Important Principles Regarding Interactions with the People of Innovation and Misguidance
Shaykh ‘Ubayd bin ‘Abd Allah al-Jabiri | Abu ‘Iyaad Amjad Rafiq
In the late 1980s and early 1990s numerous individuals with an apparent attachment to Salafiyyah — having been nurtured upon the books and ideas of those innovators — began to preach these deceptive principles to Salafi audiences. These principles were used to undermine the Salafī scholars, to erode the trust and confidence the masses had in those Scholars and to entice unsuspecting Salafīs into their innovated methodologies. From the main callers of this orientation were ‘Abd al-Rahman ‘Abd al-Khaliq, Salman al-‘Awdah, Safar al-Hawali, ‘Adnan ‘Ar’ur, Abu al-Hasan al-Ma’ribi amongst others. Their agenda was to bring the teachings of Hassan al-Banna, Abu A’la Mawdudi and Sayyid Qutb to Salafi audiences. In implementing this agenda, they attempted to invalidate the clear and decisive verdicts of the Major Scholars (such as Shaykh Ibn Baz and Shaykh al-Albani) regarding the innovated groups and parties present in the field of da’wah. This would help justify their own cooperation with these groups and also provide a justification for inviting Salafīs to cooperate with these groups as well. When the clear lines of distinction between the people of Sunnah and people of Bid’ah had been obscured by these false methodologies, much confusion and controversy was spread.
