The Shaykh asked a man from the Tahrir Party: Do the sects and parties agree on referring to the Book and the Sunnah and the practice of the Salaf, or do they not?

The Shaykh : There is a group of Muslims who say, "We do not believe in the Book and the Sunnah?" I said, "You just now said you do not know if that is the case?!" I see he cannot say Allahu Akbar. Subhan Allah, the same...

The questioner : You are asking the group in reality...

The Shaykh : Allah is the Greatest...

The questioner : Do you know of a sect that claims to belong to Islam that rejects, meaning, that the Book and the Sunnah are the source?
The questioner: No.

The questioner : They do not believe...
The questioner: To my knowledge, there are no people who say, "We are Muslims," who do not claim affiliation with the Book and the Sunnah.

The Shaykh : Well, why do you not answer?

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

The Shaykh : Now, and praise be to Allah... Now, since all the sects claim affiliation with the Book and the Sunnah, is that so?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Well, now a second question arises.

The questioner: Go ahead.

The Shaykh : In reality, as far as you know, are they all like that, or only some of them?

The questioner : No, not all of them.

The Shaykh : So, some of them, yes. Well, what is the decisive ruling between all these sects, all of which claim to return to the Book and the Sunnah?

The questioner : The general appearance.

The Shaykh : Yes! The appearance.

The questioner : I mean, the appearance means that since I say the Book and the Sunnah are the reference I have, it appears to me through my adherence to the Book and the Sunnah and my return to the Book and the Sunnah that I am adhering or not adhering.

The Shaykh : Very good! Returning to the Book and the Sunnah, so we have now reached a belief in which there is no disagreement among Muslims, correct?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Is there disagreement among Muslims regarding their understanding of these two sources, the Book and the Sunnah, or not?

The questioner : In terms of the source, or in terms of understanding the content, I mean!

The Shaykh : May Allah guide you, I specified... We said that after all Muslims agreed, despite their differences in creed, rulings, and so on, that they all say the source is the Book and the Sunnah. The question was whether they differ in their understanding of these two sources or not?

The questioner : I mean, the Muslims, I mean, they consider in legal derivation, the Islamic sects consider legal derivation, the principle is to take from the Book as the primary source and the Sunnah, but...

The Shaykh : May Allah answer you, you are dragging this out... May Allah heal you...

The questioner : But regarding the texts that have come down, let me be precise. The texts that have come down in the Book and the Sunnah regarding the verses in the position of mutashabih...

The Shaykh : O Shaykh, let it go. May Allah guide you. Let it go. Let it go with the word Allahu Akbar.

The questioner : ... regarding the source, naturally a Muslim, but the texts of the Book and the Sunnah, of course, they differ in some matters, naturally... in what is not muhkam of the Qur'an, naturally!

The Shaykh : In what is not muhkam?

The questioner : Of the Qur'an...

The Shaykh : Now you have ruined things for us.

The questioner : No, you have not ruined things.

The Shaykh : Or you have opened up a new topic for us, I do not know if you are prepared.

The questioner : I do not want to go into many topics, the topic of research... I am not mentally prepared for the discussion.

The Shaykh : What is muhkam from the Qur'an, for example, do you have an example, can you answer this question?

The questioner : Say, "He is Allah, the One" is muhkam.

The Shaykh : Good. Did they differ or did they not differ?

The questioner : To my knowledge, they did not differ.

The Shaykh : No, they did differ.

The questioner : Who differed? Amin Nayef, I mean?

The Shaykh : Did you agree with me, did they differ or did they not differ?

The questioner : The Muslims did not differ.

The Shaykh : Who are we talking about!

The questioner : What would they even differ on in "Say, He is Allah, the One, Allah, the Self-Sufficient"?

The Shaykh : They did not differ. Is al-Samad a name of the Essence or an attribute of the attributes of Allah?

The questioner : This is a second topic, we have entered and branched out!

The Shaykh : You did not answer me, as is your custom, there is nothing strange about it!

