He says that I teach a group of people Hanafi jurisprudence and Sufism, and we practice the dhikr of the hadrah, and our evidence for this is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)

The questioner : He says in it that I teach a group of people Hanafi jurisprudence and Sufism, and we practice the dhikr of the hadrah, and our evidence for this is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when he migrated to the Holy City of Madinah, was greeted by the people with poetry and the beating of hand drums, so he approved of them and did not forbid it. Likewise, it is mentioned in the Qur'an, where Allah the Exalted said: Furthermore, I teach my students the necessity of obeying the shaykh and loving him, and not turning to any other shaykh, in accordance with the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "Whoever has no shaykh, his shaykh is Satan". However, one of my students has recently begun to argue with me on these matters and deny them to me, claiming that they are religious innovations and that they contradict the guidance of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). I have become confused in my affair. When I asked about his actions, I was told that the young man arguing with me is influenced by the Wahhabis, and that this Wahhabi idea is an innovation that calls for extremism, forbids the praise of the Prophet and the Mawlid, and says that many of the things considered good are innovations. The matter has become difficult for me. I ask for your guidance and clarification of this truth for me. May Allah guide you?

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and I send prayers and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions. As for this question, it is a great question that includes matters of the principles of religion, historical matters, and practical matters. As for the practical matters, he mentioned that he teaches his students according to the school of Imam Abu Hanifah (may Allah have mercy on him). There is no doubt that the school of Imam Abu Hanifah (may Allah have mercy on him) is one of the four followed and famous schools of jurisprudence. However, it should be known that these four schools do not contain all the truth; rather, the truth may be in other schools. Their scholarly consensus on the ruling of a matter is not the consensus of the entire Muslim community. The Imams themselves (may Allah have mercy on them) were not made Imams for His servants by Allah the Exalted except where they were worthy of leadership, where they knew their own standing and knew that there is no obedience to them except in what is in accordance with obedience to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). They warned against following them in imitation except in what agreed with the Sunnah, the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). There is no doubt that the school of Abu Hanifah, the school of Imam Ahmad, the school of Imam al-Shafi'i, the school of Imam Malik, and the schools of other scholars are subject to being either wrong or right, for everyone is taken from their words and left, except the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).
Accordingly, there is no blame on him for teaching his students according to the school of Imam Abu Hanifah, on the condition that if the evidence becomes clear to him in contradiction to it, he follows the evidence and leaves it, and clarifies to his students that this is the truth and that this is what is obligatory for them. As for the matter of Sufism, their singing, their praise, their beating of the hand drum and the ghayriyyah, and the like, the ghayriyyah being the thing they beat the carpet or the like with a whip, where the more dust it raises, the more sincere they are in their seeking, and the like of what they do, this is from the forbidden religious innovations that he must abandon and that he must forbid his companions from doing. This is because the best of generations, and they are the generation in which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was sent, did not worship Allah with this type of worship. And this worship does not bequeath to the heart a turning to Allah, nor humility before Him, nor submission before Him, but rather it bequeaths psychological emotions that affect the person from such actions, such as screaming, lack of discipline, and agitated movement, and the like. All of this indicates that this worship is invalid and that it is not beneficial for the servant. This is a practical proof, in addition to the textual proof in which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: This is from the clear misguidance that a person must abandon, and that he must repent to Allah and return to what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his Rightly Guided Caliphs were upon, for their guidance is the most perfect guidance and their path is the best path. Allah the Exalted said: And an action is not righteous except with two things: sincerity to Allah and conformity with His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him).
As for his argument with the greeting of the people of Madinah to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) with hand drums and songs, if this is true, they did not take that as worship, but rather they took it as joy at the arrival of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and it is not of this category at all. As for what he mentioned about the student arguing with him and some saying that he is a Wahhabi, and that the Wahhabis do not approve of the praise of the Prophet, and the like of that, we inform him and others that the Wahhabis, praise be to Allah, were among the most steadfast people in adhering to the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and among the most reverent people toward the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and following his Sunnah. This is indicated by the fact that they were always eager to follow the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and adhere to it, and to deny what contradicted it in belief or in verbal or practical action. This is indicated by the fact that they made the sending of prayers upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) a pillar of the prayer, such that the prayer is not valid without it. Is there any doubt after this about their reverence for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)? And they only said that it is a pillar of the prayer because that is the requirement of the evidence in their view. So they are followers of the evidence, not exaggerating about the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in a matter that Allah and His Messenger did not legislate. Then the reality of the matter is that their denial of the praise of the Prophet that contains exaggeration about the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), the reality of the matter is that it is reverence for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and it is proper conduct before Allah and His Messenger, where they did not place anything before Allah and His Messenger, and they did not exaggerate, because Allah forbade them from that. So the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And he said: And he (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade exaggeration about him, just as the Christians exaggerated about Jesus, the son of Mary. Yes, he said: .
The important point is that the path of Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (may Allah have mercy on him) and his followers, and he is the Imam the reformer, his path is what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his Companions were upon, for whoever follows it with knowledge and fairness. As for the one who speaks out of ignorance or injustice and tyranny, it is not possible for his words to have a limit, for the tyrant or the ignorant one says everything he can say of truth and falsehood, and there is no discipline to his words. "And if you do not feel ashamed, then do whatever you wish". And whoever wants to know the truth in this, let him read what Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (may Allah have mercy on him) and his descendants and the scholars have written, so that the truth becomes clear to him, if he is fair and seeking the truth. Then the praise of the Prophet that the brother refers to, these are praises that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) certainly does not approve of, but rather he came with the prohibition of them and the warning against them. From the praises that they strive for and sing about is what the poet said:
O most noble of creation, I have no one to take refuge in But you, when the general calamity befalls
For from your generosity is the world and its neighbor, and from your knowledge is the knowledge of the Preserved Tablet and the Pen
And things similar to this, which are well known. Without a doubt, this is disbelief in the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and associating partners with Allah (Mighty and Majestic). Indeed, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is a human being who does not know of the unseen except what Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has informed him of. The world and its twin, the Hereafter, are not from the generosity of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him); rather, they are from the creation of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). He is the One who created the world and the Hereafter, and He is the One who bestowed upon them what He bestowed upon His servants, Blessed and Exalted is He. Likewise, the knowledge of the Preserved Tablet and the Pen is not from the knowledge of the Messenger (may Allah’s prayer and peace be upon him); rather, the knowledge of the Preserved Tablet and the Pen belongs to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and the Messenger (may Allah’s prayer and peace be upon him) does not know of it except what Allah has revealed to him. This is the reality of the matter. These and similar things are the praises sung by those who claim to honor the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). It is one of the wonders that you find these people, who claim to honor the Messenger of Allah (may Allah’s prayer and peace be upon him), honoring him as they claim in such matters, while they are neglecting and turning away from much of his Sunnah, may Allah protect us from that. So I advise this brother who is asking this question; I advise him to return to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and not to praise the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) as the Christians praised Jesus, son of Mary. He should know that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is a human being who is distinguished from others by the revelation that Allah revealed to him, and by the noble virtues and high morals that Allah granted him specifically. However, he has no control over the universe. The One who controls the universe, and to whom one calls, hopes, and deifies, is Allah (Mighty and Majestic) alone, there is no deity but Him, Exalted is He above what they associate with Him. Yes.

The questioner : May Allah reward you.
This is a message from a listener who symbolized his name with the letters S, S, and 'A. He is Egyptian and works in northern Yemen.