Shaykh ʿAbdul-ʿAzīz bn Bāz said:
“If the people of truth are silent regarding explaining it, the wrong doers will remain upon their mistakes, and others will follow them in that. The silent ones will incur (upon themselves) the sin of the one who hides (knowledge) whom Allah the Most-High threatened in His statement:
﴾إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ يَكْتُمُونَ مَآ أَنزَلْنَا مِنَ ٱلْبَيِّنَـٰتِ وَٱلْهُدَىٰ مِنۢ بَعْدِ مَا بَيَّنَّـٰهُ لِلنَّاسِ فِى ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ ۙ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ يَلْعَنُهُمُ ٱللَّهُ وَيَلْعَنُهُمُ ٱللَّـٰعِنُونَ﴿
“Verily, those who conceal the clear proofs, evidences and the guidance, which We have sent down, after We have made it clear for the people in the Book, they are the ones cursed by Allah and cursed by the cursers.”
﴾إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ تَابُوا۟ وَأَصْلَحُوا۟ وَبَيَّنُوا۟ فَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ أَتُوبُ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ وَأَنَا ٱلتَّوَّابُ ٱلرَّحِيمُ﴿
“Except those who repent and do righteous deeds, and openly declare (the truth which they concealed). These, I will accept their repentance. And I am the One Who accepts repentance, the Most Merciful.”¹
Allah has taken a covenant with the scholars of the Ahl al-Kitab (the Jews and the Christians) to explain it (the revelation) to people and not to conceal it, and He blamed them for throwing it behind their backs, and He warned us from following them.
If the ahl as-sunnah remain silent as regards explaining the mistakes of those who oppose the Kitāb and Sunnah, they would resemble the ahl al-kitab, those whom Allah is angry with and are astray.”²
1. Baqarah: 159-160
2. Majmū’ al-Fatāwa (3/72)
Translated by Abū Muḥsinah Mubaarak
