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Questioner: Someone wrote in a book of his the
permissibility of entering
into parliamentary elections, and he is ‘Abdur-Razzaaq ash-
Shayijee. He ascribed
to your respected self, that you allow entry into the
parliamentary gatherings.
So is this [ascription to you] correct?
Shaikh al-Fawzaan:
This is falsehood (baatil) and lie against me and nor
did I say it. And if he is truthful in what he says then let him
bring the book
in which I said this or, or the cassette in which I said this.
Comments: Recent times have seen the emergence of the
"Ruwaibidah" who
have begun to speak in the affairs of the Ummah without recourse
to the
clarifications of the Senior and Erudite Scholars of Knowledge.
Amongst them,
Abdur-Razzaaq ash-Shayijee, arch-fabricator and liar and
inventor of the "New
Salafiyyah" concept, who has made many great lies and
fabrications against the
People of Knowledge, let alone distorting the concepts of Sunnah
and Salafiyyah
in the name of Sunnah and Salafiyyah itself.
Ash-Shayijee
authored a book in which he compiled statements – from the
people of knowledge – which amount to, in his view, the
permissibility of
entering into parliamentary elections. Unfortunately, he twisted
and distorted
to true intent of many them, and the prime example of that being
his use of
Imaam al-Albani’s verdict to the Algerian’s allowing them to
partake in the
elections (prior to the revolution), out of necessity. However,
al-Albani’s well
established view is that this type of activity is not
permissible due to its
innovated nature and secondly that it resembles the ways of the
disbelievers.
Refer to Madarik un-Nadhr Fis-Siyaasah (pp. 337-345) to see how
the activists
had made the same lie against Imaam al-Albani. The Qutubis of
the West promoted
this book and preached the contents of this book of ash-Shayijee
since it was in
conformity with their "new fiqh of priorities".
The important
point to be understood in this brief discourse however, is that
part and parcel of the Qutubi stratagem in strengthening their
methodological
principles is to take the verdicts of the scholars made in or
for extraneous
circumstances, and to then derive principles out of them to
justify what
otherwise cannot be justified from the texts of the Book and the
Sunnah. The
intent behind all of this being to support their other ideals,
such as involving
all and sundry with their brand of fiqh ul-waqi’ and involvement
with democracy,
and giving every ignorant upstart a say in the affairs of the
Ummah, without
knowledge and without guidance and without light.
Then, to
confuse the affair, all of this is portrayed as "The Fiqh of
Priorities" such that politics, democracy and establishing
social justice and
human rights are the ways and mechanisms that ought to be
employed for
rectification. For this reason, the activists described the
methodology of the
Prophets in calling to Allaah "an emptying of Tawheed" and one
in which there is
"deficiency" and we seek refuge from this misguidance.
And a
fair portion of the political activists got poisoned with
democracy,
such as Abdur-Rahman Abdul-Khaliq and Abdur-Razzaaq ash-Shayijee
himself. And
whoever follows his regular column "Alaa Haamish al-Ahdaath" in
the papers will
come to realise that.
We conclude by advising ourselves and
others with the following words of
Imaam al-Albani
He was asked, "Some of the youth differentiate
between the aqidah of the
Salaf and the manhaj of the Salaf so you see some of them upon
the aqidah of the
Salaf yet they allow themselves to work with some of the
methodologies that
exist today, even though there maybe what opposes the manhaj of
the Salaf within
them in terms of practice. So is there a binding link between
the aqidah and
manhaj of the Salaf in the practical implementation of the
Salafi manhaj?
The Shaikh replied: "That which I believe and
worship Allaah with is that
there are both generalities (in similarity) and specific
(aspects) between the
Salafi manhaj and aqidah. Aqidah is more specific than manhaj as
all of you
know. Aqidah has a link with what is called – in the view of many
of the Jurists
– the "knowledge of tawhid", and this is the chief and
fundamental aspect of
Islaam. However, manhaj is more vast than aqidah or tawhid.
As
for those who claim that the differentiation that has come in
this
question (between aqidah and manhaj), then they desire by
this to make it
permissible for themselves to adopt ways and means in their
daw’ah to Islaam
which the Salaf us-Salih were not upon. To say this in a
different way, they
consider that they have the liberty to adopt whatever ways and
means they think
will help them to convey (and actualise) Islaam, and you are
aware of the
examples of this type or these types of means.
For example,
open demonstrations and rallies in order to force the rulers to
turn their attention to what the society complains about and
similar matters. So
we say that what has come in the Book and the Sunnah and what
the Salaf us-Salih
were upon with respect to objectives, goals and ways and means
are sufficient
for the Ummah. However, the reason which leads some of the
people to permit
themselves to adopt these ways and means, in fact it is correct
for me to say
that they permit themselves to blindly-follow the disbelievers
in the ways that
they have adopted in order to actualise what they call either
democracy or
social justice and other such words which have no reality to
them. So they –
I mean these Muslims – permit themselves to blindly follow the
disbelievers in
these ways and means.
We say, our Lord, the Mighty and
Majestic has made removed us from having any
need, by our Shari’ah, of this separation which has been
explained (i.e. between
aqidah and manhaj) and that we should be needy of the
disbelievers and that we
should take from their ways and means, which might be good for
them, (but) only
because they have no Shari’ah by which they guide themselves. It
is for this
reason that we say that manhaj is more vast than aqidah and
tawhid, hence it
is necessary to adhere to what the Salaf us-Salih were upon with
respect to both
these affairs; the one that is vast (manhaj) first and
foremost and
the one that is more narrow (tawhid), meaning aqidah." (Al-
Asaalah Magazine, Vol
22).
And to reinforce this meaning, dear Brother and Sister,
we leave you with the
words of Shaikh Salih al-Fawzaan.
He was asked: "Is [entry
into] Paradise and Hellfire dependent upon the
correctness of one’s Manhaj (methodology)?
His reply: "Yes.
When a person’s manhaj is correct he will be in Paradise. So
if he is upon the manhaj of the Messenger (sallallaahu alaihi
wasallam) and the
manhaj of the Salaf us-Saalih, he will become one of the
inhabitants of Paradise
by Allaah’s permission. And when he travels upon the manhaj of
the misguided
strayers, he is threatened with the Hellfire." (Al-Ajwibah al-
Mufidah
p.77).
Refuting ash-Shayijee : Shaikh al-Fawzaan Free's Himself from the Lie of Ash-Shayijee