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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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What is the group (al-Jama'ah) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) referred to in the hadith: “(What I am upon and my Companions are upon)”?

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The Shaykh : A question reached me just now, and although I prefer to postpone questions until later because this question may interrupt the flow of my thoughts, nevertheless, I will not disappoint you.The questioner : So I will answer the question. The question states: There is a narration that says when the Messenger was asked about the saved sect, the Messenger answered that it is the group (al-Jama'ah). Yes, this narration is authentic and we believe in it. However, this narration regarding the group is explained by the narration we mentioned earlier. Because if we mention the term “the group” — meaning this narration about which the question was just asked — we would be obligated to explain it with the explanation mentioned earlier.
Here I was reminded that I have an appointment with the doctor, and indeed I was with the doctor. In any case, we are concluding this session by answering the last question. I say that there are two narrations regarding what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked about the saved group. He answered with two narrations. The first is the one I mentioned earlier:
What I am upon and my Companions. ما أنا عليه وأصحابي
Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2641Da'if (Darussalam)
and the other is the one about which the question was asked: He said:
It is the Jama'ah. هي الجماعة
But I feel that the questioner seems to assume, based on what she read from the writings of the Tahrir Party, that this narration of the group contradicts the narration around which I directed the discussion. So I say, no. To clarify this negative answer that there is no difference between the two narrations, I now assume that the first narration, which is
What I am upon and my Companions.ما أنا عليه وأصحابي
Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2641Da'if (Darussalam)
, has no basis at all, and that the narration is only
The group. الجماعة
. Then we will say: Who is the group? Who is the group today, O Mother of the Believers? Is it the Tahrir Party or the Muslim Brotherhood? Is it the Tabligh group?
“And each claims a connection to Layla, *** But Layla does not approve of that for them.”
The group, as authentically reported from Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him), is: whoever is with the truth, even if he is a single individual. When Allah (Mighty and Majestic) sent the messengers and prophets as bringers of good news and warners, they were individuals, and they were the group. Ibrahim was a nation (ummah) alone. So whoever follows this nation, meaning the group, is in reality one in his self, but he is the group in his call. Whoever walks in his footsteps and follows his path is the group, even if he is a single individual. So now, assuming that the first narration describing the saved sect does not exist at all, this group is the path of the believers. This group is the group of the Rightly Guided Caliphs. The hadith of al-'Arabah ibn Sari'ah does not have two narrations such that one could doubt it, as one might be able to cast doubt on the narration of
What I am upon and my Companions. ما أنا عليه وأصحابي
Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2641Da'if (Darussalam)
. So the group is the path of the believers, which I explained earlier from the Book and the Sunnah. So what harm is there if we interpret the group here by the first narration
What I am upon and my Companions. ما أنا عليه وأصحابي
Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2641Da'if (Darussalam)
? Because his Companions (peace be upon him) are the believers, and those who oppose them are threatened with Hellfire in the verse with which I began my argument. It is not permissible to rely only on the Book and the Sunnah, but it is also necessary to add the path of the believers mentioned in the noble verse. So whoever interprets the group in the hadith of the saved sect as only his sect, without bringing the evidence from the Book and the Sunnah, and from the fact that it is what the first believers were upon, has carried the hadith of the group onto an incorrect interpretation. And in that case, the interpretation of this hadith would be an incorrect interpretation.
Source www.al-albany.com

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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