A speech by the brother Muhammad Nasser al-Tarmanini regarding the scholars who are afflicted with superstitions, Sufism, and religious innovations.

Abu Layla : Brothers in faith, we are now listening to a fine speech by the noble brotherThe Shaykh : Muhammad Nasser al-Tarmanini, may Allah reward us for him.

The Shaykh : A new shaykh, because they are deceived into thinking there is no shaykh but one, and there are many shaykhs, praise be to Allah. So they hear something new, and the second thing is that it is available from your old companion, some words, because the answers to the questions that come to him are sufficient for him. So rely upon Allah, as our Jordanian brothers say.

The Shaykh : Muhammad al-Tarmanini: Please, go ahead and speak.

The Shaykh : No, I want to answer the questions. As you said, you want to entertain us with a speech. Please, now, give us an introduction. Start with a word from yourself. Oh, Allah.

The Shaykh : Muhammad al-Tarmanini: We need to speak about my story withThe Shaykh : 'Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah, so we will give them a summary of the shaykhs, their biographies, their fanaticism, and their deviation from the straight path. This has caused many young Muslims to look at Islam as if it is a collection of superstitions, illusions, and arrogance over people. This is what has caused young Muslims to turn away from Islam, and the catastrophe occurs. There is no power nor might except with Allah, the Most High, the Magnificent. So I was in the beginning of my seeking of knowledge, and our meeting with the honorableThe Shaykh : was new, and we wereThe Shaykh : He warned us, may Allah reward him with good, about many of the illusions and superstitions that were prevalent in Aleppo. And the shaykhs of Aleppo—and I do not say the scholars of Aleppo, because there are no scholars in Aleppo, and this is very sad—that all the shaykhs of Aleppo are practicing superstitions and illusions. If you heard what we hear from these shaykhs, you would be with us in this matter that has settled in our hearts. So from these shaykhsThe Shaykh : is 'Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah. He was a man of religious knowledge, and many young people gathered around him, and they thought well of him. And we were among those young people who thought well of him. One day, I passed by one of the offices, and there was a small book by Shaykh 'Abdullah Siraj.The Shaykh : 'Abdullah Siraj, in our Aleppo, is the reference for all of Aleppo. So it is written in it the phrase of sending blessings upon the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him. It says this formula was received by Thabit al-Bunani from the Prophet of Allah, Ilyas, while awake, as narrated by Ibn Abi al-Dunya. This indicates that he sees the Messenger while awake. And he propagates this, and all his students say thatThe Shaykh : is always with the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, and he does not make a move except after the permission of the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him. So I said to myself, I am going to go toThe Shaykh : 'Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah, and present the matter to him, perhaps good will come of it, praise be to Allah. Because if 'Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah speaks with you, it is not like if I speak with you, because he is a great scholar in himself. So I went to the mosque whereThe Shaykh : Abu Ghuddah gives the Friday sermon. And after he finished the sermon, he sat for questions and answers. I bear witness to Allah that I am speaking this word for word, and we will meet, he and I, before Allah on that day when neither wealth nor children will benefit, except one who comes to Allah with a sound heart. So when he sat for questions and answers, I raised this question to him. I said, O honorableThe Shaykh : , many people claim that they meet with the Messenger while awake. Is this possible? He said, how while awake? I said, I mean while awake, like you and I are sitting now receiving questions and answering them. So he is like that. He said, it is possible. And I have never in a million times thought that he would answer me with the word "possible." So when he said "possible," I said to him, what is the evidence for that? He said, the evidence is the absence of a preventing evidence, meaning there is no evidence that prevents this meeting with the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, while awake. I said to him, rather the evidence exists, O honorable professor. He said, what is it? I said to him, the saying of the Exalted and Glorious: And the barzakh is the barrier that separates between the two things. He said, this is not sufficient. I said to him, rather it is sufficient. And the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, made the matter clearer when he spoke about the life of the martyrs and said: He said, where is this hadith found? I said, in Sahih Muslim. He said, then we will postpone the research until we see the hadith and see the reasons for its coming, and so on. I said to him, there is no objection. After he said this, he went back and added, saying, do you have Ibn al-Qayyim saying this? I said to him, I have read in the books of Ibn al-Qayyim, so where does he say this? He said, in his book al-Ruh (The Soul). I said to him, I have read the book al-Ruh, this phrase is not in it. He said, it is not explicit, but there is what indicates that. I said, suppose Ibn al-Qayyim said it explicitly, is the argument in the words of Ibn al-Qayyim or is the argument in the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him? He said, no, Ibn al-Qayyim, they agreed upon his integrity from the East to the West. I said to him, yes, they agreed upon his integrity, and he is a scholar, just, and trustworthy, but they did not agree that he is infallible. He said, then we will postpone the research. I said, there is no objection. Then one of the brothers said, and in the past they used to put a Pakistani cap on their heads, he said, a question, O honorableThe Shaykh : , he said to him, please. He said, there is a group of Wahhabis, they say that the madhhab of the Wahhabis is like the madhhab of the people of the Sunnah and the community. Is this correct? He said to him, no, in the branches it is possible, but in the fundamentals, no. He said to him, for example, how do they contradict us in the fundamentals? He said to him, they say that Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, died and has a barzakh life with Allah, and they say that the stick of one of us is better than Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.

