Abdullah ibn Mas'ud's Following of 'Uthman and the Statement in His Report
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The questioner : Regarding Ibn Mas'ud's following of 'Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him), it is mentioned in the text of the same report that he said, "Disagreement is evil," in his following of 'Uthman. Does this imply, O Shaykh, that if a person believes that an action is a Sunnah, and disagreement may arise, whether among his brothers or in the society he is in, he should leave this Sunnah because of the anticipation of this disagreement?
The Shaykh : If you want a brief answer, yes. But details are necessary. I am certainly concerned. There is no doubt that something is stronger than the Sunnah—wait, I thought a locust wouldn't fly on paper. May Allah keep you safe. Amen. Restoring the Ka'bah to the foundations of Ibrahim (peace be upon him) is more important than the Sunnah you are asking about. But the Messenger of Allah did not restore it. Why? Because he feared fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) and harm. From this, the scholars say that if a Muslim is caught between two harms and must choose one, he chooses the lesser of the two evils. But is it always necessary to assume that holding fast to the Sunnah will result in fitnah?
The questioner : No
The Shaykh : No. If the matter returns, as we said in a previous issue—I don't know if any of you remember it now. Perhaps you are not given a limited answer. What was your question? It varies.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : What was the question?
The questioner : Whether he should leave it.
The Shaykh : That is not the question now. When we were sitting there, at the start of the discussion, the important thing... if it isThe Shaykh : If he does not remember, the young man must remember. The important thing is that estimating the harm behind acting upon the Sunnah varies from place to place, from person to person, from a person with certain people to a person with other people, and so on. If it is predominant in the mind of the one following the Sunnah that holding fast to the Sunnah will result in a harm greater than the Sunnah itself, then he may leave it. This is the detail I wanted to explain to you. In this regard, we strongly condemn the Muslim youth, regardless of their orientation or their party affiliation, from nominating themselves to be representatives in the parliaments that exist today. However, I say, and I repeat, if we are in a country like this one, with many parties, some of which are Islamic parties but they are parties, and some are non-Islamic parties—communists, Ba'athists, materialists, and so on—and we find in the arena where people are nominating themselves from among these groups, I say to our brothers, in the sense of repelling the greater evil with the lesser evil: vote for the Islamic groups, then compare between these groups. For example, there might be a Salafi who is riding high, thinking he must nominate himself because he thinks he will reform the parliament. We prefer to choose him over choosing an Ikhwan member or a liberal party member or the like. Not because we support nomination, but we oppose it; rather, it is in the sense of repelling the greater evil with the lesser evil. On this occasion, I say two things. The first is that I have a bulletin of about six pages, which is the answer to a question from Algeria, before our brothers there were afflicted with the setback they suffered regarding the elections. Did it reach you?
The questioner : It reached us, O Shaykh.
The Shaykh : If you want a brief answer, yes. But details are necessary. I am certainly concerned. There is no doubt that something is stronger than the Sunnah—wait, I thought a locust wouldn't fly on paper. May Allah keep you safe. Amen. Restoring the Ka'bah to the foundations of Ibrahim (peace be upon him) is more important than the Sunnah you are asking about. But the Messenger of Allah did not restore it. Why? Because he feared fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) and harm. From this, the scholars say that if a Muslim is caught between two harms and must choose one, he chooses the lesser of the two evils. But is it always necessary to assume that holding fast to the Sunnah will result in fitnah?
The questioner : No
The Shaykh : No. If the matter returns, as we said in a previous issue—I don't know if any of you remember it now. Perhaps you are not given a limited answer. What was your question? It varies.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : What was the question?
The questioner : Whether he should leave it.
The Shaykh : That is not the question now. When we were sitting there, at the start of the discussion, the important thing... if it isThe Shaykh : If he does not remember, the young man must remember. The important thing is that estimating the harm behind acting upon the Sunnah varies from place to place, from person to person, from a person with certain people to a person with other people, and so on. If it is predominant in the mind of the one following the Sunnah that holding fast to the Sunnah will result in a harm greater than the Sunnah itself, then he may leave it. This is the detail I wanted to explain to you. In this regard, we strongly condemn the Muslim youth, regardless of their orientation or their party affiliation, from nominating themselves to be representatives in the parliaments that exist today. However, I say, and I repeat, if we are in a country like this one, with many parties, some of which are Islamic parties but they are parties, and some are non-Islamic parties—communists, Ba'athists, materialists, and so on—and we find in the arena where people are nominating themselves from among these groups, I say to our brothers, in the sense of repelling the greater evil with the lesser evil: vote for the Islamic groups, then compare between these groups. For example, there might be a Salafi who is riding high, thinking he must nominate himself because he thinks he will reform the parliament. We prefer to choose him over choosing an Ikhwan member or a liberal party member or the like. Not because we support nomination, but we oppose it; rather, it is in the sense of repelling the greater evil with the lesser evil. On this occasion, I say two things. The first is that I have a bulletin of about six pages, which is the answer to a question from Algeria, before our brothers there were afflicted with the setback they suffered regarding the elections. Did it reach you?
The questioner : It reached us, O Shaykh.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.