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Al-ʿAllāmah Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Banná

Shaykh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Banná gives some beautiful naṣīhah to the Muslims regarding the importance of returning back to the true religion of Allāh in order for the affairs of the Muslims to be rectified; a great reminder especially in light of current affairs and the propagation of takfīrī groups such as ISIS. This is followed by a highly beneficial Q&A session with the shaykh (raḥimahullāh) wherein he praises our noble Shaykh Rabī ibn Hādī al-Madkhalī (hafiẓahullāh) with regards to his knowledge of the men of this time.


Who is al-ʿAllāmah Muḥammad Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab al-Banná́?

The Noble Scholar is originally from Egypt, though he resides and has resided in the Kingdom of Saudi al-ʿArabīa for many years.  The Shaykh learnt mainly under Imām ʿAbd al-Razzāq ʿAfīfī al-Salafī (raḥimahullāh).  He was appointed by Imām Ibn Bāz as one of the first lecturers in the institute of knowledge in Rīyaḍ. The Shaykh has many students, including the likes of al-ʿAllāmah Rabīʿ Ibn Hādī al-Madkhalī and al-ʿAllāmah Muḥammad Amān al-Jāmī (raḥimahullāh). He also taught the likes of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ʿAbd al-Khāliq and ʿUmar al-Ashqar, then the Shaykh warned against them when they deviated from the Salafī methodology.  The Shaykh currently resides in Jeddah where he teaches from books like Uṣūl al-Thalāthah, Kitāb al-Tawḥīd, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr and much more.


From the Lecture

So if this is the promise of Allāh, then a this does not go outside of two matters; and that is either the Muslims are truthful in the fact that they are believers, and therefore that Allāh (tabāraka wa taʿāla) has lied, he has broken His Promise, and High above and removed is He from that; or that the Muslims are in fact in a claim to Islām like the Jews and the Christians and their claim to belief; the Jews claim that they are believers of what Mūsa was upon, and the Christians claim to believe and are upon what ‘Īsa (ʿalayhi salām) was upon. So the Muslims nowadays claim that they believe in Islām but are not practising upon anything that Muḥammad (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) was upon; so, therefore, it is not a fact that Allāh (tabāraka wa taʿāla) broke His Promise, but the fact that the Muslims claim to believe; that their practice of Islām is not correct, or is not authentic.

Shaykh Muḥammad states, and this is affirmed by the statement of the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) when he described the position of this Ummah with regard to other nations, and it is the ḥadīth in which he says,

‘There will come a time when the nations will invite one another to you like diners invite one another to a plate’ and one of the companions asked ‘Is this because we are a small amount, O Messenger of Allāh?’ And the Messenger of Allāh said, ‘No, it is not that you are a small amount, you will be many, but you will be like the foam upon on the ocean, and Allāh (tabāraka wa taʿāla) will place wahn in your hearts’, and it was stated, ‘O Messenger of Allāh, what is this wahn?’ He said, ‘Wahn is love of dunyā and hatred of death.’

Also, the Shaykh said, Allāh has related to us the remedy, this illness, how to change this condition, and that is based upon the ḥadīth in which it is stated,

‘When you get involved in interest or usury-based transactions, and you will become pleased with agriculture and you will follow the tails of the cows, and you leave Jihād, Allāh (tabārak wa taʿāla) will send upon you humiliation and he will not remove it from you until you return back to your dīn.’

So the situation, or the circumstance that we find ourselves in now, of being low and humiliated, and having no position whatsoever, is a situation because we are not upon our dīn and we have to return back to the correct dīn, we must return back to the real dīn, applying it and believing in it and the like; we have differed like the Jews have differed and the Christians have differed, like the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said,

‘The Jews have split into seventy-one groups and the Christians seventy-two, and my Ummah will split into seventy-three sects, all of them in the hellfire except one’, and he was questioned as to which one that was, and he said, ‘The Jamā’ah), the group, in one narration he said, ‘The one which is upon that which I am upon today, and my Companions.’

