10 - At the beginning of the First Dialogue, the religion reformer says:

"The virtuous young reformer, in order to make Muslims attain happiness, wants to rescue them from the nuisance of taqlid, which appeared later, and to help them to follow the Book, the Sunnat and the path of the Salaf. In the first century [of Islam] even shepherds used to get their religious knowledge directly from the Book and the Sunnat."

See the buffoonery of Rashid Rida's! He says "virtuous" for the one who is a heretic like himself. Through the mouth of an ignorant religion reformer, he attempts to advise the old reverend preacher. He says "nuisance " about the blessing of the taqlid which is commanded by Allahu ta'ala and Rasulullah ('alaihi 's-salam) and which is necessary in the unanimous view of Islamic scholars. He does not realize that imitating one of the four madhhabs is an imitation which is right, and dissenting from a madhhab by following a la-madhhabi is an imitation which is wrong. He makes fun of the respectable preacher and of the blessed word 'wa'iz' (preacher). He does not know that he who makes fun of the blessed words peculiar to men with religious responsibilities becomes a non-Muslim. If we had not known the hadith ash-Sharif, "The most atrocious, the basest people will come to preside over Muslims," we would have been astonished at the unfortunate fact that this man occupied a position of issuing fatwas in such a Muslim country as Egypt. O you the base zindiq! Instead of making fun of Muslims and having preachers act in plays, why don't you come forward honestly and challenge Jews, Christian missionaries, freemasons and communists? No, you cannot even look askance at them. Masons are your masters, patrons.

Who do you think you are being deceitful with the words, "to rescue Muslims from the nuisance of taqlid... and to help them to follow the Book (the Qur'an al-karim), the Sunnat and the way of the Salaf"? Your words contradict each other. Isn't it taqlid to cling to the Book, to the Sunnat and to the path of the Salaf? And this taqlid that you wish for is possible only by following one of the four aimmat al-madhahib. To abandon that taqlid, which you call "nuisance," will mean to abandon the taqlid of the book, of the Sunnat and of the path of the Salaf, thus to go out of Islam, and what you want is this wrong taqlid. Rasulullah (sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam) declared: "He who interprets the Book and the Hadith according to his own view becomes a non-Muslim." You want to drive Muslims to the taqlid which is wrong. Take the mask off your face! Reveal the fact that you are an enemy of Islam so that we may answer you. For the time being we quote one line from one of your fellow freemasons:

"Do you think of everybody as blind, and all the people as stupid?"

Do not insult the Muslims of the first century by calling them "shepherds"! Don't represent them as ignorant! They were all learned, whether they were shepherds, fighters or commanders. They were all mujtahids. Certainly they could get knowledge directly from the Book.

Since 1150 (1737), la-madhhabism, that is, the bidat of disapproving the scholars of Ahl as-Sunnat, has been spread over the world. The ignorant in Saudi Arabia have been the leaders of this destructive and disunionist behavior which harms Islam from the inside and makes brothers-in-Islam enemies to one another. The la-madhhabi, who came to power by attacking the Ahl as-Sunnat Muslims and plundering and killing under torture thousands of innocent women and children, founded a state with the help of the British in 1350 (1932) and began propagandizing through the organizations in various countries which they established with diplomatic power and the financial support of hundreds of thousands of gold coins annually. Through the publications that are full of lies and slanders, they deceive ignorant people and try to annihilate Islam from within.

Wahhabism was founded by Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab. He was born in Najd in 1111 [1699], and died in 1206 [1792]. His father and his brother Sulaiman ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab were pure Muslims and Ahl as-Sunnat scholars. Like other scholars in the Hijaz, they, too, explained to Muslims that Wahhabism was a false path. Many books were written to protect Ahl as-Sunnat, which was true Islam. For example. Sulaiman ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, while advising his brother, wrote at the beginning of his work:

"Allahu ta'ala sent Muhammad ('alaihi 's-salam) as the Prophet for all human beings. He explained everything that was necessary for men in the Book, Al-Qur'an al-karim, which He sent to him; He created whatever He had promised him. He declared that He was going to protect the religion of Islam, which He sent through him, against alteration and corruption until the end of the world. He said also that Muhammad's ('alaihi 's-salam) umma was the best of mankind; and the Prophet gave the glad tidings that this umma would never become corrupt until the end of the world and commanded men to hold fast to his path. Allahu ta'ala, in the 114th ayat of the Surat an-Nisa', declares: 'We will throw the one who deviates from the believers' path into Hell.' Therefore, the ijma' (agreement, unanimity) among the 'ulama' of Islam has become a hujja (document) and a dalil (proof, evidence) for religious knowledge. Deviation from this ijma' has become a prohibition. Those who do not know this path of ijma' should learn it by asking those who know, which is a command stated in the 43rd ayat of the Surat an-Nahl. This ayat is explained in the hadith ash-Sharif, 'Ask those who know about what you do not know. The cure for ignorance is to learn by asking.'

"As the 'ulama' of Islam say unanimously, a mujtahid is the one who has memorized the Arabic vocabulary; who knows the different, literal and allegorical meanings of words; who is an alim of fiqh; who has committed the Qur'an al-karim to memory and knows the ways it is read (qira'a); who knows the tafsirs of all the ayats of the Qur'an al-karim; who can distinguish between muhkam and mutashabih, nasikh and mansukh, qasas and other ayats and sahih, muftari, muttasil, munqati', mursal, musnad, mashhur and mawquf hadiths; who also is a possessor of wara', whose nafs has attained tazkiya (rescuing the nafs from its (harmful desires); and who is sadiq (sincere in his word) and amin (trustworthy). Only such a personage who has all these excellences can be followed (taqlid) and can issue fatwas. If he lacks one of these qualities, he cannot be a mujtahid and may not be followed. He himself should follow a mujtahid. Hence, a Muslim is either a mujtahid or a muqallid (one who practices taqlid). There is not a third category. It is fard for muqallids to follow a mujtahid. This has been said unanimously. Even Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya [d. 751/1350], whom the Wahhabis praise as an 'allama whose every word is a document, said in his I'lam al-muqiin, 'A person who does not fulfill the requirements of ijtihad is not permitted to draw any conclusions from the Qur'an al-karim or the Hadith ash-Sharif.' The men of the present age regard as scholars those who recite ayats and hadiths and who give meanings to them in accord with their points of view. They do not listen to those who quote Ahl as-Sunnat scholars in their speeches and books. The ignorant and heretical people who do not fulfill even a single requirement of ijtihad are taken to be men of religious authority today. May Allahu ta'ala protect Muslims against this calamity! Amin!" [Sulaiman ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, As-sawa'iq al-ilahiyya fi 'r-raddi 'ala 'l-Wahhabiyya, Nuhbat al-Ahbar, Baghdad, 1306 (1889); photographic reproduction, Istanbul, 1395 (1975)].

As quoted in the preceding article, Rashid Rida praises Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya as the "Imam 'Allama" and means that he follows in his footsteps. And Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, as quoted above, prohibits non-mujtahids to draw conclusions from the Book and the Sunnat. Whereas, Rashid Rida opposes his words, and this openly shows that he is insincere in the cause of Islam and that he is an enemy of Islam, who tries to annihilate Islam from behind the curtain.