Describing Secularists as Hypocrites, and Reviling Mu'awiyah as a Gatewayإطلاق وصف النفاق على العلمانيين، واتخاذ الطعن في معاوية مدخلًا

Questioner: (audio unclear) present in our time among the secularists and (audio unclear) — is [the description of hypocrisy] applied to them as a group or to them as individuals?

As a group, there is no problem. (audio unclear) There is no problem that the description of hypocrisy (nifaq) is applied to secularism, because secularization is a call to shed the Shari'ah of Allah; secularization is a call to separate life from religion. Among its particulars is separating politics from the judgment of Allah and the judgment of His Messenger ﷺ, and in its reality it is a call to separate all of life from religion. Allah, majestic and exalted is He, says, "And who is better than Allah in judgment for a people who are certain [in faith]?" (audio unclear) They claim that they have the choice: if they wish, they make the Shari'ah of Allah the judge, and if they wish, they do not. They believe from the outset that the Shari'ah is insufficient and has no connection at all to the politics of governance or to judging between people — meaning that a person (audio unclear) judges by the taghut, and is nonetheless a Muslim and a believer! So this person is belying the command of Allah. Allah, majestic and exalted is He, says, "And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed — then it is those who are the disbelievers." What does this verse mean? Allah, majestic and exalted is He, says, "(audio unclear) by your Lord, they will not believe until they make you judge concerning that over which they dispute among themselves, and then find within themselves no discomfort from what you have judged and submit in full submission." Allah, majestic and exalted is He, says, "The judgment belongs only to Allah."

These people negate the foundation of Islam — indeed, they negate all the revealed laws. In reality, they (audio unclear) want to demolish Islam. People have not benefited from them in anything, neither in religion nor in worldly life. They only want to cut the Muslims off from their religion, and after that, [let them go] to the abyss; they do not care about them. That is why, in reality, they are the most (audio unclear) to governments in times of ease, and the greatest of them in turning against them in times of hardship. They are agents and hirelings; they give sincere counsel in nothing, and they have no principle at all. You cannot trust a secularist, because he has no principle. You may find some deviant sects who have a principle for their school, who struggle for their school and fight for their school — [but] he does not fight for his school. (audio unclear) He only wants to stir confusion, and he (audio unclear) to cut people off from their religion, and after that, to the abyss. (audio unclear) where he heads, even if he is not a secularist. In reality they (audio unclear) that you be a secularist so much as they call to your not being a Muslim. They want to cut a man off from Islam, and after that they do not care.

We know that the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, would apply the description of hypocrisy to one who rejected a single ruling — so what of one who rejects the judgment of Allah altogether and says, "I do not accept the Shari'ah at all"? Because he ties religion and Islam to consciences, and consciences are in the hearts, and the hearts, he says, are a man's private affairs. (audio unclear) you believe that it is the religion and the truth, but that is your private affair. That is why he does not object to private matters — not because Allah commanded this, but because of the general [notion of] private matters found among the secularists. But he contends with you when you command another to desist from shirk. So in reality he is a believer in the taghut and not a disbeliever in the taghut. That is why he says, "This is the private affair of others; your private affair is only what relates to the conscience, and consciences have the mosques." They do not see at all that the Islamic Shari'ah could coexist, or could live among people in society, because they cut Islam off from this.

That is why, when any one of the secularists cannot find work, you find some newspapers embracing him, and then he becomes a writer, a political analyst, or a football analyst, or an expert on [Islamic] groups! So this corrupter who has no work — rather, writing in the newspapers has become the work of one who has no work — they embrace these corrupters in the land. When he finds no work for his secularism, the newspapers embrace him and make him a writer, to misguide the servants of Allah, majestic and exalted is He. And in proportion to his reviling of the religion, his mockery of the Muslims, and his attacks on the righteous, titles are bestowed on him; he is brought forward and made prominent, and it is said, "the professor," "the writer" — while before that he was a lost man of no worth, trivial, and he remains trivial, because this is the work of one who has no work. The one who becomes prominent through evil is not to be praised. We know that Allah, majestic and exalted is He, mentioned Pharaoh in the Qur'an — one of the most famous in the world; the Qur'an is hardly recited except (audio unclear) the story of Pharaoh, who said, "I am your lord, most high." So baseness and vileness are the work of these people — and along with the baseness, collaboration [with the enemy], harm to the servants [of Allah], and corruption. That is why these people have the description of hypocrisy applied to them; there should be no disagreement over this.

Questioner: Isn't the description of disbelief applied to them, O Shaykh, if they manifest disbelief?

In terms of the general application, they too (audio unclear) opposition to all the revealed laws. Secularism is not [only] contrary to the Shari'ah of Muhammad ﷺ — it is contrary to all the revealed laws: to the general Islam on which all the messengers agreed by consensus, which is submission to Allah through tawhid and yielding to Him through obedience. These people do not submit to Allah through tawhid, do not yield to Him through obedience, and do not disavow shirk and its people. They live in the embrace of others, yet you will not find a secularist who declares the Jews or the Christians to be disbelievers. He says, "These are our brothers," (audio unclear) and that declaring them disbelievers is injustice and aggression against them. But they do not see the establishment of the revealed laws on the ground at all, and so they immediately label you with the school of the Khawarij, or (audio unclear), or among the corrupters, or among the saboteurs, or the stirrers of unrest, the stirrers of fitnah.

But they (audio unclear), and some of them are more clever than others and more cunning than others. Some of them announce (audio unclear) and declare openly, and some of them cling, for the sake of their secularism, to the tail-ends of texts — the tail-ends of texts — and (audio unclear) from here and there, and this becomes an entry point for him.

[This is] like the reality of [some] Muslims today regarding those who attack the Companions. (audio unclear) directly attacks the Companions — attacks Abu Bakr, or attacks 'Umar; he knows the situation and the sensitivity of this situation. So he enters by way of (audio unclear) attacking Mu'awiyah, and makes Mu'awiyah the entry point and the gateway to attacking the others. (audio unclear) between us and Mu'awiyah (audio unclear) of years, and Mu'awiyah (audio unclear) a school existing now, such that he wants to warn against the school! The school of the Ash'aris exists; the schools of the four imams exist; the school of Ibn Taymiyyah exists; the school of Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab exists. So if someone (audio unclear) from these schools, we say: that exists — this exists; he has a doubt, he may have misguidance and deviation. But this is a school that does not exist at all! [Mu'awiyah was] a righteous man, among the senior Companions and the most virtuous of them — even if he was not among (audio unclear), as Ibn Taymiyyah said, by consensus, and (audio unclear) kings of the earth. Why does he attack him? (audio unclear) They take him as a means and a gateway to attacking the others; (audio unclear) there is no justification or excuse. This is (audio unclear) the others among the deviant and misguided sects.

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