What is the ruling on these demonstrations by the young men and women?

The Shaykh : All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own selves and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can mislead, and whomsoever He misleads, none can guide. And I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger.


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As for what follows:
Among the means that Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, has prescribed in His Book and the Sunnah of His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) for receiving knowledge is what is mentioned in His saying, the Exalted: Therefore, we say: ask, and let your questions be directed, with no chaos, no... no tumult, no noise, but rather by raising the hand as a sign of seeking permission. Let us begin with the person on the right; please proceed.

The questioner : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, seek His forgiveness, and seek His guidance. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own selves and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can mislead, and whomsoever He misleads, you will not find for him a guiding protector.
As for what follows: My esteemed Shaykh, I have some very important questions concerning some of the youth. These are the questions, and I ask the forgiveness of my noble brothers because they are very important for the Ummah, that I pose them to your eminence. First, what is the ruling on these demonstrations, for example, when many young men or young women gather and then go out to...

The Shaykh : And the young women as well?

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : What Allah willed!

The questioner : Yes, this has happened. They go out into the streets, they go out into the streets, disapproving of certain actions committed by the tyrants, or of some of what these tyrants order, or of what other opposing political parties demand. What is the ruling on this action in the Shari'ah of Allah?

The Shaykh : I say, and success is from Allah, that the answer to this question falls under a principle, namely his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in the hadith narrated by Abu Dawud in his Sunan, from the hadith of Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As (may Allah be pleased with them both), or from the hadith of Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both)—the uncertainty is from now on. He said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The point of this hadith is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): Imitating the disbeliever is not permissible in Islam. This imitation has levels in terms of ruling, starting from prohibition and descending to dislike. The Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) elaborated on this in his great book entitled *Iqtida' al-Sirat al-Mustaqim Mukhalafat Ahl al-Jahim* (Following the Straight Path: Opposing the People of the Fire), with a detail not found with anyone else, may Allah have mercy on him. I wish to point out something else that students of knowledge should pay attention to, and not assume that imitation is the only thing prohibited in the Shari'ah. There is something else more subtle than that, namely opposing the disbelievers. Imitating the disbelievers is doing their actions, whereas opposing the disbelievers is intentionally differing from them in what they do, even if the action coming from them is one they do not have control over, unlike what is imposed on them as a cosmic decree, such as gray hair, which is a cosmic law in which the Muslim does not differ from the disbeliever, because it is not within their power or their will, but rather it is the law of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, in humanity: And yet, it is authentically reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: A Muslim may share with a disbeliever in gray hair, which is imposed on both, with no difference. You will not find a Muslim who does not grow gray hair except very rarely, just as you will not find a disbeliever in the first place. Thus, there is a sharing in appearance between the Muslim and the disbeliever in a matter they do not control, as we said earlier. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded us to intentionally differ from the polytheists in dyeing our hair, whether this hair is a beard or hair on the head. Why? So that the difference between the Muslim and the disbeliever is apparent. What do you say if the disbeliever makes an effort to do something, and then some Muslims do their action and are influenced by their deeds? This is more severe and more painful than mere opposition. Therefore, I wanted to point this out before proceeding to the explanation of the answer to which the question was directed.
Once you understand the difference between imitating and differing, the sincere Muslim in his Islam always and forever tries not to imitate the disbeliever, but rather to intentionally differ from the disbeliever. From this, we have established the Sunnah of wearing the watch on the hand, because the custom of the disbelievers—who invented this watch—is that they wear it on their left hand. This is what we have deduced from his saying (peace be upon him) Just as the Shaykh al-Islam (may Allah have mercy on him) says in that book, his saying (peace be upon him) "So differ from them" is an explanatory clause indicating that differing from the disbelievers is the objective of the Wise Lawgiver wherever this difference is realized. Therefore, we find its application in some other rulings, even if it is not in the category of obligation, such as his saying (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) As for praying while wearing sandals, it is a recommended practice. If the Muslim persists and is consistent in establishing prayer always and forever, barefoot and not wearing sandals, he has differed from the Sunnah and has not differed from the Jews who are extreme in their religion. It was reported in some of the dictionaries of the books of the Sunnah that Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) was in a gathering when the prayer was established, and among them was his companion Abu Musa al-Ash'ari (may Allah be pleased with them both). He put him forward to lead the people in prayer as imam, because Ibn Mas'ud knew first that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was pleased with Abu Musa's recitation (may Allah be pleased with him), where he said to him one day So he (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) said When Abu Musa heard this praise from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), he said "O Messenger of Allah, if I had known that, I would have adorned it for you with adornment" Because of what Ibn Mas'ud knew of the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) satisfaction with Abu Musa's recitation, he put him forward as imam, even though Ibn Mas'ud was not inferior to Abu Musa in excellence in recitation; rather, he was likely higher and more noble than him in that. