Shaykh Bin Bāz: The Two Types or Stages of Fitnah and the Necessity of Upholding Truth When It Becomes Clear

Shaykh Bin Baz (رحمه الله) said during his lecture on clarifying the ḥadīths of fitan:^[1]

The ḥadīths related to fitan (tribulations) and warning against them are interpreted, in the view of the people of knowledge, to mean the fitan in which he who is correct is not known from he who is wrong. These are the fitan in which it is legislated for the believer to be cautious of.

As for the tribulations in which the one who is correct is known from the one who is wrong, and the oppressor from the oppressed, then they are not included in the aforementioned ḥadīths (regarding keeping away from fitan). Rather, the Sharīʿah evidences from the Book and the Sunnah indicate the obligation to support the one who is right and the oppressed against the aggressor and the oppressor.

Shaykh Bin Baz (رحمه الله) also said in his lecture on the position of a believer regarding tribulations:^[2]

Every fitnah that occurs from the hand of any person among the Muslims, the Innovators, or the Disbelievers, it is examined so that the believer stands with the one who is correct, with the oppressed against the oppressor, and the one who is wrong. In this way, the truth is supported and the affairs of the Muslims remain in order, and throught it, the oppressor is deterred from his oppression. The seeker of truth knows that the obligation (in the matter) is to cooperate upon righteousness and piety and not to cooperate upon sin and transgression, acting upon the saying of Allāh, the Sublime: “And cooperate upon righteousness and piety and do not cooperate upon sin and transgression.” (5:2).

Notes

The fitan that arise have two stages. A stage in which the truth is not clear from error. It is not known who is right and who is wrong, who is in line with the Sunnah and who opposed it, who is the oppressed and who is the oppressor and so on. Here a believer must refrain and not take sides, as he could be sinful. Then there is the stage in which the truth becomes clear, and truth is distinct from falsehood, the one who is right from the one who is wrong, the one who upholds the Sunnah from the one who opposed it, the one who is the oppressed from the one who oppressed and so on. In this case, it is obligatory to uphold and proclaim the truth and be on its side, with the one who is correct, and this is from cooperation in righteousness and piety that has been commanded.

Arabic text:

Footnotes

1. Clarification Regarding the Ḥadīths of Fitan. See the shaykh’s Majmū Fatāwā (25/381).
2. Mawqif al-Muʿmin min al-Fitan