Some Salafi brothers claim that there is no political activity in Islam
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The questioner : Some Salafi brothers claim that there is no political activity in Islam, and they accuse everyone who engages in any political activity of innovation and deviating from the methodology of the Salaf. Indeed, some of them attribute this view, which we have mentioned, to your eminence. Please clarify this point with some detail and analysis, and may Allah reward you with good?
The Shaykh : The answer to this has already been given!
The questioner : But the fourth question was about the treatise of Shaykh 'Abd al-Rahman 'Abd al-Khalq.
The Shaykh : I mean, the answer to this question regarding Shaykh 'Abd al-Rahman's treatise has already been given; in brief, we do not deny political activity, and we say: it is necessary, but before all else, preparation for it is required. We have spoken of this explicitly, and we mentioned a word I said to the intelligence in Syria; in Syria, by the grace of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), not by our strength or effort, but by His grace (the Exalted) and mercy, we were proceeding in all periods with delivering lessons; even if they were in some homes, the intelligence always kept us from resting. Every few months, every few years, they would send after us. So I was once called to the intelligence and they interrogated and extracted statements from me at length, as is their custom. The important thing is that after they investigated and scrutinized and found no political pretext, they closed the matter by saying, "Go and continue with your lessons, but do not get close to politics." I said to him: I told you beforehand that our work now is in correcting Islamic concepts, especially those related to 'aqidah, and that we do not engage in political activity. I mentioned to you during the investigation, but now I return to say to you something: when we say: no to political activity, I hope you do not understand that we deny political activity. Rather, we believe that we are now in our calling of Muslims who have deviated from Islam in many of its aspects, and we have turned to this type of da'wah not because we deny political activity, but because we believe now that part of politics is leaving politics. The man smiled and said: Goodbye. I mean, part of politics is leaving politics in this time; because the Muslims are far, very far, from the foundations of the Islamic Shari'ah.
... Yes.
"And life is short in attaining it *** - So what - so prioritize the most important of it, then the most important."
Is that so?
Another questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : The answer to this has already been given!
The questioner : But the fourth question was about the treatise of Shaykh 'Abd al-Rahman 'Abd al-Khalq.
The Shaykh : I mean, the answer to this question regarding Shaykh 'Abd al-Rahman's treatise has already been given; in brief, we do not deny political activity, and we say: it is necessary, but before all else, preparation for it is required. We have spoken of this explicitly, and we mentioned a word I said to the intelligence in Syria; in Syria, by the grace of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), not by our strength or effort, but by His grace (the Exalted) and mercy, we were proceeding in all periods with delivering lessons; even if they were in some homes, the intelligence always kept us from resting. Every few months, every few years, they would send after us. So I was once called to the intelligence and they interrogated and extracted statements from me at length, as is their custom. The important thing is that after they investigated and scrutinized and found no political pretext, they closed the matter by saying, "Go and continue with your lessons, but do not get close to politics." I said to him: I told you beforehand that our work now is in correcting Islamic concepts, especially those related to 'aqidah, and that we do not engage in political activity. I mentioned to you during the investigation, but now I return to say to you something: when we say: no to political activity, I hope you do not understand that we deny political activity. Rather, we believe that we are now in our calling of Muslims who have deviated from Islam in many of its aspects, and we have turned to this type of da'wah not because we deny political activity, but because we believe now that part of politics is leaving politics. The man smiled and said: Goodbye. I mean, part of politics is leaving politics in this time; because the Muslims are far, very far, from the foundations of the Islamic Shari'ah.
... Yes.
"And life is short in attaining it *** - So what - so prioritize the most important of it, then the most important."
Is that so?
Another questioner: Yes.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.