The Shaykh Ibrahim Shuqqa's speech on engaging in political work.

Ibrahim Shuqara: I say first, may Allah bless you. You mentioned issues. As for the first issue, it is that those who are currently engaged in political work or in stirring up the masses in the lands of the Muslims, either that stems from a poor conception, a deficient conception, or ignorance in the creed. And the truth is, I would like to add something else, which may be a unifying factor between the two matters: the one who knows a matter and does not contradict it if it is incorrect, or contradicts it if it is correct, is in reality and in the actual situation not committing an error that can be forgiven, but rather is committing a great sin among the sins. This is because he knows that the matter does not return to him alone, and the harm does not return to him alone, but rather it returns to the entire Ummah. So there is a third matter, as I said, which is that many of those who occupy high and distinguished positions in this Da'wah, in our lands today, and in lands other than ours—I say—they do not do this out of bad intent, because it is not permissible for us to judge intentions as evil or bad, even if we find those people mixing with what is actually evil, which we believe to be evil. That is because Allah, Mighty and Majestic, is the One who has guaranteed the intentions of the servants, and it is not for us to judge anything but the apparent. And even if the apparent is defective, the intention may be good, but in his action, this or that. So I say that many of these people—and this is what is most likely, if not all of them—in these dark days, dark in their darkness, which the Muslims are living in all corners of the earth, and in our Islamic land in particular—I say that the Muslims are in need now to know who they are first. These are the ones who occupy high positions in the Da'wah, who are pointed to with the finger, who are read and listened to, and perhaps they snatch the hearts, minds, eyes, and ears of people, and gather them with sweetened words, pleasant phrasing, passion, and stirring. I say that we learn, or have learned, from our contemporary political reality that the enemies of Islam, when they want to do a favor for them—and this was in the past, when they wanted to do a favor for them to serve their objectives and perform the duty placed upon them and serve them in the way they want—what did they do? They would come, or they would follow the footsteps of that man from the softness of his nails until he grows up, and they would take him as a small ladder to climb upon to achieve their goals after they exit the lands of the Muslims. And this is much, and very much. How did they do it? They would bring this man, whom they pull or are pulled to them, either by throwing him in prison, or by torturing him, or by doing something with him, and he may know that at the beginning, or perhaps he does not know. Then they would entice him until they place him in the highest positions of responsibility. Then he performs the great service that even the enemies of Islam themselves do not perform for themselves with their own hands. So many of these favors, and very many, and the lands are still living the tragedies they left behind to this day. And from the rules of Western colonialism that we know, one of their rules was that if they exited, if they ruled the lands of the Muslims for a hundred years, they must leave behind traces of those whom they raise under their eyes, leaving them behind to rule with such a system or such a rule, perhaps for a period equal to or twice the duration they stayed in those lands and regions. So I say now that perhaps there is another manufacture similar to this manufacture in its objectives and goals, even if it differs in its method, but in its reality it does not differ. That is that the enemies of Islam may have started directing some people with a hidden, distant direction, and directing them with the methods they know. And we knew in the tragedy of the war that took place three years ago, which led to the imposition of the new global security system on the lands of the Muslims, that the disbelievers did not reach what they reached except by stirring up souls and preparing them by portraying some people in the lands of the Muslims as the most capable people to strike this entire Western Ummah with its armies, equipment, numbers, and weapons, and so on. So the tragedy was from this door. And this perhaps was not with them, or was with the one who was directed; perhaps he knew or did not know, but this does not concern us. What concerns us are those who agree with us in seeking the goal and reaching the appropriate means that achieve that or this goal. We are very much concerned with these people, and they are undoubtedly our brothers in understanding the creed, at least. But if they err in the method, we must hasten to them before the evil becomes severe and prolonged, and then the result will be a greater and more tremendous tragedy than that tragedy whose effects we do not know when they will end from the life we live. Therefore, I say that some of these people may have been portrayed with distant goals, and they are moving them from behind the curtain and directing them in a direction that may have led us to what is worse than what we have fallen into. And I am amazed, greatly amazed, at those movements that are incubated in the lands of disbelief, and they say about them, or that these Islamic movements find the appropriate or suitable outlet in those lands that love freedom, like France, Britain, America, and