What is the ruling on collective action and partisanship?

The questioner : Another question: Do you consider the original idea of collective action today to be a religious innovation or forbidden, or does your critique address the errors in its application?

The Shaykh : Or?

The questioner : Or does your critique of this gathering and partisanship address the errors in its application, or is the original idea of collective action a religious innovation or forbidden?

The Shaykh : No, there is no room to deny collective action if it is not accompanied by partisanship. Collective action is covered by many noble verses, such as the saying of the Lord of the Worlds: and similar to His saying: . There is absolutely no room to deny this kind of collective cooperation, because Islam is based on this cooperation. However, what appears in the present age has deviated from this purpose of cooperating in righteousness and piety, as it has been mixed with much partisanship and fanaticism to the extent that it has become a matter accepted by many preachers: grouping under the name of partisanship. We know that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has forbidden partisanship and fanaticism for a sect or a group with its own system and its own methodology in many Qur'anic verses. If this system and methodology do not conform to the Sunnah in every aspect, then partisanship today has become a sect representing what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) warned against in some of his hadiths, which serve as an explanation and detail of His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): . It is not hidden from any Muslim researcher today the multitude of parties spread throughout the Muslim world, and that each party has its own methodology and system, and that these parties are discordant and hateful toward one another, contrary to the intended purpose of Islamic grouping and gathering. Each has its own methodology, its own leader, and its own sect, and none of these sects meet with one another. This is undoubtedly included in the generality of the previous verse: . In summary, grouping and gathering in the path of practicing Islam as the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did is an obligatory matter in which no two people differ, as it was said, "no two camels butt heads over it." Indeed, the Muslims will not stand firm, the Islamic society will not be realized, and the Islamic state will not be established except through such grouping and gathering. However, the condition is that there be no fanaticism for a person or a sect over another, but rather that all fanaticism be for what came from Allah and His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and according to the methodology of the righteous predecessors. This is what I have.

The questioner : In the mass-transmitted recitation: .

The Shaykh: Allahu Akbar.

The questioner : Yes, Hamzah and al-Kisa'i recited it.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : What is the limit of moderation in a Muslim's interest in politics today, within its Islamic guidelines?

The Shaykh : If the intended meaning of politics is the politics of the nation, the truth is that politics is not the work of an individual from the nation or individuals from the nation, but rather it is among the obligations of the Muslim state. If the intended meaning of politics, as is generally understood, is the politics of the nation and the management of its affairs for the benefit of its religion and worldly life, then this discussion is, in our claim, and indeed in our belief, premature. Because, unfortunately, there is no Muslim state ruling with what Allah has revealed as it should; rather, there are existing states, some better than others, or perhaps more accurately, some worse than others. As for legitimate politics, it is undoubtedly a collective obligation, and it is carried out by the people of consultation. Do you know of any council of consultation in any of the Islamic states that is composed first of an elite of scholars of Islamic jurisprudence, and then an elite of specialists in all the sciences that are considered collective obligations, so that these scholars cooperate, each in their specialty? I say, with regret, that there may be a council of consultation, and what is called today parliaments, with people of all specialties and in all sciences and fields, except for religious knowledge. There are no people of consultation to be consulted regarding what the Muslim state should do and how it should govern its subjects in accordance with the rulings of the Shari'ah.