Sheikh Muhammad Sodiq Muhammad Yusuf develops similar ideas regarding the hadiths in his treatise, Hadiths and Life. Here, along with a discussion of theological problems, Sheikh Muhammad Sodiq Muhammad Yusuf addresses the question of relationships of Muslims with others of different confessions as well as the status of Muslim communities in Islamic governments.
In interpreting the well-known hadith of the Prophet — “The Muslims who live among polytheists are alien to me” — Sheikh Muhammad Sodiq Muhammad Yusuf demonstrates that this was said only in reference to the payment for the death of a group of as’hab [companions of the Prophet] who died (at Hasam) during prayer.
The author adds that, in the past as well as in the present, Muslims have lived and will continue to live among members of different confessions, and they should look for ways to interact with them. Many positive examples of this interaction, he maintains, can be found in the Sunna.
Here, as in other essays, Sheikh Muhammad Sodiq Muhammad Yusuf similarly tries to explain to the reader that dogmatic variation in law and in ritual is a natural occurrence and that these variations should not be an object of disputes or protests. He maintains that the external disputes of the Sunni Muslims should not serve as the basis of jurisprudence among Muslims.
For this reason Sheikh Muhammad Sodiq Muhammad Yusuf opposes political parties in Islam, as he sees them as fueling schisms within Islam. Similarly, he decries neo-Islam as an unacceptable product of the Western systems. He also actively opposes groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir and Akramiya.
Islam does not contradict some of the pillars of democracy as they are understood in the West, he says, but Islam does offer an interpretation of democracy well suited to the religious life of Muslims. No “foreign” or alien view of democracy should be forced upon Muslims, he argues.
