The Hadith of the "Deceitful Years" and the Ruwaybidahحديث «السنوات الخدّاعات» والرويبضة

Questioner: Peace be upon you, our Shaykh. [What is] the authenticity [of the hadith], "There will come upon the people deceitful years," and likewise the meaning of the hadith? Because you find some people [interpreting] the hadith each according to his own way and his desire. [What is] the correct meaning of this hadith?

The brother asks about the hadith — about [its] authenticity and its meaning: "There will be at the end of time deceitful [years]" — and in one narration, "deceitful years" — "in which the liar is believed and the truthful one is disbelieved, and the ruwaybidah speaks." It was said: "O Messenger of Allah, and who is the ruwaybidah?" He said: "The contemptible man who speaks about the affairs of the general public."

This hadith has been narrated through [several] routes, and none of that is authentic. It is narrated through [several] routes and none of that is authentic. Some of the later [scholars] declared it authentic, but the early ones do not declare it authentic. But the meaning of this hadith has some truth to it, if it is understood [correctly] and put in its correct place.

For believing the liar has indeed come about. Now the wicked liar tells a lie and is believed; it reaches the far horizons — and that is by way of the newspapers, by way of the magazines, by way of the media, because the secularists, the followers of the secularists, the deviants, and the misguided have influence in the media. This gives you strength, understanding, and an indication that the media has a great effect in directing people. And likewise the truthful one is disbelieved and the liar is believed, by way of this media, by way of influence and power, by way of money.

That is why the Prophet ﷺ did not restrict jihad against the disbelievers to the spearhead, the instruments of war, and heavy and light equipment. The Prophet ﷺ said: "Strive against the polytheists with your wealth, your lives, and your tongues." And the Prophet ﷺ used to place (audio unclear); he said: "Lampoon them, and the Holy Spirit is with you." Because the word in such a situation has meaning and significance. The truthful word, when it comes out of a truthful heart and (audio unclear) the people, has an effect. A word may accomplish more than what a bullet accomplishes.

So the liar is believed, the truthful one is disbelieved, and the ruwaybidah speaks. Doesn't the ignorant one speak about the affairs of the Muslims? Because he has someone who protects him and someone who incites him. They speak about the issues of the great ones, even issues of knowledge and decisive issues of the Shari'ah. And the first to speak about that are the secularists. The secularist (audio unclear) himself — a contemptible man, lost in the street, who does not find work and does not find anything. The newspaper takes him in and appoints him a writer, and then, by the power of the Powerful, he becomes a political analyst, an expert on [Islamic] groups. Then he fabricates against the religion of Allah: he declares things lawful and unlawful, he declares people upright and criminal, while he is the most ignorant of Allah's creation. He lays out conceptions and writes — the political analyst!

And politics according to these people [is] (audio unclear). Shar'i politics, which we have defined for you more than once — Ibn al-Qayyim says what Shar'i politics is: that you put the truth in its place. As for one who does not put the truth in its place, this is nothing of politics. The politics that exists [with them] (audio unclear) — one day with you, one day against you. And you have the mount of Imru' al-Qays: "Charging, fleeing, advancing, retreating all at once" — once like this and once like that. That one is fickle and changeable; he does not settle in one place. And these are the qualities of the people of hypocrisy. They used to come to [the Prophet], swearing: "We intended nothing but the best." And when they were alone by themselves they would say: "We deceived him and lied to him." [Allah] says: "And Allah testifies that they are liars." Allah knows the lies of their wickedness, but He only defers them to a Day in which eyes will stare.

But this does not mean surrender while we watch [them] (audio unclear) in the religion of Allah and toying [with it]. I spoke about them yesterday: that they (audio unclear) the religion of the people, the creeds of the people. And it does not concern them whether you become a secularist, a secularist woman. What concerns him is that he takes you out of your religion and makes you isolated from the divine Shari'ah — regardless of whether you have become a secularist, a liberal, a materialist (dahri), a Jew, or a Christian. What matters is that you are not like this. That is why the secularists do not declare the Jews or the Christians disbelievers, and they do not see any difference between them; rather, they call for dissolving the differences between the religions. They see that the polytheists are upon good, the Christians are upon good, and the Jews are upon good. What matters is only cooperation against the "terrorists"; and if we eliminate the "terrorists," the whole world will be well and live in security and peace. And if they see a man speaking about the issues of loyalty and disavowal (al-wala' wa al-bara'), they cooperate against him, so that he does not spoil their religion for them.

So the duty of the Muslims today is that they have [protective jealousy] for their religion, protective jealousy for their creed. They speak now through devices (audio unclear). Before, no one spoke; the article would not be published in the newspaper. The newspaper — after the appearance, for example, of so-called Twitter — (audio unclear) the reading of newspapers by a very large proportion, and (audio unclear) the watching of satellite channels by a very large proportion. Even the bookshops have become idle — even a religious bookshop has become idle. If a person writes, he responds to them and confronts these criminals. Is it not the religion of the Muslims?

