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[Q]: The praise is for Allaah, Lord of the worlds.  And may the peace and salutations of Allaah be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon his Family and his Companions.  To proceed: So this is a question directed at our noble Shaykh, 'Ubayd Ibn 'Abdullaah Ibn Sulaymaan al-Jaabiree - hafidhahullaahu ta'aalaa.  Noble Shaykh, do you have any points against the brother, Shadeed Muhammad al-Amreekee.  So if you have points, then why do you not clarify them, or do you hold that knowledge can be taken from him?

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[A]: With the Name of Allaah and the praise is for Allaah.  And may the peace and salutations of Allaah be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon his Family and his all those who accompany him.  To proceed: So how many are the points that have been confirmed with us by way of those who are trustworthy and possess integrity against the brother Shadeed Muhammad al-Amreekee!  And they (i.e. the points) prove that the man is not fit to have knowledge taken from him.  Rather, it is obligatory to be cautious of him.  And from these many points, which prove the ignorance of the man and the corruption of his manhaj, is his statement, "Salafiyyah is not a card that's gonna get you into Jannah." So this statement is disbelief (kufr).  Since, Salafiyyah is the pure Religion of Allaah.  It is Tawheed.  It is the unblemished Sharee'ah, with which Allaah sent all of the Prophets and Messengers.  It is the Religion of the first of them, Nooh, to the last of them, Muhammad ('alayhimus-salaatu was-salaam).  And it has two foundations: The first affair (i.e. foundation): is the call to worship Allaah alone to encourage others upon that and to form allegiance with others who call to this and to perform takfeer of those who abandon it. And the second [foundation]: is to warn against Shirk in the worship of Allaah and to be harsh in that and to have enmity due to that and to perform takfeer of those who commit Shirk. And these two foundations are the scales of justice in worship, social intercourse and in how the person deals with others. And the one who scorns the affair of Salafiyyah and does not give importance to it in his da'wah and he does not make it the foundation of his da'wah, then this individual is either an ignoramous (jaahil) or a person who is misguided and misguiding others.  And Shadeed is from the second category, a person who is misguided and misguiding others.  It is obligatory to be cautious of him.  And he must not be allowed the opportunity - and we advise Ahlus-Sunnah in America and other than it, to not allow him an opportunity to deliver lessons and lectures and talks in their mosques due to the corruption in his manhaj and his ignorance concerning the da'wah to Allaah.  Rather, he is bold in misguidance and deviation.  And I do not hold that I should pre-occupy my time with refuting him, since he is not deserving of that, according to my view.  And I only suffice with warning against him and his corrupt manhaj.  So convey the salaam from me to your brothers and convey this statement concerning the man and I advise them to be cautious of him.  And may the peace and salutations of Allaah be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon his Family and his all those who accompany him. And this was dicated by 'Ubayd Ibn 'Abdullaah Ibn Sulaymaan al-Jaabiree, after the Maghrib of Friday, the 27th of Jumaada ath-Thaanee, in the year 1432H, which corresponds to the 20th of May, in the year 2011C.E.  And the success is with Allaah.

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But we restrict manhaj to warning against people, boycotting, but this from our manhaj also.  To ascertain the haqq, to ascertain the truth of the matter before you go and spread it.

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However, dissemination of the knowledge is not gonna be always didactic lectures, it's not gonna always be didactic lectures where you sittin' in front of a group of people, you quoting ayat, hadeeth, ayat, hadeeth, ayat hadeeth and then you get up.  Sallallaahu 'alaa nabiyyinaa Muhammad and...and all is well.  That's not how were are going to rectify our communities.

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An individual could have left hizbiyyah twenty years ago, in our eyes he's still...he's still hizbee, still not Salafee.  And then we throw statements around like: uh...the Salaf used to watch an individual for seven years after he...[chuckles]... ittaqillaah yaa 'Abdullaah.  'Abdullaah, fear Allaah subhaanahu wa ta'aalaa.  And stop oppressing the people.  Allow the people to come to the haqq and stop acting as a hindrance for them coming to the truth.

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[Quoting the aayah] "There has come to you a Messenger from yourselves, it grieves him that you should fall into difficulty." Where is that characteristic amongst us?  We happy when somebody goes astray.  They say: See, I told you wasn't even Salafee anyway.  We happy when we see somebody go astray.

