He was asked about some members of associations in Yemen who were students of Shaykh Mubarak, but who later came to oppose the Shaykh and seek the favor of the people of religious innovation.

The questioner : O Shaykh, a number of Yemeni brothers came to you asking about the association, and their question contained some deception. They said that these members of such-and-such association are students ofThe Shaykh : Mubarak, and so on and so on, despite the fact thatThe Shaykh : Mubarak warned against them many times and raised his voice in warning against them, and even disavowed them, while they are attackingThe Shaykh : Mubarak greatly. In fact, some of them said in your tape with the dialogue with Hadi, with Mubarak ibn Hadi, that you and al-Ghazali are the same in my view. And this is a student of his saying, "You and al-Ghazali are the same in my view." Al-Ghazali attacked the Sunnah, and you attack the Sunnah in the name of defending the Sunnah. And one of them, who is also one of his students, but a disobedient student, said to me, "The people of hadith have harshness and little devotion." Do you not seeThe Shaykh : Mubarak? And also, at the time when they praise the innovators—I do not mean the innovators whose innovation is doubtful, but the innovators who are grave-worshippers. There is a Sufi man of ours in Hadramawt who has every kind of affliction, meaning he is a grave-worshipper and a delegator of all things, and they go to him and study with him. In fact, some of them said, "The broad-mindedness of such-and-such Sufi is better than the narrow-mindedness of Mubarak." This Sufi sends the sons of those called the Sada (noble lineage) to al-Saqaf here. And now I was told by Ali Hasan Abu al-Harith that their number has reached forty. By Allah, this news fell upon me like a thunderbolt. When he saw the youth turning to the Sunnah, he took his sons and sent them here. So these party members, members of associations, or party members in general, by Allah, they discourage people, and by Allah, we have even heard them discouraging the youth from going to Shaykh Mubarak, at the very time when they praise these innovators, and they are sending these people, sending their sons to here to al-Saqaf and elsewhere. So what is your comment, O Shaykh? We are tired of them, by Allah, they have exhausted us and occupied us, and...

The Shaykh : I say, may Allah guide you, why do you concern yourself with these people?

The questioner : By Allah, because many...

The Shaykh : We have no control over anything, my brother. Yes.

Another questioner : I say it is a defect, I say, my Shaykh...

The Shaykh : Why do you concern yourself with these people? These people are many; falsehood has overcome the whole world, it is like that.

The questioner : Many follow them.

The Shaykh : What verse suits us? Take, my brother, a lesson and a warning from the comfort of the Lord of the Worlds for His noble Prophet with such words, even though those were disbelievers, astray, and polytheists. These people, even if they are astray, in any case, they do not go outside the circle of Islam and Muslims. And so I am amazed, by Allah, every time someone sees a person or people who claimed to be from the Salafis and then deviated, they say such-and-such about them. This statement arises from two things: either ignorance or negligence, and sometimes both are combined. The Sufis are known for saying about us in Syria, "So-and-so is like a Sufi; he neither condemns nor supports." He has a sweet tongue because he has no enjoining of good, no forbidding of evil, no love for the sake of Allah, and no hatred for the sake of Allah. Whereas the one who is upon the way of the righteous Salaf, he loves for the sake of Allah and hates for the sake of Allah, and he speaks sometimes with gentleness and sometimes with severity, because this is the way of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). The Sufi does not know severity because he does not care about the legal rulings; he cares about attracting the hearts of people. He cares that people turn to kissing his hand, or rather, kissing both his hands together. And so when these people say, "Why is Mubarak so strict, while that Sufi is easy and gentle?" they do so only because of their ignorance, or because of their negligence, and their running after their personal interests. Then you say, "People from these Yemenis came to me," and then what? What is behind that?

The questioner : They wanted to deceive, so they said to us...

The Shaykh : What can we do for them?

The questioner : Allah is the Helper. I asked him this because, of course, many of the youth there hear the words ofThe Shaykh : If they hear this, then, if Allah wills, the matter will become clear to them.

Another questioner : But I remember in their fatwaThe Shaykh : They did not permit them to put their money in the banks, if you remember, our Shaykh.

The Shaykh : How could I not? And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings. Welcome.

Another questioner : ... There is no party or partisanship, and the tape is withAbu Layla

The questioner : O Shaykh, you answered them with a correct answer, if it was according to the conditions and so on. But they are like this, Allah is the Helper, meaning

The Shaykh : My brother, what can we do for them?

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : There is no power nor strength except with Allah.