Important and urgent statement from the Mufti to All Muslims

His Eminence Sheikh 'Abdul-'Aziz ibn 'Abdullah ibn Muhammad Al Al-Sheikh
 
His Eminence Sheikh, 'Abdul-'Aziz ibn 'Abdullah ibn Muhammad Al Al-Sheikh, the General Mufti of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and head of the Board of the Senior ‘Ulema Commission and the Administration of the Scientific Researches and Fatwas, issued a statement on the occasion of the start of a solidarity campaign against terrorism and the holding of the International Conference on Resisting Terrorism in Riyadh - tomorrow Saturday - which states the following:

From 'Abdul-'Aziz ibn ‘Abdullah ibn Muhammad Al Al-Sheikh to all Muslim brothers ... Peace be upon you

Praise be to Allah Alone, and peace be upon the final Prophet, Muhammad (peace be upon him), his family and Companions.

Dear brother, the greatest blessing which Allah has granted us is our guidance to embrace this great religion of Islam. Without His Guidance, we wouldn't have been guided. Praise be to Him in public and in private. This religion of Islam is the one which Allah completed, perfected and chose for us as our religion. Allah says:

"This day I have perfected your religion for you and have completed My favors for you and have chosen for you al-Islam as religion."

It is the complete religion in (all its aspects); in terms of creed, acts of worships and transactions. It is the complete religion in illustrating family affairs, juristic issues and others which contain goodness and prosperous living for people in this world as well as their happiness in the Hereafter.

Hence, people should be content, accept this religion, submit to it, fulfill its commands and avoid its prohibitions because Allah has chosen it for us.

"Should not He Who has created know? And He is the Most Kind and Courteous (to His slaves), the Well-Acquainted (with everything)."

Allah doesn't accept from His servants any religion but this one.

"And whoever seeks a religion other than Islâm, it will never be accepted of him, and in the Hereafter he will be one of the losers."

This great Shari'ah came with generalities which no one is allowed to violate because the Shari'ah intends to achieve the interests and perfect them and ward off evils and diminish them.

It promotes pubic interests and gives them priority over individual interests. It also came with justice in all private and public matters, prohibited oppression in all its types no matter what the motives are. It came to preserve the five objectives of Shari'ah which are religion, life, property, intellect and children.

These great objectives along with other Shari'ah objectives and particularities we should unify efforts to preserve and apply them because this is the only way out. Allah – Glory be to Him – says:

“By Al-‘Asr (the time). Verily, man is in loss, Except those who believe (in Islâmic Monotheism) and do righteous good deeds, and recommend one another to the truth [i.e. order one another to perform all kinds of good deeds (Al-Ma‘ruf) which Allâh has ordained, and abstain from all kinds of sins and evil deeds (Al-Munkar) which Allâh has forbidden], and recommend one another to patience (for the sufferings, harms, and injuries which one may encounter in Allâh’s Cause while preaching His religion of Islâmic Monotheism or Jihâd)."

Reminding of these matters and others of Allah's Shari'ah is compulsory. It is compulsory to remind and explain them and it is prohibited to conceal or delay the explanation when it is needed. When it is the time to explain something of Shari'ah, one must hasten to explain and it is prohibited to delay or conceal it. The time of need is when the Ummah is about to do or say something in their acts of worship or others and they are ignorant of how to do it or what the ruling is, therefore, a person must explain it. It may be also when a person sees people do what is not permissible or what is prohibited, in that case, he must explain and it is prohibited for him to keep silent in order to absolve himself from responsibility and give advice to his Ummah. Allah says:

"(And remember) when Allâh took a covenant from those who were given the Scripture (Jews and Christians) to make it (the news of the coming of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and the religious knowledge) known and clear to mankind, and not to hide it."

One of the dangerous phenomena that appeared in our time that have negative impact on Muslims are the brainwashed Muslims who deviated from the right path and have become forces directed against Islam and Muslims; there is no might nor strength save in Allah, the Most High, the Great. Despite those people and their likes are known to the people who are guided by Allah, yet, explaining their crimes and great danger at this time is compulsory. Delaying the declaration of or concealing their affairs is prohibited on the part of scholars. Scholars already, as groups or individuals, have condemned their actions and showed that they were not founded on legal proofs.

In order to know the legal judgment of their actions, let's first check some of their crimes: 

1. Speaking about the religion of Allah without knowledge
2. Ascribing their crimes to Islam
3. Calling Muslims non-Muslims
4. Killing Muslims
5. Killing those who are assured of protection
6. Declaration of rebellion against the ruler of this country

7. Targeting some places and people with killing, bombing and destruction
8. Violating the protection given by the highest ruler
9. Infringement upon the preserved properties and on peacekeeping and securing headquarters in this country
10. Causing chaos and disorder in the country
11. Terrifying the innocents
Attempting to ruin the prestige of this country, empower its enemies and open ways for the disbelievers in order to divide the people of Islam

In addition to the above-mentioned, there are other horrible crimes and great actions which are no longer hidden to the people who suffered from them, may Allah save us from their evil.

It is well known that each one of the above mentioned crimes are of the major sins, so how if all of them were committed together.

The proofs of prohibition:

Allah (SWT) says:

"And say not concerning that which your tongues put forth falsely: “This is lawful and this is forbidden,” so as to invent lies against Allâh. Verily, those who invent lies against Allâh will never prosper."

Allah – Glory be to Him – says:

"Say (O Muhammad peace be upon him): “(But) the things that my Lord has indeed forbidden are Al-Fawâhish (great evil sins, and every kind of unlawful sexual intercourse) whether committed openly or secretly, sins (of all kinds), unrighteous oppression, joining partners (in worship) with Allâh for which He has given no authority, and saying things about Allâh of which you have no knowledge.”