We must know exactly what the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) and the Companions were upon, and it is something that is upon us to ask for in every prayer, and that is praising Allāh (subhānahu wa taʿalá), making a covenant that we will only worship Allāh that we want Him to,

“Guide us to the path of those who have been favoured”

[Sūrah al-Fātiḥah: 6]

And that is, of course, the path of the Prophet (ʿalayhis salām) and the Companions. So we ask for guidance to the path of those whom Allāh has favoured and the verse that precedes it is to ‘Guide us to the Straight Path,’ Ṣirāt al-mustaqeem, the path of those who He has favoured and His blessings are upon. Ṣirāt al-mustaqeem, it has been said that it is the Qurʾān, the Straight Path, and it is based on the verse when Allāh (tabāraka wa taʿāla) mentions when the Jinns, heard the Messenger of Allāh recite the Qurʾān, and they went back to their people warning that,

“We have heard a Book that guides to the Straight Path.”

[Sūrah al-Jinn: 2]

So guidance to the straight path is taken from the Qurʾān, by listening to the Qur’an and by knowing the Qurʾān; this is the guide to the straight path. Also, Allāh (subhānahu wa taʿāla) points out that the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), ‘Guides to the Straight Path’ based on the verse of the Qurʾān in which he said,

“Verily you (O Muḥammad) did not know what was the Book

nor what was ēmān, but then we guided you our light…

and verily you guide to a straight path,”

[Sūrah al-Shūrā: 52]

So this shows that that which guides the straight path is the Book of Allāh (tabāraka wa taʿāla) and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam). Also, what is a must along with the book of Allāh and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) is to follow the path of those whom Allāh has blessed or favoured, and who are those whom Allāh has blessed and favoured? They are the Companions of the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), the Anṣār and the Muhājirūn.

So our dīn is contained and confined to Qurʾān and the Sunnah and the way of the Ṣahābah and whoever deviates from this then he will not be from those who will be saved from the hellfire and this is based on the verse in the Qurʾān in which Allāh says,

“Whoever opposes the Messenger after the Truth

has been made clear, and follows a path other than

the path of the believers, we will leave him with

that which he has chosen and his final destination is hell,”

[Sūrah al-Nisāʾ: 115]

To the end of the verse.

Our dīn is preserved, Allāh (tabāraka wa taʿāla) has preserved the Qurʾān and He has preserved the Sunnah by selecting Scholars who are decisive in what is correct and what is incorrect or remove from that which is unauthentic of it, and has preserved the way of the understanding of the Companions and he has ordered us to return any difference that we may have, to return it back to Allāh and His Messenger. The dīn is contained in these sources and preserved and so no one can do any action unless he has a ḥujjah, evidence from the Book of Allāh and upon the Sunnah of the Messenger (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), or from the statements of the Sahābah; so this is what our dīn is contained and preserved in.

The Shaykh said if we want he will stop speaking at this point because he can go into very great detail but in his estimation this is enough, and if we have questions then he can start taking questions and answer them inshā’Allāh.’

The lecture was then concluded with a highly beneficial Q&A session on the issue of whether Ṣaddām Hussain should be considered a disbeliever or not, and the positions of the Shaykh as well as other Mashāyikh of that period such as Shaykh ibn Bāz (rahimahullāh) concerning this issue. A question was also put to the Shaykh regarding his position on the individual Mustafa al Adawi, to which the Shaykh responded:

‘He doesn’t know much of Mustafa al-Adawi, and he said regarding the men who live in this time he will refer this to Shaykh Rabī’ someone who knows the men of this time and someone who will rule upon a person based upon what they have stated and what they have written and what has been recorded regarding them and he will look at that and he will give a proper ruling, he said that he believes that he will give a proper ruling regarding that person, so this should be referred back to Shaykh Rabī’ and he said he asks Allāh to protect him and to bless him.’