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said about him So let him recite in the recitation of Ibn Umm Abd. This, in reality, gives us a practical lesson, we Muslims in the end times, where we may find an awakening in knowledge, but unfortunately, we do not find with it an awakening in moral behavior. So do not blame me if I tell you that I feel that when you enter this place, you push and compete, and this is not of Islamic morals. We must represent the awakening in both its aspects: in knowledge and in behavior and morals. The point is that Ibn Mas'ud, in our view, is more proficient in recitation than Abu Musa, and yet he was humble with his companion and preferred him, putting him forward to lead him and the people present in prayer. So Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) came forward, and he was wearing sandals, so he took them off. Then Ibn Mas'ud said to him, with the strongest disapproval, "What is this Judaism? Are you in the sacred valley?" Referring to his saying (peace be upon him) If you know these two facts: the prohibition of imitation on one hand, and the encouragement to differ from the polytheists on the other hand, then it is obligatory upon us to avoid all manifestations of shirk (associating partners with Allah) and disbelief, whatever their type, as long as they represent imitation of them. And to avoid that we, the people who adhere to the practice of the Book and the Sunnah, are preceded by his saying (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) This is a report from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) that includes a warning. And that is because this Ummah (Muslim community), he (peace be upon him) said in the authentic hadith, indeed the mass-transmitted hadith, And in a narration Since the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) has informed us in this authentic hadith that the Ummah will remain in goodness, when that serious report comes, "You will follow the ways of those who came before you," it does not mean that every individual of the Ummah will follow the ways of the disbelievers, but rather that it will be in this Ummah. And when he says "You will follow," it means a warning, meaning: Beware of following the ways of those before you, for there will be among you those who do so. And in another narration outside the two Sahihs, which is established in my view, the Messenger represents the imitation of the disbelievers to a dangerous degree that a person hardly believes unless he is a pure believer, and reality confirms that. He (peace be upon him) said in that narration Modern history today confirms that what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) reported about some of this Ummah following the ways of those before us has been realized to a far and very far extent. And although I believe that this following has a remainder, it was reported in some established hadiths that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said And it is the shameful act on the roads, as donkeys copulate. This is the ultimate imitation of the disbelievers. If you know the prohibition of imitation and the command to differ, we return now to these demonstrations that we saw with our own eyes in the time of France when it was occupying Syria, and we heard about them in other countries, and this is what we heard now in Algeria. But Algeria has surpassed the other countries; it has surpassed the other countries in this misguidance and this imitation, because we did not see the young women also participating in the demonstrations. This is the complete imitation of the disbelievers and disbelieving women, because we see in the pictures sometimes, and in the news broadcast on television and radio and the like, thousands of disbelievers coming out, whether they are Europeans, Syrians, or the like. They say in the Shami expression, and you will be pleased with this expression: they come out with women and men, "a mixed crowd" This is how they say it among us, a mixed crowd, pushing shoulder to shoulder, and perhaps buttock to front, and the like. This is the complete imitation of the disbelievers: that the girls come out with the boys to demonstrate. I say something else in addition to the fact that this demonstration is a phenomenon that imitates the disbelievers in their methods of protesting some laws imposed on them by their rulers, or showing their satisfaction with some of those rulings or decisions. I add to that something else, which is that these European-style demonstrations, and the traditional ones from Muslims, are not a Shari'ah means for reforming the governance and thereby reforming society. From this, every group and every Islamic party errs who do not follow the path of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) in changing society. Changing society in the Islamic system is not by slogans, shouts, and demonstrations, but rather by silence and spreading knowledge among Muslims and educating them in this Islam until this education bears its fruit, even if after a long time. The educational means in the Islamic Shari'ah differ completely from the educational means in the disbelieving countries. With this, I say briefly that the demonstrations that take place in some Islamic countries are, in principle, a departure from the path of the Muslims and an imitation of the disbelievers. And the Lord of the worlds said In everything .