THE QUTBIYYAH

They are the people who have read the books of Sayyid Qutb and embraced everything in them from truth and falsehood. You find them defending Sayyid Qutb when someone criticizes him, even if the truth is with the critic.

It is known that Sayyid Qutb was not a person of religious knowledge. Rather, he was a writer. He adopted the beliefs of the Asha’irah, the belief of figurative interpretation of the Attibutes of Allah, like others from the scholars of Egypt.

He has grave and awful errors. Some of the men from the people of knowledge have clarified and refuted them. However, when they clarified these errors the Qutubiyyin became furious, censuring, speaking against and disparaging them – Allah is sufficient for us and He is the best disposer of our affairs.

The fundamental principle is that men are known by the truth and the truth is not known by the men. It is obligatory for us to accept the truth and establish our religion upon this truth, sincerely for the sake of Allah, Lord of all creation, and to abandon everyone who traverses upon an innovated methodology. And to make our role model, the Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم), his [rightly guided] Caliphs, his Companions, and those who followed them from the Imams of guidance. And success is granted by Allah.

THE SURURIYYAH

A description of the people who adhere to this methodology and ascribe to it:

The Sururiyyah are a people or a group that ascribe themselves to Muhammad Surur Zayn al-Abidin. They possess some traits of the Sunnah and they possess some traits of innovation.

The most important points of criticism established against them are:

[1]: They attack the rulers and speak ill of them in a manner that results in evil, turmoil and serious danger. That which is apparent is that they declare the leaders to be disbelievers, but this is derived from their actions and not from their words.

That is because the path they have adopted is the path of the Khawarij or close to it, whilst the texts necessitate hearing and obeying those in authority.

Our rulers in the land are Muslims – and all praise is due to Allah. They implement the Legislation of Allah in their courts and they establish the prescribed punishments. So declaring them to be disbelievers or speaking ill of them, which results in rebellion and defiance, is considered a great form of corruption.

This is why we should stay away from those who adhere to this methodology or free ourselves from them, especially when they have disparaged the scholars of this land by abusing them, making defamatory statements against them and accusing them of betraying the religion. This matter clearly indicates their ulterior motives.

[2]: They call to Jihad, but they do not intend by it the [legislated] Jihad against the disbelievers but it appears that their intent is against the state.

It should be recognized that we do not absolve the state of error and we do not claim that they are infallible.

However, we say that it is obligatory to obey them and to advise them in a private fashion because they are Muslims. The legislator forbade from rebelling against the leaders unless clear disbelief is seen for which the person has a proof from Allah.

[3]: They claim that the scholars of this land fail to understand the current affairs. A refutation of this is that scholars who issue religious edicts and judges [who reside over the courts] have not issued a fatwa in a single matter nor have they judged in a single affair until they have understood the situation, and taken into consideration anything that surrounds it such as the reason, any causative factors and anything that would influence this.

Whoever claims that the scholars and judges do not understand the current affairs has oppressed himself and said what is not permissible for him to say.

As for knowing [and uncovering] the plans of the enemies and the like, then this is the sole duty of every country’s army.

Source: The Book, The Precise Verdicts Regarding the Deviant Methodologies, First Edition, 1434H/September 2013, Translated by Abu Abdillah Hasan as-Somali, Sunnah Publishing, pp. 100-102.

Note: Permission was granted by the translator of this book to use this excerpt on this site.