The Shaykh Al-Albani's response to those who accuse the Salafis of being Murji'ah with the rulers, Khawarij with the preachers, Rafidah with the groups, and Qadariyyah with the Jews.

The questioner : Now, our brother Abu al-Hasan also asks for your comment on the four-part division that I conveyed to you from some preachers who differ from us in this matter. He says that the Salafis are, in effect, Murji'ah with the rulers, Khawarij with the preachers, Qadariyyah with the Jews, and at the same time Rafidah with the groups.

The Shaykh : I cannot comment on this four-part division because it is an invented, innovated division, and it falls under what I mentioned earlier, which is playing with words. We are Murji'ah with the rulers? We have clarified to them that we are with those who legislated the rulings and who made disbelief into two categories, and so on. We are not Murji'ah except in relation to those who call things by names other than their true names. And what I fear most is that the warning in the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in this other matter, "They call it by a name other than its name," will include them. What is the second one?

The questioner : Khawarij with the preachers.

The Shaykh : How do you mean Khawarij with the preachers?

The questioner : Or with the scholars; you declare them disbelievers, Khawarij with the preachers.

The Shaykh : Why?

The questioner : He means to tell you that they rely on their defects and talk about them. In reality, the matter is not that the Murji'ah do not know what the Murji'ah mean. They did not say we are Murji'ah because when we say that this is practical disbelief in some people and creedal disbelief in others, we do not say that disobedience does not harm faith.

The Shaykh : Disobedience, of course.

The questioner : We say this means a deficiency in faith. As for the Khawarij, among the students of knowledge who declare people disbelievers, they are the furthest people from the issue of takfir (declaring someone a disbeliever) unless the matter is clear and evident.

The Shaykh : Okay, but we need to understand the rest of the four-part division. What is it?

The questioner : That they are Qadariyyah with the Jews.

The Shaykh : How?

The questioner : Meaning they relied on the established reality and surrendered to it.

The Shaykh : We have answered this. What is the difference between us and them other than chatter? What did they do that we did not? Allah is the Greatest.

The questioner : And Rafidah with the group.

The Shaykh : Allah is the Greatest. Allah is the Helper. Is it the third or the fourth?

The questioner : The fourth.

The Shaykh : And what was the third?

The questioner : Qadariyyah with the Jews. Qadariyyah with the Jews, and before that, Khawarij with the preachers.

The Shaykh : Allah is the Greatest. Satan has made their deeds attractive to them, so He led them astray from the right path. They think that they are doing well with this division. Allah is the Helper.