Requesting general advice from the Shaykh regarding our current reality.

The questioner : This is a long, blessed session, may Allah have mercy on us.

The Shaykh : If Allah wills.

The questioner : Especially since our beloved Shaykhs are among us, and we have been pleased by the advice and comments they have offered. We listened to Jamal and Abu Akram, and everyone. We must summarize some words so that we leave this meeting with something important and with wisdom. We want to listen to the final wisdom from our dear Shaykh, which we can say is the result of this meeting. So I say, at the beginning, before we listen to our Shaykh, let this be your last word...

The Shaykh : Do not give yourself too much credit, may there be blessing in you, Professor.

The questioner : You are welcome. That jihad in Afghanistan or elsewhere is for establishing an Islamic government that operates by Islam, rules by Islam and by shura (consultation). This is the goal. The goal of jihad is ruling by Islam.

The Shaykh: Perfect.

The questioner : Da'wah (calling to Islam) is the first duty of the Muslim. This is an important matter. So, we have several matters before us: an Islamic government that operates by the correct Islam. This requires spreading the da'wah before this government is established. If the jihad ends after one year, two years, or ten years, the da'wah cannot spread in the correct form in a few years. It is not possible. So, we have a cart and a horse pulling it. Who is in front? The horse or the cart? The horse is in front of the cart. In our case, what is the most important thing? Who pulls the jihad, or does the da'wah come first? We need to agree on this first.

The Shaykh : Both of them.

The questioner : Which is more important?

The Shaykh : Both of them.

The questioner : We say both together, like the cart and the horse together. So, we must work from this perspective. We must focus on the da'wah, and at the same time support the jihad. So that, in the result, if the jihad ends, by the command of Allah, in something beautiful and the Islamic state is established there, its roots will be deep Islamic roots, not like the roots of the Islamic state that was established in Iran. Everyone was secret and rejoiced when the revolution happened in Iran, but you know this result. We do not want to abort this jihad if we do not care about the da'wah. I say this jihad will be aborted because, in the result, we will see a barren state, a weak state, a state that operates on the crooked path. So the most important thing, I say, is the da'wah, even before the jihad, because jihad without correct da'wah is incomplete. So it is obligatory, not only on our Shaykh—our Shaykh is one individual—we want from the scholars of the entire ummah (Muslim community). We want a conference to discuss this point only, nothing else. What is the future of Afghanistan? Let us assume the jihad ends, what is the result? Let us start from the beginning. Let us assume Israel withdraws from the West Bank and we want to rule the West Bank. Who will rule? How will the rule be? What is its type? The entire Islamic ummah does not think about this thing; they only think about the day they are living in. We need to establish an Islamic strategy for this work, whether in Palestine or in Afghanistan, which is spreading the correct da'wah, so that whoever reaches power among the leaders is a believer in this path. So we want the final wisdom to listen to from our noble Shaykh.

The Shaykh : May Allah bless you. We have heard the final wisdom, but I confirm what you mentioned first by reminding you of a hadith that combines the two jihads. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: This is the jihad that we must perform. It is not jihad in the sense of fighting the disbelievers with weapons only, especially since, as is our unfortunate reality, we are weak in weapons. So we must combine the two jihads: jihad of the tongue and jihad of the sword. And I add to the obligation of da'wah, which the Book (Qur'an) came with in its known texts, and this hadith confirms these texts, which is conveying the da'wah to people. I say it is not enough for Islamic da'wah workers to concern themselves with calling to Islam. I said this and I repeat it in your hearing: a general Islam that is not understood by the common people. Rather, it must be understood. This Islam that the da'wah workers call to must be understood, at least in its fundamentals and creed. Second, the da'wah must be accompanied by Islamic education. And we feel today something that rejoices the heart, without doubt, which has become a common custom, called the Islamic awakening. We feel this awakening, but I say, sadly, that it is an intellectual awakening and not an educational awakening. That is, Muslims today, without doubt, are better than they were a quarter of a century ago or more in terms of thought. And this awakening is a scientific awakening, but in terms of education, many—I do not say from the common Muslims, but the Islamic da'wah workers themselves—do not concern themselves, first in their own souls, and second in those who take refuge in them and those for whom they are responsible, with applying this Islam that they understood and which they are obligated to practice. So now, the Islamic da'wah is based on the tongue only, without practicing it, except what Allah wills, and they are few. So perhaps Professor Abu Malik remembers well that he, may Allah reward him with good, prepared for me to deliver that speech at the Institute of Islamic Studies, or what was its name?
Abu Malik: The Sharia Institute.

