What is the ruling on the da'wah workers who distinguish between 'aqidah and methodology, such that you find the 'aqidah of one of them to be Salafi, while his methodology in calling to Allah is Ikhwan, activist, and political?

The questioner : Our Shaykh, may Allah preserve you, some of the da'wah workers distinguish between 'aqidah and methodology in their adoption; you find their 'aqidah to be Salafi, and their methodology in calling to Allah to be Ikhwan, activist, political, or Tablighi, or something like that. Is that permissible for them?

The Shaykh : I do not believe that a Salafi, in terms of creed and conduct, can adopt the methodology of the Muslim Brotherhood and their like. We know from the history of the Muslim Brotherhood as a political party that more than half a century has passed, and they have not benefited themselves in any way, let alone benefit others. This is because, as they say, one who lacks a thing cannot give it. So, since their guide, Hasan al-Banna (may Allah have mercy on him), gathered them and massed them, he gathered and massed them contrary to the Quranic methodology, which says, for example: The system of the Muslim Brotherhood was built on a foundation that I express from my own perspective, and they cannot deny it. Even if one of them dared to deny it, their reality is sufficient as proof for it and against them. Their foundation is massing people, gathering them despite the differences among them in creed, conduct, or jurisprudence, and then they educate the masses. They educate. Their call was built on this for all these long years. But reality testifies that there is nothing there except massing, and there is nothing called education. The proof of this is that there is no intellectual bond, no creedal bond, among the Muslim Brotherhood in their various countries and regions. Reality also testifies to this: the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt are not the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, who are not the same as those in Syria. In fact, in Syria, they differ from the brothers of the south and the brothers of the north. I know this, and I am a Syrian from Damascus, as you know. As they say, "The people of Makkah know its valleys best, and the owner of the house knows what is in it best." So I know that the Muslim Brotherhood in Damascus were greatly influenced by the Salafi call in terms of creed and worship. The reason for this is very clear, because the activity of the Salafi call was in Damascus, and then in Aleppo. So the system of the family groups (sara'iyat) in the Muslim Brotherhood in Damascus was to study in some of them the book *Fiqh al-Sunnah* by Sayyid Sabiq. Muslim Brothers, there is no surprise in this, because Sayyid Sabiq was among the special companions of Hasan al-Banna (may Allah have mercy on him), and Hasan al-Banna wrote a brief introduction to this book. So it is supposed that the Muslim Brotherhood should have this book as their constitution in jurisprudence in all the countries of the Muslim Brotherhood. But you see the amazing thing that indicates they do not have a unified intellectual or cultural unity. This book, while it is studied in some family groups in Damascus, is fought against in the north by the Muslim Brothers. These people say that this book is not permissible to study because its author is a Wahhabi. And its author is one of the heads of the Muslim Brotherhood, indeed one of the disciples of Hasan al-Banna. So the Muslim Brotherhood, since their establishment, are still on the military system of "stay in your place and move." They call themselves "activists" (harakiyyin) and distinguished themselves with this title among all other groups or parties. Activists, I say, truly activists, but on the military system of "stay in your place and move." Do you know the military system of "stay in your place and move"? You move your legs but do not advance. What is the benefit of this movement? It has no benefit, if you allow me. So I do not think that a group of Salafis in any country in the world can adopt the methodology of the Muslim Brotherhood, because this methodology, as I told you earlier, is built on the basis of massing, then education, and then nothing of this education. Reality is the greatest proof of this. If a large or small group of true Salafis adopt the system of the Muslim Brotherhood in the call, the outcome of that, necessarily, is: One of two things, and there is no third. Either they return, despite their noses, to the bosom of the Salafi call, and that is better for them and more lasting, or they will lose this heritage they acquired in those years because of their preoccupation with applying the methodology of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is gathering and massing, not on the basis of a unified thought. It will be one of two things, and there is no third, ever. We know today that the Salafi call in this time has spread, first by the grace of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and second by some of its callers, in a way that the Muslim community did not know before about a third of a century or so. This has been testified to by some Salafis who speak now about the Salafi call, and perhaps it is mixed with the methodology of the Muslim Brotherhood. So I say that the call of the Muslim Brotherhood, when it was built on the basis of massing and then nothing of culture, and the call of the Salafis was built on education and not on massing, therefore