If they are like Ibn Salul, then be to them as the Messenger was!

Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.

Introduction

Without any preface, a word to those who are labeled as Sahwah and Sulooliyya. Even if we argue that most of your opponents are Sulooliyya hypocrites, did you treat them as the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, treated the head of hypocrisy, Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Sulool? Isn't our slogan to follow the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, in all situations? Then let's see how he dealt with the problem of ibn Sulool.

The Prophet's, peace be upon him, Dealings with Ibn Sulool

Ibn Sulool's Connection to an External Agenda

Ibn Sulool was connected to an external agenda. Abu Dawood narrated with a chain of transmission authenticated by Al-Albani that Quraysh wrote to ibn Sulool and his companions inciting him to fight the Prophet, peace be upon him, and his companions. Ibn Sulool understood that he should do so. When this reached the Prophet, peace be upon him, he met them and said to them, "The threat of Quraysh against you has reached me in excess. They do not plot against you more than you wish to plot against yourselves. Do you want to fight your sons and brothers?" When they heard this from the Prophet, peace be upon him, they dispersed. Yes, they dispersed, and the fuse of war was lit.

A political speech from the Prophet, peace be upon him, alongside calling to faith without confrontation at the wrong time. This is while the Prophet, peace be upon him, had received news of ibn Sulool's conspiracy with the disbelievers with certainty, not just possibilities. A speech that if used today would be seen by the ignorant as appeasement and giving in to weakness in religion, as they see that there is no saying except "I have come to you with slaughter," which the Prophet only said to the fighting disbelievers.

Ibn Sulool's Taunting, Slandering, and Stabbing

Ibn Sulool taunted, slandered, and stabbed, not against a group of Muslims who had wronged him, but against the Messenger of Allah personally. The Messenger of Allah came to him and spoke to him, saying, "Leave me alone. Your donkey's dung has harmed me." A man from the Ansar said, "By Allah, the Messenger of Allah's, peace be upon him, donkey is better in smell than you." Ibn Sulool's men became angry, and there was fighting between the two sides with sticks, hands, and shoes. Then Allah revealed, {And if two factions of the believers should fight, then make settlement between the two.}[Al-Hujurat: 9]. The hadith is agreed upon.

Those who became angry at the insult of ibn Sulool were called believers by Allah. Yes, believers, even though they were biased towards someone who harmed the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him. But Allah knows that they were new to faith and had not yet rid themselves of the remnants of ignorance, so they were still biased towards ibn Sulool despite their love for Allah and His Messenger. And Allah did not name them Sahwah or hypocrites because of this situation.

So how about the thousands of fighters in Sham who are biased towards their leaders due to kinship, being swayed by slogans, or being new to Islam after decades of darkness under the Nusayri? These leaders are like ibn Sulool to you, so be to them as the Messenger was.

His Call to Allah Without Manners

One day, the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, approached ibn Sulool and his companions, calling them to Allah. Ibn Sulool said without manners, "O man, what you say is not better. If it is true, then do not bother us with it in our gatherings. Go back to your tent, and whoever comes to you, tell him." The believers became angry, and a fight almost broke out. The Prophet, peace be upon him, remained calm until they calmed down. This was not his battle at the moment.

Then, when the Prophet, peace be upon him, complained about this situation to a leader from the Ansar, Saad ibn Ubada, he said to him, "O Saad, did you not hear what Abu Habab said?" The hadith was narrated by Al-Bukhari. The Prophet, peace be upon him, named ibn Sulool with the name he loved to be called, despite the lack of manners of this hypocrite. Do you not call your leaders who fought the Nusayri and have followers who love them by their names, even if you insult them with what you hate? Are they like ibn Sulool to you? Then be to them as the Messenger was.

Perhaps someone will say: This was before the Prophet, peace be upon him, was empowered by the Battle of Badr. Fine, and the Muslims are not empowered now. Do you want to argue with me about that and say that it is possible with car bombs and suicide belts?