The Prophet (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said,

“The nations summon each other upon you as you call guests to eat from a plate of food”, they said “Will we be few in number on that day O Messenger of Allāh?” He said, “No rather you will be many on that day, but you will be like the foam on the ocean. And Allāh will remove the fear in the hearts of your enemies and place in your hearts al-wahn.” They said, “What is al-wahn O Messenger of Allāh?” He said, “Love of this world and hatred of death.” [1]

The Messenger of Allāh (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) also said,

“When you start taking part in illegal transactions that involve a type of interest, and you hold onto the tails of cattle and you become satisfied with cultivation and you abandon jihād, then the humiliation of Allāh will descend upon you.”

Shaykh Muḥammad al-Banná́ explains, ‘The situation that we find ourselves in now, of being low and humiliation, and having no position is a situation because we are not upon our dīn, we must return back to the correct dīn, applying it and believing in it… And we have differed like the Jews have differed and the Christians have differed…’

The Messenger of Allāh (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said,

“The Jews split up into seventy-one sects, and the Christians split up into seventy-two sects.  And my Ummah shall split up into seventy-three sects, all of them being in the Fire except one.”  We said, ‘Which one is that, O Messenger of Allāh?’  He said, “The one that follows what I am upon and my Companions.” [2]

Allāh states in the Qurʾān,

“Guide us to the Straight Way. The Way of those on whom You have bestowed Your Grace, not (the way) of those who earned Your Anger (such as the Jews), nor of those who went astray (such as the Christians).” 

[Sūrah al-Fatihah, 6-7]

The noble Shaykh continues, ‘Also, what is a must along with following the book of Allāh and the Sunnah of the Messenger (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) is to follow the path of those who Allāh has blessed or favoured. And who are those whom Allāh has favoured? They are the companions of the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), the muhājirūn and the Ansār. So our dīn is contained and confined to; Qurʾān, Sunnah and the way of the Ṣaḥābahh. And whoever deviates from this, then, he will not be of those who will be saved from the hellfire and that this based on the ayaah on the Qurʾān,

“Know they not that whoever opposes and shows hostility to Allāh and His Messenger (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), certainly for him will be the Fire of Hell to abide therein. That is extreme disgrace.”

[Sūrah al-Tawbah, 63]

And our dīn is preserved; Allāh has preserved the Qurʾān and preserved the Sunnah by selecting scholars who will decipher that which is correct from that which is incorrect and He has preserved the way of the Companions and he has ordered us to return any difference to Allāh and His Messenger.”


From the Questions asked:

[Q1]: A lot of people ask, is Ṣaddam Husayn a Muslim or a kaffir?

[Q2]: O Shaykh, have you heard the rulings of Imām Ibn Bāz and other ʿUlamāʾ that they declared Ṣaddaam to be a kāfir? [3]

[Q3]: O Shaykh, What is the general advice regarding the fighting in ʿIrāq?

[Q4]: As we see what is happening in ʿIrāq and Afghanistan and we see that their leadership is not from those who are upon the way of salaf. However, there are those Muslims who are innocent living under these leaderships, how should we feel towards these situations?

[Q5]: Should we raise our hands in the qunoot or should we place them by our sides, what do we do if this happens every morning in ṣalātul-fajr?

[Q6]: Is it jihād for the ʿIrāqiyyīn and what should the Muslims in the surrounding area do?

Endnotes:

[1] Related by Abū Dāwūd (no. 4297) and in al-Mishkāt (3/1475). It was authenticated by Shaykh al-Albānī in Silsilah al-Aḥādīth al-Ṣaḥīḥah (no. 957) and in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ (no. 8183).

[2] Related by al-Tirmidhī (no. 2641), al-Ḥākim (1/129).  It has witnesses; refer to Tuhfatul-Aḥwadhī (7/398), Ibn Mājah (no. 3992) and Abū Dāwūd (no. 4597).

[3] The noble scholar alludes to the fact that other ʿUlamāʾ have previously ruled on Husayn. For the position of Imām Ibn Bāz and Imām Muqbil Ibn Hādī (rahimahumAllāh).

Transcribed by Umm Yousufyaan, Zeenat ibnt Aḥmad

Published: July 24, 2014
Edited: May 19, 2022

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