Jihad
DEBATE BY SHAIKH NAASIR-UD-DEEN ALBAANI
The discussion starts With
a supporter of The Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO) From the
tape of Sheikh Naasir-Ud-Deen Al-Albaanee Rahimahullah "Munatharah ma'
tantheem al-jihad al-islami." in two tapes
I.J.O
Supporter: We have no doubt that you are one of the first
of the scholars in the century to call for the return to the understanding
of the Salaf. There is no doubt that the issue of jihad is an issue
of disagreement among those who follow the Manhaj of the Salaf-us-Saalih.
In the issue of jihad, we call the people to fight jihad under two
conditions : The first is that it has to be done in pure intention
for the sake of Allah. The second that it has to be under the banner
of Islam. However we hear from the devout Muslim youth other conditions
that they narrate from you which we never heard about in Ahaadeeth,
such conditions are Islamic knowledge (or Education and purification
- Tasfiyah wa Tarbiyah) and having Khalifa or an Islamic state.
These conditions we hear a lot from the brothers who follow manhaj
as-Salaf, and I am among those who follow this manhaj INSHAALLAH.
My Question is : do these conditions have any reference in the Sunnah
? or are they only an ijtihaad regarding the current situation and\or
conditions? and before that do you really call for these conditions?
Al-Albaanee: First
of all, we agreed to discuss this issue with you to find out about
your Da'waah.
I.J.O
Supporter: I told you about
it.
Al-Albaanee: Then,
explain your da'wa. Your questions are premature now, I want to
understand what your da'wa is for.
I.J.O
Supporter: My da'wa is clear, to do jihad according to
the conditions I mentioned. Intention because the Prophet Muhammad
(salallaahu'alayheewasallam) said "whoever fought for the word
of Allah to be supreme, (that is) FISABILILLAH (for the sake of
Allah)". Under the banner of Islam because the Prophet (salallaahu'alayheewasallam)
said "whoever fought for the sake of 'asabiyah (partisanship)
supporting one group or fighting another and died, he died the death
of Jaahiliyyah (days of Ignorance)."
Al-Albaanee: OK.
Do we need an Ameer to do jihad ?
I.J.O
Supporter: No.
Al-Albaanee: So
we do jihad in a big disorganized mess ?
(Arabic : Fawda)
I.J.O
Supporter: No ... but
Al-Albaanee: Also,
your first condition which is the pure intention. This condition
is for every worship, so we are done with it. Your second, under
the Islamic banner, do you imagine jihad without an Ameer? How can
we have an Islamic banner without an Ameer for that banner?
I.J.O
Supporter: We can do jihad in a manner like: if a Muslim
goes to a kafir enemy leader, and kills him.
Al-Albaanee: But
we were talking about the jihad
of a group. Jihad under an Islamic banner is it the jihad of
one person or the jihad of a group? Also, a group of Muslims that
leave for jihad, do they not need an Ameer to lead them?
I.J.O
Supporter: Yes, yes of course. A group of Muslims who
travel or leave for jihad need an Ameer. and If a group of Muslims
of more than 3 leave for Jihad they need an Ameer.
Al-Albaanee: Then
why did you not mention this as a condition?
I.J.O
Supporter: Well, Okay, let us make it a third condition.
Al-Albaanee: Okay
for the Fard 'Ayn jihad (compulsory on all Muslims), do we need
a jama'a (group) for it or can it be done as individuals ?
I.J.O
Supporter: Either case.
Al-Albaanee: This
is not an answer.
I.J.O
Supporter: Why is that?
Al-Albaanee: We
said that jihad is two kinds : Fard Kifayah, which only a small
group of Muslims can do, and if a group do it, the rest of the Muslims
are not questioned about it. This kind of jihad individuals can
do on their own. Fard 'Ayn which ALL the Muslims have to do it in
a specific area. To do this kind of jihad, do we not need an Ameer
to lead the Muslims?
I.J.O
Supporter: Yes we need an Ameer for this group if it
fights or if it doesn't fight.
Al-Albaanee: Good Good,
we return to say Ameer to mean a Khalifah of the Muslims.
I.J.O
Supporter: No not a Khalifah.
Al-Albaanee: Why?
is it dangerous to say Khalifah?
I.J.O
Supporter: Yes of course, because this means we want
to reap the fruit before we plant the trees.
Al-Albaanee: This
is what I see you doing. You say you want an Ameer for the whole
group of Muslims to lead jihad and at the same time you don't want
him to be the Khalifah! Is this what you want?
