A mistaken interpretation by one of the party leaders of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): “There is no obedience to a created being in disobedience to the Creator.”

The Shaykh : The books of Taki al-Din al-Nabhani (may Allah have mercy on him) are filled with weak hadiths and those that have no basis, and he built his thought and his party upon them. He even said in his interpretation of the aforementioned hadith: Meaning: There is no obedience to a created being if that created being believes, when he orders a sin, that it is a sin. But if his ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) leads him to believe that it is not a sin, then he must be obeyed. From this, they imposed upon every member of the party the obligation to obey their commander, submit to him, and not apply the knowledge, which is the Book and the Sunnah, because it is the commander’s opinion and ijtihad. I had many discussions with them, and very many indeed. One of them was when the prison in al-Hasakah, Syria, brought me together with about fifteen of them. So I gave him the following example.
Abu Layla : Is there a Shaykh in this prison?

The Shaykh : Yes, to one of them who was very enthusiastic, I said to him: What is your opinion of his saying (peace be upon him): ? He said: Of course, this is an authentic hadith and I believe in it. I said to him: And what do you say about the fact that some of the old, mujtahid (scholar qualified to derive rulings) imams of the Muslims said that the forbidden khamr (intoxicants) is only that extracted from grapes, whereas the intoxicants extracted from other things are only forbidden if they cause intoxication? Meaning, if one drinks two or three large cups and remains conscious, it is halal (lawful); but the last sip he takes that intoxicates him is haram (forbidden). I said to him: What do you think when they say this? He said: Yes.
The student : This is the opinion of the Christians regarding khamr (intoxicants), they say.
Al-Albani: What do you say? The opinion of the Christians? This is the opinion of some Muslims, the great scholars of the Muslims. I meant to say to him: So if Allah tests the Muslims with a ruling commander who adopts this opinion, what will you do? He said: I will obey him, obey him while believing that it is haram (forbidden). Why? Because the party told him: If the commander does not believe it is haram (forbidden), then he is not ordering you to commit a sin. So they twisted the hadith: There is no obedience to a created being who orders a sin while believing it is a sin; but if he does not believe it is a sin, then you must obey. This is all the destruction of Islam in the name of Islam, and in the name of establishing the state of Islam, and Allah is the One to be sought for help.