Pivotal Excerpt
❝The Prophet ﷺ warned against taking knowledge from anyone upon this methodology. In the ḥadīth of the Prophet ﷺ, narrated by ʿĀishah (رضى الله عنها), the Prophet ﷺ said,
إذَا رَأَيْتُمُ الَّذِينَ يَتَّبِعُونَ ما تَشَابَهَ منه، فَأُولَئِكَ الَّذِينَ سَمَّى اللَّهُ فَاحْذَرُوهُمْ.
“If you find those who follow the ambiguous verses from the Qur’ān, then they are those who Allāh is referring to in the verses in Sūrah Āli ʿImrān (فَاحْذَرُوهُمْ), stay away from them.” [Muslim]❞
Question and Answer [3:40 Mins]
Question:
Is it allowed to memorize Qur’ān with a teacher who believes that the Muslim rulers in countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE are Ḥukām Ṭawāghīt (rulers that rule unjustly)? Is this making takfīr of the Muslim rulers?
Answer:
This rhetoric is the rhetoric of those who are upon the way of the Khawārij. The Khawārij were the first sect to appear in this nation and there are many texts warning against them. I advise the questioner to read the words of Al-Imām Al-Ajurrī (رحمه الله), Muḥammad Ibn Ḥusayn (360 AH). He warned against the Khawārij, highlighting their evil, danger and the calamity that they brought to the Muslims.
The Prophet ﷺ warned against taking knowledge from anyone upon this methodology. In the ḥadīth of the Prophet ﷺ, narrated by ʿĀishah (رضى الله عنها), the Prophet ﷺ said,
إذَا رَأَيْتُمُ الَّذِينَ يَتَّبِعُونَ ما تَشَابَهَ منه، فَأُولَئِكَ الَّذِينَ سَمَّى اللَّهُ فَاحْذَرُوهُمْ.
“If you find those who follow the ambiguous verses from the Qur’ān, then they are those who Allāh is referring to in the verses in Sūrah Āli ʿImrān (فَاحْذَرُوهُمْ), stay away from them.” [Muslim]
This means ‘beware of them.’ So obviously we do not learn from these types of people. We do not take anything from them and we stay away from them because these individuals upon the way of the khawārij are astray and they lead others astray.
Look at the narrations of the saḥābah, the companions and how they dealt with the khawārij. And look how the tābiʿūn (the generation after the saḥābah) dealt with the people of innovation and the atba al-tabiʿīn. When people would come to them and wanted to recite a verse from the book of Allāh (عز وجل) for them, they would say ‘not even a verse.’ Because they feared that the person of innovation would distort the meaning of the verse and something (from the distortion) would penetrate the heart because the heart is weak and doubts sometimes are potent.
In this day and age, there is no reason to learn Qur’ān with a person of innovation and misguidance, or someone upon the way of the Khawārij. Alḥamdu lillāh there are many teachers from Ahl Al-Sunnah wa Al-Jamāʿah upon the correct ʿAqīdah and the correct methodology in nearly every city in the world.
If you cannot find a teacher in your locality, then Alḥamdu lillāh, you can study Qur’ān online with teachers from Al-Masjid al-Nabawī. You can study Qur’ān online with teachers upon the correct ʿAqīdah and the correct methodology. For example, there is Markaz Ibn Al-Qayyim that is supervised by the noble Shaykh Khālid Al-Ẓafirī (حفظه الله) and they teach Qur’ān and various sciences of the religion.
So there is no need and no excuse to study with these types of people. May Allāh (عز وجل) grant us success and preserve us and you and protect us and you. Bārak Allāhu fīkum wa jazākumullāhu khayra.