How can following the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs be limited to the four, when many of the Companions transmitted much of the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)?

The questioner: O Shaykh, the issue is that one knows the circle... and his saying: ; because the Sunnah is not limited to these four; meaning Abu Bakr, 'Umar, 'Uthman, and 'Ali. For example, 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar brought many hadiths and much Sunnah, and Abu Hurayrah likewise brought much Sunnah. So how can we limit the hadith to this narrow circle of these four?

The Shaykh: So let us study the meaning of the Sunnah here in the hadith, and perhaps by studying the Sunnah the confusion will be cleared up; what is the Sunnah? .

The questioner: The Sunnah is his saying...

The Shaykh: No, that is the Messenger of Allah.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: No, I am asking about the Sunnah conjoined with the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah; the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs.

The questioner: The Sunnah that they took from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).

The Shaykh: Do you mean the hadiths that the Messenger spoke and the practical Sunnahs that the Messenger did?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: It is the same; meaning the Sunnah of the Caliphs is the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace be upon him); meaning exactly the same, step for step.

The questioner: Or they derived it.

The Shaykh: Ah, now it has become something new.

The questioner: Or they did not derive it or understand it.

The Shaykh: Or they understood it; so it is not necessary that it be exactly the same and identical?

The questioner : No.

The Shaykh: Good; repeat your objection after this addition; what is your objection?

The questioner: The objection is his saying: ; meaning limiting the circle to the Sunnah and restricting the hadith to these four; this is the objection, it should be...

The Shaykh: You now, when you say the hadith, naturally recall the addition that you added last in your mind.

The questioner : And what is it?

The Shaykh: Or they understood or.

The questioner : Yes, yes.

The Shaykh: Yes, or are you forgetting now?

The questioner: No, I am not forgetting, no no, I am not forgetting.

The Shaykh : ... .

Another questioner: He says: that the method of derivation is not limited to the four.

The Shaykh: Never mind, O Shaykh, let us understand from it ourselves, let us understand from it, good; do you believe that the derivation of any Companion resembles the derivation of any other Companion or are there degrees?

The questioner: No, degrees according to the fiqh.

The Shaykh: Very good, so according to what some said earlier that all the Companions - I think you are innocent of this saying -

The questioner : And what is it?

The Shaykh: Meaning all the Companions, every Companion must be followed in what he went to in terms of ijtihad and opinion?

The questioner: Meaning if his ijtihad is not contrary to a Sunnah or something or a principle from... you prioritize it over others.

The Shaykh: Prioritize it meaning you must take it?

The questioner: Yes; if it does not contradict or clash with a text from the texts, then I must take it...

The Shaykh: The clash, perhaps one of the Rightly Guided Caliphs if he clashed with a text, do you take his Sunnah?

The questioner : There is no doubt.

The Shaykh : Is that not so?

The questioner : That is it.

The Shaykh: So this condition is a precautionary condition?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: For every Companion.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: Good; so you say that every Companion must be followed in his opinion as long as he does not contradict the Book or the Sunnah?

The questioner: As long as he does not contradict.

The Shaykh: And what is your evidence for this?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: The caliphate after the Messenger (peace be upon him), how long? There is a hadith that says: .

The questioner: But I weaken this!

The Shaykh: I am asking... after your correction, , good; is this hadith weak in your view?

The questioner: Yes, others have weakened it.

The Shaykh: Others have weakened it?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: And others have strengthened it?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: Good; does its weakness prevail in your view?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: By what?

The questioner: From the perspective of looking at it.

The Shaykh: From the perspective of looking at it?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: This is not the way of the people of knowledge.

The questioner: No, but... the hadith has weakness, I want to take it in the criticism, meaning according to what prevails for me.

The Shaykh: This is not the way of the people of knowledge.

The questioner: No, their way is the way of the people of knowledge, they trace the chain.

The Shaykh: You did not trace the chain now, this is what I am asking you for, you looked at its text and did not look at its chain.

The questioner: Likewise, I stopped at its weakness.

The Shaykh: It will become a turn for us, unfortunately!

The questioner: No, it is not a turn, you told me...

The Shaykh: I will explain to you how? You said you mentioned that some weakened it, and some authenticated it, so you took the saying of those who weakened it; why? Because you looked at its text, not because you looked at the strength of the weakening and preferred it over the strength of the authentication, so when you looked at its text and made it the deciding factor, this is what I said is not from the method of the people of knowledge in weakening hadiths; so the scientific method is to apply the scientific usuli rules when - for example - the scholars of hadith differ in authenticating a hadith or weakening it, or they differ in authenticating a narrator or weakening him, the scientific usuli rules are applied; for example, in the field of al-jarh wa al-ta'dil, as you know, they say: "The criticism is prioritized over the vindication with its condition," with its condition being that it is explained, and after the explanation it becomes clear that the criticism is decisive; good; so did you do any of this in this hadith?

The questioner: No, I am satisfied with what others did?

The Shaykh: And why did you not be satisfied with what others did of authentication? [Everyone laughs!]

The questioner: Meaning I am on the text of the hadith.

The Shaykh: The text of the hadith?

The questioner: Meaning on another hadith.

The Shaykh : And what is it?

The questioner: The Rightly Guided Caliphs.

