Takfir
The Dangerous Doctrine of Takfir
The doctrine of Takfir; is being used in the modern era especially by Taliban, in sanctioning violence against leaders and simple Muslims who are deemed insufficiently religious. Takfir is a pronouncement that, some one is an unbeliever (kafir) and no longer a Muslim (apostate, Murtad). It has become a central ideology of militant groups such as those in Egypt (Taliban, now also in Afghanistan and adjoining tribal areas of Pakistan) |According to the ‘Oxford Dictionary of Islam’, it is claimed to be derived from the ideas of Sayyid Qutab, Maududi, Ibn Tymiyyah and Ibn Kathir. Mainstream Muslims and Islamic groups reject the pseudoconcept of ‘Takfir’ as a doctrinal deviation. Leaders such as Hassan al-Hudaybi (d.1977) and Yousf al–Qaradawi reject ‘Takfir’ as un-Islamic and marked by bigotry and zealotry. Such narrow mindedness has exacerbated the evil of sectarianism and the resulting intolerance among the masses has led to a dangerous trend towards sectarian militancy.
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The other View
In support of Takfeeri Doctrine
November 30, 2007
We heard a lot of people speaking about others to be ‘Takfeeri’, and this is one of those terms that the Kuffar and many moderate secular so-called Muslims try to sell, and they say “watch out! There are takfeeris about!”
So what is the Takfeeri? There is a story about a man of the intelligence, who wanted to find out about the Jihadi movements, and there was a document about the ‘Takfeeri’ and somehow that document has become leaked and has spread among the Muslim community.
He wrote that a Takfeeri has 3 intellectual signs, 3 emotional signs, and 3 behavioural signs, and if you find anyone of the three in his thought, emotions and behaviour, you will discover him that he is Takfeeri.
Firstly, among the intellectual signs, the Takfeeri does not distinguish between the Qur’an and the Hadith, the Seerah of the prophet and the life of the companions, all the evidences about the Tawheed, Jihad, Walaa and Baraa’, and he takes them as a comprehensive text because Allah (swt) says, “do you take some of the book and reject some?”. So he does not accept to follow the Qur’an and then leave the Sunnah. So the Takfeeri is the one who takes all of the Haq without to differentiate.
Secondly, you find in his thinking that he is inclined to adopt the vital issues among the Ummah and the global issues related to the Muslims and links every issue to his Aqeedah and his Tawheed, and he concentrates on speaking about the Tawheed which is to worship Allah exclusively and the Tawheed to unite the Ummah together to face the challenge and struggle against the enemy, and he rejects all the political borders between the Muslim lands because he believes that all these are duties upon him to follow the Qur’an and the Qur’an says that the Muslims must unite that they are a brotherhood.
Those issues he divides into those fundamental concerns, which he gives his greatest concern, others he sees are vital or important issues that he also gives his attention and concern for and thirdly he looks to all those detailed issues that he links to those greater and fundamental matters. You find that there is nothing the Takfeeri sees among the Muslim Ummah as a small issue, everything is important but he links them all to the vital issues, you find that he speaks about all issues, he has views about every problem, and he has answers about all questions.
This is what they consider about the Takfeeri, they think about him that he has the view that we are at war with the global Kufr, he wants the whole world to be aware about the global alliance against the Muslims and he is always focused about how he can struggle against that.
Lastly you find about him in his thought that he speaks about the clash of civilizations; he speaks about spreading Islam in the west, he speaks about allowing our Islamic speech to match the Aqeedah and Tawheed and the path of the Salaf, he speaks about the Salaf a lot and the Walaa and Baraa and the Tawheed a lot, that is how you know him to be Takfeeri.
But he has another sign that he says all Anbiyaa called to Tawheed and that all Anbiyaa said that we have to reject and give all Tawagheet and then take up belief and worship to Allah exclusively. He believes that Islam is the divine way of life and he speaks always about how in order for that Deen to be established there must be conflict and confrontation between Islam and all other civilizations, that there is always a confrontation between Haq and Baatil that will continue until the day of judgment. This confrontation between the people of Haq will always continue with the people of Baatil.
The emotional signs of the Takfeeri are firstly (i) that he always has the principle to love only for the sake of Allah and to hate only for the sake of Allah. (ii) Secondly that he always underestimates any Kafir, Kufr power or any Kufr army, he will always underestimate them and look down to them and look to their strength to be only weakness and (iii) thirdly he has an emotional sign in his happiness as sadness.
