Are there any observations you have regarding the treatise (The Muslims and Political Work) by Shaykh Abd al-Rahman Abd al-Khaliq?

The questioner : There is a treatise by the pen ofThe Shaykh : Abd al-Rahman Abd al-Khaliq (may Allah have mercy on him and preserve him), titled The Muslims and Political Work. Many young Salafis found it and wanted an answer to what is on the minds of them all: what is their position regarding political work? The question we direct to the scholar of this era, Al-Albani, is: Do you have any observations regarding this treatise and the topics it contains? If the answer is yes, what are these observations, with an explanation of them, or at least an indication of them, O honorable one?The Shaykh : And what is your view regarding political work?

The Shaykh : Of course, my acquaintance with the treatise and its content is distant, but something remains in memory that must be pointed out, even if some of it is understood from my previous answer. To clarify: political work, while not conflicting with Islam, is in fact part of Islam. However, from my previous remarks, it becomes clear that Muslims engaging in political work before they unite in understanding Islam correctly, embodying it in their reality, and ensuring they have been raised with a correct Islamic upbringing—I see this as an error of extreme gravity. It is a grave error for Muslims to engage in political work while they have not yet achieved the first stage we referred to during our discussion of the previous verse . Especially since some Islamic parties entered this experience many years ago, yet they did not succeed nor achieve success; rather, they retreated backward. Many of them turned on their heels and became as if strangers to Islam, in terms of their ideas and their actions. Let whoever sees the lesson in others take heed. If we have found that some Islamic groups, which are older in history, larger in number, and better prepared for political work, have not succeeded in it in the current time, and it has become apparent that they have lost many benefits for themselves regarding the recognition of many aspects of the Islamic Shari'ah that they were unaware of due to their preoccupation with what is called today political, social, or similar work, then we say that political work is a step that must be preceded by steps, after which political work comes. I do not believe that a group that has a call and an impact in some Islamic countries, noted for correcting concepts and ideas, should turn to political work. Especially since this political work is surrounded by laws and systems that are not based on the Book of Allah or the Hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), nor even on any of the followed Islamic schools of jurisprudence. As we always say: "O my soul, some evil is less than some." For example, the Ottoman State was a state that ruled by the Hanafi school. There is much good in the Hanafi school, but it contains some things that contradict the Sunnah. However, this is better than these rulers who do not rule by any school of the people of the Sunnah, but rather adopted foreign Western laws and set out to apply and enforce them in Islamic lands. So, any group that wants to do political work within these methodologies and man-made laws, there is no doubt that the outcome of that matter will be a loss, and the result for the workers will be that they return backward, just as their predecessors returned backward before them. Therefore, I do not support this political work, not because it is not necessary, but because it is premature. Perhaps what I can mention as an indication of the truth and the danger of political work before preparation for it is that I recall, if I am not mistaken, that the book or treatise mentioned explicitly stated that Muslims in this time must be lenient in committing some of the things forbidden by the Shari'ah, so that they can achieve the desired goal of establishing the Islamic society. I remember this. Are you remembering with me, or are you correcting my memory? Is there anyone who remembers?

The questioner : Yes, he pointed out

The Shaykh : That is it. So we say: how does this align with what we mentioned earlier, in a verse that the common person and the specialists among the scholars share in knowing, which is the saying of Allah the Exalted: ? Will the victory of Allah be that we make permissible some of the prohibitions of Allah the Glorious and Exalted? Or will it be by our mindfulness of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, so that we deserve victory from Allah? Thus, we can say here, and take as an example the saying of the well-known poet: "Sa'd led them, and Sa'd was wrapped up; this is not, O Sa'd, how you lead the camels." It is not the case that one launches into political work and opens the door to the call for political work by explicitly stating that it is necessary to commit some of the prohibitions, so that economic and social work and the like can launch, while the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) explicitly stated in some authentic hadiths, when he addressed the people, saying: The treatise says that it is necessary to look away from some of the prohibitions and commit them so that we become strong materially, otherwise we will be lagging behind the pace of the present age. This is what comes to mind as an answer to such a question.