The Shaykh : Far be it.

The Shaykh : Muhammad Turmanini: And they declare as disbelievers those who seek aid from other than Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He). So I said, my question is for the Shaykh. He said, go ahead. I said to him, the Wahhabis say the opposite of what you said, and I am well-versed in their books with scholarly knowledge, and I am ready to point to the book, the page, and even the line. The Wahhabis say that regarding the barzakh life of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), it is the best life with Allah, because he is the master of mankind, so his life is the best life with Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He). As for your statement that they say one of our obedience is better than Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), they say, Glory be to You, this is a great slander. As for your statement that they say whoever seeks aid from other than Allah is a disbeliever, this is correct, but it has conditions and is not absolute. We take a man who stands at the grave of one of the prophets or the righteous, such as Abdul Qadir al-Jilani or other awliya (close friends of Allah), and asks him for victory, intercession, and the like. They say, we come to this man and advise him with the verses and hadiths related to this matter, first, second, and third. If he turns away from that and rejects the verses and hadiths, then the mushrik (one who associates partners with Allah) is a mushrik whether he wills it or not. He said, no, we cannot declare him a disbeliever, because if you ask him when he says, "O Abdul Qadir, provide for me," does he believe that Abdul Qadir is the one who provides for him? No, he believes that Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) is the one who provides for him through Abdul Qadir. I said to him, this is the belief of the mushrikin. The mushrikin did not believe that the idols or their awliya were the ones who provided for them and prevented harm from them; rather, they believed that Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) is the Provider and the Giver. He said, no, absolutely not. I said to him, this is the saying of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) He said, by what do they worship them? I said, they worship them by slaughtering, vows, supplication, and the like. And he, who was sitting and talking with me, stood up and began to hurl insults and curses with anger, cursing and insulting, cursing and insulting. Then he concluded his speech with, "By the Great Allah, by the Great Allah, the one who says 'O Abdul Qadir, provide for me' is not a disbeliever, and the one who declares him a disbeliever is the disbeliever." He sat down. I said to him, O Professor, the argument is struck with argument, not with insults and curses. And the legal rulings were established by the saying of Allah the Exalted and His Messenger, not by oaths. He said, what is your sin against the Wahhabis that you are so upset? I said to him, I am not a sin against the Wahhabis, and what upset me was only the placing of this sign on your head, which proclaims that you are a scholar, and the famous hadith circulating among people which says So I fear that it will seep into the minds of the attendees that these insults and curses that were uttered are attributed to the Muhammadan legacy, to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). And the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) says So he had a guest from Sham who entered into the matter and the issue ended at this point. So this is a model of the shaykhs whom we consider to be liberated, so what about the shaykhs who, may Allah protect us, are entrenched in superstition, illusions, and the like? So the reality is that the history of the shaykhs among us is very bad, so heThe Shaykh : would sit in the village for twenty years, and the people of the village did not know this manThe Shaykh : except for the reverence, veneration, and sanctification, and the white caps for the Shaykh, the fat sheep for the Shaykh, the goat for the Shaykh, and the carpets stacked on top of each other for the Shaykh, and he did not teach them anything but superstitions and illusions, andThe