What is the difference between the people of hadith and the people of opinion?

The questioner : The important matter now, which you have clarified and settled the disagreement on, is that whoever calls for grouping and partisanship, and becomes one of those who rejoice in their partisanship and show loyalty and hostility based on this, adopting it as his own stance, is outside the call of the people of the Sunnah and the community, and more precisely, outside the saved sect.

The Shaykh : Well done.

The questioner : Here is the question: if some of the brothers in this field raise an objection, what do they say? For example, they ask how much the school of the people of opinion deviated from the people of hadith, and how much the Hanafis were fanatical about their school. Do you state explicitly—for instance, may Allah preserve you—that these fanatical Hanafis, who perhaps spoke ill of the imams of the other schools because of this school, are they excluded from the circle of the people of the Sunnah and the community and included in the circle of the seventy-two lost sects? Do they say that the disagreement between some of these Salafis who opposed us in this matter reaches the level of the disagreement between the people of hadith and the people of opinion, and the ruling of the people of opinion regarding the people of hadith previously?

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : They say that the school of the people of opinion is an Islamic school, and even if it contains errors, how can it be said of one whose creed is the creed of the righteous Salaf, and who calls to the Book and the Sunnah, but may Allah have mercy on him, he was afflicted with the issue of partisanship and believes that the call without partisanship cannot establish Islam? This is what they say to us. They say to us that you do not have a correct vision for establishing the Islamic state.

The Shaykh : So we ask them.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : Are they engaged in the call to the oneness of Allah?

The questioner : Yes, the call to the oneness of Allah and warning against the worshippers of graves, sorcery, and fortune-telling.

The Shaykh : No, when it comes to their grouping and partisanship, what is the majority of what prevails over them? Why did you group? Why did you become partisan? Did you group and become partisan to call people to the oneness of Allah?

The questioner : That is what they say.

The Shaykh : No problem, Professor. The disbelievers say, "We are on guidance and the truth." What do we have to do with their saying? We do not discuss with them. We say to them: "You call to the oneness of Allah and following the Book and the Sunnah. Show us, for example, your worship, your prayer, your conduct in your homes, with your offspring, and so on. Are they upon what the righteous Salaf were upon? Or, in their own expression, upon the Sunnah? If they are so, then why did you group yourselves apart from the others? Why did you not let the call proceed among all these Muslims, differing in their parties and schools? There must be something behind this grouping and partisanship. I do not say it is something hidden; rather, it is apparent. Every grouping, every partisanship, whose origin is affiliation to the righteous Salaf, as soon as it groups, it works within the circle of its grouping and forgets its call. We have touched this with our hands, with many of those who were truly upon the call of the righteous Salaf. They began to work in grouping and partisanship, meaning they began to work in politics.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : So, politics and a call to the oneness of Allah, and upon what the righteous Salaf were upon? This is absolutely impossible. This is an impossible matter, because it is very natural, just as it is impossible for a person to be a scholar of every science and specialized in every science. One must lean toward one science more than another. This is the Sunnah of Allah in His creation, and this is the capacity of the human being upon which Allah created His servants. If they wanted to work in the call, how easy the call is, and how it is in need of no grouping. And if they wanted to work in something other than the call, take for example a charitable society. A charitable society that collects money to help the poor and the needy. I say this charitable society is good, because it is among the meanings of the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He: This is an exhortation to a good deed, and it is encouraged in the Noble Qur'an. But this does not call, neither to knowledge, whether you call it the Sunnah or the righteous Salaf. But its work is good. However, this charitable work, as I quoted from you just now, if it does not oppose those who call for the nation to return to what its righteous Salaf were upon in creed, jurisprudence, and conduct, and so on, and if we are in need of you, then this is good work. But these who become partisan first distance themselves completely from the call to the Book and the Sunnah, and especially the oneness of Allah. Look at the Islamic world as you see it; most of them are as far as possible from the oneness of Allah. How many callers there are, and how many groupings and partisan groups! If these people devoted their efforts and directed them to teaching these Muslims the oneness of Allah and correct worship, you would find the Islamic world different from what it is today, in its distance from the oneness of Allah, let alone the Sunnah in its common, widespread meaning. The point is that this partisanship, they must understand that it distances them, if they are sincere in their affiliation to the righteous Salaf, because they will not be able to perform the obligation of the call to the Book and the Sunnah and upon the methodology of the righteous Salaf to which they claim affiliation. All that is the case is that they claim, "We grouped." Why did you group? For the call? No, the call has become completely distant from them. And this is the reality of these partisans. Show me a partisan group that affiliates with the call of the righteous Salaf, and all the groups they call from the East and the West, and so on, have come to know the oneness of Allah that the small children know in some lands of the oneness of Allah, because they drink it and are taught it in a state of their youth and grow up upon this call, while the other groups do not know the oneness of Allah and fight the oneness of Allah with one word, which is, "This is not the time for it."