I.J.O
Supporter: Well, yes.
Al-Albaanee: !!
Okay then where is this Ameer? and who is this Ameer? and can we
have more than one Ameer? We are now on the condition we agreed
on before, which is that we need an Ameer, and you claim that we
need an Ameer to lead this group jihad without him being the Khalifah.
Which do we get first, the Ameer or the jihad? this is like asking
do we pray before the adhan or after. which comes first ?
[after a while of arguing
around]
I.J.O
Supporter: Okay we do need an Ameer for the Fard 'ayn
jihad before we start the jihad.
Al-Albaanee: Excellent.
Then do we call to have an Ameer first, or do we call for the jihad
first.
I.J.O
Supporter: Well, both at the same time.
Al-Albaanee: Lahawlawalaquwataillabillaah
(There is no might nor power except with Allah). We just agreed
that we need an Ameer for Jihad al-'Ayn before we start the jihad.
The next question is do we call for an Ameer First or do we call
for the jihad first? This group, all kinds of groups need an Ameer.
To call for this kind of jihad we do need an Ameer first, the Ameer
will call for the Mujahideen and send those here and those there.
I.J.O
Supporter: Okay, what if a group of Muslims read in the
Qur'an about jihad and want to do jihad, so they gather for jihad
and then appoint an Ameer on them.
Al-Albaanee: Ya
akhi what you are describing is a case of jihad Fard al-Kifayah.
For Fard Al-Kifayah it is okay for a small group to gather and go
do jihad. For Fard al-'ayn we need the whole group of Muslims. How
can we have the whole group of Muslims if we don't have a unified
leadership for this kind for jihad? This kind of Ameer, I do not
see any of the Mujahideen calling for it. Why do you not call for
that Ameer?
I.J.O
Supporter: Okay then let us call for this Ameer.
Al-Albaanee : OK,
then what are the characteristics for this Ameer, in your opinion?
I.J.O
Supporter: [some characteristics]
Al-Albaanee: And
do you see an Ameer with these qualities ?
I.J.O
Supporter: Yes, many.
Al-Albaanee: Where?
I.J.O
Supporter: Everywhere.
Al-Albaanee: We
said that we need an Ameer for the whole group, i.e. for all the
Muslims. How can we have more than one Ameer for all the Muslims?
I.J.O
Supporter: ... [arguing around]
Al-Albaanee: Do
you know what does the Ahaadeeth of Huthayfah bin yaman (radiallaahu'anhu)
[fa in lam yakun lahom jama'a wa la imam (If there is no jamah
and no leader)] say about this, does it lead to the conclusion
that this jihad needs a Khalifah, or otherwise?
Ahaadeeth narrated in
Bukhaaree , Kitaab Al-Manaqib, Ahaadeeth #3338 Ahaadeeth says:
When people were asking the Prophet Muhammad (salallaahu'alayheewasallam)
about the goodness, I was asking about the evil in fear that it
may get to me, so I asked "O prophet of Allah (salallaahu'alayheewasallam)
we were in Jaahiliyyah then Allah brought this goodness, will there
be any evil after it?" The Prophet Muhammad (salallaahu'alayheewasallam)
said "yes there will", I said "will there be goodness after it?"
he (salallaahu'alayheewasallam) said "yes and it has some impurities"
I asked "and what are its impurities?" he (salallaahu'alayheewasallam)
said "People who guide without my guidance, you know of them and
deny." I asked "Is there evil after this goodness?" he (salallaahu'alayheewasallam)
said "Yes, there will be preachers who preach for the doors of hellfire,
whoever answers them they throw him into hellfire" so I said "O
Prophet of Allah (salallaahu'alayheewasallam) ,describe them for
us" he (salallaahu'alayheewasallam) said "they are from you and
they speak from our language." so I asked "what should I do if I
witness that?" the prophet (salallaahu'alayheewasallam) said "stick
with the group of Muslims and their leader" I asked "what if they
had no leader?" he (salallaahu'alayheewasallam) said "if they had
no leader or imam, then leave all these groups even if you had to
bite on a tree until your death."
I.J.O
Supporter: What does this Ahaadeeth have to do with our
discussion?
Al-Albaanee: Did
Hudhayfah (radiallaahu'anhu) not ask the Prophet (salallaahu'alayheewasallam)
about what to do when there are callers to the doors of hellfire?
