Advice to the youth whom Allah has blessed with the Salafi call.

The questioner : O Shaykh, what is your advice—may Allah bless you—regarding the youth whom Allah has blessed with the Salafi call, who have agreed on the fundamentals, but when they differ on some branches, you find them becoming hostile toward one another? And what is your advice regarding the youth, whether those who have joined other Islamic calls, or those who have joined the Salafi call but engage in demonstrations and chanting? Is this part of the methodology of the Salaf or not?

The Shaykh : As for the students of knowledge who study the two fundamentals—the principles of hadith and the principles of jurisprudence—these people must apply the branches to the fundamentals, and they must not follow any of Allah’s creation in blind imitation. Rather, they should benefit from every scholar among the scholars of the Salaf who were upon the Book and the Sunnah, and the methodology of the Companions, and those who followed them with excellence. This is my advice to the students of knowledge.
On the other hand, we must avoid the detested fanaticism and the blameworthy extremism, and we must not become hostile toward one another because of partisanship, grouping, or belonging to one of the groups. We should advise one another and show affection to one another. If we see some people who are far from the Book and the Sunnah in their actions, even if they may speak of their affiliation with the Book and the Sunnah in their words, and if we see that they are far from it in their actions, then we must be gentle with them and invite them to be with us to apply what we all claim to follow in our words. We should make it our methodology in our lives and invite them, as He—Exalted is He—said: . As for these chants adopted by some groups, these are in reality, as mentioned previously in the denial of the previous acquaintance, they were not present in all the eras—I do not say only in the righteous Salaf, who are our proof and our model only—but even in the eras that came after them, there were no such chants. Rather, in these chants, we have imitated the Westerners, the disbelievers, and the polytheists who have no revealed methodology from Allah—Blessed and Exalted is He—so they are in innovation, indeed in misguidance, every day. So the Muslims should follow only what the righteous Salaf were upon, and not find anything wrong with that. These chants remind me of another habit of some people: when they enter a gathering, and the people of that gathering are seated in such a way that the one entering can shake hands with every individual among the seated, so every time he greets one person, he follows it with another greeting from another person, and so on until he finishes shaking hands with all the seated people. This is also an innovation, and it is an additional innovation, because the Sunnah is that when a Muslim enters a gathering, he offers one greeting: “Peace be upon you, peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy, peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings.” If it is easy for him to shake hands with them, then shaking hands is a recommended practice, due to the saying of some of the Companions: “We never met the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) without shaking hands with him.”
There is a hadith in Sunan al-Tirmidhi which I mention for the sake of its complete connection to this topic, from the perspective—as it is said—of hitting two birds with one stone, meaning it aligns with what we are discussing, and its chain of narration is weak; namely: . So when the one entering, the Sunnah is to offer the greeting once, and then if it is easy for him to shake hands with those present, that is better and better, due to the authentic hadith I mentioned earlier regarding his (peace be upon him) action. And with this weak hadith, with such a weak hadith, it can be said that it is acted upon in the virtues of deeds. And this is a very delicate and sensitive point that those who permit speaking with a weak hadith overlook, because they—regarding the weak hadith in the virtues of deeds—because in reality, if they mean by this word that it is permissible to act with a weak hadith in the virtues of deeds; that is: it is permissible to establish the legality of a deed and the virtue of this deed with a weak hadith; then no scholar says this; because it is legislating with a weak hadith. And the scholars are in agreement—except for those who deviated—among some of the later scholars—like some of the ignorant ones and their like—where they said: it is permissible to establish legal rulings with weak hadiths, and they claimed that it is not... ...; that they established rulings with weak hadiths, and they overlooked or feigned to overlook—Allah knows their intention—that some of the Imams may establish rulings without any hadith at all, but rather by analogical reasoning, and regardless of whether this analogical reasoning is correct or not; that is another matter. So it is not permissible for us to say that they establish legal rulings with weak hadiths. So if those who say it is permissible to act with a weak hadith in the virtues of deeds; that is: legislating deeds with a legal virtue by a weak hadith; then no scholar says what they say. But if they mean it is permissible to act with a weak hadith in the virtues of deeds whose legality has been established, whose legality has been established by evidence that is suitable for legal argumentation, and then a weak hadith comes to establish a virtue for what has been established by an authentic hadith; then there is no harm in that. And here is an example that came to mind: “We never met him without shaking hands,” . So when he met them, without a doubt he greeted them and then shook hands with them, so . There is no harm in shaking hands to complete the greeting, but we do not establish this with the weak hadith; rather, we establish it from the combination of the hadiths regarding the obligation of offering the greeting—and I mean what I am saying—the obligation of offering the greeting, not the recommended practice of offering the greeting; because the Messenger says: . So the Messenger must have greeted his Companions when he met them, and then in this hadith we mentioned, “We never met him without shaking hands”; so it is established from the combination of these two hadiths—at least—that shaking hands is part of the completion of the prescribed greeting. So if a hadith like this comes and we mention it with an explanation of its weakness; then there is no harm in that, and it is a valid example for the permissibility of acting with a weak hadith in the virtues of deeds that have been established—not by the weak hadith—but by the authentic hadith.
This is what comes to mind as an answer to the previous question.