Guardians of the Sharī’ah

My dear brothers and sisters, rejecting the tāghūt is a condition of Islām and a pillar of the Shahādah. One can not be a Muslim without disbelieving in the tāghūt. As the Nabī sall Allāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam said, ‘Whoever says lā ilāha illAllāh and disbelieves in all that is worshipped besides Allāh,’ which is the tāghūt, ‘Allāh has forbidden the taking of his wealth and the spilling of his blood and his account is left to Allāh.’ (Muslim) Therefore, it is a must upon every Muslim to learn the meaning of tāghūt and its different types, especially in our time when the Muslimīn are being severely tested.

Ameerul Mu’minīn, ‘Umar ibnul Khattāb whom was given the gift of true inspiration, said, ‘The hold of Islām will break one after the other when people who are ignorant of jāhiliyyah emerge in Islām.’ This means due to one having ignorance he could add some features of jāhiliyyah to Islām and/or reject some features of Islām. Worse than this, he could battle against some principles of Islām and defend the principles of jāhiliyyah, and this has occurred already.

The Muslimīn have been tested with the tawāghīt in this century after they have ignored the basic principles of their deen. After they have ignored what Allāh had sent to Muhammad, sall Allāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam. After they had even ignored the meaning of lā ilāha illAllāh.

Hudayfah ibnul Yaman said, ‘The people used to ask the Messenger of Allāh about good, but I used to ask him about evil for the fear that it might over take me.’

And how excellent is the poet who said,

‘I learnt the evil, in order to protect me from doing it,

Whoever can’t see the evil amongst the good, he will fall into it.’

When the importance of this is understood, every Muslim should take notice that the ‘Ulamā of Islām concerned themselves with explaining the meaning of tāghūt, revealing the truth about it, advising the Ummah against it and declaring enmity towards it. And Allāh sent to every fitnah which came about, with its different types of the tawāghīt, one of the people of knowledge in order to face the fitnah and protect the Deen.

This is as Rasūlullāh, sall Allāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said, ‘There will always be a group of my Ummah who are manifest upon the truth, those who oppose them will not affect them until the Hour comes.’ (Muslim) And Rasūlullāh, sall Allāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam, confirmed this by saying that, ‘Verily, Allāh will send at the beginning of every century a Mujaddid (reviver) for this Ummah who will revive Islām.’ (Abū Dāwūd)

The more an ‘ālim knows the ‘Aqeedah of the Salafu Sālihīn, which Rasūlullāh, sall Allāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam, and his Sahābah were upon, the more he deepens in knowledge and the more he knows about the current affairs of his time, the more he will concern himself with this issue and care about it. When the tawāghīt appeared in the lands of the Muslimīn at the time of shaykhul Islām Ibnu Taymiyyah the issue which he struggled with and what he mostly concerned himself with was the issue of the tawāghīt. Therefore, he talked alot about the issue of istighāthah through other than Allāh and about the abandonment of the Sharī’ah in many of his books.

As the tartar abandoned the Sharī’ah and some desert tribes began to rule and govern with the customs of their forefathers, which went against the Qur’ān and Sunnah, shaykhul Islām Ibnu Taymiyyah warned the people against that, as well did his students ibnul Qayyim and Ibnu Kathīr, along with others.

Then as time went, when shirk and bid’a became widespread on the earth and misguidance and ignorance increased, Allāh ta’āla sent shaykhul Islām Muhammad ibnu ‘Abdul Wahhāb and his students and grandsons to the Ummah. They exposed the many different types of the tawāghīt of their time. When the people worshipped things besides Allāh, such as graves, shayātīn, people believed to be sālihīn and awliyā. In a time when fortune telling and magic increased and when the people abandoned the Sharī’ah of Allāh to govern and rule with man made laws. They saw it as their task to explain these things to the people.

Then in our time the Muslimīn have been tested with the kufr of secularism and with the ignorant, tāghūtī laws of the christian kuffār of europe. So Allāh ta’āla sent to this Ummah someone who warned them about this issue by shwoing them the truth and the evil of it. Teaching them the true foundation of Islām, which is the shahādah lā ilāha illAllāh and what is wājib on every Muslim in rejecting the tāghūt.

This was the Imām of our time and shaykhul Islām of this century, the Muftī of area, shaykh Muhammad ibnu Ibrāhīm. As well the great Muhaddith of our era, shaykh Ahmad Shākir clarified these issues. Likewise did the scholar of the Qur’ān, the Imām rabbānī (nourishing Imām), the author of ‘Adwā Al Bayān, shaykh Muhammad Al Amīn Ash-Shanqītī. With many other great ‘Ulamā from the Muslimīn everywhere in the world declared this issue and refuted the arguments and misinterpretations of the opponents and declared the truth for the youth and the Ummah.

Dear brothers and sisters, the Salafu Sālihīn were aware and had knowledge of the tāghūt and its different types. Therefore, they almost never did get lost along the straight path. Leaving the straight path occurs only due to ignorance about the reality of the Deen. As the state of the Ummah changed and bid’a became widespread, ignorance about the tāghūt appeared.

By Shaykh Bishr Ibnu Fahd Al Bishr