The Shaykh’s inquiry of the student regarding those who dubbed and altered his tapes, and his clarification of his position regarding Salman and Safar

The Shaykh: This is regarding the first matter. As for the other matter, the issue of alteration, what do you know about the alteration?
The student: By Allah, I am the one who heard it. I heard that at the beginning of the tape, they deleted the first question and deleted the second question, and they left the answer.

The Shaykh: Pardon me, who deleted it? We are talking about that now.
The student: The alteration.

The Shaykh: And regarding Safar and regarding Salman.
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh: Did they alter your opinion, or did you not hear it?

The questioner: No, it was not them who altered it?

The Shaykh: Who was it?

The questioner: A man in Abu Dhabi.

The Shaykh: Well, then, and the defect of news lies only in its narrators. You should not be enthusiastic about this speech that you hear from that man. Today we hear news that is perhaps known among the masses of people or described as mass-transmitted reports, and the truth is that the mass transmission ends up with a single individual and turns out to be a lie and incorrect. Therefore, you should not pay attention to such a report that you heard about this person whom you describe as being from the Saruriyyah, and who says about Salman and Safar al-Hawali words that contain a kind of insinuation against them. We say this for your sake, not in defense of the two men or in criticism of them. We have a specific position regarding the two men that Islam imposes on us, which is . The two men, without a doubt, have merit in the field of calling to Islam and to pure Islam, as we say. But they may have some opinions in which their like among the students of knowledge disagree with them. Then these students split in Saudi Arabia into two groups: a group that is enthusiastic for these two, and a group that is enthusiastic for the others who do not agree with the first group. Therefore, we should not be a cause for widening, as it is said, the tear in the patch, but rather we should try to narrow the tear as much as we are able to do so. I have said more than once that I wish it would be possible for me to meet these two men. And if I say now that they are noble, this may be taken by the group I mentioned as being from the Saruriyyah: "The Shaykh has certified them, my brother." I am telling the truth, but they are noble without a doubt, because the one who reads some of their books and listens to many of their tapes testifies that they possess a great amount of knowledge. But this does not mean that falsehood does not come to them from before them or from behind them. It is as Imam Malik said: "None of us is there except that he was refuted and refuted others, except the one in this grave." And from here, the Muslims today are divided by their desires, which causes division among them in defense of persons, not of a principle. Therefore, I advise all our brothers, as came in the hadith: Do not be partisan for one group over another.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: But rather, be with the truth wherever it turns. And for this reason, I tell you, do not spread among the people that there is a group of Saruriyyah, because we do not know who this group is, nor do we know what their call is. Is it based on the oneness of Allah and upon the Book and the Sunnah as we want, and the authentic Sunnah as we emphasize and repeat constantly and always? Or are they on the method of the group who cited the hadith "It is not permissible for three..."? They do not know that this hadith is weak. They build the rulings of the Shari'ah even upon weak or fabricated hadiths. Leave it, as our brother said earlier, in the pursuit of beneficial knowledge accompanied by righteous action. And we ask Allah for guidance for us and for you. And in this amount, if Allah wills, is sufficient. You have three questions.
Yes.
The student: A few small ones.

The Shaykh: Small ones.
Al-Halabi: Three questions, but the answers...