Is organizing da'wah work considered political party affiliation? And is there a necessary connection between organized collective work and the condemned practice of political party affiliation?

The questioner : Well, Shaykh, if this is now a general statement regarding methodology, if we want to explain it specifically to the brothers we gathered with in the association of the associations for education, there is an institute there. To put it briefly, they are renting a building which they have made into an association or a school containing middle and high school levels. Their teaching of the call to Islam is through organized classes and lessons, like an institute. But there is no, for example, an emir who swears by Allah the Exalted to obey Him, even in permissible matters, so that if he disobeys, it is as if he disobeyed Allah. They do not have this; rather, they have a president and a vice president to organize the affairs of the call in the institute and outside it. This is the situation they have. So the question is: does this mean we have entered into unlegitimate organization, or is this considered...?

The Shaykh : No, no, this is an administrative matter that is necessary.

The questioner : And if they name it something else, for example, the Al-Fida' Association.

The Shaykh : We are not concerned with the names as much as we are concerned with the realities.

The questioner : So I mentioned to them the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when he was asked about the sect, he did not give them a name, for example, "they are the people of the Sunnah" or such. Rather, he described their state. If you know your state in relation to the Book and the Sunnah.

The Shaykh : My brother, the condemned organization is the organization intended to establish a Muslim state in a non-Muslim state. The condemned organization is the one that adopts means to carry out a revolution against the existing rule. It is not the organization that is scientific organization. Perhaps some of the attendees know that our call is based on two foundations, and we see that there is no life or salvation for Muslims from this humiliation that has settled upon them in all lands of Islam, unfortunately, except through these two pillars: purification and education. Achieving purification and achieving education. This requires organization. But the organization revolves around the first aspect, which is purification. What is intended by this, as I have explained repeatedly, is the scholars fulfilling their scholarly duty to take this heritage we inherited from many, many generations, and into this heritage has entered what is not part of it, sometimes by mistake and sometimes intentionally and maliciously against Islam. These scholars must fulfill the duty of purifying this Islam from what has entered it that it is innocent of. Why? So that the effect of this Islam is realized in those who hold fast to it, as it was realized in the first ones who held fast to it, a pure Islam. There is no doubt that our Islam today, as a thought, cannot be imagined to be purified, when there are many sects, as we mentioned earlier: the Mu'tazilah, the Khawarij, the Ibadis, the Shi'ah, the Rafidah, and so on. All these claim Islam. So it is necessary that the scholars fulfill the duty of purifying this Islam and presenting it to the people. We said earlier regarding the saying of Allah the Exalted: