, that they should look at the society, and act in what the society helps them to do, otherwise they have sought politics to have the Muslims there in Sudan carry out a coup against this new ruler who himself rose against the one before him, but this, in my belief, is not from Islam, rather Islam is preparing souls to accept the system of Islam if there is one who applies it as Allah revealed it to the heart of Muhammad (peace be upon him).
We in Syria were unable to do anything of that at all, even in the da'wah; our da'wah was confined within four walls; because in the mosques we were unable to launch it, due to the prevalence of the Kharijiyyin, the Sufiyyah, and the Tariqahs, and so on, and the shaykhs were more rebellious against us than the rulers themselves, even though they were Ba'athists, and perhaps most of them or many of them were atheists, yet they did not rebel against us as the shaykhs did.
[Visitor: Peace be upon you, my brothers, preparation to board the buses...

The Shaykh: Preparation for what?
Questioner: Boarding the buses.

The Shaykh: Ah, for the stoning, I mean.]


The Shaykh: These shaykhs were the ones who incited the state against us, so we were forced to resort to some corners, but not the Sufi corners, rather places that are not mosques; because the mosques are in the hands of the ministry, and the ministry is in the hands of the Waqf (endowments), and the Waqf is in the hands of the state, and so on, so we kept away from them, and worked within the limits of what we could.

The Shaykh : Hashim: Beautiful.

The Shaykh: And I do not hide from you that I was invited to the intelligence more than once, and when I was invited once, they interrogated me and questioned me at length as is their custom, wanting to put me in a predicament from the side that I am a Wahhabi man, and I work for the Saudi state.

The Shaykh : Hashim: Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia, yes.

The Shaykh: And I mentioned to him with complete clarity that our da'wah meets with the group of Tawhid, but our da'wah is broader and more comprehensive; because we want to worship Allah as it came in the Book and the Sunnah, and not according to one of the followed madhahib (schools of jurisprudence), and our duty today is a reformist da'wah, I say this to the Ba'athist interrogator, our da'wah now is a reformist da'wah that starts from 'aqidah and ends with behavior, and therefore we do not have now the time and the preparation that helps us to work in politics, this is what we tell him.

The Shaykh : Hashim: Good, this.

The Shaykh: After a long back and forth... he said: Then since you are like this, go back and deliver your lessons, because there was a complaint that this man delivers lessons against what?

The Shaykh : Hashim: The state.

The Shaykh: The Muslims, so you go back and deliver your lessons, but do not touch politics.

The Shaykh : Hashim: Good words, beautiful.

The Shaykh: Here is the point: I said to him: I told you just now that we do not work for politics, because we have something much more important that occupies us from politics, which is reforming 'aqidah, reforming worship, and reforming morals, and I repeat now in your hearing, do not understand from me that politics is not from Islam, for politics is from Islam, and we have books written on that, such as al-Siyasah al-Shar'iyyah (Shari'ah Politics) by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, but here is the point regarding him, I said to him: But I see now, "now I see from politics the leaving of politics"; because we are occupied with what is more important than that, and yet we have spent, as Allah wills, many long years, and we were unable to form a nation that responds to us and moves with us, except in like of what I called what? The Sufiyyah? The corners, meaning small and very small places, where sometimes fifty or sixty of the youth gather, and so on, and praise be to Allah, the da'wah spread in Syria, and moved to Jordan, and so on, but the shaykhs of evil were lying in wait for us, and therefore from politics is that the person moves according to the atmosphere in which he lives, and it appears that you - praise be to Allah - are more active than us in this field, and more than us, and may Allah (Mighty and Majestic) guide you more and much more, and we hope for us and for you an increase in success.

The Shaykh : Hashim: May Allah reward you all with good, O honorable Shaykh, but I mean, I just want to present a simple thing; we as the body of verification that we took from the state, a religious body, our first duty is to correct the concept of religion in the minds of people so that they are not exploited in the name of religion.

The Shaykh : That is it.

The Shaykh : Hashim: Because we have big tyrants exploiting these simple people.

The Shaykh: Perfect.

The Shaykh : Hashim: And regarding the English, we were calculating that we would not clash with the English, and not clash with the people of the sects, when independence came, we left the freedom for every individual to choose the political party that helps to remove the colonizer from the country.

The Shaykh : Very good.

The Shaykh : Hashim: When we come to the house, to our corner, we leave politics outside, and we sit and listen to a lesson of hadith and a lesson of tafsir (exegesis), and we are going well, praise be to Allah, when the country finally became independent and every person was in a party; we said, your duty is to convince the party leader and the executive committee to work for the implementation of the Islamic Shari'ah, and to correct so that they are not exploited in the name of religion, but - unfortunately - they were all influenced by the big tyrants, meaning the popular bases were all the bases of the big tyrants, and Allah willed to choose the big tyrant with a party of weight, it was the majority party.

The Shaykh: Allahu Akbar.

The Shaykh : Hashim: But there is a minister who sees our opinion.

