Warning against the works of the Egyptian Muhammad al-Ghazali, who represents a symbol of free thought.

The Shaykh : And I give you an example, or more than one example. There are two famous books in Islamic knowledge today, and they are of this type. Although they did not raise the title that you are now announcing about them, they apply it literally. One of them passed away recently, and we ask Allah to forgive us and him.The Shaykh : This Egyptian Muhammad al-Ghazali is a great Islamic writer. Some newspapers here and elsewhere, upon the occasion of his death, elevated him to the skies. This is because they do not know knowledge. As it is said, regarding the weak hadith that is not authentic in its chain but whose meaning is correct: "Only those of virtue know the worth of those of virtue, and only the people of knowledge know the worth of the scholar." You find writers, and there are many of them in this age, who think that anyone with a fluent tongue or a flowing pen can write about the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and about the biographies of scholars. They elevate this one and lower that one, and so on. The point is that al-Ghazali, with this global fame he gained in Islam, to the extent that the Saudi state gave him the King Faisal Prize. He took the prize from here and then set out to attack them from here. This was a man who was establishing a school of thought, the title of which I mentioned, even if he did not title it as such. You find that he does not follow the correct Sunnah, and he judges the correct Sunnah with his intellect. He does not follow the jurists, yet he claims to be with the distinguished, great jurists, and so on. His famous book, what is its name? It is about...

The questioner : The Prophetic Sunnah.

The Shaykh : The Prophetic Sunnah between what?
Abu Malik: ... the hadith

The Shaykh : This contains disasters from the jurisprudential aspect, and disasters from the hadith aspect. It defends some of the sects that exist today for no reason other than what the poet also said: "My love for her came to me before I knew love, and it found an empty heart and took hold."
The Shaykh: This man is a rationalist, and some of the living follow his path and walk in his footsteps, heel to heel, behind him. He denies the hadiths whose authenticity is agreed upon and authenticates the weak hadiths, and he states this explicitly! At the beginning of my academic career, I wished to undertake a work by which I could serve the Sunnah. One of our Salafi brothers who were in Damascus and had traveled to Cairo and affiliated with al-Azhar wrote to me, saying thatThe Shaykh : Muhammad al-Ghazali is asking you to edit his book *Fiqh al-Sirah*. The first edition had been published. I am like the one who says about us in Syria, "No joking allowed" at that time. I mean, as you know today, in any case, I accepted that with great joy. So I edited the book for him. And he included an introduction in which he revealed his scientific methodology, he claimed. After he presented an introduction, he naturally elevated the status of the editor, as is the nature of all people. It is about his creed, it is about politics, it is about hypocrisy, Allah knows. The point is he says, butThe Shaykh : I mean, may Allah reward him well, according to his scientific methodology, he authenticated some hadiths and weakened others. But my opinion is that some of these authentic hadiths are not authentic! And some of what he weakened are authentic in my view! He gives an example of when he authenticated the hadith of al-Bukhari that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) . He says, "This hadith cannot be authentic. Why? Because Islam does not fight a people except after warning them." This is a valid claim, but we say to him: Where do you get the idea that he did not warn them before? Where do you get the idea that the call of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not reach them, when he stayed among his people for so many years? Your claim that he raided them and the call of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) had not reached them is merely a claim. By mere claim, he weakened the authentic hadith. So I said, "You claim that he raided them and the call had not reached them. What is your evidence?" He has no evidence except the mere claim. He weakened the authentic hadith. Then I said, there are other authentic hadiths that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) . And he said (peace and blessings be upon him) . I said, "Do you want the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) to conduct his policy such that, God forbid, every time he wants to raid a people, he says to them, 'Beware, I am attacking you'!! Allahu Akbar. Impossible. This is impossible religiously, impossible intellectually, impossible politically, and so on. So there is no doubt that we understand from these hadiths that when the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said, 'War is deception' or 'deception,' he does not deceive a people to whom the call has not reached, but rather he deceives the enemies of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He), and so on. He came to another hadith that we weakened from *Sunan al-Tirmidhi*. He said, "But I see it as an authentic hadith. Why? Because its meaning is acceptable. Love Allah for three reasons..."
Abu Malik: ...