The Prophet (salallaahu'alayheewa- sallaam) answered that he must
stick to the imam of the jama'a, if there is no imam then let him
stay away from every jama'a. Do these conditions apply to today?
Do we not have people who claim to be Muslims yet they are callers
to hellfire? Is Khalifah not missing?
I.J.O
Supporter: I prefer to to discuss other Ahaadeeths, like
"there is still a portion of my nation fighting for the right,
they do not care whoever disagreed with them or let them down."
Al-Albaanee: What
does this have to do with our discussion? We are not in disagreement
about calling for jihad.
We are in agreement that
jihad is a an obligation (Fard 'Ayn) today, what we disagree on
is that do we need a Khalifah first or not.
What you quoted adds nothing
to the argument. We both agree that jihad is a Fard. Do you understand?
What we disagree about is the issue of needing a Khalifah to start
this jihad.
I.J.O
Supporter: OK.
Al-Albaanee: Notice
that the Prophet (salallaahu'alayheewasallam) advised Hudhayfah
(radiallaahu'anhu) to stick with the imam of the Muslims and their
main group. You have that all the conditions in that Ahaadeeth are
true today ..
I.J.O
Supporter: True ...
Al-Albaani: and
the Prophet (salallaahu'alayheewasallam) said if the Muslims had
no imam or jama'a, to leave all the groups. so what do you do now?
I.J.O
Supporter: Well, we try to look for the group of Muslims
and find an imam for it.
Al-Albaanee: This
is what we call for! jihad is fard, but right now is not the time
for it. We need the imam first and that the Prophet Muhammad (salallaahu'alayheewasallam)
ordered you to follow and stick with his group.
I.J.O
Supporter: How do we know that we cannot do jihad until
we get this Khalifah that is indeed necessary?
Al-Albaanee: The
Ahaadeeth says if the Muslims had no one leader then leave all the
groups. And we already said before that the jihad for fard al-'ayn
has to be done the jama'a led by a leader to all the Muslims, an
Ameer. If the Muslims had no leader they stay away from ALL groups.
How can they do group jihad if they should at the same time stay
away from all groups??? you are contradicting what you already agreed
on. Islamically we have only one banner, one group and one leader.
We do need this one group to start the fard al-'Ayn jihad.
I.J.O
Supporter: ...
Al-Albaanee: Now
what I want to do is prove to you that this Ameer of the fard 'Ayn
jihad must be a Khalifah, not just an Ameer. The Dalleel (proof)
is the Ahaadeeth of Hudhayfah (radiallaahu'anhu) again. Sometimes
as you know the evidence is clear and sometimes not very, (qat'i
al-dilalah, or thahiri al-dilalah). Let us consider an example of
a Sheikh advising his student on the guidelines of this hadith.
The student asks his Sheikh what to do to to avoid the evil, the
Sheikh says stick with the imam of the Muslims. The student answers
that the Muslims have no khalifah, so the Sheikh advises him to
stay away from all the groups. This student is obedient to his Sheikh
and this Sheikh that is following his Prophet (salallaahu'alay-
heewasallaam). What would this student do? He would go ahead living
his life in a valley looking after his sheep or whatever, worshiping
Allah. Where is jihad? If it was a Waajib on this Muslim to fight
then the Sheikh would tell him to fight, and not to stay away from
every group. Is there a jihad here? As long as there is no imam
then there is no jihad. This evidence is Qat'i al-Dilalah (clear
evidence). Jihaad must be in the supervision of an Imam,
or Khalifah. But let me tell you about some thing that troubles
many of the students of knowledge, that there are many groups that
fight like the Afghan or those in Syria a decade or more ago. Those
people, if they want to fight they must be under the leadership
of one Ameer, that doesn't mean that Syrians fight in Afghanistan
and Afghanis in Syria, no. It means that both fighting groups must
be under the supervision on one Imam and one khalifah. If there
was no one imam and no one jama'a (not in the meaning of two fighting
groups, but in the meaning of one group in their unity of leadership,
but could be more than one group of fighters each fighting in a
part of the Islamic world), both groups would be operating on their
own.
To do this fard 'ayn jihad,
the Waajib of the Muslims is unity, the unity needs a Khalifah.
To establish this thing, we must start with education and purification
(Tasfiyah wa Tarbiyah). We can not start with jihad right now.
You say that there are
many groups for jihad, yet all these groups are in disagreement
and as Allah said in Qur'aan "wa la tanaza'o fa tafshalu wa thahaba
ree'okum". We are today many like the flowing of the river,
what you want to do is give legitimacy to these ghutha' groups.
