The intervention of Abu Malik Ibrahim Shuqara.

Abu Malik: Our Shaykh, to complete this answer, and may Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh: Go ahead.
Abu Malik: When the centuries of the sects began to appear in Muslim societies, people were called Shi'ah and Khawarij, and to distinguish between these and those who were not on the methodology of these two great, major sects, it became customary to say "the people of the Sunnah and the community."

The Shaykh : Yes, exactly.
Abu Malik: But over time, matters became intertwined and corruption became similar, and it became difficult for us to use this term as it was used by the predecessors in the past.

The Shaykh: Yes.
Abu Malik: From this, we find that many scholars, or those who claim to be scholars, and also the major Islamic preachers who are pointed to with the finger, when they want to make their statement, say "we gather and do not divide," so it is not befitting for us to create these names that exist in our lives, where every sect among these sects or group among these groups claims to be on such a madhhab and such a methodology!

The Shaykh: There is no power nor strength except with Allah.
Abu Malik: That requires saying "the people of the Sunnah and the community." Does this old term have a place today in the life we live? May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : And you, I previously discussed with one of the preachers who is said to be among the preachers who does not use the term "the people of the Sunnah and the community," and I hinted at a reason in a word of mine that preceded that, because the term "the people of the Sunnah and the community" suggests that what is intended by it is the Maturidiyyah and the Asha'irah. So in a first-time telephone call from Zayn al-Din 'Abd al-Rahman Surur from London, and I think I told you the story, is your son 'Asim?
Abu Malik: Yes, indeed.

The Shaykh : Ah, so there was a long conversation between me and him. In the end, I said to him, "I see that you use the term 'the people of the Sunnah and the community' frequently in your magazine al-Sunnah, and I see that you should leave this term for the reason I mentioned earlier, that this term does not truly mean the people of the Sunnah, i.e., those who follow the Book and the Sunnah as it came in the Sunnah of following the righteous Salaf. This term does not mean that technically at all; rather, it means the Asha'irah and the Maturidiyyah. So I see that you should not use this term in your magazine." This was, of course, after a long discussion, and that he had disavowed the Muslim Brothers twenty years ago, and that he is Salafi in creed, and that he defends me in my absence, and so on. So I said to him, "This term." He said, "I do not see that." I told you my opinion, but I am telling you now: I advise you, before I expressed my opinion to him, I said to him, "I am now advising you not to use this term, 'the people of the Sunnah and the community,' because we are commanded to speak to people according to the capacity of their minds and their understanding. When you use this term, you make us believe the accusations we used to hear. And he said to me at the beginning of his addressing me that he conveys things about me to you, so do not believe them. So your use of this term is a political word today, meaning you do not want to attribute yourself to an explicit call so that it is not said, 'You are not from the Muslim Brothers, you are not from the Liberation Group.' Why? 'The people of the Sunnah and the community.' And this term gathers all these people despite the differences between them. I fear that this term, you and others use it for this purpose, and this is not the style of the righteous Salaf. Rather, you must call with complete explicitness. And this does not contradict the saying of Allah the Exalted: to the end of the verse. When I saw that I had moved from presenting my opinion to affirming that I am advising him of that, he promised me a promise, saying, "I will adopt that, and you will see the answer to that in the magazine." But I have not received even a part of this magazine to this day, whereas parts used to come to me separately before. Is there any of you who has seen a trace of such a promise?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: How.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : So, that is how it is, meaning there is no power or strength. Yes.
Ali Hasan: I saw something that is perhaps more amazing than that, our Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Yes.
Ali Hasan: I looked at, and I was in America recently, two issues of the magazine al-Sunnah, in which it investigates under the title "Sururiyyah"!

The Shaykh : Strange.
Ali Hasan: Yes, with exactly this title, and it denies under this title the existence of something called Sururiyyah, and says, "I have never called for a group or a party, and I am such and such, and I am such and such," meaning all this is in it, and it responds to some issues of the Muslim Brothers and mentions a side of their biography. It is, in fact, very strange, because it is almost a mass-transmitted report that the man is the owner of a group and a methodology and a call. So when he denies the name Sururiyyah, there is no problem in that, because he does not believe in something called Sururiyyah. But when he is the head of a group and responsible for a group, and so on, then here, meaning, it is a place of strangeness, and Allah the Exalted knows best.

The Shaykh : So the conclusion is that I do not see the use of this term, because it is one of the styles of politicians, where it satisfies every sect and every group of Muslims. Everyone says, as I mentioned earlier, "Who wants to disavow attribution to the Book and the Sunnah? No one." So "the people of the Sunnah and the community" are all these Islamic groups existing on the face of the earth. Whereas if you say, "I am a Salafi," it is an expression of the correct creed first, and of the gathering that gathers Muslims truly. And what you mentioned earlier, that they say, "If we say we are Salafis, this is a word that divides." I say, from the names of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is al-Mufarriq (the Divider), and from the names of the Noble Qur'an is al-Furqan (the Criterion), which distinguishes between the truth and falsehood. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) distinguished between the Muslim and the mushrik, and distinguished between the son and his father, by what? By Islam. This is a Muslim and this is a disbeliever. So from the styles of distorted propaganda deviating from the Book and the Sunnah, as I mentioned earlier, is the methodology of the Muslim Brothers: "Gather in masses, then educate." And I think now I have not finished what I am saying. Usually, they say: "Gather, then educate." Then there is no culture or anything, as evidenced by all these years, about seventy or eighty years, and the Muslim Brothers do not increase in knowledge, understanding, righteousness, and action in Islam. So there is nothing there of culture. And the evidence is that they gather the Salafi and the Khalafi, the madhhab follower, and the Sufi, and so on. How can they gather these contradictions under one banner, which is Islam? Islam with multiple concepts is not Islam. If the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) used to, when he stood to pray at night, open the night prayer with the supplication until he says: If the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) asks Allah to guide him to the truth in which people differ, and we increase the difference greatly and very greatly today, and then we do not call upon Allah with what the Messenger of Allah called upon, but we approve the difference and say, sometimes by implication and sometimes by explicit statement: "Whoever follows a scholar will meet Allah safely." As for following the Book and the Sunnah, it has become forgotten and neglected. And Allah is the Helper, and there is no power or strength except with Allah.