The Shaykh Al-Albani’s mention of a discussion that took place between him and one of the party leaders.

The Shaykh : I know, it happened to me when I was at the Islamic University. There was a gathering smaller than this one. When the head of a group entered, and, glory be to Allah, I was sitting at the door threshold there, and the walls were full of brothers. I was the last one he passed by to greet, and we do not say to anyone [to skip the greeting]. He was forced to shake hands with the seated men one by one. I was studying his face and saw that his face had flushed and changed. When he reached me, and I was the last one there at the door threshold, I said, "Oh Professor, they say in our Syria, 'A guest without standing up [to greet him] is not a guest.'" He barely heard this word before he erupted. He said, "Oh Professor, is this the time for that?" And he began to deliver a long and wide lecture that we do not want to work on the branches, and now the Ba'ath party and the Communist party, and I don't know what, and the atheists and the materialists, and he was pointing to my country, meaning Syria, and so on. Very strange words came out of him. I said to him, "Oh Professor, you are saying that we must not investigate theThe questioner : points of disagreement. There is nothing now but disagreement, even in tawhid (the oneness of Allah). The meaning of your words is that we do not even investigate tawhid. There is disagreement in tawhid. And in Sham, a treatise was published titled *La ilaha illa Allah* by Shaykh Muhammad al-Hashimi al-Maghribi, who lives there in the mountain, in Jabal Qasiyun in our Syria, explaining *La ilaha illa Allah*, *La Rabb illa Allah*. I said to him, "The meaning of your words, Oh Professor, is that we do not even investigate tawhid. No one who hears this would believe it, except for the trust in the speaker, that he would not believe he said it. And in this, we should not work now. We must cooperate against the communists and against the atheists, and so on. We said to him, "Oh Professor, and you cooperate with whom? With the believers or with the non-believers?" A long discussion took place between us and him, and he is the head of a group representing a known group, and so on. And I see that this represents, by his words, the reality of groups established in every, in many of the Islamic groups. Therefore, clustering and party affiliation is not from the Salafi call, nor from the Muhammadan Sunnah, but it is contrary to the agreed-upon Qur'an In summary, Oh Professor, we should not be concerned that they say this, as long as we have known our path and known our way, then what is upon us is only as our Lord said It must be made clear to them the outcome of their call. What is it? Reaching to rule. Did the Messenger, peace be upon him, establish a method for reaching to rule or not? No doubt So it is upon us to follow the path of the Messenger, peace be upon him. With what did he begin? He began with tawhid (the oneness of Allah). So we begin with tawhid. They say to us, "Until when?" We say, "As long as the Ummah numbers in the millions, we will continue to call until these millions become monotheists." And they will not become monotheists, because as the Lord of the Worlds said But at least, those who are concerned with the call to Islam and establishing the rule of Islam on the face of the earth, these at least must follow the path of the believers and not oppose the Messenger and not contradict the path of the believers. This is something we should be decisive about and not hesitate in it at all.