The Clarification of Contemporary Sects

As for the Surooriyoon, they are the followers of the political doctrine of Muhammad Suroor (a former Syrian member of Ikhwān ul-Muslimeen) who was expelled from Saudi Arabia for his views and his ghuloo (extremism). He then moved to Kuwait, then from Kuwait to Birmingham in the U.K. where he founded Dār ul-Arqam. Thereafter, he was involved in the establishment of al-Muntada al-Islāmi in London. He is revered by the extremists such as the Khawārij from Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqāwi, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdasi, to Safar al-Hawāli and Salmān al-‘Awdah (in fact he even taught some of them). Muhammad Suroor was a political ideologue who declared the scholars and rulers to be apostates, and nothing more than the ‘puppets of the West,’ saying that they are ‘the slaves of the slaves of the slaves, and their masters are Jews and Christians.’ He had a magazine that was refuted by several major scholars, which he would fax from the U.K. into Saudi Arabia to incite discord and separation among the people.

An article published originally in al-Awsat (here). The Surooriyyah are an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, and its head, Muhammad Suroor, along with Muhammad Qutb, were the major influences upon Salman al-Awdah, Nasir al-Umar, Safar al-Hawali and others who brought the ideology of extremism (mass Takfir of the ummah and of governments and Muslim societies) and terrorism (protests, violence, bombings) propounded by the Sufi, Ash'aris of Egypt (Hasan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb) into the Gulf countries.

As-Surūriyyah who are called Al-Qutubiyyah are a slice from Jamā’ah al-Ikhwān al-Muslimīn but they follow the thinking of Sayyid Qutb, the Egyptian, who wrote the book, “In the Shade of the Quran” and other works; and they perform takfīr. Meaning, Sayyid Qutb is the bearer of the banner of takfīr in this age. As for Jam’iyyah Ihyā at-Turāth, it is deviant!

The following is one of the views of Shaykh Ibn ʿUthaymīn on the subject matter of ruling by other than what Allāh revealed, instituting opposing legislations and making them obligatory upon people to follow. Towards the end of his life, the Shaykh (رحمه الله) was asked to provide clarification of his views in the heels of the fitnah of the Quṭbiyyah, Surūriyyah who were using these issues to make unrestricted, generalized takfīr of rulers and governments, without following the legislated procedures of making takfīr of a specific individual.

It has been alleged that Shaykh Ibn ʿUthaymīn made a slip in this statement of his in that he apparently contradicted what he was upon previously in his writings, and some accuse the Shaykh of having fallen into Irjāʾ. This slander of Irjāʾ came from the direction of the Quṭbiyyah, Surūriyyah, the followers and defenders of Sayyid Quṭb, and though they targeted Imām al-Albānī at the beginning, eventually by the end of the 1990s and early 2000s, they extended this accusation to all of these scholars, to Shaykh Ibn Bāz and Shaykh IbnʿUthaymīn, in relation to the subject matter of ruling by other than what Allāh revealed. This is because they held a position of tafṣīl (detail, distinction) in the matter with respect to legislation and secular laws. As such, those affected by the legacy of the Quṭbiyyah, Surūriyyah dismiss and reject this statement of Shaykh Ibn ʿUthaymīn, despite it being as clear as the daylight sun.

It is the sects of Al-Ikhwān Al-Muslimūn, the Surūriyyah, the Qutbiyyah and so on, who revile and belittle the scholars of the Sunnah declaring them to be ‘scholars of menstruation and postpartum blood’ and those who ‘merely announce the start and end of Ramadān’. They scorn them, accuse them of being ignorant of current political affairs, and declare them unfit for anything beyond Fatāwa in basic Fiqh rulings. It is the Muslim Brotherhood [of Hasan Al-Bannā] and their offshoots who claim that our scholars are nothing but ‘paid workers in the pockets of the rulers’. What slander and falsehood they have fabricated against the scholars of Sunnah and Salafiyyah! Ibn ʿAsākir (d. 571 H) said: “Whoever lets loose his tongue against the scholars with slander, Allah will afflict him before his death by killing his heart.” (See Tabyīn Kadhib Al-Muftarī pp. 425)

While Safar and Salmān and the Surūrīs were being refuted by mashāyikh in Madīnah, we did not blame Shaykh Bin Bāz and Shaykh Ibn ʿUthaymīn for speaking well of them or defending them or not having a stance, because they did not know, or there was a period where they heard things and there was confusion, but it had not yet settled with them.

Shaykh Ibn Jibrīn was a well-known scholar in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. However, in the early 1990s he got himself involved in the CDLR of Muḥammad al-Misʿary, a head of Ḥizb al-Taḥrīr who was stirring sedition, following the way of the Marxists, Communists, raising the flag of social justice. He also supported the activities of the Quṭbiyyah, Surūriyyah during the 1990s, in opposition to the Major Scholars who opposed and refuted them, with Shaykh al-Albānī declaring them “Khawārij of the Era”. Likewise, he sought to defend Ḥasan al-Bannā, the misguided Ṣūfī, caller to unity between Sunnah and Shīʿah and caller to unity of religions. He even advised Shaykh Aḥmad al-Najmī (رحمه الله), the great Salafi scholar, not to publish his refutation of Ḥasan al-Bannā. Shaykh Aḥmad al-Najmī refuted him and declared him (Ibn Jibrīn) and innovator. So this was the reality of Shaykh Ibn Jibrīn.

It is Ahlus-Sunnah, their Imāms, scholars, students and allies who have carried the banner in battling the misguidance of these Surūriyyah and Qutbiyyah who seek to undermine the Major Scholars. Al-Imām Al-Albānī (rahimahullāh) said about these Qutbiyyeen: “[They are the] Khawārij of the era.”