What is your guidance for one who is not pleased with the warning against the errors of some of the callers, regarding whom the Committee of Senior Scholars issued a statement suspending them?

The questioner : Your Eminence, it is known that some of the callers have been suspended by the Committee of Senior Scholars, pursuant to a letter from His Eminence, our father, Shaykh Abdul Aziz ibn Abdullah ibn Baz (may Allah preserve him). This letter is in the hands of the youth, and at its end it was mentioned that this suspension of the callers is to protect the society from their errors, may Allah guide them. So, when a person comes to warn against these errors and draw attention to them, such as polishing the names of some of the people of innovation, the people rise up against the one who warns against these errors, and accuse him of slandering the callers. They become biased in favor of these callers, and they form alliances and enmities on their account. This has caused fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) and division among the youth of the awakening. So, what is the guidance of Your Eminence? May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Our guidance to our brothers and sons is: that their concern not be idle talk, for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: .
And that their concern not be excessive questioning, "What happened to so-and-so? What happened to so-and-so?" for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: .
And that their concern not be wasting time and consuming their lifetimes, for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: , and wasting lifetimes is a greater calamity than wasting wealth. For this reason, Allah the Exalted said: , . He did not say: "So that I may build a building," or "build palaces," or "ride in luxurious vehicles," or "marry beautiful women," or the like. He did not say that. He said: . This indicates that life is more precious than everything in this world, and wasting the time of youth in such matters is a loss.
So, what I see is that if the people trust the Committee of Senior Scholars, and at their head is Shaykh Abdul Aziz ibn Baz, then let them place the matter in their trust and under their responsibility. And if they do not trust them, then this is a trial, a great trial, that the people do not trust their rulers, whether scholars or princes, for the rulers are the scholars and the princes, as the people of knowledge have explicitly stated.
So I say: It is incumbent upon us to seek a role that benefits the people, and to build with it what has been demolished, and not to go back to words from which they do not benefit and by which they do not benefit others. Perhaps it will lead some of them to lying, backbiting, and slandering others, so that division occurs after unity, enmity after alliance, and evil results.
We must now seek how we work now? How do we call to Allah? Is the call to Allah restricted by conditions that a person must be cautious of, and take things as they are, without innovating a matter that leads to his suspension? We command that one call to Allah with insight, but we also command that the call be with wisdom, aiming for building, and aiming for the reform of the creation in their religion and their worldly affairs.
As for the passing around of what the questioner mentioned from the book of Shaykh Abdul Aziz ibn Baz (may Allah grant him understanding), addressed to whom?

The questioner : ...

The Shaykh : Addressed to the Minister of the Interior, I do not see that, I do not see that people should pass it around. What is the benefit of that? This is something that incites people in one of two ways: people become biased in favor of the Committee of Senior Scholars and say: "These people have errors from which the society must be protected."
Or they become biased in favor of these people and say: "The scholars erred and went astray." So factionalism occurs, either toward these or toward those. And the obligatory thing is to extinguish the fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) and remove what causes division. So I do not see that people should pass around this book. I see that whoever has something of it, if there is a benefit in preserving it, let him keep it, otherwise let him tear it up.
I also see that the most severe and dangerous of what people pass around is what is sent to this country from abroad, publishing what is claimed to be negligence by the government, or neglect of a duty upon it, or violation of a forbidden thing. For this, the least that can be said is that it is backbiting, because it fully applies to the limit set by the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) for backbiting. What did he say when asked about backbiting? What did he say? . And there is no doubt that the state hates for these things to be published that are attributed to it; it certainly hates them. So, it is backbiting, and backbiting is among the major sins that prayer does not expiate, nor fasting, nor the lesser pilgrimage, nor the major pilgrimage, and in which a person is in danger of being punished. This is if what is published is true and established. But if it is not true, by direct observation and hearing the call to prayer, then it is added to being backbiting that it is slander, for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked and it was said to him: .
And according to what we hear about some of these publications, some of them contain lies with no truth, and the only intention is to tarnish.
So we warn against this, against passing around these publications, and we see that in passing them around there is sin, because it does not add to the mud except wetness, and it does not earn a person except sin. For the status of the scholars and the status of the princes and sultans is a sensitive status. The backbiting of a scholar is not like the backbiting of a man of the street, and the backbiting of the one in authority is not like the backbiting of the janitor or the like. The backbiting of a scholar is a direct attack on him, and then a diminishment of trust in what he publishes of the Shari'ah (Islamic sacred law). And this is the dangerous point. If the trust of the people in what the scholar says decreases, then all of his knowledge or most of it is lost, and his knowledge is from the Shari'ah (Islamic sacred law). And if the awe of the rulers, the princes and sultans, decreases, then the submission of the people to them decreases, and their following of their orders, which do not go beyond the Shari'ah (Islamic sacred law). And if that decreases, chaos occurs, and every person becomes a doer of mischief as he wishes. So the matter, my brothers, is serious. Now, if one of the people writes a publication, the one to his right or to his left from the common people—and, if Allah wills, there is good among them—says he wants to publish it for the people. What is that? Is this enmity toward them or not? This is enmity, without doubt, and backbiting.
This is despite the fact that if the trust of the people in them decreases, or their status lowers in the eyes of the people, it would not affect anything, neither in security nor in the Shari'ah (Islamic sacred law). How much more so if it disrupts security, or disrupts the Shari'ah (Islamic sacred law)? And I have elaborated on this because I saw people who love good, who think that there is benefit in publishing these publications. And I bear witness to Allah, and then I bear witness to you, that my belief is that publishing these publications, which contain nothing but backbiting and cursing, is from the major sins, and that a person does not increase by them except in sin, and that any corruption that occurs in the society as a result of these publications, the person will bear its sin.
How do we demolish this security with our own hands? Security, prosperity, tranquility. How do we demolish it with our own hands? Have you not known that some of the people rose up with armed call against the governments, governments that are not like our government, governments that openly declare that they rule by other than what Allah has revealed, and they impose French, or English, or American, or Russian laws, to judge between the Muslim servants of Allah with these laws? And what happened? What happened? What is the result? The result: harm, and an increase of these governments in violence and authority, and no stability and no security. And then we see that if the governments go, who succeeds them? Does a man like 'Umar ibn al-Khattab succeed them? Answer? One worse than them succeeds them. This is a tested thing. One worse than them succeeds them.
So it is obligatory upon a person to look at the consequences and the results, and then to look at what he will meet with his Lord on the Day of Resurrection . And what does he say to Allah (Mighty and Majestic)? Why does he publish the faults of the scholars? He publishes the faults of the princes? What is the benefit? So we ask Allah the Exalted to guide our brothers to insight in the religion of Allah, and wisdom in dealing with the servants of Allah.
In this stage, do not put it in a fan outside or open...
The student: ...

The Shaykh : ...it disturbs...
The student: ... the vents

The Shaykh : No, open the vents for the air conditioning now. A letter came for no meaning, yes.

The questioner : Your Eminence, Shaykh Muhammad, we need

The Shaykh : ...
The student: No, from outside

The Shaykh : Very well.