Afer the Qutbiyyah (see Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen on the Qutbi Manhaj in this article) made their debut using the first Gulf War as means to openly call to the Leninist revolutionary methodology that they had taken from the works of Sayyid Qutb, under the influence Mohammad Qutb, they began to present themselves as the masters and lords of fiqh ul-waaqi' (current affairs). Over a period of years, these individuals such as Safar al-Hawali, Salman al-Awdah and others, were giving advice to the Algerian people, and often deceiving the Algerians soliciting their advice into thinking that this advice was coming from the Major Scholars.

As a result of the advice these individuals gave to the Algerian people, and the promulgation and spread of the Leninist ideology of Sayyid Qutb amongst the unsuspecting Salafis at the hands of these individuals, Algeria suffered a great calamity, with tens of thousands of innocent men women and children caught up in brutal murders, and whole villages often being slaughtered, being considered apostates for not agreeing with the takfiri groups in their Takfir of the ruler, the government and various governmental bodies such as the police and so on. People literally fled into the mountains. This state of affairs and this particular environment also allowed foreign powers and the government to carry out their own attacks and to blame them on the these groups as a means to discredit the cause of these people.

By the grace of Allaah, many of the Algerians, turned to the Major Scholars, and sought their counsel directly, and here is on recorded phone call from Algeria in which the noble Shaikh, Muhammad bin Saalih al-Uthaimeen is asked about some groups of people who make Takfir of the rulers without any guidelines and conditions and who rely upon the tapes of the Qutbiyyah (Safar al-Hawali and Salman al-Awdah). And the response is in the recording below.

Note: Previously in the 90s, Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen, like other scholars were not fully aware of the reality of Safar and Salman and they had statements of praise for them in that early period. By the time the 90s had ended, these Scholars were aware of the realities and they made statements which clearly show that they recognized these individuals were responsible for reviving the madhhab of the Khawaarij and Sayyid Qutb's Leninism, and there are statements of other Scholars in this regard, such as Shaykh al-Albaani (rahimahullaah) that are also presented on this site. It is from the talbees (deception) of these people that they bring all these old statements to fool the people, and they are not ignorant of these later statements, because they have been published online, translated and spread close to ten years ago.

Listen to the recorded discussion (Real Audio)

Translation of the Response

The Shaikh replied (and remember that his speech is regarding the situation in Algeria specifically):

Those who make Takfir, they are the inheritors of the Khawaarij, those who rebelled against Ali bin Abi Taalib (radiallahu anhu). The kaafir is the one whom Allaah and His Messenger have declared a kaafir, and Takfir itself has conditions, amongst them, ilm (knowledge) and amongst them iraadah (will, intent). So we ought to know that this ruler opposed the truth, and he knew the truth, and he intended deliberate opposition, and that he did not have any faulty interpretation (in the matter), such as when a person prostrates to an idol, and he knows that prostrating to an idol is Shirk and he does not have any faulty understanding either.

What is important is that this affair has conditions, and it is not permissible to rush into Takfir, just as it is not permissible to rush into the saying, "This is halaal (lawful) and this is haraam (unlawful)."

Note: Have, in relation to the above, go and read the statement of Shaykh Ibn Jibreen on the subject of Secular Laws in this article here.

The Questioner continues:

Also, they listen to the cassettes of Salmaan bin Fahd al-Awdah, and Safar al-Hawaali!! Do we advise them to not listen to them?!!

Shaikh Ibn Uthaimeen:

May Allaah bless you. The good that is in their cassettes is also found in other than their cassettes, and their cassettes have some observations against them, some of their cassettes, not all of them. And I am not able to distinguish between them for you - I (am not able) - between this and that!!

Questioner:

In that case you advise us not to listen to them?

Shaikh Ibn Uthaimeen:

No (do not listen to them). I advise you to listen to the cassettes of Shaikh Ibn Baaz, the cassettes of Shaikh al-Albaani, the cassettes of the scholars who are known for uprightness and integrity (i'tidaal), and who are not known for Revolutionary Ideology (thawrah fikriyyah)!!