The Shaykh : The legal [system], and its subject matter was purification and education. Purification and education require linking the two issues: purifying Islam, which is the domain of da'wah (calling others to Islam). Purifying Islam from what has entered it—every one of you knows, and I mean every one of you present, if Allah wills, that what is not of Islam at all has entered into the creed, and what has no place in Islam has entered into the fiqh and legal rulings, and what has no relation whatsoever to Islamic morals has entered into conduct and Islamic education. So, if someone asks where we should begin, we begin with da'wah accompanied by education. And by da'wah, I do not mean the da'wah that exists today, which has become a modern innovation. It has become such that so-and-so is a da'i (caller) and so-and-so is also a da'i, and we have female da'iyat (callers). I believe this is not something that should please the Muslim, because it implies that the male scholars are falling short in da'wah, and therefore the women have come to complete or correct this shortcoming in which the men fell short. In the first era, nor the second, nor the third, in the era of the first scholars whom we follow today, there were absolutely no female da'iyat. The greatest da'i that could be from among the women was the Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), and yet she made an exit that she regretted, and she wept and wetted her khimar (head covering) with her tears because of her exit to defend whom? The slain, the wronged Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him). She was undoubtedly far more knowledgeable than the male scholars, let alone others, and she was more deserving than many of these men to be a da'i. But today, what Allah willed, some of the female da'iyat take liberties and seize one of the mosques and prevent men from entering to pray, because there is now a special lesson for women. The important thing is that education must be linked with purification. Purifying Islam from every foreign element in it is what can restore the Muslim society to us, and thereby realize the Islamic state for us. It is not as some Islamic da'iyat think, and they are many, where they think that above all else, the Islamic state must be established. As Abu Yusuf said, I told them: Suppose that in a moonless night, an Islamic coup occurred. How would these coup-makers rule Islam? They have no knowledge of Islam; they do not know the creed, they do not know the rulings. They would be forced to work with the laws they inherited from their predecessors, the predecessors against whom they staged the coup. So, da'wah is above all else. And the da'wah of people today will take from the Islamic da'iyat who call truly and with complete sincerity to Allah the Exalted and Majestic—who are not paid, who do not work for a position or a salary as is our reality today, except for what Allah wills, and they are few—these sincere da'iyat, if they fulfill their duty, their da'wah will continue for many years until a people is formed who, if they are able to establish the Islamic state, and some legal rulings are announced, for example, that it is not permissible for women to go out in tabarruj (display of adornment), the people will be prepared to accept such a ruling. But if there is no knowledge and no education, the first to disobey this decision placed by the ruler of the coup will be his own people; they will contradict his decision because he did not raise them with this correct education. And so I always keep returning to these two points: any da'wah that is not based on purifying Islam from what has entered it first, and accompanied by correct education second, has no life for this da'wah and no fruit for it. And it does not concern us, as our companion said earlier, whether the people respond or do not respond. It is upon us to proceed in our da'wah as long as we believe that our da'wah is the truth, and to be gentle in the da'wah, as Professor Jamal said. What concerns us after that is whether the responders are many or few. We have an example in some of the previous prophets. It was narrated in Sahih Muslim from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), in the hadith of Ibn Abbas, that he (peace and blessings be upon him) saw a darkness on the horizon and asked about this darkness, and it was said, "This is Moses and his people." Then he looked in another direction and saw a greater darkness and asked about this darkness, and it was said, "This is your Ummah." He (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the completion of the hadith: Many of the Islamic da'iyat today boast over one another that the number of their followers is greater than the number of others, and this is not of Islam at all, especially when we read in the authentic hadith: to the end of the hadith. So, we should not boast about the number, because many of these boastful ones imagine contrary to the truth when they find their followers to be many; they imagine that this is because of their da'wah, and that it is a true da'wah, and thereby they imagine that whoever has few followers, his da'wah is not the da'wah of the truth. Therefore, it is very important to us to spread the Sunnah. The Sunnah, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the hadith known to you all: So the Book and the Sunnah are the salvation, they are the ship of Noah (peace be upon him). And we find today that the majority of Islamic da'iyat turn away from studying the Sunnah and are content with studying some laws, and the best of them is the one who reads some fiqh books and does not dwell on studying the Sunnah, by which education is realized, like this hadith in which he says: I meant to say in my citation of this hadith, someone might say that so-and-so is an Islamic da'i but his style is bad. It might be so, and the one claiming his style is bad might be wrong. But we do not declare anyone innocent, nor do we claim infallibility for anyone, ever. But what we want from the Islamic da'iyat truly is that they do not infer from the fewness of followers the invalidity of the caller's da'wah. Otherwise, this da'wah would encroach upon the status of those prophets whom the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned that he saw the prophet with a group, and the prophet with two groups, and the prophet with one man and two men, and the prophet with no one with him. Was this prophet invalid in his da'wah? The answer is, far be it from Allah. Was he also invalid in his style of da'wah? The answer is no. So, no one followed him because the earth was not fertile. And so, the good da'wah, if it finds fertile earth, will bear its fruit and produce its results, and the opposite is exactly the opposite. So, I, Abu Yusuf, keep returning to the two issues: purification and education are necessary. Da'wah must be da'wah with the tongue and with the sword when possible, when possible, and education must be linked with da'wah, otherwise there is no benefit in the speech. And here comes the saying of the Blessed and Exalted in the Qur'an: We must be da'iyat and workers with what we call people to, and educators for at least those around us in this good da'wah, if Allah wills, Blessed and Exalted is He. And we hope that Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, will teach us what benefits us and guide us to act upon what He has taught us. Yes.