POINT SIX: Regarding the statement in my book The Fundamentals of Tawheed (written some 18 years ago and first published 10 years ago), which implies that people should speak out against the rulers who rule by other than the Sharee’ah, as well as another (which was not pointed out to me by the brothers but by my wife) in Tafseer Soorah al-Hujuraat (written more than twenty-one years ago), which encourages plotting against Muslim governments not implementing Sharee’ah, I have abandoned such false beliefs long ago and unfortunately, was not aware that some remained in my old books. I openly retract those statements, and had someone bothered to inform me of them and advise me, I would have changed them immediately. They will be changed with the next publications inshaa’Allaah, and I will further retract these statements on my web page and state the correct view regarding the rulers, inshaa’Allaah.
I have never had a problem accepting a mistake once proof comes to the contrary and changing it. But did these brothers ever sit with me and sincerely advise me about these “many mistakes”? Did they ask to meet with me, which I would have done gladly, and say, ‘In such and such a book, you made such and such an erroneous statement. The following evidence is to the contrary’, etc.? That would have been much appreciated.
Furthermore, in my meeting with Shaykh ‘Alee Hasan and Shaykh Saleem, some brothers tried to bring to them an issue in one of my old books, and Shaykh ‘Alee told them that they cannot take a person’s ‘aqeedah from his old books, instead it should be taken from his recent books. So the brothers should not merely take a statement written in my oldest books and ignore all my explicit statements in my recent lectures and books wherein I speak out in no uncertain terms against making takfeer of Muslim rulers and others, speak out against revolt against rulers and all the takfeeree movements. In my book, Usool at-Tafseer, I spoke about the importance of accepting the Sahaabah’s understanding of the Qur’aan, and as one of my examples, I quoted the verse, “And whoever does not judge by what Allaah has revealed is a kaafir.” Then followed it by Ibn ‘Abbaas’ statement, “It is a form of kufr less than real kufr.” Then I put in my footnote that the position of scholars is that when the ruler believes that man-made laws are better than or as good as the Sharee’ah, or that it is permissible to rule by them, then is a kaafir. Whereas if he applies man-made laws while believing that it is sinful to do so, then he is a major sinner but does not leave the fold of Islaam. I ended the footnote asking the reader to refer to at-Tah-theer min Fitnah at-Takfeer by Shaykh al-Albaanee, who, as I wrote, “provides copious documentation from the statements of classical and modern salafee scholars to support his position.” (p. 38) In my book Tafseer Soorah al-Mulk, which is complete and on the way to being published inshaa’Allaah, I included the entire section on the categories of kufr from Shaykh Khaalid al-‘Anbaree’s book The Fundamentals of Takfeer. And I again made clear statements there opposing takfeer and revolt against the rulers. And my position is and has been that of Shaykh al-Albaanee’s and the other scholars, the position of Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa‘ah: that one cannot claim someone to be a kaafir due to a major sin he has committed, and that we cannot make takfeer on Muslim rulers if they do not rule by Sharee‘ah, for the ruler’s aqeedah as to whether or not it is permissible for him to rule by man-made laws or whether or not man-made laws are better, is something which only he and Allaah know the reality of. So we take him to be a Muslim, and the Prophet (pbuh) clearly forbade revolt against Muslim rulers in many ahaadeeth, and ordered that they be obeyed in other than disobedience to Allaah. Furthermore, Muslims should not publicly and openly speak out against the Muslim rulers and governments as it only creates fitnah and incites the masses of Muslims to act upon emotion and ignorance by creating chaos or plotting revolt against rulers. In addition, the only way for the Muslims to attain their honor and glory once again, and reach the level wherein the Muslim world can rule totally according to Sharee’ah, free of all forms of shirk, bid’ah, or oppression, is, as Shaykh al-Albaane spent his life teaching, by tasfiyah and tarbiyah. That is, that the deen be purified from all forms of shirk, bid’ah, hizbiyyah, blind-following, the use of inauthentic hadeeths, etc., and it be understood and practiced in the pristine form it was revealed in, according to the understanding of the righteous salaf, the Sahaabah primarily and the next two generations. Their way, in all affairs (aqeedah, methodology, fiqh, manners, understanding, etc.) is superior to all those who came after them. Then we must educate ourselves, families, then everyone else upon this purified religion. There are my positions in black and white before anyone who reads this, so as not to attribute to me to an ‘aqeedah and minhaj that I am in fact innocent of.
reservation and Compilation
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