The meaning of the saying of Allah the Exalted: "And when they see them, they say, 'Indeed, these are lost.'"
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The Shaykh : When they see them, who is the one seeing? [Al-Mutaffifin 83:32] Who is the one seeing and the one saying?
The student: The criminals...
The Shaykh : Yes
The student: ...
The Shaykh : The criminals, when they see the believers, they say:
Now the style has changed; they say these are reactionaries, while the verse says: these are lost. The meaning is the same, but the expression has changed. A new expression has come, brought by the Christians: these are fundamentalists, these are extremists, these are radicals, on the edge of the wall, perhaps they will fall from the wall. All of this is intended to distort those who hold fast to faith. We do not deny that among the brothers there are some who are strict in religion, where everything is an innovation to them, or rather, everything is disbelief to them. These people, even if they claim to belong to the Islamic religion or that this is part of the Islamic religion, are mistaken in that. We do not say they are disbelievers, as they declare disbelief in whomever they wish of Allah's servants, nor do we say they are astray. But we say that this statement or this behavior is wrong. We do not say that every caller to Allah the Mighty and Majestic is correct in the path of da'wah; rather, he may err greatly. But we say that we do not accept from those who describe the da'wah workers as lost, or as radicals, or as extremists, or as fundamentalists. Why fundamentalists? And what does fundamentalist mean? Does he know the principles of jurisprudence, or what does it mean? Or does he hold fast to the foundation of his religion? If that is the case, then the word fundamentalist applies even to the priests; the Christian priests are fundamentalists. They are zealous for their religion and hold fast to it. For this reason, the Christians shifted from the word Muslims to the word fundamentalists, because the word Muslims threatens them. The Christians tremble at it. They do not want the awakening of the Muslims to be an Islamic awakening, but rather a fundamentalist awakening, as they claim. So the result is that the methods of the criminals, in old times and new, have one goal: to belittle those who hold fast to the religion of Allah.
And when they see them
وإذا رأوهمAnd when they saw them, they would say, "Indeed, those are truly lost."
وإذا رأوهم قالوا إن هؤلاء لضالونThe student: The criminals...
The Shaykh : Yes
The student: ...
The Shaykh : The criminals, when they see the believers, they say:
Indeed, these are lost
إن هؤلاء لضالونNow the style has changed; they say these are reactionaries, while the verse says: these are lost. The meaning is the same, but the expression has changed. A new expression has come, brought by the Christians: these are fundamentalists, these are extremists, these are radicals, on the edge of the wall, perhaps they will fall from the wall. All of this is intended to distort those who hold fast to faith. We do not deny that among the brothers there are some who are strict in religion, where everything is an innovation to them, or rather, everything is disbelief to them. These people, even if they claim to belong to the Islamic religion or that this is part of the Islamic religion, are mistaken in that. We do not say they are disbelievers, as they declare disbelief in whomever they wish of Allah's servants, nor do we say they are astray. But we say that this statement or this behavior is wrong. We do not say that every caller to Allah the Mighty and Majestic is correct in the path of da'wah; rather, he may err greatly. But we say that we do not accept from those who describe the da'wah workers as lost, or as radicals, or as extremists, or as fundamentalists. Why fundamentalists? And what does fundamentalist mean? Does he know the principles of jurisprudence, or what does it mean? Or does he hold fast to the foundation of his religion? If that is the case, then the word fundamentalist applies even to the priests; the Christian priests are fundamentalists. They are zealous for their religion and hold fast to it. For this reason, the Christians shifted from the word Muslims to the word fundamentalists, because the word Muslims threatens them. The Christians tremble at it. They do not want the awakening of the Muslims to be an Islamic awakening, but rather a fundamentalist awakening, as they claim. So the result is that the methods of the criminals, in old times and new, have one goal: to belittle those who hold fast to the religion of Allah.