You considered your session after the night prayer to be a session of knowledge, and there is no obligation to go out for the prayer.

The questioner : All right, my Shaykh, regarding our current topic of the night prayer, you graciously stated: We consider it a session of knowledge and do not go out for the prayer; whereas the hadith we know is that the excuse is fear or illness; so how did this extend to the topic of the knowledge session?

The Shaykh : Naturally, this is a derivation and following of the scholars of hadith who were in a session and the midday prayer was held, and there were among the great imams like Ahmad, and Ali ibn al-Madini, and others... it appears so.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : ...the midday prayer.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : So Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) answered that we are now in worship; so with his jurisprudence he understood—and this is what appears to us last—that the knowledge session, which means the gathering is dispersed by cutting it off, is considered an excuse for not going to the mosque. This is one of the matters where, naturally, there is no explicit text, and the general public cannot understand it, let alone say it; here comes the Qur'anic text: , no, our problem today is also among the problems that the young people today are deluded about insight into the Book and the Sunnah, they are deluded that every matter has a detailed proof for it, and one of our brothers, perhaps one of those who rides with us in the morning.

The questioner : ... Yes ... .

The Shaykh : The first thing he asks is: such and such, and what is the proof? Such and such, and what is the proof?

The questioner: ... Okay.

The Shaykh : But when he asks me on the phone, that is his style, but when he asks me face to face, that is not his style; so I notice that I give an answer, naturally, but the proof is not as he imagines, I understand and tell him, but I do not think he does.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : I mean, I can say now: one of the innovations of the present age is coupling the question with the demand for proof; what is your opinion, you Salafis?

The questioner : This is strange, our Shaykh!

The Shaykh: [ The Shaykh laughs! ] .

The questioner : We have been taught since childhood to demand, meaning, rather.

The Shaykh : No, you learned to demand, but you learned to proceed with insight, and you know the proof for every matter.

The questioner : Its proof, yes.

The Shaykh : But not that every question is coupled with: and what is the proof?

The questioner : A phrase; meaning that he demands.

The Shaykh : And what am I saying? [The Shaykh laughs!]

The questioner : Yes, may Allah honor you.

The Shaykh : So I, for example, if I answer your previous question; if you ask me: what is the proof? I will mention to you what I told you.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : But when will you say to me: what is the proof? After I have mentioned to you that the matter is such and such; do you see how?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : But your duty as a questioner to the people of knowledge is to ask.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Not that you couple the question with the demand for proof; because many of the matters, I now know myself perfectly that I have not studied the science of inheritance, I have the main points, but if a complex matter is presented to me, and I ask a scholar, he will not say I do not understand it; I understand that this will come out as a quarter and this as a third, and so on, but if I asked him: what is the proof? I would be lost; because I am not a student.

Another questioner : I swear to you, the whole table, a table that divides it all!!