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One of the Sahaabah and one of taabi'een they differed on an issue, but there wasn't any enmity and hatred amongst them as it is amongst us. The Sunnah is broad and sometimes we have to have hikmah in how we deal with one another, as this is the thing that brings about the harmony and the unification between the Muslims.  And when we understand that, precedence is given to the usool of our deen and that is from them, from the usool of our deen, from the fundamental principles of our deen is al-ijtimaa', unification of the Muslims in general and the Salafees in more specific, the people that are upon the truth.

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Similarly with the sisters wearing the niqaab. The same issue, the same thing applies. That now you start to question a sisters 'aqeedah because she doesn't wear niqaab, or you know, you have, we have this stigma amongst the sisters that if there's a group of sisters and they don't wear niqaab, then they're quote-unquote, "off the hook." They the off the hook sisters 'cause they don't wear niqaab. Maashaa` Allaah tabaarakallaah, who said that? And this stuff spreads around in our communities and then it causes so much damage in our communities that by the time it gets back to our Scholars and they correct it, so much damage has been done that his correction of the issue doesn't even matter. It's irrelevant, because so many people have been rubbed the wrong way. So many people have been chased away from Islam, chased away from the masaajid that by the time mashaayikh get a hold of it and address it and deal with it, so many people have been chased away that really it doesn't matter anymore.

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In America, for you to say that someone can't wear pants, then how is he supposed to get a job?  How do you take a fatwaa like that and apply it to the west when that is the common dress of the people?  And as some of the mashaayikh mention here, that wearing a thawb in America could be considered shuhrah, could be considered showing off and drawing attention to yourself and that's exactly what it does.  I'm not saying that during Islamic functions and going to Jumu'ah and things like that that we shouldn't have on Islamic attire, but you have some brothers who will go to the extreme that they won't take a particular job because they can't wear a thawb at the job.

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I hear brothers and sisters say all the time, 'Man, I been Muslim since the 70's,' or 'I been Muslim since the early 80's,' or 'Mashaa Allah, I been Muslim for 20 years.' I don't care how long you been Muslim; you're still one foot away from jaahiliyyah, one foot from kufr, one decision from kufr! 'How many years' shouldn't mean anything! Because it could have been 20 years as a Muslim ý ten of it was spent upon something that was falsehood, five of it was spent trying to just acclimate yourself to the real Islam, and then really you only been Muslim for five years ý honestly speaking! You only been a practicing Muslim for five years! And the Salaf they said that, "I struggle with myself for 40 years so that I could relax for 40 years!" Wallaahi brothers and sisters, allow that statement to marinate in your heart.

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And we see, as we mentioned, from the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) and from the Sahaabah, that sometimes they let things slide, knowing that it was in opposition to the Sunnah.  They let it slide, looking at the bigger picture.

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Also another hadeeth that came to my mind is the hadeeth of 'Abdullaah, one of the Companions of the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam). The hadeeth is collected in Saheehul-Bukhaaree, uh, in the Chapter of Eemaan, where there was one of the Companions who used to drink, drink alcohol, intoxicants. And one day he was drunk. And the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) used to laugh at his jokes or whatever. The Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) was down to earth, as that was another chapter that I mentioned in the book, is that it is okay to be down to earth. 'Cause the Prophet (sallallaahi 'alayhi wa sallam) was not, you know, overzealous with his religiosity like many of us. We have this unspoken rule in our communities of zero tolerance for sin. And that mentality, it goes against the Sharee'ah, the legislation of al-Islam. The legislation did not come to rid us of sin altogether. However, it came to make takhfeef, it came to lessen the sins, or the amount of sins that people commit and to refer people back to their Lord and to keep the sins, you know, between them and their Lord and not to kust totally eradicate our communities of sin as that is something that is not realistic and not pragmatic at all.

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I spent four years in the college of hadeeth, studying everything that there is to know about hadeeth. The origin of hadeeth, the history of hadeeth, the Scholars of hadeeth, the students of the Scholars of hadeeth, uh when they was born, when they died and then, you know, the compilations of hadeeth and when it started and when it stopped. And enything that you can think of, Jarh wat-Ta'deel, how to criticize a narrator and authenticate a hadeeth; everything that there is to know about the Sunnah of the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam). In that four year period, we studied it.

