The Shaykh spoke about Hamid al-Fiqi regarding the conversation that took place between them concerning the Ikhwan.

The questioner : What did al-Fiqi say about them?

The Shaykh : Who?

The questioner : Al-Fiqi?

The Shaykh : Yes, that's right.

The questioner : Did he ever mention them to you?

The Shaykh : Yes, by Allah, he called them "Khawwan" (traitors).

The questioner : Khawwan, huh.

The Shaykh : The first time I met Hasan...The Shaykh : Hamid al-Fiqi, I don't think you knew him!

The questioner : He was well-known...The Shaykh : But we did not know him.

The Shaykh : I say you did not know him. The first Hajj I performed, I visited him along with Fahd al-Mariq. You didn't know him either. I visited him at a hotel, and by Allah, I don't know what its name was, I forgot. So I sat down with my companion, Fahd al-Mariq, who was the commander of the Saudi army that came fighting in Palestine, they claimed. When he heard about me...The Shaykh : ...and Hamid was sitting on a bed, and I was opposite him on another bed. As soon as he heard about Al-Albani, he got up and embraced me, and so on. We did not know each other, so I don't know how the occasion arose. I mentioned the Ikhwan, the Muslims there in Syria. He said, "The Khawwan, the Muslim Khawwan." I actually did not approve of this term from him. I spoke to him frankly and said, "O Shaykh, using this name is not free from exaggeration, because there may be good, righteous, and sincere people among them, but they are similar to them in some respects. As for calling them 'Khawwan,' we do not say such a thing. But we describe their reality: that they are not upon the Salafi methodology based on the Book and the Sunnah and the methodology of the righteous Salaf, and then they persist in what they are upon and do not advance at all."