A discussion that took place between the Shaykh and Muhammad Sirrur Zayn al-Abidin.

The Shaykh: And I am calling by phone for the first time. Perhaps you are hearing about this for the first time, which your country has been afflicted with recently. I do not know if it is true or false, sincere or a lie, that group which is called, rightly or wrongly, the Sirriyyun.
The student: What are they called?

The Shaykh: Sirriyyun. Do you not hear this in your country?
The student: We have heard of them.

The Shaykh: Okay, the Sirriyyun. These people claim to be from a Syrian person I know, named Zayn al-Abidin, what is it? Muhammad Sirrur.
The student: Muhammad Sirrur Zayn al-Abidin.

The Shaykh: Yes, Muhammad Sirrur Zayn al-Abidin. For the first time, he is calling me by phone from Jordan. He has a field called the Sunnah. Do they publish it or not?
The student: No, by Allah, they do not publish it.

The Shaykh: There was a long discussion between me and him. He took issue with me on some points, and I admitted them to him, but you were the cause. I read some of my recordings where I accused him of being from the Muslim Brotherhood. I said: Yes. He said: I left the Muslim Brotherhood twenty years ago, because it became clear to me that their methodology is not based on the Book and the Sunnah. I said: Did you make this turning away and leaving clear? I know you from them, and I have not read your disavowal of them, and so on. In the end, I know his style in his magazine is like the style of many of our brothers there, whom we hold in good regard, that they use the term "the people of the Sunnah and the community." And your use of it stems from "the people of the Sunnah and the community." I said: For Sirrur, this usage today does not represent the true call, which is the call of the Salaf al-Salih. He said: Why? I said: Because the term "the people of the Sunnah and the community," in the terminology of the scholars, refers to the Asha'irah and the Maturidiyyah. Now, every graduate from the non-Salafi universities, if it is said that "the people of the Sunnah and the community" are the Asha'irah and the Maturidiyyah, then those who use this term do not use the word "Salafi" because it repels people, yes, whereas the word "truth" always repels people. What is the benefit of using a soft term that does not achieve the purpose? If it achieved the purpose, I would be with them, but it does not achieve the purpose at all, as the word "Salafi" does, because it is an attribution to the Salaf al-Salih. This is all I have to explain on this occasion. Therefore, I am a Muslim. Instead of saying "Muslim on the Book and the Sunnah and on the methodology of the Salaf al-Salih," I am a Salafi. I understand Islam as it was with our Salaf al-Salih, and at their head is the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). And the matter is finished. Let us see what else you have?

The questioner: Regarding the people of the Sunnah and the community.
The student: My Shaykh, it is possible, Shaykh, we are praying. We will pray and come back.

The Shaykh : ... .

The questioner: Regarding the Jahmiyyah, the Qadiyyah, the Murji'ah, and others.

The Shaykh : How? How?