Note: The thawrah fikriyyah (Revolutionary Ideology) that Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen is referring to started with the likes of Karl Marx in the 19th century who proposed a revolution of the general masses, and this ideology was refined by Lenin where only a small vanguard would lead the revolution. It is this manifesto that is found in the book of Qutb "Milestones" - see here, and so Lenin's revolutionary vanguard became "the sagacious believers", meaning, Qutb and his jamaa'ah.

Questioner continues:

O Shaikh! Even if in this matter - for example - their is difference (khilaaf), so they make Takfir of the Rulers and they say that this is Jihaad - for example - in Algeria ... and they listen to the cassettes of Salmaan and Safar al-Hawaali. So is this khilaaf (difference) one that is far'ee (i.e. subsidiary, as opposed to fundamental)?! Or is it a difference in the Usool (fundamentals) O Shaikh?!!

Shaikh Ibn Uthaimeen:

No! This is a difference in aqeedah (khilaaf aqdiyy), because it is from the Usool of Ahl us-Sunnah that we do not make Takfir of anyone on account of a sin!

Questioner:

They, O Shaikh, do not make Takfir of one who commits major sin, except the Rulers, they come with the verse, "Whoever does not judge by what Allaah has revealed, they are the Disbelievers", and they make Takfir of the Rulers only?!!

Shaikh Ibn Uthaimeen:

There is an athar (narration) from Ibn Abbaas concerning this verse, which explains that the intent is the kufr which does not expel from the religion, as occurs in the saying of the Messenger (sallallaahu alaihi wasallam), "Reviling Muslim is sin (fusooq) and fighting him is kufr (disbelief)". And in the view of the some of Mufassiroon, it was actually revealed for the People of the Book, this is because the actual context of the passage is what occurs before, "Verily, We did send down the Taurat (Torah) [to Musa (Moses)], therein was guidance and light, by which the Prophets, who submitted themselves to Allah's Will, judged the Jews. And the rabbis and the priests [too judged the Jews by the Taurat (Torah) after those Prophets] for to them was entrusted the protection of Allah's Book, and they were witnesses thereto. Therefore fear not men but fear Me (O Jews) and sell not My Verses for a miserable price. And whosoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed, such are the Kafirun." (5:44).

End of taped discussion.

Note: There are also other statements of Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen in which he explains that the Secular Laws found in Algeria have been there for 150 years or so (brought in by the colonialists), and those rulers were not the ones who instituted them. This is an important point because the attachment of the people of unfounded and exaggerated Takfir to the issue of replacing the entire Sharee'ah with Secular Law is simply a means through which they can justify the Takfir of the rulers over those lands in which there do exist Secular Laws in greater or lesser amounts, but in which the rulers themselves who happened or do happen to come to power neither "abolished" the Sharee'ah as they claim, and nor introduced or instituted, at the outset, the bulk of these laws. This is a common situation in most Muslim countries that were subject to colonialism and imperialism.

Inshaa'Allaah we will cover this in a separate topic, because through it, much of the deception of these people comes to light. The crux of the matter is that these people are upon the methodology of Vladimir Lenin that was brought to them in the works of Sayyid Qutb (see here). Lenin re-interpreted Marxism, which was the revolution of the common-people, and he narrowed it down to a revolution involving only a special elite vanguard. Qutb simply "Islamicized" the doctrines of Lenin's revolutionary vanguard, who now became the "sagacious believers" (meaning he and his co-revolutionaries). Qutb planned the July revolution in 1952 with regular meetings in Qutb's house between Qutb, Jamaal Abdul-Nasser and others. Afterwards, when they fell out and Qutb was imprisoned, he started writing books laying down and propounding this methodology and intending by it, another revolution by which to remove the "taaghoot" that he had actually brought to power in the first place, and more generally in every part of the Muslim world which he considered societies of jaahiliyyah and disbelief. His books then became a springboard for the madhhab of the Khawaarij, and the starting point of it is Takfir. Takfir of the rulers is the first goal, and before the methodology can be called to or implemented, Takfir has to be elicited first.