The Shaykh : What Allah willed.

The Shaykh : Hashim: Yes, a minister used to come to our Qur'an circles to listen to the lessons and everything. So, in one political night, he brought out hundreds of followers from the tyranny.

The Shaykh : What Allah willed.

The Shaykh : Hashim: Because he addresses the tyranny in its evil and exposes it to the people; because he is in a position of power, that is why we see the state's capacity to reform the nation as broader and stronger than the capacity of individuals.

The Shaykh : There is no doubt.

The Shaykh : Hashim: So this minister stood up and addressed this tyrant, within his earshot; saying that he is a spy who entered Sudan, and brought the colonizer into Sudan, and he worked and exploited and exploited and exploited, do you understand? And no one spoke to him, nor did they hit him, nor curse him, nor insult him, nor anything like that.

The Shaykh : What Allah willed!

The Shaykh : Hashim: The next day, the ground was full, everyone crowded around our place, wanting to become Salafis; because they had finally come to know the tyrant for what he really is. If we had been far from them, we would not have achieved this; these results. And therefore - O honorableThe Shaykh- we say: every people know best the affairs of their own land.

The Shaykh : Correct.

The Shaykh : Hashim: And they address these affairs according to their ability and capabilities. We do not say that we should immerse ourselves completely in politics and leave the da'wah, no, we adopt this politics to strengthen the da'wah and expand the da'wah. If we can convince the state to implement Islamic law, that is a great gain. That means, we have - O honorableThe Shaykh- in Sudan, when someone dies, the people sit idle in the shops for ten days, seven days for mourning because so-and-so died. They told us to stay away from them. No, we enter with them to correct the situation, until the day came when the mourning ends with the burial, the mourning ends with the burial ceremony. If we had not entered with them, mixed with them, and discussed with them, they would not have reached this result. Likewise with the rulers, likewise with the rulers, we enter with them gently. If they open the field for us, meaning we discuss with them gently and show them, for example, a political man in the current government invited me and I went to him. Then he said to me: I want advice from you. I said to him: Good, I will advise you with advice that I hope you will act upon. I am of the opinion that at this time you are dismissing people from service without stating the reason. They say for the public interest. This is a mistake, this is a mistake. The public interest means something broad, the field is very broad, it is not defined.

The Shaykh: A stretchable political word.

The Shaykh : Hashim: A stretchable political word. So you should indict him. If he made a mistake, hold a disciplinary council. The English used to do this with us when an employee made a mistake, they would hold a disciplinary council, deduct his allowance, deprive him of promotion. If they saw that he was not fit, they would let him go and retire, and so on. Then people who are tense will come and tell you to implement Islamic law with all its force. If you say you do not implement it, you are a disbeliever! Is that not so?

The Shaykh: Correct.

The Shaykh : Hashim: And if you say you implement it, you have corrected the world against you! You have corrected the world against you!

The Shaykh: Correct.

The Shaykh : Hashim: So we say regarding politics, wait, the Shari'ah is on our path to its establishment. And now we say, O His Excellency the Minister, alcohol is prohibited among us, riba is prohibited, prostitution is prohibited, all the things that Islam approves of, that is Shari'ah, the Shari'ah ... implementation.

The Shaykh : Correct.

The Shaykh : Hashim: Then the time comes ... our master 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz - may Allah have mercy on him and be pleased with him - you find our master 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz, the great caliph, when his loved ones who were concerned about him came to him, and they said: How will you establish the Islamic state in this corrupt environment? He said: "Every day I kill an innovation and revive a Sunnah until I meet Allah."

The Shaykh : What Allah willed!

The Shaykh : Hashim: Concise and sufficient words. You are not better than 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz.

The Shaykh: What Allah willed! Allah does not burden a soul beyond that it can bear.

The Shaykh : Hashim: Is that not so? So I proceed in this way. Our advice that we offer to them, if they had not opened the field for us, could we have said it? We do not say it, they would not have let us. And now, by the praise of Allah - the Exalted - the da'wah is making its way very much. We want to cover its demands. It needs preachers. Our preachers are very few. We opened institutes but we cannot continue; because our budgets are weak. The preachers need internal funds to eat and drink and travel, this needs thousands of pounds and so on. So we - praise be to Allah - are going well. We are not immersed in politics completely, nor do we leave it. We enter into it according to the interest of the da'wah.

The Shaykh: This is politics.

The Shaykh : Hashim: ... .

The Shaykh: There is no talk, moderation in matters is the truth.

The Shaykh : Hashim: Correct.

The Shaykh: We ask Allah - Mighty and Majestic - to enable us to call to Islam, and to apply it in its entirety in every place - if Allah wills - .

The Shaykh : Hashim: By Allah, we are happy, O honorableThe Shaykh .

The Shaykh : May Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : Hashim: By Allah, this council ...The Shaykh : Meaning, did you hear this talk!

The Shaykh: This is from your favor.

The Shaykh : Hashim: May Allah reward you with all good.

The Shaykh : May Allah preserve you.