Reading from the book *Iyun al-Basair*: A Response by Muhammad al-Bashir al-Ibrahimi

The questioner : He says: "... and the politician who respects himself respects others, no matter how much he disagrees with them in opinion and no matter how fundamental the disagreement is. If criticism is necessary, its motive must not be judgment, but rather it should be directed at opinions through scrutiny, not at persons through disparagement."

The Shaykh : What Allah willed.

The questioner : "We cannot imagine how a politician serves his nation by tearing it apart, insulting its men, and belittling every opinion except his own, and how he imagines that these high lessons in the methods of cursing, which some parties teach a group of the nation's youth in coffee shop academies and alleys, serve the nation. Raising young people on cursing and swearing is an unforgivable crime." He speaks at length, then says: "We fear that, and we fear even more for this group that is turning to knowledge and bending over to acquire it—these vanguards who are the hopes of the nation and the object of its expectation."

The Shaykh : What Allah willed.

The questioner : "And whose expectation is not realized unless they devote themselves to knowledge and specialize in its branches."

The Shaykh : What Allah willed.

The questioner : "Then they advanced into the fields of work, equipped with tools and fully armed, taking on leadership guided by knowledge, and managing well with the system of knowledge. They avenge their nation from ignorance through knowledge, from poverty through wealth, from weakness through strength, and from servitude through liberation. They sweep away from the field of religion the remnants of the Dajjals (false prophets), from the field of politics and representation the remnants of brokers and traders, and from the horizon of leadership the remnants of sorcerers and illiterates. This pure group, this group consecrated by the rites of knowledge, you have kindled a fire in its fringes by your poor management, and it has begun to turn from the vastness of knowledge to the courtyards of coffee shops."

The Shaykh: Allahu Akbar.

The questioner : "And from the consensus of knowledge to the disagreement of partisanship. Among the students of knowledge, there are those who study and know that religion does not permit its student to issue a ruling on its judgments until the skill is firmly established and the evidence is gathered, out of fear of making permissible what is forbidden."

The Shaykh : Forbidden.

The questioner : "And among them is the student of medicine..." And our Shaykh's words are very strange in other positions that are much stronger than this.

Another questioner : People are people, O Shaykh, and problems are problems. The mover is one: Satan.

The Shaykh : Well, my brother Ali, did you find it?

The questioner : ... He speaks about the types of sinful youth and those who are, meaning, heedless and so on, then he comes to the one who openly commits sin.

The Shaykh : Write it down, both of you.
"The tape: My dear brother, do you want to be open about your sin when you have left the company of the good, and you said, 'I do not want to be among the hypocrites'? Do you want to announce your sin and be open about it so that people talk about you, saying, 'So-and-so, son of so-and-so, has such and such sins'? This is not right, my dear brother, never. If you have a sin, keep it secret between you and your Lord, the Lord of the Worlds. You ask Allah and say, 'O my Lord, keep it secret between me and You; I ask You not to expose me on earth or on the Day of Presentation.' That is one thing. And you announcing the sin in public and boasting with it is another thing. Therefore, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, as in the authentic hadith: except for those who are open about it. Who are those who are open about it? For example, the one who commits a sin openly is one who is open about it. For instance, if you turn on the recorder to a song that people can hear from a distance of a hundred meters or more, and you pass by driving your car calmly, displaying yourself as if you want to draw attention to yourself, this is being open about it, because you are telling people, 'Listen, I am now listening to a song,' even though Allah the Exalted has forbidden it. So this is from those who are open about it. And being open about it includes a person boasting of the sin. Sometimes, when some youth gather, one of them who has no religion begins to be open about it, saying, 'I did such and such, and I did such and such,' and he mentions adventures, crimes, and sins he committed, and how he, for example, led a woman into sin, and how he drank, and how he traveled, and how he got drunk, and how he stole, and how, how, how, and how. And he begins to list a catalog of sins. This is not forgiven for him unless he repents, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned that he will not be spared: Because if this person knew that this matter angers Allah Mighty and Majestic, and knew that Allah is hearing him now, he would not have proceeded with what he proceeded with, and he would have kept the matter secret between him and Allah Mighty and Majestic and sought forgiveness for it. And the worst and greatest of that is that some of them, when they hear their companions saying this, perhaps they fabricate and invent something that did not happen and begin to keep up with what they are saying, saying, 'I have forbidden relationships, and I have friendships, and I have travels, and I did this, and I, and I,' and he begins to list false stories about some sins that did not occur. So, and may Allah protect us, he also boasts of the sin, he boasts of the sin. There is no doubt that he is not the greatest in sin than the one who committed it and was open about it, but his sin is also great. And some of them go beyond being open about it to recording the sin on a tape. Perhaps some of them recorded, as some singers did—and no honor to them, for they are apostates by this action—recording a song about how he lured a girl and dragged her to his home and committed fornication with her, and he mentions how, how, and how, and mentions many details, and puts this on a tape to be heard by some fools and some open sinners. This is apostasy from Islam. This is eternal, and may Allah protect us, in the Hellfire, unless he repents. Why? Because he does not believe in the saying of Allah Mighty and Majestic: I ask you, by Allah, the one who knows that fornication is forbidden and a great sin and angers Allah Mighty and Majestic, does he boast before people, before millions or hundreds of thousands of people, that he lured a girl and fornicated with her? No, a believer never does this. If a believer, hypothetically, falls into a slip or his foot is led to a sin, his state would be like the state of..."

