Question to Shaykh Saalih al-Fawzaan (22/01/1433H) at Ha'il University

This was a question put to the Shaykh in the lecture given at Ha'il University:

Question: Shaykh, may Allaah be benevolent towards you, [the questioner] says: Sometimes directions come from those in authority to warn against some of the contemporary jama'aat or (contemporary) ideas. But some people desist from clarification or from reading this clarification or this matter or he will not give a sermon which he has been tasked to givie about a jamaa'ah with the argument of avoiding that fitnah should arise. So what is your saying about this ijtihaad, your eminence?

Answer: We say: Tribulation (fitnah) lies in leaving alone the people of evil spreading their evil without them being taken by their hands (restrained) and without their evil being warned against and their ideas being refuted. This is the actual fitnah. As for clarification, and taking the fools by their hands, and (likewise) the people of misguidance, this is wisdom (hikmah) and is not tribulation (fitnah), this is repelling error.

Benefits

ONE: This is one of dozens of audios and texts that can be brought from Shaykh Saalih al-Fawzaan indicating that al-Jarh wal-Ta'deel as it relates to the Innovators, deviants, deserters of Ahl al-Sunnah and others is an ongoing affair and is an obligation upon Ahl al-Sunnah as a whole, until the Hour is established.

TWO: An indication of the jahl of those who do not understand when a scholar is speaking with respect to al-Jarh wal-Ta'deel as it relates to the narrators of hadeeth, which has passed and ended and al-Jarh wal-Ta'deel of individuals, groups and parties as it relates to sunnah and bid'ah, guidance and misguidance.

THREE: Exposition of the talbees (deception) and tamweeh (confusion, trickery) of people like Muhammad Munir Mufti who when rightly and justly criticized for uttering statements of ignorance regarding these affairs starts to play games and brings more deception to hide his evil and to attack those who correctly refuted his mistake and distortion of the truth. This is because Muhammad Munir Mufti's argument to defend himself is to say, in essence, "The issue here is that do I have a salaf (anyone preceding me) from the scholars in what I said..." and he is referring here to his insinuations that al-Jarh wal-Ta'deel does not exist today [or his causing doubts about its existence and his stating that the Scholars never made jarh (disparagements) in front of the laymen]. And what he is alluding to here is the statement of contemporary scholars who deny that al-Jarh wal-Ta'deel exists today, meaning, by al-jarh wal-tadeel, criticism, evaluation and appraisal of the narrators of hadeeth. That science has already been completed and ended and all subsequent scholars are simply followers and inheritors of that science. This does nothing to save Muhammad Munir Mufti, and only indicates his compound jahl (ignorance) in trying to defend himself against Abu Suhail Anwar Wright's legitimate criticism and correction of him. These same scholars whom Muhammad Munir Mufti is deceptively trying to make as his precedents (salaf) in this saying, actually have numerous other sayings establishing that jarh (disparagement) as it relates to Innovators and deviants is an obligatory, ongoing affair, and they themselves refute individuals and jamaa'aat by name and spread this to the laymen! The aaqil (intelligent person) does not need any further elaboration of this ignorance and deception for it is as clear as the daylight sun. These methods being used by these brothers are simply (and disastrously) an indication that they are following in the footsteps of Innovators like al-Ma'ribee, who when correctly criticized for a false principle or statement they uttered and spread amongst the people, start digging a deeper hole for themselves by employing more ignorance and deception to justify and defend themselves from legitimate criticism.

FOUR: The question was regarding those tasked with giving sermons and being advised by the ruler to speak about the jamaa'at of misguidance (meaning al-Ikhwaan and others). How does the claim of the Mumayyi'ah of today (those who try to dilute and water down the Salafi manhaj) about not bringing these types of issues to the 'awaam (general folk) stand when the rulers (with consultation and advice from the scholars obviously) are directing the khateebs to openly pronounce to the common-folk about these misguided jamaa'aat and Shaykh Saalih al-Fawzaan here is saying that this is wisdom itself and abandoning it is from tribulation! Meanwhile this is the ignorance of Muhammad Munir Mufti:

When was it from the way of the Ulamaa and the way of the Salaf to sit in front of the layman and talk about Jarh Wa Ta'deel. Bring me one example...When does Al-Jarh Wa-Ta'deel apply to the layman Muslim, the nine to five Muslim. The man who walks out of the Masjid; he is going to go to work and he listens to the radio at work and there is Kuffaar women around him at work. Is that going to benefit his heart as a Muslim? Is that going to allow him to go the rest of the day making Dhikr of Allah, seeking Rizq for his family? Is that going to help him? I am asking you will that help him?" [The audience says, "Laa (No)"].

Allaahul-Musta'aan - Allaah knows best how graduates such as these spent their time sitting in the classes of hadith and aqidah, reading the books of the Salaf written in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th centuries and then come out making statements like these - alongside their knowledge that the great scholars of our time like Shaykh al-Albaanee, Shaykh Ibn Baaz, Shaykh Muhammad bin Ibraaheem, Shaykh Rabee and many others refuted individuals, groups or parties by name and made it known to the common-folk (since that's the whole point of it in the first place!)