I.J.O
Supporter: Okay then how does this education and purification
(Tasfiyah wa Tarbiyah) lead to Khalifah?
Al-Albaanee: History
repeats itself. Everybody claims that the prophet is their role
model. Our Prophet (salallaahu'alayheewasallam) spent the first
half of his message in making da'wa, and he started with it not
with jihad. The prophet (salallaahu'alayheewasallam) first raised
his companions with Islamic education like he educated them to say
the word of truth and not be afraid of it, he (salallaahu'alayheewasallam)
also taught them the Islamic teachings. We know that our Islam today
is not like it was when Allah revealed "today I have completed your
religion", many things have indeed been added to Islam, do you not
agree?
I.J.O
Supporter: Yes I fully agree. but there are many Qur'ânic
proofs that jihad is an important obligation!
Al-Albaanee: I do
not deny that, but ya akhi the question is "where do we start from?"
My da'wa is :
To do this jihad we need
an Ameer, to get this Ameer we must work on the Tasfiyah and Tarbiyah.
Think about this on your own, by considering the Ahaadeeth of Hudhayfah
(radiallaahu'anhu) which do we need first jihad or the Ameer?
I.J.O
Supporter: Has anyone before called for Tasfiyah and
Tarbiyah before jihad?
Al-Albaanee: May
Allah be merciful with you. Tell me when did the Muslims not have
a unified Khalifah?
I.J.O
Supporter: What about the time of Ali (radiallaahu'anhu)
and Mu'awiyah (radiallaahu'anhu)?
Al-Albaanee: You
mean you have a doubt that Ali (radiallaahu'anhu) was right, and
that Mu'awiyah (radiallaahu'anhu) was wrong?
I.J.O
Supporter: No ... but
Al-Albaanee: No
"but"s. How many khulafaa were there?
[after a while of discussion]
I.J.O
Supporter: OK, OK, one.
A listener: To be
frank my Sheikh, this discussion is going nowhere. If one does not
make his intention and mind pure he will never understand.
Al-Albaani: This
is indeed a good advice. We live in an age where one of the fatal
characters is spread, which is everyone liking his own opinion.
Today everybody who reads a bit of Qur'aan or learns a bit of Ahkaam
(rulings) and Ahaadeeths, he thinks he is something in 'ilm (knowledge)
although he can not read the Ahaadeeths without errors, and then
he wants to argue everything he sees ...
I.J.O
Supporter: .. trying to interrupt ...
Al-Albaani: The
time for discussion is over. I will take the advice of the brother.
My advice to the students
of knowledge is not proceed to preach to the people something that
may lead them to great misguidance (Dalal). He should check with
the people of knowledge before he jumps to conclusions.
It is one of the disasters
of the Muslim youth today to quickly adopt opinions without looking
into the opinions of the Salaf and khalaf with regards to these
issues.
I advise Muslims to research
this especially in the issues that concern the group such as Jihad.
Jihad is, without doubt
the pride of Islam and of the basis of Islam (arkaan - basis or
pillar) and the verses and Ahaadeeths regards this are known to
everybody Insha'allah.
But this jihad has its
conditions and introductions.
From its basic conditions
that the group that does it must be in agreement to return to Qur'aan
and Sunnah in their rulings (Ahkaam).
This in fact needs a great
time of education, purification and of scholars and preachers, like
the Prophet (salallaahu'alayheewa- sallaam) educated his companions.
We notice that Mujaahids call for whatever of the Muslims to join
in the fight, and when they go to fight they find disagreement among
themselves in matters of their faith and the basics of Islam.
How do these people get
ready to go for Jihad when they are yet to understand what is obligatory
on them of Aqeedah ??!!
This my brother, leads
us to understand that Jihad is not to be discussed, but we must
discuss its pre-requisites.
The first introduction
is, as we attest before Allah, the Khalifah.
Because if the Ameers exist
today and the bond I talked about (common understanding of Islam)
does not exist among them then they will turn against one another
and fight each other.
They must be all for one
methodology and one understanding (the Manhaj of the Salaf).
I therefore advise every
Muslim to work by the Ahaadeeth of Ibn al-yaman (radiallaahu'anhu),
leave all the groups and stay by yourself.
And this is not to mean
to live in isolation, no it means not to join one or another group.
You can do yourself and
all the Muslims good with your knowledge.
This is a reminder,
and the reminder benefits the believers.
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