The Shaykh : No, no. "Love Allah for three reasons, one of which is for His blessings, and for my household," and so on. Apart from this famous hadith, the summary is: We said, "O man, and I met with him in some sessions that were held at the Islamic University in what is called the Supreme Council. I said to him, 'O Shaykh, you spoke in the introduction thus and thus, and I discussed this with you in detail. I told you that you are reconsidering, especially in your rejection of the authentic hadith, and you have no proof that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) raided them and the call had not reached them. We agree with you that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), God forbid, would fight a people, and Ibn Abbas said, as in *Sahih al-Bukhari*, 'The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not fight a people except after Islam had been conveyed to them.' He promised me well, but I wrote in some of the footnotes, and to this day he has not kept his promise, and may he keep it. He has passed to the mercy of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He). So the point, O brother in Islam, is that this 'free thought' is truly what the verse describes: 'It gives you sweetness from the tip of the tongue, and it evades you as the fox evades.' This is a plot against the Muslims today. So beware.
Abu Malik: Our Shaykh, I would also like to clarify that I say the term "free thought" is one of the most dangerous terms that have appeared in this age. Because the word "free" is veiled; its appearance contains good, but its reality contains evil. This is from the aspect of meaning. As for the aspect of the wording, it is also invalid, because the term "free thought" has never been known in Islamic history, absolutely not. It has never been known by this term. And if that is the case, then the danger of this word has become very dark and very much so when a sect took this word at face value, without distinguishing between the truth and the falsehood. Therefore, I say that the term "free thought" leads to attacking the Book of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). And I say that this word also led to many of the disbelievers, thinkers, and disbelieving scholars who hate Islam to attack the Noble Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and to make people silent before them and listen to their words and not refute their falsehood. We have found this in many conferences that have taken place. You find that one person, who is almost like a foul, stinking rat, stands up and attacks Islam, and we are silent. Under what claim? Under the claim of free thought, and that Islam includes freedom of religions, and we should not object to such a person because this is his thought. But we present Islam in a way that he may be convinced, and this is also from the aspect of free thought. So the truth is that this word was adopted by a number of our brothers, the callers, to our great regret, and they believed it in its entirety, without distinguishing between its white and its black, and they thought that by doing so they were doing a good deed. As for the issue of studying fiqh and benefiting from the great principles established by the scholars of the principles of jurisprudence, the truth is that they distorted them from their proper places. And as they also did with the principles of terminology, some of the contemporary scholars who wanted to reject the hadith under the claim that they are establishing new rules in hadith terminology also took to distorting it. And this is even more so; they took to distorting the principles of the science of usul from their proper places and adding new rules under their claims, saying that we are people of opinion and people of intellect, and that by virtue of scientific development and free thought, we have reached the point where we can add and delete and advance and delay as we please. This is a great calamity, O brother Khalid. And it is necessary to warn the youth, especially the students of knowledge, and to refute every word, even the word of our Shaykh. The term "the Islamic Shari'ah is suitable for all times and places" is also one of the calamities and disasters. This leads to this word.

The Shaykh : Yes, if you interpret it, of course.
Abu Malik: Naturally, they did not introduce it except to interpret it. Yes, and may Allah reward you. We agree with them that we rely on the verification and weakening of hadiths by the Shaykh of the Sunnah in this age, Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani. But we also rely on his jurisprudence. This is what they want to achieve with their free thought: to attack the methodologyThe Shaykh : in jurisprudence. So we support him and believe him in his verification, weakening, and derivation of rulings, which perhaps no one had preceded him in. So may Allah reward you with good for presenting this idea based on the principle of free thought, so that this dialogue would produce the words we have quoted. And Allah knows best.