The questioner : I tell you, O Shaykh, when we enter and branch out in the topic, it becomes long!

The Shaykh : What am I asking you? Is al-Samad a name of the Essence like Allah, or an attribute of the attributes?

The questioner : The Muslims differed!

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds... If Allah wills, we will return to the path.

The questioner : ... we will speak about it.

The Shaykh: Go ahead.

Another questioner : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Professor, in fact, when Amin Nayef asked you to sit with him, meaning, to graciously sit with him, the goal was not that he would be convinced of something.

The Shaykh : Nor am I convinced... but the goal was that there would be a back-and-forth so that the issue would become clear.

Another questioner : And therefore, in my estimation, I wanted to start speaking and present... He actually, I did not want to discuss the issue of the intellect, and I tried to raise it first. I was actually desiring, considering that he made me the head of the session or the prince, after we read, based on the agreed-upon foundations that only define... The one who read it, one laughs, one shouts, meaning, during the first speaker, the second interrupts him like this! So his insistence, even to the point that you feel he wants to drag you into a research, and this is a perception, Professor, that he has that you are trying to drag the one who is discussing with you into a research that you want and he does not want!

The Shaykh : Why does he not want it? Let us see. I want to drag him into a research on menstruation, on purity. I want to drag him into a research on a principle of the principles of the Shari'ah, whoever does not believe in it is a disbeliever, an apostate, and we are not prepared to sit in a session with him. Why does he refuse, and I have declared to him Why does he refuse!

The questioner : In fact, he became stubborn, as I said. He wanted, initially, for you to mention the conditions of the session as a preamble. The third thing, I was actually desiring to raise one of the topics that I know he raises, and the benefit for us in sitting, and the real benefit for the people who receive the tape and hear about Amin Nayef, is that they receive what is our response to his ideas.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : And therefore, my desire was actually to raise the issues that he considers, because he has foundations by which a hadith, excuse me, a Sunnah, is valid for him or not valid, because he denies in principle that any report is attributed to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), meaning, all reports, initially, he rejects them and says they are fabricated regarding the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). And therefore, he establishes the Sunnah that has to do with legal rulings, so he has methods for proving them. So I was actually desiring that he be given the opportunity initially to speak about what he has, and we hear your response to him, and after he finishes, he hears if he has another response, and so on. But in fact, your style in the back-and-forth, initially, he has a sensitivity to it, and my knowledge...

The Shaykh : Well, I tell you, even if you cut off his speech, was it not the case that if the man had a broad horizon in intellect, thinking, and knowledge, was it not possible for him to exploit this point from which I started Because it is agreed upon by the scholars of Muslims that referring to Allah is to His Book, and referring to the Messenger is to his Sunnah. Was he not able to enter from there to the point that he wanted?

The questioner : He is actually able to, so I tried to tell him, "O Abu Yasser, you are concerned about the session, so skip it," but...

The Shaykh : I wanted to say, "My brother, it is not me who asked you for the debate and discussion; you were the one who insisted from long ago," and so on. But I did not approve of this. I have the right to impose any topic, any research on him. Then, if he wishes, he enters into it, and if he wishes, he refuses. I do not impose on him by force, I do not compel him by force, I do not say to him, "You must research this research." I propose that the research be on this point. If it pleases you, it is good and excellent. If it does not please you, you are free, because you are...The student : The meeting is not mine; you are the one concerned about this meeting, not me. Nevertheless, I did not reach him to this point, but rather a word of equality Ah, it needs an answer, it needs discussion. So this verse, he could have started from it, and then he would know us on this dangerous topic that relates to knowing the correct Sunnah from the weak one. But I see, my brother, that researching with him on this issue means that this man does not give weight to the scholars of Muslims, all of them, all the scholars of Muslims, not the exegetes, not the hadith scholars, not the jurists, because he was pleased with his opinion and came with a method by which he can distinguish between the correct and the weak. Well, I had no objection to entering into it, but the people will not benefit anything at all, because they are the opinions and whims of a reckless person who has no knowledge and no intellect...