Question: What is your advice to the one who says that this dawlah
(state) wages a war against the religion and causes repression against the
du’at (callers)?
Answer: The Saudi state ever since it began has always aided the religion
and its adherents. And it was not founded except upon this basis. And whatever
it does at the moment in spending material wealth to support Muslims in every
place, setting up centres and mosques, sending du’at (to other countries),
printing books – at the forefront of which is the Noble Qur’an -,
opening centres of learning and faculties of knowledge, and its judging by
the Islamic Shari’ah (Tahkeemuhaa lish-Sharee’at
il-Islaamiyyah), and also setting up a separate body for enjoining the good
and forbidding the evil in every city – then all of this is a clear and
evident proof of it’s aid to Islam and its adherents. And this is thorn
(shajiyyun, lit. grievance, distress) in the throats of the people of hypocrisy
(Ahl un-Nifaq) and the people of evil and dissension (Shiqaq). And Allaah is the
Aider of His religion even if the pagans and the biased partisans may detest it.
And we do not say that this state is perfect from every single aspect and
that it does not have any mistakes. Mistakes occur by every single person and we
ask Allaah that he helps this state in correcting its mistakes.
But if this person (who makes such a claim) was to look at his own self, he
would find mistakes that would prevent his tongue from speaking about others and
make him feel ashamed of looking at others.[Comments: So does Shaikh Salih al-Fawzan agree with the Surooriyyah,
Khawarij of the Era in their unrestricted Takfir of the hukkam and Muslim
states? And does he portray to the masses that the state is apostate because
judgement by the Shari’ah is not to be found there, or because it is not
the sole reference point, or that it is being replaced? Rather, his way and
methodology is at odds with that of the newly-arisen foolish-minded whose
methodology brings about Marxist type revolutions, great upheavals, the shedding
of the blood of the innocent and the confiscation of their wealth!! And these
words of Shaikh Salih al-Fawzan constitute a "thorn in the throats of the
people of hypocrisy (Ahl un-Nifaq) and the people of evil and dissension
(Shiqaq)"!! ]
Question: Respected Shaikh, yourself and the your brothers who are Ulamaa
in this country are Salafis – and all praise is due to Allaah –
and your method in advising the rulers is that of the Sharee’ah and as
the Prophet (sallallaahu alaihi wasallam) has explained – and we do
not purify over and above Allaah’s estimation of him -, yet there are
those who find fault with you due to your neglect in openly rejecting the
various oppositions [to the Sharee’ah] that have occurred. And yet
others make excuses for you by saying that you are under the control and
pressure of the state. So do you have any words of direction of clarification to
these people?
Answer: There is no doubt that the rulers – just like people
besides them – are not infallible. Advising them is an obligation.
However, attacking them in the gatherings and upon the pulpits is considered to
be the forbidden form of backbiting. And this evil (munkar) is greater than that
which occurred from the ruler since it is backbiting and because of what results
from backbiting such as the sowing of the seeds of discord, causing disunity and
affecting the progression of da’wah.
Hence what is obligatory is to make sure advice reaches the rulers by sound
and trustworthy avenues, not by publicising and causing commotion.
And as for reviling the Scholars of this country, that they do not give
advice [to the rulers], or that they are being controlled in their affairs, this
is a method by which separation between the Scholars, the youth and the society
is desired, until it becomes possible for the mischief-maker to sow the seeds of
his evil. This is because when evil suspicions are harboured about the Scholars,
trust is no longer placed in them and then the chance is available for the
biased partisans to spread their poison.
And I believe that this thought is actually a schemed plot that has come into
this country, and those who are behind it are foreign to this country. It is
obligatory upon the Muslims to be cautious of it.[Comments: So will these newly-arisen foolish-minded ones ridicule Shaikh
Salih Fawzan for believing in this plot as they have been ridiculing the Salafis
for the past decade?! And the spread of Qutubiyyah from the angle and direction
of the Ikhwan is what constitutes this schemed plot. Shaikh Saalih al-Fawzaan
when he said: "And the end part of that is what we are living in now, the
arrival of strange and suspicious ideas in our land in the name of
‘da’wah’ - through the hands of the various groups which are
called by various names such as al-Ikhwaan al-Muslimeen, Jamaa’at
ut-Tabligh and the Jamaa’ah of such and such. And the goal of all of
them is the one and same and that is to drive away the da’wah of Tawheed
and to take up is place [with something else]. And in reality, the
purpose/intent of these groups is not different from the purpose/intent of those
who have preceded them from amongst the enemies of this blessed da’wah
- all of them desire to put an end to it. However the difference between
them is only with respect to their plans/modes of action. And if not, then if
these groups had desired - truthfully - da’wah to Allaah, then why do they
overlook and abandon their own countries - from where they are dispatched to us?
And yet these same countries are most in need of da’wah and
rectification. They overlook their own countries and then they come out to
battle against the land of Tawheed, desiring to change its correct course of
rectification to one that is twisted - and they desire to deceive its youth and
to bring about fitnah and enmity between them..." (Haqeeqat ud-Da’wah
ilallaah of Sa’d Abdur-Rahmaan al-Haseen). But these foolish ones have
never ceased to ridicule the Salafis on account of the same meanings contained
in Shaikh Salih al-Fawzan’s statement above! If they only but
knew!]
On Advising Rulers and States Concerning Their Shortcomings