And amongst the things for which ash-Shaayijee has criticised
the Salafis is
their saying that: ‘the ways and means of da’wah are tawqeefiyyah
(restricted to the Book and Sunnah)’
He said: "And they have also made a principle that all the
ways and means of da’wah are restricted and that their position
is like the position of the Names of Allaah and His Attributes
and like the other fundamentals of the religion, such as prayer
and fasting..." (p.5)
And we say to ash-Shaayijee that
this principle which he sees as an
innovation and misguidance and its relationship to this group -
that a group
from the scholars has also spoken by it and amongst them the
Shaikh Bikr Abu
Zaid - may Allaah grant him success - in his book ‘Hukm ul-
Intimaa’.
So he said:
And as for the ways and means of da’wah, then we worship by
them
[i.e. they are acts of worship] and the way of the acts of
worship is that
they are restricted to a text. And we believe with a firm
belief that the
Messenger (sallallaahu alaihi wasallam) did not meet the
Highest
Companionship except after he had explained every single
way/route of
da’wah in a very clear and explicit manner - such as is the
case with
all the matters of the Sharee’ah, so let us follow the ways
of
Prophethood. As for the new things (from the perspective of
their
descriptions) then they are ‘receptacles’ and
‘mediums’ for the ways and means that are acceptable in light
of
the Sharee’ah. And these things change with respect to time
and place.
So for example ‘education’ used to take place in the open
spaces
of the mosque, then it was extended to the tents of schools
and to the
classrooms of the universities and other such things of the
practical
matters. So the way and mean (waseelah) is ‘education’. This
never changes. However the receptacle for it - and that is
‘the
school’ then there is nothing objectionable to that and
similarly,
da’wah with words used to be a struggle and after the
invention of the
machines[i.e. tape recorders, type-writers etc.], they
became a
‘receptacle’ for it. (p.19)
And Shaikh al-Albaanee too
has some similar words in the cassette ‘The
Ways and Means of Da’wah, are they Restricted or Not?’ And Shaikh
Zaid bin Muhammad al-Madkhalee said:
The understanding of the author of the book [i.e. ash-
Shaayijee] that
saying the ways and means of da’wah are restricted is one of
the
defects of the aforementioned group [i.e. the Salafis] - and
the truth is
that it is not one of the uniquenesses of this group [that
they speak with
it alone] but in fact the ‘verifiers’ (muhaqqiqoon) from the
People of Knowledge, past and present have also spoken by
it. [Al-Ajwibat
ir-Rasheedah: 16]
And there is the question put to
Shaikh al-Fawzaan:
Q. Are the ways and means of da’wah restricted or are they
based
upon ijtihaad?
A. The methodologies of da’wah are
restricted to the Book and the
Sunnah and the seerah of the Messenger (sallallaahu alaihi
wasallam). We do
not introduce anything into them from ourselves - and they
are all present
in the Book of Allaah and in the Sunnah of the Messenger
(sallallaahu alaihi
wasallam). And when we invent, we become ruined and cause
ruin. He (alaihis
salaatu wassalaam) said: "Whoever introduces something into
this affair
of ours that which does not belong to it, then it will be
rejected".
[Al-Ajwibat ul-Mufeedah Min As’ilat il-Manaahij al-Jadeedah]
And there is no doubt that opening the door of the ways
and means of
da’wah has made the adherents to this ideology to give verdicts
for the
permissibility of demonstrations, strikes etc. and other such
things which cause
confusion and strife and we ask Allaah that he delivers the
youth from the evil
of their trial.
Refuting Shayijee : Concerning the Ways and Means of Da'wah