Advice to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan.

The Shaykh : All right, let us suffice with this much for now.

The questioner : All right, just one last piece of advice, O Shaykh?

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : Advice you offer to the Afghan Mujahideen, to their leaders, and to our Arab brothers there in Afghanistan. This is a significant task, and I ask Allah to help you with it.

The Shaykh : By Allah, what I can offer to our brothers there, all of them, at this hour is that they do not dispute with one another. Disagreement among individuals is like disagreement among groups; it is a natural necessity, for Allah (Mighty and Majestic) decreed it for a wisdom, as He the Exalted said: . And we all know that the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them), whom our Lord praised in the Noble Qur'an and our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in many hadiths, such as and such as and the like, despite this abundant praise, differed in many of their opinions and ideas. However, this disagreement did not lead them to dispute, for dispute leads to failure, as stated explicitly in the Noble Verse. Therefore, since the interest of jihad in Afghanistan necessitated that some Arab Muslims enter its land, and they have their own ideas and customs, and they may differ with the Afghans, whether much or little, it is not permissible for any intellectual or moral disagreement to become a cause for dividing the word and tearing apart the ranks, which must be solidly aligned against the enemies whom all these Muslims, Arabs and Afghans alike, have united to fight and expel from their land. They should not differ or dispute so that they may be able to eliminate their enemy. And I know that the distance is very great between the Afghans as a Muslim people and the Arabs as a Muslim people; for the Arabs, even if some individuals deviate in some aspects from the Book and the Sunnah, are nonetheless closer to the Book and the Sunnah than the non-Arabs. Based on this reality, which is better than the reality of the Afghans, the Afghans should welcome their presence in their land and thank them when they come to help them against their enemy, and they should tolerate any deviations from their school of jurisprudence that they may see in them. For they must know this truth: their school, namely the Hanafi school, is like the other schools of jurisprudence practiced by other peoples. For example, the Maghrebis follow the school of Imam Malik, the Egyptians are predominantly of the Shafi'i school, and the Hanbali school is predominant in the Najd region and some parts of Syria and elsewhere. The followers of all these schools must know that no one of these schools is a revelation from Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) to the Imam of the school, let alone a revelation to its followers over a long period of time. Rather, in many cases, they are the independent legal reasoning and opinions of some of the early or later Imams, some of which are correct and some of which are incorrect. Whether correct or incorrect, they are rewarded: two rewards for the correct and one reward for the incorrect. Therefore, it is not permissible for the followers of each school to be so zealous for their school that division occurs, and then they do not respond to the saying of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He): . And there is no doubt that the general populace cannot imagine that the awareness of every individual is like the awareness of the leaders who are in charge of them. Therefore, the first to whom this advice should be directed, and who should be properly cared for, are the leaders of these many parties. For they, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . These leaders of the parties are responsible for the disagreements and fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) among them, for they had the ability to prevent these fitnahs. How? By promoting what is called sectarian tolerance. I do not mean by sectarian tolerance that a person should not care about knowing the truth present in other schools. Rather, I mean by tolerance that when you meet your Muslim brother and a disagreement arises between you on a matter, whether in the branches as they say, or in the principles, and you discuss it, and then each of you remains with his previous opinion, fearing Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) and being afraid of his Lord, not being fanatical except for what appears to him to be correct, and that this remaining with one's own school should not be a cause of estrangement, hatred, and turning away. And they must be as stated in the Noble Text: . This is what is possible for me on this occasion. Glory be to You, O Allah, and praise be to You. I bear witness that there is no deity but You. I seek Your forgiveness and I repent to You.