As for the first sign, you find that He loves Allah and for his sake he loves the messengers and loves the believers etc and he believes that that love will never be exclusive to Allah unless he has hatred for those who disbelieve in Allah. So you find that the Takfeeri says that he loves Allah but he sees how that love cannot be complete unless he hates the Kuffar, so you find that he loves the believers and hates the disbelievers. He always has this principle of love and hate, he hates the apostates, he hates the Kufr society, he hates democracy, he hates secularism, and he hates all the ugly developments in their social system e.g. homosexuality, promiscuity etc.
Also, the second emotional sign is that he is always concerned, respectful and loving towards the Mujahideen, he never addresses them except “Sheikh Usama” or “Sheikh Abu Mu’sab” etc, “the brave fighters”, “the leaders of the Muslim Ummah” etc and he always speaks highly about them because he has this emotional link to them. He loves the Mujahideen and always puts down and demeans the armies of the enemy. You find how he is always so highly impressed by the Mujahideen and all their efforts and is always utterly unimpressed and unmoved by the armies of the Kuffar and sees them like the army of Fir’awn that they will be defeated and will vanish to nothing.
Thirdly, he is always so happy when he sees the victory of the Mujahideen and is so upset when he sees any harm come to them, he is happy to see the enemy suffer and upset to see the Kuffar have any victory or attack on the Mujahideen or any other Muslims. So the Takfeeri, whenever he hears about any operation or any jihad around the world, he sees it as good and is so pleased and satisfied, whether he looks to 9/11 or Bali, or Iraq or Afghanistan, any attack on the Kufr forces around the world makes him satisfied and pleased. [klling brother Muslims, or innocent humans, the lust for blood thirsty moster]
In the behaviour of the Takfeeri, you will recognize him when you find that he is so serious about practicing and obeying Allah, to abide by the Deen, and secondly you find him always that he is always inclined to the preparation, he is always looking for a role in the Ummah, whether by his tongue, his wealth or his body. He always looks for one of those three roles to see how he can serve the Deen and the Ummah. The third big sign of the behaviour of the Takfeeri is that he doesn’t speak except what he believes, in any gathering or meeting he will push his ideas, he doesn’t like to hear or speak about other people’s belief and he is so wise, that he does not say a word without to pick the right time and way to do it. , he is like a soldier or agent on a mission, and his agency is not for a country or organization, rather he is the agent of Allah.
Another big sign to recognize the Takfeeri is that he is always optimistic, he has certainty that victory is coming, he is never concerned about the result of his actions, he never feels defeated, he doesn’t care, and he does his duty and knows Allah will give victory. He is always seeking one of two either victory or martyrdom, either way he sees himself to be victorious, even if he loses the battle, he says “yes but we won the war.” You cannot defeat the Takfeeri, even if you arrest him or attack him, but you cannot defeat the cause, the cause will be victorious. It is impossible to deal the Takfeeri any psychological defeat.
Obviously the intelligence with this description can recognize the Takfeeri, Allah (swt) says he will put in the hearts of the enemy, fear for you and you will see them small and they will look to you big. However do not see how they can defeat him, they think of us very highly, they look to us people, practicing, sincere, serious, optimistic, they work for the sake of Allah and do not compromise.
Obviously, if that is the character of the Takfeeri, then that means that the Da’ee is going to be one of two, either Takfeeri or a man of interfaith. But either way, the decision made by those people is that those Takfeeris must be silent.
That is the decision, they need to be shut up, and they need to stop any of those Takfeeri who may have any influence. That is one of the objectives of America, to silence all the Ulemaa and the Du’aat, they do not just want to say “who did the bombing, arrest him!” no, rather they say, “who sympathizes with them?”, “who shares his ideology?” and you find it has become very common now for scholars to be arrested even if they never were in the battlefield, like Shaykh Omar Abdur-Rahman in America, Shaykh Ali al-Khudayr in Saudi Arabia, Shaykh Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi in Jordan, Shaykh Abu Hamza and Shaykh Abu Qatada in Britain and so many other Ulemaa everywhere.
The question is who can tell the people the truth? The role of the Ulemaa is to spread the truth after the Anbiyaa, the Hadith says,
“The Ulemaa are the inheritors of the prophets”
[Which Ulema? The semi literate bigots or scholars ?]
Ibn Ishaaq said,”The closest people to the prophethood are the Ulemaa and the Mujahideen, the Ulemaa are going to tell the people what the Anbiyaa were sent with and the people of jihad are going to struggle for what the Anbiyaa were sent with.”
