Guidelines for Joining the Popular Army.
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Regarding joining the Popular Army, may Allah reward you with good?
The Shaykh : Yes. If the Popular Army is not merely a theatrical performance, but is a reality intended to prepare the Muslim people to repel the enemy if it invades their homeland, and if the training of the people in combat and carrying weapons is within the bounds of the Shari'ah, then it would be desirable for such popular mobilization to exist in all Muslim communities. I hope I have answered you.
The questioner : I mean that there are violations regarding the slogan.
The Shaykh : How do you say that? No, how do you say that?
The questioner : I said yes, but I am correcting myself, in that there are some violations.
The Shaykh : I said, my brother, I said I answered, meaning.
The questioner : Regarding the slogan, regarding such known matters.
The Shaykh : The unfortunate thing is, yesterday, where were you coming from when you spoke on the phone?
Abu Layla : From Libya, from Tunisia.
The Shaykh : From Tunisia to Libya, he could not ask a question in Tunisia like this one you just asked. So he entered Libya to ask about the ruling on joining the army in the mandatory service they call it. We struggled a lot with it, a lot, a lot. First, the voice was not clear. Second, it would barely be me or him before it would cut out, and I would raise my voice, then to no avail. In the end, it seems they said to use another device, so it rested and we rested. But I almost exploded. I asked him first, previously, my brother, can you not serve in the mandatory service? He did not hear the answer, so he asked again: I am forced to serve in the mandatory service, is it permissible or not? In the end, after repeating the request and the connection and the disconnection, I said to him, may Allah bless you, can you not serve in the mandatory service? –And upon you be peace– He said no, unless I travel. So travel to another country. He came back and said I cannot. So what is the benefit of these questions? I said, my brother, serve, serve, as long as you cannot do anything but serve. And Allah does not burden a soul beyond that it can bear. It seems he felt comfortable with the device they used last, and he started asking ordinary questions, for example, praying behind an innovator who lets his garment hang down and who does not move his finger. Among these things, the answer was: I repeat and reiterate that this Popular Army, which is announced in some countries, if it is part of the game and part of the theatrical performance, then there is no benefit in it, and a person wastes his time. But if it is a reality in educating the people, equipping them, and preparing them to meet the enemy, then it is an obligation without doubt. But with the condition, as I said, that there be no Shari'ah violations. The examples you started to raise are, without doubt, Shari'ah violations. But there is something more dangerous than that, in that the trained army may be ordered by its responsible commander to neglect the prayer and take it out of its time. This means a major sin, and those other sins I referred to vanish in comparison to it. So these two conditions must be kept in mind.
The Shaykh : Yes. If the Popular Army is not merely a theatrical performance, but is a reality intended to prepare the Muslim people to repel the enemy if it invades their homeland, and if the training of the people in combat and carrying weapons is within the bounds of the Shari'ah, then it would be desirable for such popular mobilization to exist in all Muslim communities. I hope I have answered you.
The questioner : I mean that there are violations regarding the slogan.
The Shaykh : How do you say that? No, how do you say that?
The questioner : I said yes, but I am correcting myself, in that there are some violations.
The Shaykh : I said, my brother, I said I answered, meaning.
The questioner : Regarding the slogan, regarding such known matters.
The Shaykh : The unfortunate thing is, yesterday, where were you coming from when you spoke on the phone?
Abu Layla : From Libya, from Tunisia.
The Shaykh : From Tunisia to Libya, he could not ask a question in Tunisia like this one you just asked. So he entered Libya to ask about the ruling on joining the army in the mandatory service they call it. We struggled a lot with it, a lot, a lot. First, the voice was not clear. Second, it would barely be me or him before it would cut out, and I would raise my voice, then to no avail. In the end, it seems they said to use another device, so it rested and we rested. But I almost exploded. I asked him first, previously, my brother, can you not serve in the mandatory service? He did not hear the answer, so he asked again: I am forced to serve in the mandatory service, is it permissible or not? In the end, after repeating the request and the connection and the disconnection, I said to him, may Allah bless you, can you not serve in the mandatory service? –And upon you be peace– He said no, unless I travel. So travel to another country. He came back and said I cannot. So what is the benefit of these questions? I said, my brother, serve, serve, as long as you cannot do anything but serve. And Allah does not burden a soul beyond that it can bear. It seems he felt comfortable with the device they used last, and he started asking ordinary questions, for example, praying behind an innovator who lets his garment hang down and who does not move his finger. Among these things, the answer was: I repeat and reiterate that this Popular Army, which is announced in some countries, if it is part of the game and part of the theatrical performance, then there is no benefit in it, and a person wastes his time. But if it is a reality in educating the people, equipping them, and preparing them to meet the enemy, then it is an obligation without doubt. But with the condition, as I said, that there be no Shari'ah violations. The examples you started to raise are, without doubt, Shari'ah violations. But there is something more dangerous than that, in that the trained army may be ordered by its responsible commander to neglect the prayer and take it out of its time. This means a major sin, and those other sins I referred to vanish in comparison to it. So these two conditions must be kept in mind.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.