What is your response to what was published in some Islamic magazines claiming that you permit entering into elections?

Al-Halabi: Shaykh, some Islamic magazines published an article attributing to you the view that you permit entering into elections.

The Shaykh: Allah is the Greatest!
Al-Halabi: And we do not need, as they say, to know your opinion, and praise be to Allah, for this is clear, recorded, and written down.

The Shaykh: Allah is the Greatest!
Al-Halabi: In dozens of places, whether recorded on tapes, written in books, in the original sources, in magazines, or similar, but we want a word on the occasion of this new agitation regarding this topic, perhaps it will benefit those who might be misled by reading that aforementioned article, and may Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh: By Allah, it is regrettable the spread of organized lying in the present age among some of those affiliated with some Islamic groups, and I do not want to say Islamic parties, for the influence of methods that Islam does not approve has become apparent. The base fights this base, which is Islam, which commands that the Muslim be in his calling upon the Book and the Sunnah as the ultimate goal and methodology. So we see some Islamic groups using, if not in their speech, then in their action, the Jewish base. And I do not say Zionism, for one of the corruptions of today's propaganda is the distinction between Zionism and Judaism. Every Jew is a Zionist, and every Zionist is a Jew, and there is no difference. From their system, the end justifies the means. So we see many of those affiliated, as we said, with some Islamic groups, who consider lying permissible in order to achieve an interest they claim. And they may hide behind that by permitting lying for the sake of interest. There is no doubt that permitting lying with this expansion is not said by any Muslim scholar at all, especially when the restriction came in "Sahih Muslim": "That the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not permit lying except in three cases."
The point is, before answering, the application of this rule, "the end justifies the means," appeared in some newspapers. Our brothers must be aware of it. A very long article in response to Al-Albani, because he said what Allah and His Messenger said regarding the obligation of emigrating from lands of disbelief to lands of Islam, and even the obligation of emigrating from lands of open sinfulness and lewdness to another land that is better than that land. A very large headline, I do not know what it is, at the beginning, in response to Al-Albani. It was from the Muslim Brothers. Have you read this? This is exposed falsehood. And I have not been a Muslim Brother since I was a child, praise be to Allah, but I was a caller to the Book and the Sunnah among the Muslim Brothers, and Allah (Mighty and Majestic) benefited with this calling as He willed. Now, after I have reached eighty, for the first time I hear this lie. It was from the Muslim Brothers in this style. I recently heard what came in the question of the brother just now, that I say it is permissible to enter parliament. Perhaps it has reached you, or you have seen questions that were sent to me by fax from Algeria before the fitnah occurred there, and before the Muslims there were imprisoned. They wanted to enter parliament in the way of reform, so what is your opinion? So I wrote an answer in six pages, perhaps six pages. This is recorded and published. This reached Yemen, and perhaps it reached your country as well. So I still advise every Muslim not to enter parliament, because first, he cannot achieve any reform, and second, because practically he supports the existing rule in this parliament, which is contrary to the Book of Allah and contrary to the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Then I believe that this entry involves practical loyalty to those who adopted a rule contrary to the Islamic Shari'ah. And I do not know if this strange lesson has reached you, O Abu Ubaydah. It came to me from some of our Salafi brothers in some countries, in the way of softening the disagreement that occurred between our brother Abu Malik and the other brother, who is our brother Abd al-Rahman Abd al-Khaliq. And he sat here in this place, and there was a long conversation between me and him. He touched on the topic that this brother encourages Muslims, or especially the Muslim youth, to enter parliament. And in some of his letters, and you are certainly more aware than I, he criticizes the Salafis who work in purification and education, saying that these people need hundreds of years until they can establish a state upon the Book and the Sunnah, and that the way is entering parliament. The point is, I asked this intermediary, what do you say, O Abu So-and-so? You know, you must have heard that in the Jewish parliament, which is now occupying Palestine, which they call the Knesset, there are Muslims in the parliament.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: So the question that stood pale before him, I said to him, do you think that these Muslims can amend the Jewish constitution or the Jewish law? So he was silent, he could not say no.
The student: In India too, Shaykh.

The Shaykh: Yes.
The student: And in India.