others. Do not these people know that they are living under the shadow of disbelief, and that these disbelieving states only want to sow discord between the Muslims in the land of the Muslims itself? I am amazed at these people. These people understand the reality very well, but we do not understand the reality. When we want or say to people, understand the creed of Islam first, purification and upbringing according to its implications and its requirements together, so that we are the ones who know how to address people in the long and short term. This is one thing. As for the second, may Allah reward you with good, it is an important issue, and I hope that this issue reaches the ears of all Muslims in these days due to its importance and the necessity of it reaching them all. That is that many of our brothers who share this methodology with us may not understand the correct creed that we are singing about and calling people to, and we say and claim that we understand the creed. And you hinted at this with an example you struck, which is a clear and evident example. Many of our brothers may also say the saying of those who delegate, who do not say that we understand the texts on their apparent meaning, but we also delegate the understanding and meaning of the texts to Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, and to the clarification of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), who clarified something to us and concealed something from us. Therefore, I say here that this brief, deficient understanding of the creed—I say truly that many of our brothers are in need of it. And I am amazed, greatly amazed, by Allah, at those who take the lead at the tables of teaching, research, lectures, debates, and calling to Islam, saying that the creed of Islam, from its beginning to its end, can be understood in a few minutes. How can it be understood in a few minutes, and we are sitting with you now for more than an hour and a half, and you are clarifying for us a simple, partial part of the details of the correct Islamic creed? So how can it be imagined that these people say to the general Muslims—and I do not say to the specialists, because they strike the example of those Arabs who used to sit before the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and then ask him a question, and he would carry it and run with it to his tribe and clan? You also mentioned that the Arabs became foreign, just as the foreigners became Arab. So the Arabs also became foreign, in the heart of their lands and in their own homes, and foreignness became on their tongues. So how can these people understand the creed in ten minutes? Perhaps one of them does not understand one ruling from the rulings of prayer or fasting, and years pass one after another, and the month of fasting comes once a year, and then you find the general and the specialist people asking about one ruling that is repeated every year. So is it possible to understand the branch if the root is not understood? And how is the root understood if such understanding is thrown into their ears and on their hearts and on their tongues? Therefore, what I say to these brothers who call for radical change, as they say, that it is time for the Ummah to exit from its peaks and proceed to the goals set for it—I say to these brothers, may Allah reward you with good, and we do not have a bad opinion of you, and we do not attribute error to you by assumption that you are the only ones who erred, but we say that the apparent is what we judge by. Therefore, we care for you, or for your benefit, as you also care for the benefit of the Muslims. And we may also, with this precise understanding and this insightful jurisprudence and this sound view that Allah has bestowed upon our Shaykh, and also upon the one who is accused of taking knowledge from him, because he revolves in his orbit and takes from him because he wants them to return backward—I say to these people that we are on an understanding that, if we are not better than you in it in the religion of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, in many issues, then you do not surpass us in understanding in this issue that you call the jurisprudence of reality. We understand reality much more than you, and the proof of that is this precious lecture in which our Shaykh branched out and roamed in the edges of knowledge, taking from here and there from the legal evidences that the sound intellect requires, and which also end in—I do not say in the image of the intellect, for this is primitive—but I say that the intellect guides to what the Shari'ah guides to, so the explicit intellect agrees with the explicit transmission. We are a Ummah that is not suitable except on these two foundations: purification and upbringing. And finally, and not lastly, I say, may Allah reward you with good, O our Shaykh, and may He bless you, and may Allah reward our dear guest, our brother.The Shaykh : Abd al-Rahman 'Abd Allah al-'Abaylan, regarding this valuable and precious question, which our Shaykh's mind, from which we know his knowledge, has produced this knowledge that we have witnessed, and I do not say that we have increased in faith in what our Shaykh says, but rather we increase day after day in the belief that no one is fit for this Ummah except for this kind of understanding that our Shaykh has placed in our ears, and may Allah reward him with good, and peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good. Do you have a word? May Allah reward you with much good and benefit us all with what we have heard, ... .