Shaykh : he flew from here andThe Shaykh : came from here, and this is known in the biographies of al-Sha'rani, and in the Jam' Karamat al-Awliya (Collection of Miracles of the Saints) by al-Nabhani. So this is all that the shaykhs among us have. Therefore, it became a reaction, and the people among us became far, far away from the reality of Islam. So you come to the believing Muslim youth and ask him, are you a Muslim? He says to you, yes. You say to him, what is Islam? Either he gives you a distorted image of the society in which he lives, or he says to you, I am not a scholar, askThe Shaykh : he gives you the answer. So this is contrary to what the leaders of disbelief and misguidance are. You come to the communist man and say to him, are you a communist? He says, yes. You say to him, what is this communism? He recites it to you letter by letter, and he took it from a scholar with certainty and knowledge, unlike the Muslim youth. So this is the reality, it indicates a very great matter. And Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) has bestowed upon us the virtue ofThe Shaykh : and he began to visit us in Aleppo three days every month, he comes to us, and by the grace of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He), He saved us from these shaykhs and the superstitions and illusions they are upon. If I were to recount to you the sermons that are delivered in Aleppo, you could not accuse me of lying, because they are things that are unbelievable. We say that the Christians sell arms in Paradise, and the priests and monks sell arms in Paradise to the Christians. We have shaykhs who do not sell arms in Paradise... (may Allah have mercy on him) he says that this pole, Ahmad al-Rifai, had a follower, and his follower asked him to buy for him the famous orchard in the town belonging to a certain person. He said to him, after we finish the Friday prayer, we will go to the owner of the orchard and buy the orchard for you. So after they finished the Friday prayer, they went to the owner of the orchard. And after the owner of the orchard received them and honored them and slaughtered for them, after they finished eating, he stood upThe Shaykh : Ahmad al-Rifai and said to him, sell the orchard. He said to him, O Professor, no, I do not want to sell it. He said to him, you must sell it. When he saw that heThe Shaykh : insisted on selling the orchard, he said to him, I will sell it on condition. And this was on the pulpit, the old man was speaking, and no one among the people stood up and said, what is this talk? So he said to him, what is this condition? He said to him, a palace in Paradise. He said, after Ahmad al-RifaiThe Shaykh : hesitated a little, he agreed to give him a palace in Paradise in exchange for the orchard. He said to him, write a deed. So he wrote a deed and Ahmad al-Rifai signed it, and he specified the palace from the right side, Jannat al-Ma'wa (Paradise of Refuge), and from the left side, Jannat al-Firdaus (Paradise of Firdaus), and the like. So the man took the deed and left the orchard. He says to them, O brothers, after a while, the man who sold the orchard died. So they washed him and shrouded him. The next day, and there was written on the grave by the power of the hand: We have executed the sale that Ahmad al-Rifai contracted.

The Shaykh : What Allah willed.

The Shaykh : Muhammad Nasser al-Turmanini: And these are many stories, and I do not want to prolong this and deprive you of what you will benefit from the virtue ofThe Shaykh : and this is enough, and praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and blessings and peace upon the noblest of the prophets and messengers.

The Shaykh: It is certain that what you heard is strange for all the attendees, but it may occur to the mind of one of those sitting, a question about what you heard of the speech. If anyone has a question, objection, or suggestion, we would like to hear it on this occasion. Otherwise, we will open the door to the questions that each of you has, so that we do not delay too much for you, and the time is now ten and a quarter.
Wafi: We haven't started, we haven't begun.

The Shaykh: I know that, and that is why I say, bring out what you have?