What is the Saved Sect? And What Are the Principles of the Call of the Righteous Predecessors?

The questioner : Your Eminence, the father (may Allah preserve you), what is the Saved Sect? And what are the principles of the call of the righteous predecessors?

The Shaykh : The hadith answering this question has come in the books of hadith, such as Sunan al-Tirmidhi and others, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: . They asked: Who are they, O Messenger of Allah? He said in another narration: ; meaning the group of the Messenger (peace be upon him); that is, the Companions. The evidence for this is the other narration, where he said: . So the Saved Sect is the one that holds fast to the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and the Sunnah of his Companions, and especially the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, which he (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded in the hadith of al-'Arba' ibn Sari'ah; where this noble Companion, who was from the people of the Suffah, said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) gave us a sermon that made our hearts tremble and our eyes flow with tears, so we said: Bequeath to us, O Messenger of Allah. He said: . In this hadith, there is a specification of the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs for following after the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Why did he mention his Companions along with his Sunnah in the previous hadith, and the Rightly Guided Caliphs from among his Companions in the subsequent hadith?
That is because they received the Shari'ah clarified from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) through his words and his actions. We did not hear his words nor see his actions, but we learned that through the path of his Companions. His Companions are those who applied the Shari'ah of Allah, which they understood from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), in a correct manner. Therefore, it is not permissible for a Muslim to be content with referring only to the Book and the Sunnah, but rather he must add to that what the Messenger (peace be upon him) added in the hadith of the sects and the hadith of the Rightly Guided Caliphs. This is what the Lord of the worlds indicated in the Noble Qur'an when He said (Mighty and Majestic): He said: . Allah (Mighty and Majestic) did not say: "And whoever opposes the Messenger after the guidance has become clear to him, We will turn him to what he has turned to," but rather He coupled it with opposing the Messenger and said: . Did our Lord mention this in vain? Far be it from Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). There is no word in the Qur'an except for a profound wisdom, let alone a sentence like this sentence: . The wisdom in that is what I mentioned just now. Therefore, Imam al-Shafi'i argued that it is not permissible to oppose the path of the believers, and this opposition does not occur except by some people riding on their own heads and interpreting some texts from the Book and the Sunnah without seeking help in understanding those texts from what our righteous predecessors were upon. Therefore, we know with certainty that the reason for the division of the Muslims into seventy-three sects, one of which is the Saved Sect, is that it held fast to the Book and the Sunnah upon the methodology of the righteous predecessors. As for the one who holds fast to the Book and the Sunnah according to his own interpretation, and turns away from what the righteous predecessors were upon, he has opposed the verse: , and opposed the two hadiths mentioned previously.
We do not need now to remind you of some of the old Islamic sects, such as the Mu'tazilah, the Khawarij, the Murji'ah, and others; for their opposition to the Book and the Sunnah is well known. That is only because some of them do not refer to the Sunnah, so they reject authentic hadiths, and some of them interpret the hadiths in a way different from what the righteous predecessors understood. We do not go far; rather, we give you some examples from the beliefs of these old misguided sects. But we give you an example of the deviation of some Muslims today, a very serious deviation which is disbelief itself and apostasy itself; namely, the group known as the Qadiyans, who call themselves the Ahmadis. Those who know their history and their activity in calling to their Islam are amazed at how they empty themselves with this activity in calling to their religion, while they claim that their religion is Islam. There is no doubt or hesitation that they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and they pray, fast, perform Hajj, and give zakah; that is, they perform the five pillars of Islam. But despite that, they are not Muslims. Why? Because they came to some verses of the Qur'an and interpreted them according to their desires, and did not interpret them in the way of the Muslims, so they followed a path other than the path of the Muslims, and the saying of the Lord of the worlds came true for them: .
These people believe that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) did not seal prophethood with Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), but rather that prophets will come after him. In fact, they claimed that Allah sent them a prophet from India from a village named "Qadian," and the name of that claimed prophet is "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad al-Qadiyani." They believe that this is a prophet after our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Did they disbelieve in the Qur'an? Did they disbelieve in the hadiths of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), which, along with the verse, all agree that there is no prophet after him? No, they did not disbelieve in the wording of the Qur'an. He (the Exalted) said: . They did not disbelieve in this wording, but they schemed against it and invalidated its implication. They did not disbelieve in his (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: , but rather they also interpreted it in a way different from what the Muslims received. The previous verse, His saying (the Exalted): , they said: The meaning of "Seal of the Prophets" is "the ornament of the prophets"; like a ring on the finger. It does not mean that no prophet will come after him. So when they addressed the authentic hadiths , they said: The meaning of is "there is no prophet with me," and there was no prophet with him. As for after him: meaning after his death, a prophet will come, and in fact, one has come. So from this example of the hadith, it becomes clear to you that it is not sufficient for a Muslim to understand the Qur'an and the hadith of the Messenger (peace be upon him) separately from the understanding of our righteous predecessors of the Qur'an and the Sunnah. From here, the profound wisdom in mentioning the path of the believers and the Companions and the Rightly Guided Caliphs in the hadith of the sects appears; so that the Muslim does not deviate in understanding some texts from the Book and the Sunnah and go astray far away. Safety in that is following the predecessors; as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the hadith of the sects: . He did not say: "Only what I am upon"; because the Companions are those who transmitted to us what the Messenger (peace be upon him) was upon, and they clarified it in a way that left no one after them to come and philosophize and interpret some texts according to their desires.
Among the deviations of these Qadiyans from Islam is that they denied a creation to which Allah (Mighty and Majestic) revealed a surah named after the jinn. So they denied the existence of this creation despite the Qur'an explicitly stating it in more than one verse. The surah mentioned just now is sufficient. Did they deny the surah? Did they deny His saying (the Exalted): What is the verse? ... "That a group of the jinn listened, so they said: Indeed, we have heard" "a wondrous recitation" ... ? Did they deny the word "jinn" mentioned in this surah and in other verses? The answer is: No, but they interpreted the jinn as humans. , they denied the jinn and said: The jinn here are humans, and "people" is an explanation of the word "jinn," and they are humans. This is the denial (ta'til) for which our scholars from the predecessors directed disapproval at the old sects who used to interpret the verses like this modern sect interprets them. And by that, they were called the "Mu'attilah" (deniers); because they invalidate the legal texts. So safety from being a Muslim, especially in the last of times, being one of the seventy-two sects, and the argument for being from the Saved Sect is what has been explained previously; upon the Book and the Sunnah and upon the methodology of the righteous predecessors. In that, Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"Knowledge is: Allah said, His Messenger said, *** The Companions said"
He did not only say: "Knowledge, Allah said, His Messenger said," but rather he said in the third: "The Companions said." Where did he take this from? From the previous evidence.
"Knowledge is what Allah said, what His Messenger said, *** and what the Companions said; it is not deception.
Knowledge is not setting you up for foolish disagreement *** Between the Messenger and the opinion of a jurist
Nor is it denying the attributes and negating them, *** out of fear of denying the divine attributes or likening Allah to creation."
So, if you remember these texts from the Book and the Sunnah, you will be as eager as we are to ensure that we do not rely on our own understanding of the Book and the Sunnah, nor do we act independently in this matter in a way that contradicts what the righteous Salaf were upon. That is why it is well known that the scholars used to say:
"All good lies in following those who came before, *** and all evil lies in innovating what those who came after have introduced."
Yes.