The Shaykh: In India too, there are Muslims, right? But here, our calamity is next to us. So we said to him, meaning he was silent. I said to him, with some severity, perhaps the brother will hold me accountable now or not. I said to him, O my brother, what is the matter with you standing like this? Do you think that this is the way of reform, as we sometimes say? We pulled back the word "we do not lie." I said, what is the difference between the Jewish parliament or the Kuwaiti parliament or any other country that does not actually adopt the Book and the Sunnah? How can reform be like this? And did the Messenger (peace be upon him) begin spreading Islam by focusing on the heads, or on the weak and the poor? And in that, His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He) was revealed: to the end of it. And a few days ago, I do not know if you were present here, some of our Kuwaiti brothers, I said to them frankly, we hope from our brother Abd al-Rahman that he changes his position in encouraging the Muslim youth to enter the Kuwaiti parliament. This is the last thing that came from us. How did it come recently that Shaykh Al-Albani, and he paired me with dignitaries from the scholars, I do not know if these scholars are truthful in what was attributed to them, or if their truthfulness is like their truthfulness in what they attributed to me. And that is the suspicion that Shaykh Ibn Baz andThe Shaykh : Ibn Uthaymeen, perhaps they mentioned others, said that these people support entering parliament. And by Allah, on this occasion, I want to understand, are you aware of such a thing attributed to them, or is this as it was attributed to me, as I hope?

The questioner: Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen, Shaykh, says this.

The Shaykh: Says this.

The questioner: The brother Al-Abaylan wrote a response to him without mentioning his name.

The Shaykh : What Allah willed.

The questioner: He published it among the youth.

The Shaykh: What Allah willed, good. The word of Ibn Uthaymeen, did you read it before our brother responded...

The questioner: He called Al-Abaylan and read the response and gave him the right to respond, yes.

The Shaykh: Good, regarding Shaykh Ibn Baz.

The questioner : Yes, correct.

The Shaykh: Also correct.

The questioner: He qualifies it, O Shaykh, if the benefit is confirmed.

The Shaykh: He qualifies it.

The questioner: Yes, the occurrence of the benefit is confirmed and it outweighs, this happens.

The Shaykh : Perhaps he said, "If the benefit is confirmed, how do you imagine it is confirmed through this path, my brothers?" To sum up, we say this in the interest of fairness: we have an opinion that is exactly like the reason that led me to answer that the one who abandons prayer would benefit from accompanying the Tabligh group, from the perspective of choosing the lesser of two evils. Although I always and forever advise no Muslim to nominate himself as a candidate, I still deal with reality. In a country like this, and when I was in Syria, we were in the same situation before the Ba'athists. Many candidates from various parties would enter the arena: the Ba'athist, the Communist, the atheist, the Syrian Nationalist Party, and so on. The Muslim Brotherhood would also enter. I used to see, and I still see, from the perspective of taking the lesser of two evils and the least of two harms, that I would tell my brothers, "Vote for the Muslim rather than the disbeliever or the atheist, in order to mitigate their harm in the parliament, not to support their nomination for themselves in entering the parliament." Some may exploit my statement and say, "He supports them." But this is like one who forbids people from prayer by truncating the saying of Allah the Exalted: , saying: , and separating the first verse from what follows it, , and not saying: . They take some of the words that suit them and leave out the rest. I say this in the interest of fairness, and perhaps they understood this. But by Allah, in the depths of my heart, I find no excuse for them to say such things, especially as the questioner mentioned that my cassette is always full of warnings against Islamists entering parliaments. I told the brother mentioned earlier, who did not dare to speak, "We see that the Islamists who enter parliaments, the first thing they do when they enter is that they have a legal beard, and then they gradually adorn it and lighten it until it becomes like the style of most Syrians here, where they say, 'The best of chins.' They use 'chins' to refer to the beard. This is an expression by way of proximity; it is permissible. 'The best of chins' is a reference. We see that those who enter the parliament, instead of developing, they develop in the sense that they become dressed in Arab style, like an Islamic style, and then they start wearing pants and a jacket. What do they add to it? A gray suit or something like that. Yes."

The questioner : They become Westernized.

The Shaykh : They become Westernized. Where is the reform then? It is a sweeping current, and voices that overpower the voices of the Islamists, my brother. What did this man say to me?