So those two are the best of the best of the best and that is why the enemy wants to shut them up, and destroy them, they do not only want to stop those Mujahideen, but they want to stop anyone who supports them by a word or by wealth or even by Du’a and rather they encourage people to make Du’a against them, that is why so many of the youth today are so confused about the vital issues nowadays, they are confused about the issues of Tawheed, Al Kufr bil Taghout, Al Walaa and Baraa, the issues of the Manhaj, and we know how it is vital for the people to know the Ahkaam before they do any action, they are needy to hear the truth, needy to hear and read the words of the Ulemaa but when they start to silence those Ulemaa and now it has become common news everyday about the arrest of Ulemaa and Du’aat and Mujahideen, everyday we hear, ‘so and so scholar been arrested.’
You start to see people destroying their image, destroying their reputation, lying about them. The moderate people, the secular people, the media, the government and their preachers, everyone is against those Ulemaa who say, “laa ilaaha illallah Muhammadan rasulullah” inner [inner, Batin is known to Allah alone, how some one can decided it?] and outer and they stand for it and struggle and defend it.
Someone could say, “How can I support so and so sheikh when I disagree with him on so and so.” We find that either he never verified about him or he forgot that he is still his Muslim brother, are we going to put down every Muslim Da’eeMaturidi or used to be deviant? What about what he is today? because of past mistakes?
Most of the Mujahideen were never Salafi before, rather they became Salafi Mushrik and then they became Muslim. The prophet (saw) said, recently. You cannot just look to people on what he used to be.
You should be proud that he embraced the path of the Salaf Al Saalih that he gave up hizbiyyah, gave up asabiyyah, gave up Sufism, gave up deviation and embraced the manhaj of Ahl Al Sunnah Wal Jama’ah. [What Jamah (consensus)? The majority Muslim Sholars reject the doctrine of Takfir] You should help them, be close to them and support them, not just to say ‘he used to be so and so’! What about the fact today he is Mujahid! You are not God to judge people in the hearts, you must judge people according to the apparent, you should look to what he does now, otherwise you should look to yourself and what you yourself used to be one day! If someone can put someone down because he used to be so and so, or used to be silent, or used to be afraid, there will be nobody left! You cannot just ignore or erase anybody just because he didn’t come out openly publicly; those people in the Muslim countries under those Tawagheet are in a different situation completely. Those Tawagheet monitor everybody, they look to everyone and question you everyday, they will arrest you and make you silent against your will.
We need to do something about it, we cannot just leave it. We see how the Ulemaa are in prison everywhere and some people are under siege in their own home. We cannot just let them all down, and we know that some of them we disagree with them in many issues, we should co-operate in the good deeds; [how they justify killing of innocent Mulims?] we should open our hearts to them.
Whatever they do mistake and error here and there, as long as their Aqeedah is correct we need to be united. We know how Yahya ibn Mu’een, ibn Hajar, Imam Dhahabi, ibn Taymiyyah, Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab, they used to differ with each other, but they never fought each other.
Everyone should be supporting all those Mujahideen and those Ulemaa even if you used to disagree with them in some matters otherwise that is the ignorance about the brotherhood of the Muslim Ummah, the prophet (saw) said,
“Support your Muslim brother oppressor or oppressed”
Do not let him down or leave him just because he left some of his duties, be the shield for him to fill the gap that he is going to leave behind him, verily the Ulemaa leave a big vacuum behind them and the Mujahideen leave a big vacuum behind them. They are both very serious, the vacuum of the Mujahideen will allow the Kuffar to enter and the vacuum of the Ulemaa will be filled by the Kufr.
Allah (swt ) informed us of the ant, how when Sulayman came with his army to the valley of the ant and so one ant rose despite her small size and weakness that Allah created her upon, when she was faced by the great army of Sulayman that was the destroyer of many kings, she said to her people,
“O ants, enter your homes, the army of Sulayman is coming and may destroy you without to know”
One ant, so weak and so small, rose to protect her Ummah on the front line of the danger, when the army of Sulayman the greatest army coming towards her, she did not think to be selfish, she never thought to run away, she put her life in front of her Ummah and never accepted to live and let her Ummah die, “what kind of life can we live when we allow the Ulemaa to die and be arrested?”
She warned them to go inside and to take precautions. This small ant did her duty and she was good for it, but if we can be like this ant, if only we can be good for the Du’aat and the Ulemaa and the Mujahideen.
But I am worried to be less than the ant if we do not do what even the ant did, we should be better than the ant and fulfill our duty, the prophet (saw) said,
“Every Muslim is on a frontier of Islam and should not let Islam be attacked from their side”
May Allah let us take a lesson from the ant and be on the front line of the struggle and support the Muslim Ummah before it is too late.
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