After the Battle of Uhud and His Withdrawal

So let's see how our Prophet dealt with ibn Sulool after empowerment. The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, went out for the Battle of Uhud, and ibn Sulool withdrew with a third of the army. There is no doubt that this contributed to the disaster of Uhud. Did the Messenger of Allah change the direction of the conflict and return from Uhud, holding ibn Sulool responsible for the disaster and inciting the people against him? Or did he ignore him and rally the Muslims against the red lion, keeping them busy with the more dangerous enemy?

O you who complain about the withdrawals of some factions and say they led to disasters I will not enter into discussion about, and did you attribute withdrawals to yourselves or not? Do you see them in that as ibn Sulool? Then deal with them as the Messenger dealt with him.

The Incident of the Quarrel Between the Muhajireen and the Ansar

The Prophet, peace be upon him, went out for a battle, and two youths, a Muhajir and an Ansari, quarreled, and each called for his people. Ibn Sulool said, "What have they done? By Allah, if we return to Medina, we will expel the weak from the honorable." This reached the Prophet, peace be upon him. Umar ibn Al-Khattab said, "Leave me, O Messenger of Allah, to strike the neck of this hypocrite." The Prophet, peace be upon him, said, "Leave him. Let it not be said that Muhammad kills his companions." The hadith was narrated by Al-Bukhari.

Yes, let it not be said that Muhammad kills his companions. This is while he is the Messenger of Allah, may my father and mother be sacrificed for him, and the word of ibn Sulool was a word of disbelief clearer than any word said by those you call Sulooliyya today. And the narrators of this word are trustworthy, but the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, does not want the image to be painted that Muhammad kills his companions.

When this reached the people of ibn Sulool, who were biased towards him the day before, they exaggerated it from the Messenger of Allah until when ibn Sulool spoke afterward, they rebuked him, took him, and mistreated him.

His Stabbing in the Prophet's House

So how do we take the narratives of Allah, whose authenticity Allah knows best, and then build judgment on them with hypocrisy or apostasy from individuals or leaders in a group that does not equal a moment of the moments of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him? And we do not care if people, the media, the donkeys, the tyrants, the righteous of the jinn, and the beasts of the cattle say that the mujahideen kill each other, so that the eye of every disbeliever is satisfied, the heart of every Muslim is broken, and the people lose hope and think ill. Is the justification that they are Sulooliyya? Then be to them as the Messenger of Allah was to ibn Sulool.

Ibn Sulool stabbed in the house of the Prophet, peace be upon him. The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, addressed the people, saying, "Who will defend me from a man about whom I have heard that he has harmed my family? By Allah, I know nothing but good about my family - Aisha - and they have mentioned a man about whom I know nothing but good, and he does not enter my family except with me." Saad ibn Ma'adh, the leader of the Aws, stood up and said, "I will defend you, O Messenger of Allah. If he is from the Aws, I will strike his neck, and if he is from our brothers the Khazraj, we will command them and do as you command." The leader of the Khazraj, Saad ibn Ubada, became angry that an Aws would kill a man from his Khazraji tribe, and he responded and the two sides almost fought while the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, was standing on the minbar, lowering his voice until they were silent and he was silent. The hadith was narrated by Al-Bukhari.

O people, he is the Messenger of Allah, may our souls be sacrificed for him, and despite that, he remained silent lest there be fitna among the Muslims. And it was not even mentioned that he rebuked Saad ibn Ubada for the zeal that deprived the Prophet of his right in this world, nor did they say to him, "How do you defend a man who has wronged me?" My brothers, do you see the tweets and statements of some of your opponents as a stabbing? By Allah, no matter how much it reaches, it will not reach a tenth of the harm that ibn Sulool did to the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, in his family. Do you see it as Sulooliyya? Then be to their owners as the Messenger of Allah was to ibn Sulool.