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But we'll still say: Salafee. Wallaahi, I would be very cautious of allowing that to come out of my mouth considering, you know, my actions, considering my deeds. And that's not to say that an individual can't ascribe to the methodology of the Salaf, but not in the arrogant way that you find many of the brothers and sisters doing. You have a brother, his name is Fulaan Ibn Fulaan as-Salafee, Fulaan Ibn Fulaan Fulaan as-Salafee. And they say that with pride. And then you have people who don't ascribe to Salafiyyah who may be more inclined to worship of Allaahu subhaanahu wa ta'aalaa. And they're looking at us as we parade around as Salafees, they're looking at us and they're just making mockery of us. Even as it relates to being educated about the Deen, even as it relates to knowing the Qur`aan. We find many students of knowledge, many people who ascribe to the methodology of the Salaf, manhaj of the Salaf, ignorant of the Book of Allaahu subhaanahu wa ta'aalaa, ignorant of the Book of Allaahu subhaanahu wa ta'aalaa. That's the least thing you should have as a Salafee, is something memorized, committed to memory from the Book of Allaahu subhaanahu wa ta'aalaa. But we'll know narrations about this and Imaam Ahmad said this and about that and you haven't even completed the first juz`, the 30th juz` of the Qur`aan, haven't completed the 30th juz` of the Qur`aan. Haven't completed the 30th juz` of the Qur`aan. Wallaahi, if we was in a non-Salafee masjid, wallaahi you can find the people, the least thing that they have is the Book of Allaah. The least thing that they have is the Book of Allaah. They say yeah, tafaddal, lead the Salaat. Listen to the individual's recitation, but these are the things that, you know, I'm pinpointing out, not as a criticism, but something that we need just as a reminder for us to look at.

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And to just sit here and to see the communities just like you know, not even trying to provide an alternative. Not even to institute some incentives in our communities to help combat that stuff. But we'll sit around on the internet talking about who's on it, who's astray wallaahil-'adheem. Who you got problems with or whatever the case may be wallaahil-'adheem. Wallaahi these are issues that are not going to stop your children from going astray.

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However, there's an exception to the rule. However, we come into Islam with our narrow vision, our subjective outlook on everything. And we make everything black and white, it's either black or white. Wallaahil-'Adheem, if you go through your life as a Muslim look at everything as black and white, wallaahi you deprive yourself of understanding the broadness of Islaam. Islam is way broad than that, way more broad than that. However, that's due to your narrow outlook. And as a result of that, you end up making your like so miserable and you make everybody else's like miserable because of your lack of understanding and your subjective views and outlook on everything.

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The Scholars have told us on a number of occasions: Stop being harsh with people, make things easy on the people, stop making Salafiyyah like a hizb, like a, like a party or a sect. Stop making Salafiyyah so difficult for the people to digest. Speak to the people in a language that they understand. Make things easy and don't make them difficult for the people. Stop the discord, be brothers. The Scholars, they give us all this advice. And then we'll say, Yeah, maashaa` Allaah, Shaykh Rabee' gave a nice lecture, or Shaykh Saalih Fawzaan gave a nice lecture, or the Muftee gave nice lecture. Where, I myself translated the lecture for the Muftee, the Grand Muftee of Saudi Arabia today, Shaykh 'Abdul-'Azeez aalush-Shaykh where he was speaking directly to the Imaams and the students of knowledge here in America. Telling them to work with one another, telling them to be gentle with one another, telling them to listen to one another, telling them to mutually obey one another, and you'll still find discord amongst the people. You'll find the Scholars telling us to be easy with the people. You can say the wrong thing and everything that you worked so hard for can be thrown out the window because an individual don't like you. If he don't like you, he can say that you said this on a lecture and now you're no longer considered to be Salafee. Something that simple. Since when has it been that easy to put a person off the Deen? Put a person off the, you know, off the manhaj. The Scholars have given us advice on a number of occasions but how much of it do we practice?

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The extent of your Salafiyyah is not determined by how harsh you are with people. It's determined by your level of 'ibaadah, your level of worship and your level of closeness to Allaahu subhaanahu wa ta'aalaa. It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you can admonish this one and advise this one and give naseehah to that one. That doesn't raise your...that doesn't increase you in your Salafiyyah in the eyesight of Allaahu subhaanahu wa ta'aalaa, maybe in front of the brothers who, you know, is part of your immediate circle. But to Allaahu subhaanahu wa ta'aalaa it means absolutely nothing. What is going to bring you closer to Allaahu subhaanahu wa ta'aalaa is your worship of Allaahu subhaanahu wa ta'aalaa and your desire to see the slaves of Allaahu subhaanahu wa ta'aalaa excel.