victory for this call was associated with it wherever it settled. And this has appeared now in this era. So the Salafi call or the Salafi methodology has become everywhere and on every tongue. And some groups that were fighting the Salafi call openly and are still fighting it secretly and covertly are riding the Salafi wave now, because they found that there is no acceptance for that movement built on the basis of "stay in your place and move," with no knowledge, no conduct, and no new useful thing. So I believe that any Salafi group, if it leaves its previous methodology influenced by the style of the Muslim Brotherhood in terms of trying to mass the largest possible number around them, the Sunnah of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in His creation does not change or alter. I mean that a person, as He said: cannot do everything. He cannot achieve in knowledge, politics, economics, and society. Specialization in every science is necessary. It is considered at least a collective obligation (fard kifayah). So if a group that was working in the circle of knowledge, which we call purification (tasfiyah), purifying this Islam from what is alien to it, and purification, you have heard it more than once, and they associated with it the upbringing of the small groups around them. If they widen the circle of massing and gathering, the reins of purification will slip from them, and the many, very many masses will slip from them, because they are one, two, five, fifteen, let us assume, of the great scholars. They cannot educate thousands upon thousands in correct knowledge and correct upbringing. So if they occupy themselves with massing and gathering on the methodology of the Muslim Brotherhood, they will lose the education on the methodology of the Book and the Sunnah and what our righteous predecessors (may Allah be pleased with them) were upon. For this reason, I say: I do not deny any group for any group that performs a collective obligation. I do not deny this, because it cannot be otherwise. For example, I do not deny a Muslim who specializes in studying the Arabic language, but he does not understand anything of the jurisprudence of the Book and the Sunnah. I do not deny a person who specializes in any other science that is among the collective obligations, and so on. But I deny the dispersion of those with these specializations and their not massing and cooperating with each other. This is what we deny. So if we assume that the Muslim Brotherhood took a side of these collective obligations and specialized in it, but they did not return to the other group that specializes in something other than their specialization. Just as this other group does not hostilities the Muslim Brotherhood because they specialized in another obligation, but they are one mass, all working under purified Islam. And I believe firmly that it is not possible for the state of the Muslim to be established, in which the victorious Salafi group, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the non-victorious Party of Liberation participate in calling for it, because the attributes that came in the Sunnah are not applicable to them. It is not possible for the Islamic state to be established except by the cooperation of all these groups on the basis of the Book and the Sunnah and the methodology of the righteous predecessors. I say the Salafis who specialize in the jurisprudence of the Book and the Sunnah on the methodology of the righteous predecessors, and they try to hold themselves to following the Book and the Sunnah in every big and small matter, not distinguishing between what was obligatory, what was a recommended practice (sunnah), and what was recommended (mustahabb), but they do from all of that what they are able to. Unlike the others who are content to follow one of the schools of jurisprudence without knowing the correct from what people differ on. So these Salafis, if they remain in this side only and do not take the other sides of the other obligations, even by cooperating with the other groups, they will also remain in "stay in your place and move." So it is necessary for the cooperation of all groups, each with its specialization. And there is no doubt that the most important thing that should be done in reform is what the Salafis in the whole world are upon, which is purifying this Islam from what has entered it, and educating the Muslims on this basis. We do not deny performing the collective obligations, but we do not exaggerate in them as the others exaggerate in that. And on this basis, if the groups unite, each group in its specialization with the other groups under the circle of work within the limits of the Book and the Sunnah, as we said earlier, starting with the saying of Allah the Exalted: to the end of the verse, I believe that on that day the believers will rejoice in the victory of Allah. Or if many of the Muslim Brothers keep saying, "My brother, this call divides people and does not gather them," we say: "Chatter" (shanshanah) or "chatter" (shinshinah) that we know from Akhzam. This is the problem: they do not cooperate with those who perform the duty of purification and accuse them of dividing. If every group cooperates with the other, each within the limits of its specialization, I believe that this is the way to succeed the Muslims and take them out of this weakness they have fallen into. Now, Professor, if you have something, please proceed.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.