A word from the Shaykh about "Abdullah Azzam".

The Shaykh : Yesterday or the day before yesterday, some young Salafis from Peshawar, Afghanistan, called, and one of them was speaking... for about half an hour, complaining among other things about Dr. "Abdullah Azzam." He said that this man pretends to be a Salafi, and we feel that he is a Salafi; this is what he is saying, a Salafi, and from the group of mujahideen in the section that says he is a Salafi gathering. They have a noble Salafi Shaykh named Jibril or Jamal, and I do not remember, the important thing is that "Abdullah Azzam" is naturally living with the organized party groups fighting the Russians who are cooperating with them... This brother says that he is launching very fierce campaigns against us, and among what he says to them is that the Salafi creed is on the head, but there is no Salafi organization. I told him: This is one of the effects of the Ikhwan; he was an Ikhwan member before he became a Salafi, and the Ikhwan believe that there must be an organization under their banner, not necessarily a party under their banner, and it is difficult for a person who lived as an Ikhwan member for a period of time and then the Salafi call became clear to him as the call of truth to turn Salafi from all the ideas of his life, so this speech that you hear from him is an effect of his old partisanship. This brother says: If you were to write me a letter, because he always mentions you with good, and says: Our professor and our Shaykh, and we met... the Salafi call. I told him: As for me writing, I am actually not free to write, but he may speak with me because the man had previously called me - also - and had a long conversation with me, so if he sees fit to speak. He told me: Indeed, we got your number from him. This is the one speaking with me... we got your number from him. So I told them that if the call... may Allah reward him with good, we will speak with him as is required; meaning that he should not be partisan to his Ikhwanism or the remnants of the old Ikhwanism; because he writes in "Jihad Magazine" and sends it to me, may Allah reward him with good.

The questioner : It is through... Jihad.

The Shaykh : So he writes in "Jihad Magazine" articles, most of which are the introductions of these magazines, so the reader feels that he is complaining bitterly about the Ikhwan.

The questioner : Is he complaining?

The Shaykh : Yes, indeed; because they did not respond to him, these are the ones who were calling out: "Jihad is our noblest aspiration"!

Another questioner: How, Shaykh?

The Shaykh : These Ikhwan call out in their chants: "And Jihad is our noblest aspiration," and of course they fought in Palestine at the beginning, they organized themselves as groups from Egypt and from Syria. Yes, indeed.

Another questioner : And Jordan.

The Shaykh : And Jordan, and Allah knows what is in their hearts, the one who is telling me says that they have such and such schools and two universities where they study according to the Salafi method, and he invited me to attend there, and he said to me: O Shaykh, after a long invitation that we loved you, we loved the Salafiyyah from your books, from your tapes, from such and such, and we read among what we read that you were invited more than once to go to Pakistan from the scholars, so your answer was that what do I do in Pakistan? Pakistan is full of scholars of hadith. This brother says that I was pleased with this observation of his, he said to me: O Shaykh, in fact these scholars are scholars of hadith but they are not Salafis, and I know this well about them; because when I was in Medina, a professor at the Islamic University, we used to meet with the Shaykhs on the occasion of seasons in Hajj and 'Umrah. Is that right?

Another questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : So it is true that they argue with hadith and the madhab of the people of hadith, but there are two very clear phenomena; the first phenomenon is that they do not distinguish between authentic and weak hadith, and the second phenomenon is that they do not have fiqh in hadith, meaning understanding and reconciling between the hadiths, and a third and final phenomenon is that they do not have the principle of knowing the religious bid'ah (innovation) that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) intended = -- correct, correct, correct -- = so many of the bid'ahs are imposed on them under the name of their entry into the general text, similar to how the bid'ah of placing the hands after ruku' (bowing) was imposed on some of our Salafi brothers.

Another questioner : Then it may prevail over them... .

The Shaykh: Yes.