To what extent has the Salafi da'wah (call to Islam) succeeded up to now?

The questioner : We would like to ask Your Eminence a few questions.

The Shaykh: Go ahead.

The questioner : May Allah bless you. Is it possible for the Shaykh to tell us about the extent of the success that the Salafi da'wah (call to Islam) has achieved up to now?

The Shaykh : There is no doubt that its success is clear to anyone with eyes. The matter of returning to the Book and the Sunnah, judging by them, and worshipping Allah by them was forgotten in many parts of the Islamic world. I do not say in the entire Islamic world, for blind following (taqlid) and adhering to a specific school of jurisprudence (madhhab) were dominant in the minds of the masses of Muslims in various Islamic countries, except for a few individuals scattered throughout the Islamic world, and except for groups in some countries that had the virtue of advancing this da'wah (call to Islam), which I mean by the countries of India and Pakistan. But in addition to this, there is another phenomenon that was not known at all before, which is the awareness and concern for knowing what is authentic in the Sunnah and what is not. This was forgotten in all Islamic countries. I do not say in this issue, as I said in the previous issue, which is the prohibition of adhering to a specific school of jurisprudence and the obligation to return to the Sunnah, for this has been realized, as we mentioned earlier, in some Islamic countries like India and Pakistan. But the awareness of the necessity of caring to distinguish the authentic from the weak in the Sunnah was not mentioned at all in the Islamic world until about a quarter of a century or a third of a century ago. You will find this phenomenon now fully manifest in some Islamic universities where there was no mention of hadith at all in the previous old universities, except for a superficial study that had no impact on the hearts of those who graduated from them. It is not hidden from anyone that al-Azhar, which is described as the Noble al-Azhar, did not find, or did not previously find, in this time which is a quarter of a century ago, the required attention to studying the Sunnah first, and to distinguishing the authentic from the weak in it second. This is the Noble al-Azhar, which, as they say, has been established for about a thousand years. But by the grace and mercy of Allah, the universities have now become aware of the necessity of caring for the Sunnah, teaching it, and deriving jurisprudence from it first.
The student: No.

The Shaykh : First and second, for the necessity of distinguishing the authentic from the weak. And so you will find now a new generation that promises good in the near or distant future, as Allah (Mighty and Majestic) knows, where they have begun to write in hadith regarding jurisprudence, authentication, and weakening. This phenomenon promises that the Salafi da'wah (call to Islam) today has a very clear impact in the Islamic world. From this, you did not previously hear a preacher, when he mentions a hadith in his sermon, say, "Al-Bukhari narrated it," "Muslim narrated it," or "So-and-so narrated it." And a fortiori, you did not hear the preacher say, "It is authentic from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said such and such." Rather, you used to hear, and you still hear, many preachers say, "It is narrated from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said such and such," "It is narrated from the Messenger of Allah that he said such and such." This formula, which scholars call a "euphemistic expression," includes what is authentic in the hadith and what is weak. So he issues them all with his saying: "It is narrated from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)." This is because he still lives by the old, previous logic that is overwhelmed by ignorance of the science of hadith and the science of the critique and vindication of narrators (al-jarh wa al-ta'dil). And the existence of scattered groups in the Islamic world who rejected adhering to a specific school of jurisprudence, rejecting it as one spits out a pomegranate seed, and who strove to know the ruling of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in every issue that these Muslims encounter. They are always eager to ask, "What is the ruling of Allah? What is the ruling of the Messenger of Allah in this issue?" Whereas previously, if one asked,The questioner : "I am a Hanafi and I did such and such, what is the ruling?" or "I am a Shafi'i," and so on. So the question about the Book of Allah has taken the place of the question about the school of jurisprudence, by which it is not permissible for a person to worship Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). This is a summary of the answer to your question.