The Shaykh: This is it, the Rightly Guided Caliphs , this leads to this, and this is connected by a close cause to this.

The questioner: Meaning - for example - the caliphate, we do not want it to end, meaning... until the Day of Resurrection.

The Shaykh: It is .

Another questioner: ... not just the Companions; as long as one holds on...

The Shaykh: Good; what is your opinion, we do not want the companionship to end with thousands, for example, it must continue until the Day of Resurrection!

The questioner: Because the companionship is limited.

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner: The companionship is limited.

The Shaykh: Good, and the caliphate is limited to thirty years.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: Limited to thirty years.

The questioner : The hadith is weak.

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner : The hadith is weak.

The Shaykh: This turn, you weakened it with an excuse? You have no excuse! You have the saying of those who weakened it, as long as this saying is opposed by another saying from those who authenticated it; so either you follow the way of the people of hadith that came in the explanation of "al-Nukhba" by al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar, in the chapter, what is this called?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: No,

The questioner: The criticism is explained.

The Shaykh: Excuse me, no no, it is not the criticism, "Differing Hadiths," in the chapter "Differing Hadiths," he says there - following others of course -: if two contradictory hadiths come from the category of acceptable - and the lowest rank of acceptable is the hasan hadith - , so if two contradictory hadiths come, both from the category of acceptable, it is obligatory to reconcile them by one of the many ways of reconciliation that al-Hafiz al-'Iraqi reached in his "Hashiyah on the Introduction of Ibn al-Salah" to more than a hundred ways; meaning the scholar of hadith, if he stands between two apparently contradictory hadiths, he must pass through all these ways, one after another, on these two hadiths, perhaps the contradiction between them will be removed, if he is unable and none of these ways of preference stands in reconciling them, he moves to the second stage; which is tracing the abrogating and the abrogated, if it can be proven that one of them is abrogating and the other abrogated, then so be it, if that is not facilitated for him, he moves to the third rank; which is the rank of preference, by saying: this is more authentic in chain than this, as if - for example - one of them is hasan and the other is sahih, it is said: as long as we are unable to reconcile and unable to trace the abrogating and abrogated between them, we must prefer, so the sahih is stronger than the hasan, al-Hafiz said: if - also - they are equal in strength and rank and we cannot prefer, he said: we stop, so either you stop if you see there is a contradiction between the two hadiths; so either you stop or you follow the way of the Hanafis whose position, instead of the position of al-Hafiz of stopping, they say: "They contradicted each other so they fell away"; so choose for yourself which of the two.
Yes.

The questioner: It is the same thing, stop.

The Shaykh : It is a pause, but the expression lacks the proper etiquette regarding the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). As for you coming and preferring one opinion based on your own view, without applying the rules of hadith criticism; meaning, you certainly did not intend to determine which is authentic, which is good, or which is more authentic. On the contrary, you brought up something that escaped the Amir al-Mu'minin in hadith, al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar! I said: I will look at the text. I looked at the text, and the opinion of the one who weakened it became preferred to you. No one among the imams of hadith would make such a preference; therefore, my advice to you is to return to researching the hadith from the perspective of the chain of narration; look at those who criticized it and weakened it, what is their argument? And those who authenticated it, what is their argument? And compare between them. And I personally am now far removed from the practice of authenticating and weakening hadith.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes, indeed, but it is certainly authentic, and it is included in my book "Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah." In this hadith, I traced it to its sources because I found—and it is likely that this was his basis for weakening it—I found the Imam Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi—the one known, not the unknown, yes, indeed—I found him holding the view that this hadith is weak. So perhaps that was your basis for weakening it; and in that case, it is said: "You are not the first traveler to be deceived by the moon." He is a great imam in knowledge, and he weakened this hadith; and therefore, I felt compelled to trace the path of this hadith which he weakened, and to trace its paths and corroborating narrations. It became clear that it is an authentic hadith. And this is sufficient, or sufficient for persuasion that the hadith is authentic, for one who does not have knowledge of the critique of hadith paths, that Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah affirms the authenticity of this hadith. I say: this is sufficient from the perspective of following and emulation, not from the perspective of knowledge; because knowledge has its own path, which we have indicated, considering that Ibn Taymiyyah is undoubtedly much more knowledgeable about hadith and its paths than Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi, and secondly, he is a generation later than him, so perhaps the later scholar corrected the earlier one.
In summary: the stronger position for one who traces this hadith is that it is an authentic hadith, and that in reality there is no difference between it and his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): , and that the hadith of the thirty years testifies that the intended meaning of the Rightly Guided Caliphs are the four well-known ones. Therefore, I said at the beginning of my speech that some scholars included 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz with them; because he certainly and obviously does not fall within the thirty years. They included him not to derive legal rulings from this inclusion in the chapters of jurisprudence, but to be known for the virtue of this Rightly Guided Caliph who came after them for more than half a century. And yet, I see that you misunderstood the meaning of: This is like His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): ; not the path of one believer, right?

Another questioner: All of them.

The Shaykh : All of them. Place this omitted additional phrase there, and your understanding will be correct, and I think the problem will be eliminated from its root.

The questioner : It has not fallen yet.

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner : It has not fallen yet.

The Shaykh : I say, meaning, it has not fallen, this is in the hand of Allah!! [Everyone laughs!]