A little while ago, the newspaper would not publish your article; it would publish only the rotten article. As for the truthful article, it would not be published. Now you can respond and write, and no one prevents you and no one blocks you. That is why it has raised some people and lowered others. And the trustworthy can expose the traitors and the agents. Even if it were decreed that harm would come to you — this is religion, and this is your creed. You want to defend your religion — this is religion. Are you waiting for the Jew to defend your religion? And some people never defend; he waits for someone to defend, then walks behind the one who defends.

But if this one started, and this one started, and this one started confronting the secularists, the corrupters in the land, and the callers to Westernisation, we would truly put an end to them, because falsehood is nothing. The secularist sits planning for tens of years; one word from the one upon the truth puts an end to all his falsehood. (audio unclear) now. You find that if they see a truthful man who has influence — power of influence — they do not say, for example, that he is a Muslim man. They do not say, "a Muslim man." The secularist does not say, "This is because he is a Muslim"; he says, "I am a Muslim, in fact." Rather, he comes from the angle that he stirs up fitnah — (audio unclear) cutting off the fitnah from its beginning. Or he comes from the angle that this is an extremist man — and "extremism" is an elastic word; everyone today who holds fast to his religion has become an extremist man — or from the angle that he is a terrorist, so that he finds those who rise with him and stand up with him from every Tom, Dick, and Harry, and from every one "killed by a violent blow, or by a headlong fall, or by the goring of horns."

Because we (audio unclear) the power of these people or their media to portray to the people that terrorism is killing Muslims, and killing such-and-such, and killing such-and-such. We [act] with organisation as they organise: (audio unclear) organised apostasy is confronted with organised tawhid; organised corruption is confronted with organised justice; organised innovation is confronted with organised Sunnah; organised (audio unclear) is confronted with organised truth. So we organise our papers and our affairs to confront these deviations. This needs strength, resolve, and religiousness. And whenever protective jealousy is found in the hearts, we are able to move in more and more spaces.

And I repeat: this is your religion. This is religion — you defend your religion. If you do not defend [it], tomorrow they will bring the West in upon you, into your homes, as the Tatars entered upon the Muslims in Iraq and everywhere: they ripped open the bellies of pregnant women, violated the rest, and killed the men. In one month they killed one million eight hundred thousand, and many people died from the stench of the corpses.

Tomorrow the wicked disbelievers will enter upon you. The Rafidah will enter upon you, while you (audio unclear), and they will tear you apart and kill you thoroughly, and they will not care and will not show mercy — especially the Rafidi. The Jew may show you mercy, and the Christian may show you mercy, but the Rafidi, by Allah, will never show you mercy, because he considers you to be the greatest enemy. Throughout history, ever since history has been known, the Rafidah have always cooperated with the Jews and the Christians against the Muslims.

Who is the cause? And many people do not know this piece of information. Who is it that brings the Jews into Palestine? It is the Safavid state — and with the blessing and help of the Safavid state. Is it the state of Iran? It used to be called the Safavid state. Who was among the causes of the fall of the Ottoman state? It is the Safavid state, when it also sought to bring in alliances to bring some European factions into the land of the Two Sanctuaries. So the Ottoman state confronted it, until it weakened between [that] and the wars with the Safavid state.

They plot and plan, but they do not hasten. Rather, they wait for the time when the Sunni is not able to resist, then they attack him. [Look at what] they do with the people of the Sunnah that they have in Iran. And what do they do with them? They besiege them in everything: they besiege them in their provisions, they besiege them in their work. Even a man — they appoint him, they appoint him in a position where his dignity is insulted, because they give him an inferior class; they do not give him a class as a citizen, as some other countries do — as a citizen? No, not like this; as a citizen, this one is classified.

That is why it is not possible for a complete bloc to be placed in this. Even in the Iranian military systems, for example — the Iranian military systems, or the Iranian (audio unclear) systems — you find that they never place a group of the people of the Sunnah all together. They separate them; and if they place a group — rather, often they place only two or three under the command of a hundred, or a thousand, or two thousand. [Nor do they] place a whole group [of them together], and it is impossible for a Sunni to be a commander over the group, even if he is an agent. If he ascribes himself to the Sunnah, they do not place him. And look at what they do in Iraq.

So this prompts [a person] to look into his religion and his creed, and to reform his situation and reform his affair. We now here have become equal with the enemy in sins and disobedience, and [he surpasses us] in preparedness, armament, arrangement, and organisation; we have nothing of this. So we are not able to confront these people while we have lost our faith, lost our religion, lost our creed, and lost holding fast to the Book of Allah, and have become [devoted to] the West and followed the West — and these defeated ones, the bankrupt, the harmful, who have lost themselves and lost the religion of Allah. They enjoin nothing but evil and forbid nothing but good. Allah is the One whose help is sought, and Allah knows best.

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