The Shaykh : My brother, may Allah bless you, creed is not taken from a lecture in which a person is enthusiastic and preaches and exaggerates in preaching and so on. That is from one side. From another side, this is a ruling on a specific person or persons based on a correct creed, and it is the one who makes the forbidden permissible, who makes it permissible in his heart. This is a point on which there is no disagreement among the Salafis, nor among the Khalafis, because his disbelief would be disbelief of apostasy, is that not so?

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : This is what we are asking: is there a disagreement in such a matter as a creed? As for applying the ruling that follows from this creed to a specific person, there may be a difference. You and I may differ, I and Abu Malik may differ. Do you think this one who announces his sin and boasts with it, and involves people around it and so on, is one who makes it permissible in his heart or not? I may say no, you may say yes, or vice versa, I say yes and you may say no. This is not permissible for us to make it a creedal disagreement between us and you, as they say today, because we are originally, as we discussed with you, in agreement that there is disbelief of apostasy, practical disbelief and creedal disbelief. So this image is not permissible for us to make it a cause of disagreement between us and them in creed. And this is my opinion, and perhaps these professors are present, you can listen to them as well, whether they agree or disagree.

Another questioner : But excuse me, our Shaykh, I want to mean, to specify the exact point that my brother Khalid referred to. What is the point you referred to?

The questioner : He was speaking about the one who is open about his sin, and that there are types of people. He mentioned the types of people with sins, then he mentioned the one who is open about his sin, and that the one who is open about it is one who is contemptible, and that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) says: And from being open about it, he began to mention types of being open about it. From being open about it, he said that some of them mention, boasting of fornication, 'I did this, and I did this, and I did this.' And another type does not do it but boasts of the sin. And a third type perhaps recorded this sin that he committed on a tape, 'I did this, and I did this, and I did this.' He considered this apostasy from the religion, and that its owner is eternal in the Fire.

Another questioner : He did not say apostate, he did not mention apostasy, he did not mention apostasy.

The Shaykh : I do not think there is anything in it.

The questioner : He said: This is an apostate and this is eternal, he is eternal in the Fire.

The Shaykh : There is something like that.

Another questioner : I am asking now, I mean, when we say, or as our Shaykh mentioned, that this lecture or impromptu speech, in reality, one does not judge a person by it. And secondly, I mean, when we say, for example, apostasy from Islam and that Khalid is eternally in the Fire, Allah Mighty and Majestic and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) judged many people regarding sins that they are eternally in the Fire, is that not so?

The questioner : Regarding sins?

Another questioner : Yes, yes.

The questioner : Sins other than shirk (associating partners with Allah).

Another questioner : Other than shirk, for example: .

The Shaykh : Excuse me, my professor, so that we do not stray from the point of disagreement, because you will be forced to say whether it is sins that he considered permissible in his heart or not. So there is no disagreement in the matter, because there are verses that will be applied to the one who considers it permissible.