The Response to the Statement of the People of Innovation: The Method of the Salaf is Safer, and the Method of the Khalaf is More Knowledgeable and More Wise
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Allah is sufficient for me against you. Yes. We argue against some of the people of the marketplace that they are wrecking the car.
The Shaykh : What?
The questioner : We were heading in the direction that we know the reason.
The Shaykh : Contradicted what? Yes.
The questioner : They say the method of the Salaf is safer and the method of the people of eloquence.
The Shaykh : More knowledgeable and more wise. They say the method of the Salaf is safer, and the method of the Khalaf is more knowledgeable and more wise. But this statement is never correct.
First, it is contradictory, for it necessitates that if it is safer, it must be more knowledgeable and more wise, is that not so? Why? Because safety cannot be achieved except with knowledge and wisdom: knowledge that knows the paths of safety, and wisdom that follows the paths of safety.
This is one point. Second, how can the method of the Khalaf be more knowledgeable and more wise when it is a distortion of the words from their places? Rather, we say the method of the Salaf is the most knowledgeable and the most wise.
But those who said this statement think that the method of the Salaf is the delegation of meaning, meaning that they read the Qur'an and do not affirm for it a meaning regarding the attributes. It is well known that if this had been the doctrine of the Salaf, there would have been no good in it at all. We have spoken about this in the book *Talikh al-Hamawiyyah*; refer to it.
The questioner : They say that in the time of the Companions, none of the innovators or the sects or the anthropomorphists appeared, so they followed this path. After them, when these people appeared
The Shaykh : But how do we say that the methodology of the Khalaf (the later generations) is more knowledgeable and more wise? The path of the Salaf (the earliest generations) is that the Salaf read the Qur'an and the Sunnah and acted upon them according to their apparent meaning, while believing that Allah[Ash-Shuraa 42:11] This is the ruling of knowledge.
The Shaykh : What?
The questioner : We were heading in the direction that we know the reason.
The Shaykh : Contradicted what? Yes.
The questioner : They say the method of the Salaf is safer and the method of the people of eloquence.
The Shaykh : More knowledgeable and more wise. They say the method of the Salaf is safer, and the method of the Khalaf is more knowledgeable and more wise. But this statement is never correct.
First, it is contradictory, for it necessitates that if it is safer, it must be more knowledgeable and more wise, is that not so? Why? Because safety cannot be achieved except with knowledge and wisdom: knowledge that knows the paths of safety, and wisdom that follows the paths of safety.
This is one point. Second, how can the method of the Khalaf be more knowledgeable and more wise when it is a distortion of the words from their places? Rather, we say the method of the Salaf is the most knowledgeable and the most wise.
But those who said this statement think that the method of the Salaf is the delegation of meaning, meaning that they read the Qur'an and do not affirm for it a meaning regarding the attributes. It is well known that if this had been the doctrine of the Salaf, there would have been no good in it at all. We have spoken about this in the book *Talikh al-Hamawiyyah*; refer to it.
The questioner : They say that in the time of the Companions, none of the innovators or the sects or the anthropomorphists appeared, so they followed this path. After them, when these people appeared
The Shaykh : But how do we say that the methodology of the Khalaf (the later generations) is more knowledgeable and more wise? The path of the Salaf (the earliest generations) is that the Salaf read the Qur'an and the Sunnah and acted upon them according to their apparent meaning, while believing that Allah
There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Hearing, the Seeing.
لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، [355] الرد على قول أهل البدع: طريقة السلف أسلم وطريقة الخلف أعلم وأحكم - الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.