The Shaykh’s commentary on a tape containing al-Sayyaf’s words, in which he responds to those who accuse him of not being on sound belief.

Listening to the tape: "Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak, the mujahid and jurist, and I say, O worshipper of the two Holy Sanctuaries, if you could see us, you would know that you are playing with worship. You have not understood the meaning of the belief in the oneness of Allah (tawhid)..."

The Shaykh : How?

The questioner : I am walking.

The Shaykh : Yes, walking.
Listening to the tape: "My blood is..."

The Shaykh : I heard Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak’s words, what comes after that? Go back a little.
Listening to the tape: "The belief in the oneness of Allah (tawhid), as I have understood it..."
My blood, my soul, and my body...

The Shaykh : His words did not come.
Listening to the tape: "Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak, the mujahid and jurist, and I say:
O worshipper of the two Holy Sanctuaries, if you could see us, you would know that you are playing with worship.
You have not understood the meaning of the belief in the oneness of Allah (tawhid) as I have understood it. My blood, my soul, my body, my time, my wealth, everything I own is in the service of tawhid directly, and I fight the enemies of tawhid, while you sit in your house eating in the name of this belief, and then you accuse me of not being among the people of tawhid, and that you alone are among the people of tawhid. May Allah guide you, may Allah guide you. Do not be, with these words you utter, before you are certain, do not be, with these words, servants to the plots that have been arranged to destroy this jihad, and to destroy its goals, and to destroy its noble objectives, the foremost of which is establishing the state of the Qur'an, built on the foundation of the belief in tawhid, the belief of the people of the Sunnah and the community, on earth. And I call upon Allah to guide you all, and I call upon Allah to inspire you with the right path, so that they do not fight the sons of jihad in service of the belief of the people of the Sunnah and the community, do not fight these people while they are not aware."

The Shaykh : CommentaryThe Shaykh : Stop... In your knowledge, has anyone criticized al-Sayyaf’s own belief?

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : CommentaryThe Shaykh : For example.

The questioner : The bulletins that come to us from Saudi Arabia...

The Shaykh : CommentaryThe Shaykh : Not the ones I have?

The questioner : There is one about Hekmatyar, you have it, I brought it for you.

The Shaykh : CommentaryThe Shaykh : Excuse me, Hekmatyar means they criticized... I am speaking about al-Sayyaf.

The questioner : No, about al-Sayyaf, I did not bring it for you.

The Shaykh : CommentaryThe Shaykh : My question now is, do you know if anyone with a scholarly position has criticized al-Sayyaf’s belief?

The questioner : With a position like that, no.

Another questioner: Our brotherThe Shaykh : Adnan speaks about al-Sayyaf’s belief in this, but he does not speak about the other leaders. I heard this myself in Adnan’s house.
Al-Halabi : And I also, my Shaykh, my brother Adnan showed me, about more than five years ago, a large paper with the signatures of many mujahideen, including al-Sayyaf, denying the beliefs of the Wahhabis and those who deny seeking aid (istighathah) and so on, up to these issues.

The Shaykh : CommentaryThe Shaykh : But here... perhaps.

The questioner : These come from everywhere. I am now in Peshawar. How do these seals and signatures come? I know how these documents and magazines come, I know where all of this came from. The books they publish are available, they are studied in their schools. How do they speak about belief? Not in seeking aid (istighathah), nor in swearing oaths by other than Allah. You mention seeking aid (istighathah) and others.
Al-Halabi : Look, may Allah reward you, I am speaking in response to the professor’s words, but is the reality so? That is another matter. Now, they brought us about wordsThe Shaykh : as a specific question.

Another questioner : In what you know, do you know?
Al-Halabi : There is a question, no problem, if you allow us, may Allah reward you. I mention a very great question my professor asked of our brother Ali Bilhaj when he came here to his house. This question aligns with this gathering when our brother Abu Mujahid, may Allah guide him, said that all those who follow the four parties, their belief, meaning, are from the belief of the people of tawhid, soThe Shaykh : he asked a question of Ali Bilhaj.

The Shaykh : He, excuse me, he did not ask you about this.
Al-Halabi : He returned to your statement about the Afghan people. I say, those who follow the same front. You say that those who saw them, let me stick to this statement. I mean this, even though none of these groups says about itself, "We are a Salafi group," but they are content with the general statement we just heard, and our Shaykh has repeatedly warned us about this statement, that the words "people of the Sunnah and the community" and "people of tawhid" are not sufficient. There is a more precise measure and a greater test, which is the methodology of the Salaf and the belief of the Salaf. Ali Bilhaj points to this thing which we share with him, andThe Shaykh : he always warns us about it, which is the Salafi belief and the Salafi call. And yet, our Shaykh asked Ali Bilhaj, saying to him, "Do all these people you say are ready for jihad and prepared for jihad, do they all know the minimum of belief, which is that Allah is in the sky?" O my Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Yes, this statement was true.
Al-Halabi : And this statement is fitting, my Shaykh, in this position here. So what was Ali Bilhaj’s answer? His answer was, "We ask Allah to relieve his distress." His answer, as our Shaykh says, was politically, "Yes, we hope to Allah that it is so." He asked, "Do they all?" and the final answer was, "No." So I say, my Shaykh, now, even if it is a return to the beginning, as they say, the same question is asked of our brother Abu Mujahid, and we hope that the answer will be affirmative.

The Shaykh : We have no doubt, we said, we hope the rest of the organizations will be with the organizations... in tawhid. Please, unless you have a comment, we are ready to listen.

The questioner : The Afghan people, as you know, are a Bedouin, ignorant people. They know from religion the Hanafi school of jurisprudence. The name "Salafi" does not mean anything to them. What is Salafi?

The Shaykh : You are speaking now about the people. He is speaking about the scholars of the people.

The questioner : He says, at the level of individuals.
Al-Halabi : He saidThe Shaykh : He clarified the point, saying, "You are the one who saw them," so we accepted this restriction, that those you saw.

The Shaykh : Okay, do you have anything else?

The questioner : No.

The Shaykh : Please.