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "Any person calls his brother "unbeliever", one of them is not a believer." [Reported by Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "If somebody accuses another of disbelief or calls him the enemy of Allah, such an accusation will revert to him (the accuser) if the accused is innocent.'' [Reported by Muslim]

Allah says concerning the prohibition of killing Muslims or non-Muslims without a legal right:

 "And do not kill anyone whose killing Allâh has forbidden, except for a just cause."

And He said:

"And whoever kills a believer intentionally, his recompense is Hell to abide therein; and the Wrath and the Curse of Allâh are upon him, and a great punishment is prepared for him."

As for the prohibition of declaring rebellion against the general ruler, it is clear because Allah commanded people to follow him. Allah says:

"Obey Allâh and obey the Messenger (Muhammad peace be upon him), and those of you (Muslims) who are in authority."

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "One who dislikes a thing done by his Amir should be patient over it, for anyone from the people who withdraws (his obedience) from the government, even to the extent of a hand span and died in that condition, would die the death of one belonging to the days of Jahiliya (pre-Islam)." [Reported by Bukhari and Muslim.]

As for violating the security pledges and breaking the covenants, Allah says:

"O you who believe! Fulfill (your) obligations."

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "Muslims are equal in respect of blood. The lowest of them is entitled to give protection on behalf of them, and the one residing far away may give protection on behalf of them. They are like one hand over against all those who are outside the community." [Reported by Ahmad, Abu Dawud, An-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah].

Al-Baghawi said in the book of Sharh As-Sunnah "The lowest of them is entitled to give protection on their behalf" means when a Muslim gives a protection covenant to a disbeliever, the latter's blood would be inviolable to all Muslims even if the one who gave the covenant is the lowest; there should be no discrimination against a slave, a woman or a follower; no one is to violate their covenant. This is to achieve sincerity, safeguard the covenants and prohibit treachery. Islam is not a religion of treachery; this is one of the qualities of the hypocrites."

If this is the case of the lowest Muslim in rank, what about their highest authority! If a non-Muslim enters the country with a pledge of security or with what he thinks a pledge of security, he must be secured and it is prohibited to attack or betray him.

The above are some evidences which show the ugliness of these acts which we mentioned in short in order to warn people against them, yet, the texts of the Qur'an and Sunnah – Praise be to Allah - are complete and clear in this respect.

He who considers these crimes and their results which cause breach of security, terrorizing people and disturbing in their affairs, knows that this is a kind of lawbreaking and corruption which Allah prohibited severely in His saying:

"The recompense of those who wage war against Allâh and His Messenger (peace be upon him) and do mischief in the land is only that they shall be killed or crucified or their hands and their feet be cut off from opposite sides, or be exiled from the land. That is their disgrace in this world, and a great torment is theirs in the Hereafter."

Allah also says:

"And of mankind there is he whose speech may please you (O Muhammad peace be upon him), in this worldly life, and he calls Allâh to witness as to that which is in his heart, yet he is the most quarrelsome of the opponents. And when he turns away (from you “O Muhammad peace be upon him”), his effort in the land is to make mischief therein and to destroy the crops and the cattle, and Allâh likes not mischief. And when it is said to him, “Fear Allâh”, he is led by arrogance to (more) crime. So enough for him is Hell, and worst indeed is that place to rest!"

These horrible acts are totally in conflict with the main objectives of Shari'ah. They contain countless evils with no single benefit, attacking the high interests of Muslim countries, violating many items of the objectives of Shari'ah such as religion, self and property and also contain oppression to oneself as well as to others by attacking them.

They contain violation to the consensus of the learned scholars of this time and the consensus of the predecessors because of the above mentioned proofs. They also contain disobedience to Allah (Exalted be He) and His Messenger (peace be upon him) violation of their commands and committing what they declared as prohibitions. Allah says:

 "And whoever contradicts and opposes the Messenger (Muhammad peace be upon him) after the right path has been shown clearly to him, and follows other than the believers’ way, We shall keep him in the path he has chosen, and burn him in Hell - what an evil destination!"

As the case is so, everyone should fear Allah the Almighty and cooperate in good deeds and piety, what would uproot this great danger on religion and the world. Muslims should be made aware of the seriousness of these evil actions. Advise should be given to those who were indulged in such actions or were affected by these thoughts and suspicions. People who were advised but gave no positive response and insisted on their falsehood or those whose affairs were indicative of involving in planning for criminal acts, should be reported to the authorities in order to provide protection from their evils, secure Muslims and to prevent such people from committing oppression to themselves and to others. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "Help your brother, whether he is an oppressor or is oppressed". A man enquired: "O Messenger of Allah! I help him when he is oppressed, but how can I help him when he is an oppressor?'' He (peace be upon him) said, "You can stop him from committing oppression. That will be your help to him". [Reported be Bukhari]

It is incumbent on the learned people and the scholars to continue warning against this evil way, advising Muslims and repeating the advice over and over in order to save our youth from these evil attitudes and to disclose the evil nature of the claims of those who ascribe to the religion of Allah what is not related to it. This is the greatest form of jihad for the sake of Allah. Allah says:

"As for those who strive hard in Us (Our Cause), We will surely guide them to Our Paths (i.e. Allâh’s Religion — Islâmic Monotheism). And verily, Allâh is with the Muhsinûn (good doers).”

May Allah save our country and all Muslim countries from evils, seditions and all calamities and diseases! O Allah, delight us with seeing the victory of Your religion and the victory of the believers in Your in everywhere. May Allah guide our authorities to what will bring about good, reform, and guidance to Islam! He – Glory be to Him – is Able above everything, and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family and his Companions.