Lessons Learned and Contemporary Application

Absorbing the Followers of Ibn Sunul

O Muslims, O Muslims who are hasty to label your opponents as Sahawijyah and Sululiyah, this is our role model, the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, who prioritized his tasks and did not divert the focus of his attention. He did not open a thousand doors for himself. This Messenger of Allah's mission was not to stick Sululiyah labels on people and then bombard them with excommunication. Rather, he absorbed the followers of Ibn Sunul and his supporters until they left him, withdrew the carpet from under his feet, and socially isolated him. So, Ibn Sunul died in peace, and neither the sky nor the earth wept for him. Instead, he went to the trash heap of history, while the call of the Prophet, peace be upon him, remained eternal until the Day of Judgment.

And in all of this, Allah supported His Messenger and did not prevent him from dealing with Ibn Sunul except when he prayed for him, then He prevented him from praying for such a person. And this was the action of the Prophet with a hypocritical group who knowingly plotted against Islam and its people. So, how about factions more numerous than them, whom we consider to be serving Islam and striving for it? Should we not win them over with gentleness and mercy if some of them err and deviate from their path?

And all of this dealing by the Prophet, peace be upon him, did not prevent him from establishing the state of Islam nor did he make any concessions for that. This Messenger of Allah did not hasten the confrontation before faith could take hold in the hearts and gradually remove the love of Ibn Sunul from the hearts of his family and tribe, including his son Abdullah bin Abdullah bin Abi, who was one of the best of believers.

Avoiding Hastiness in Confrontation

Would the Messenger of Allah have supported Ibn Sunul on the pretext that his danger should not be allowed to grow because he is a Sahawijyah Sululiyah? Would he then bring believers who are still biased towards Ibn Sunul, as well as those with weak faith whose outcome is hoped to be good, into the circle of conflict? Then, would the Prophet provoke their relatives, tribes, friends, and neighbors from afar? Then, would he justify his method by the multitude of enemies and burden the people with their Sahawijyah and Sululiyah, and complain to Allah about their injustice?

Instead of winning people over to what we see as right and saving them from those who conspire against Islam, we excel in predicting that they are Sahawijyah and hunt for their slips. Then, if they become more distant from us, we fight them and put them in the same pot as the corrupt Sululiyah, threaten them with annihilation, detonate the bombs, and do not regret the disaster for ourselves and our actions. Then, after all this, do we expect them to truly seek help from the enemies as a means of escape from our evil? Let someone say: Did I not tell you? Did I not tell you that we possess a sixth or seventh sense that others do not have, which can smell the Sahawijyah from afar? But he has the ability to push him towards awakening, even if he is reluctant, and to rush to the well of labor, exaggerating in caution so as not to escape from us?

Warning Against Hastiness in Judgment and Excommunication

I say here with complete frankness: I am not pleased with many of the actions of the leaders in Islamic factions who are described by their opponents as Sululiyah in an excessive manner. However, I defend them when they are wronged because I know for certain that they are better than Ibn Sunul. Indeed, we never concede to those who sanctify the blood of their soldiers. Whoever enters Islam with certainty does not exit it except with certainty. And if we fear for them that their path may deviate in the long term, their Sahawijyah in the short term is more harmful to Islam and its people.

And whoever accuses others of such charges, generalizes, and kills based on them, is not worthy of being supported and accepted until he defends his opponents and clears himself. If the enemies of the faith want their Sululiyah, it is not our task to hold them accountable for what the enemies want from them, but to win them over and remind them, for there is no hope lost in them. If we do not succeed in this task, then the least we can do is to win over their followers and make their faith prevail over their partisanship for a faction or their leaders.

A Call for Reconciliation and Unity

O you who seek correction, fear Allah and do not say that the time is past after the fighting has begun. Your opponents offer you, time after time, the option of ceasing hostilities and referring to the Book of Allah and reuniting against the war with the disbelievers. You do not want to deal with them as Muslims. I will not engage in this debate, although the majority of them are Muslims in our view, neither hypocrites nor disbelievers nor Sululiyah. Rather, I say to you: They are the children of Sunul to you, so be to them as the Messenger was.

O Allah, have I conveyed? O Allah, then bear witness. O Lord, unite the ranks of the Mujahideen and bring their hearts together. And peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.