Continuation: There is no necessary connection between partisanship and organized work.

The questioner : All right, in the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy. Is there a necessary connection between the blameworthy partisanship and the organized collective work in calling people to Allah?

The Shaykh : The organized collective work in calling people to Allah may be a party and may not be a party. Personally, and with me are certainly noble people who see no objection to dividing the work among the individuals of the Muslims, and even among their groups. So every group performs its obligation in the manner I mentioned earlier regarding the reformers. But just as we do not imagine any arrogance among those reformers, rather the broad circle of Islam unites them, despite what may be in each of these individuals of deficiency, as I hinted at earlier, so I say the same about the groups that organize their affairs to carry out the call to Islam. If these groups do not have mutual hatred, turning away from one another, and hostility to the point where an individual in one group takes a partisan stance against the other group unjustly, these groups must exist. But they must be linked to a principle and a unified methodology. This is absolutely necessary. For this reason, I sometimes state openly that I do not deny that there may be among the Muslims a group called "The Muslim Brotherhood," or a group called "The Tabligh Group," or a group called "The Liberation Party." I deny these groups today, but I do not deny that such groups may exist if they agree with the call of truth, which is following the Book and the Sunnah, with whom they are and wherever they are. But when these groups—and let us call them now what they call themselves, these parties—when these parties do not meet with the call of truth, and rather they openly state in many countries that this call you are making is division and not unification, as if they mean that the goal of Islam is to bring together contradictions, as is the case with some of the existing groups today. They bring together the Sunni and the innovator, the Salafi and the follower of the later generations, and so on.
Abu Malik: Even among the Rafidah Shi'ah.

The Shaykh : And I intended to say this, and some of them may not be as it is said today that they are from the people of the Sunnah and the community. This reminds me of a word I recorded earlier for myself, which I wanted to draw attention to in connection with this. In your words, may Allah bless you, you mentioned the people of the Sunnah and the community. I see that the use of this name today does not express the call of truth. That is because this name, "the people of the Sunnah and the community," was and still is applied to two theological schools: the Asha'irah and the Maturidiyyah. These are the people of the Sunnah and the community. It did not occur to any of those from whom we inherited this terminology that the people of the Sunnah and the community would include the people of the hadith, the followers of the righteous Salaf. So we have been commanded to burden people with what they can bear, and to speak to people according to their understanding. So I see that we should replace this word, which we are always going around and around with, and when we emphasize to people that it is not sufficient today to limit the call to the Book and the Sunnah only—and this is necessary—rather it is also obligatory to add to the call of the Book and the Sunnah another addition, which is the decisive criterion between all the groups that claim to belong to Islam, despite the vast distance between them. For example, the Shi'ah and the Rafidah claim to belong to the Book and the Sunnah, and they claim that they act according to the Book and the Sunnah. But the Sunnah has a concept with them that is different from the concept with the people of the Sunnah, meaning with the followers of the four schools of jurisprudence. And these followers, the followers of the four schools of jurisprudence as they are today, and we are living today, do not understand the Sunnah as it came in the Sunnah when the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned the seventy-three sects and said that all of them are in the Fire except one, and he described the saved sect as that which is upon what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and his noble Companions were upon. They do not understand the Sunnah with this restriction, meaning what the Companions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) were upon and what the Rightly Guided Caliphs were upon. Therefore, it is not befitting for the Muslim caller to just go around and around with calling Muslims to the Book and the Sunnah, and this is necessary, but he must include the difference between these calls, all of which claim and assert belonging to the Book and the Sunnah. And in my knowledge, if you would be patient with me a little, may Allah bless you, and in my knowledge, the existing groups today refuse, practically—I do not say by name—they refuse, practically, to attribute themselves to the righteous Salaf. That is because this attribution narrows their circle of escaping from some of the rulings of the Shari'ah under the name of ta'wil (figurative interpretation), which is the very essence of ta'til (denial of the divine attributes). Let alone that they would be pleased to attribute themselves by name to this. Rather, they deny our attribution to the righteous Salaf. And finally, if one of us is asked, "What is your madhhab (school of jurisprudence)?" we say, "Salafi." He will say to you, "What is Salafi?" Say, "Muslim," as Allah (Mighty and Majestic) named us in the Noble Qur'an. And this is a word that appears good on the surface, but its inner reality is not so.