Al-Albaani asked about Hasan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb | 14 |

by The Albaani Site

 

Questioner: May Allaah bless you, we want the legislated, balanced evaluation of some of the Islamic callers of the past about whom much has been said, like Hasan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb, because opinions have clashed concerning them with some people saying that Shaikh Naasir [i.e., al-Albaani] says such and such, and others say that Shaikh Naasir says such and such.  We want the legislated, scholarly, evaluation which your eminence holds to be true concerning Hasan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb?

Al-Albaani: Yes.  Based upon His Saying, the Blessed and Most High, “… and do not let the hatred of a people prevent you from being just. Be just; that is nearer to righteousness …” [Maa’idah 5:8] [I say that] we do not withhold a caller his due, and what we believe about him is done so without falling short or going to extremes.

I believe that Hasan al-Banna had a good influence on many of the Muslim youth who were lost in [different forms of] amusement and Western habits like places of entertainment and cinemas.  He banded them together–and it was a hizbi bloc that they formed which we are not happy with because … [tape is unclear here] …– but he called them to follow the Book and the Sunnah and to cling to the Islaam that he knew, so through him Allaah caused there to be as much benefit as He wanted and his call spread to the Islamic lands.  This is what we hold to be true before Allaah regarding his call.

But we do not go to extremes regarding him as those who are partisan to him do–for he, regretfully, did not have knowledge of the Book and the Sunnah and was not a caller to the Book and the Sunnah upon the methodology of the Salaf as-Saalih.

And we just said [in previous sittings] that no group or faction on the face of the earth will be found which denies clinging to the Book and the Sunnah. In fact, every group no matter how misguided they are like, for example, the Shee’ah and the Khawaarij, say, ‘We are on the Book and the Sunnah,’ let alone Hasan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb and those who followed them, these too call to holding firmly to the Book and the Sunnah.

But, most unfortunately, to this day the Ikhwaan al-Muslimoon do not openly proclaim that they cling to the Book and the Sunnah and the methodology of the Salaf as-Saalih but instead suffice with calling to Islaam, to the Book and the Sunnah, generally.

For this reason, we know through experience that the Ikhwaan al-Muslimoon tread on the path of Hasan al-Banna in calling to Islaam, and even if it is connected to the Book and the Sunnah their call is general and does not include detail even in that which is related to aqidah.

So they do not openly declare clinging to the aqidah of the Salaf as-Saalih in detail, they may say it generally, but what we see actually taking place in many countries in which the Ikhwaan al-Muslimoon party has spread is that they are satisfied with everyone who holds onto Islaam in whatever shape or form that may be, so the Ikhwaan gather between the Salafis and the Khalafis, i.e., between those who align themselves to the Salaf and those who align themselves to the Khalaf, indeed they will gather and add people who may be Shee’ah to their ranks.

And I know through personal experience that the Ikhwaan al-Muslimoon, because their da’wah is general and not detailed and is not on the methodology of the Salaf as-Saalih, [because of this] you will find that the Ikhwaan al-Muslimoon in one country differ from the Ikhwaan al-Muslimoon in another even though they are both Ikhwaanees, but their fiqh and their aqidah differs greatly.

So I’ll give you a very sensitive and precise example: unquestionably it is Sayyid Saabiq’s book called Fiqhus-Sunnah.  In reality, I advise the Muslim youth to read it, those who have not studied the fiqh which is followed in one of the four madhhabs, as is the case with most of the youth today–they do not study fiqh.  Because they go through formal education which only teaches very, very little fiqh.

When they want to learn fiqh, I advise these youth to learn it from Sayyid Saabiq’s book [called], ‘Fiqhus-Sunnah.’  For it, in reality, opened a door for the rigid blind-followers who do not know Islaam except within the limits of their madhhabs which they studied and lived according to or which they found their fathers and forefathers on–it opened a way for them to stick to fiqh issues which have been authentically reported in the Sunnah. I advise the youth to read this book, even though I had some points to make about it, and this is something natural, for this reason I wrote a book called, Tamaam al-Minnah fit-Ta’liq alaa Fiqhis-Sunnah, [which is a four hundred and seventy three page checking of Sayyid Saabiq’s book].

I say: in some institutions in the Islamic countries this book is studied because it is easy to grasp and understand and because it is not fanatical towards any one of the four madhhabs followed today–whilst in other countries, it is thrown to the side just as a [worthless] seed is by a group of the Ikhwaan al-Muslimoon [themselves] even though the book’s author is from the heads of the Ikhwaan al-Muslimoon and from the students of Hasan al-Banna, may Allaah the Blessed and Most High, have mercy on him.