The Shaykh : And so with jurisprudence, jurisprudence is something where there is an explicit text from the Book and the Sunnah, and the other things do not have explicit texts; so the student of knowledge must ask, if there is doubt or suspicion in his heart about the answer; please, what is the proof? The Salaf, when asked this question that we are now recording whether it is permissible or not, such and such happened, what is your opinion? They would give the opinion and then conclude their speech by saying: If I am right, it is from Allah, and if I am wrong, it is from myself.
The Shaykh: Yes; meaning there is no explicit proof for him on the matter, this is his independent reasoning and derivation, who can participate in these things? The questioner? The questioner, most people do not know, no... therefore, the truth is that now we are in a surge, in a leap, meaning instead of falling into safety, they will fall into the abyss, were it not for these guidelines and the brakes and the breaks and the like, otherwise people are now in danger, and among the dangers is that it has appeared in society now that a person who does not understand anything says to you: my opinion is such and such, this phenomenon was never the case; why was it not? Because the people of knowledge had their minds dead, and they would follow the fathers and grandfathers who studied with them. Now what has happened? A reaction, everyone says: I and I. Who are you? You are a reading that you do not know how to read like people, let alone the hadith, and so on.
The Shaykh: So in summary, this matter has no text, naturally, the apparent texts are contrary to it, but this is something that arises in the heart of the learned, juristic, scrupulous, pious scholar, and he sees that this gathering now is what? It takes precedence over that gathering that will be.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Perhaps you remember the hadith—for example—when the Imam, the scholar of the Ummah, Abdullah ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) was delivering the sermon, he was delivering the sermon, you could say: after the afternoon prayer, I no longer remember now, before the sunset prayer; the important thing is that the sermon continued until after the sunset prayer, voices began to come out from the assembly: prayer, prayer, he said to him: woe to you!! This is the style we used today, I seek refuge in Allah, this is an extremist and this is such and such, and so on, we have forgotten the Salaf! Therefore, we need everything to be soft, everything to be gentle; this softness is... like the spoiled boy who has never eaten a palm frond, as we said before.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : So a young man became manly, he does not pray because he did not eat or a palm frond in the path of Allah, he no longer prays, now he is like this, he is like this, he wants to kill, he wants to slaughter; "in the summer you lost the milk," where were you when the severity was such that you could have corrected him, straightened him out, and so on? The important thing is voices from here and there: prayer, prayer. He said to him: "Woe to you, do you teach me prayer?! The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) combined the sunset and night prayers for other than travel or rain"; so he assessed the situation he was living in, and found for himself a dispensation that even if the congregational prayer was missed.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : So I want to combine the two prayers, the sunset prayer and the night prayer.

The questioner : ... Yes.

The Shaykh : I wonder if assessing the situation and correcting it, can the public who are living and listening...? They cannot; therefore, justice in thinking, we really need today that we do not lose it, and always remember it, and remember in the phrase the saying of our Lord (Mighty and Majestic): , we no longer think about this verse, the reason is we entered into arrogance, we entered into arrogance; meaning: ?! Yes, I am among those who know; so then why, even if you assume that there is someone more knowledgeable than you; meaning, like what I am telling you sometimes on the occasion of the second congregational prayer; that I was a student of knowledge, a young student of hadith, my beard had not yet grown as they say, I was working in the shop, the call to prayer was made, stand up and pray with the congregation, yes, to install... to install this screw; yes, my turn, you missed the congregational prayer? Yes, you see, a second congregation, you must not find an imam, there is none, this is all psychological talk, my turn, you do not find an imam, all right; do you not like yourself? You are a student of knowledge, this is personal talk, a student of knowledge, and with this the congregation ended and the time was still in my hand, but when I knew that there was no second congregation, I left the time on the ground, and I will find it on the edge of my hand.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Go pray and come back to finish my work.
So, the important thing, I mean, this upbringing we keep talking about—“purification and upbringing”—is truly a tremendous matter. Who is going to raise them? What should I tell you? I used to say that the dregs of all the generations are due to the lack of purification and upbringing. Who is going to renew this upbringing now so that all Muslims, whether they are scholars or ignorant, jurists or unlettered, and so on, return to the way things were at the beginning? This requires, considering that it is a construction, more years than the years of destruction took; because destruction is easy. So what can you say if these years are centuries? Centuries of destruction. How long will it take us to rebuild? People think the issue is just a matter of culture; that is why now you see schools producing evildoers, not righteous youth!
I don’t know where we were walking today... We had people riding in the car with us, I forgot, by Allah... Two young men passed by the car. We had just finished the Dhuhr or Asr prayer, and one of them was walking while singing, “Allah, the King, the Nation.” So the question arose: is this shirk (associating partners with Allah) or not? Of course, we answered that this is shirk. One of them said: “Okay, what if he says: ‘Allah, then the nation, then the King’?” Meaning, this is apparently free from being shirk. We told him—also—that it is not permissible; because there is no “nation” in Islam, and furthermore, mentioning the King is sufficient when mentioned with Allah (Mighty and Majestic). And without what? It should be said: “Allah, the King,” so let it be said: “Allah, then the King.” Okay, whose King is this? If it were said: “then the Caliph,” the situation would be fine; because the Caliph rules by what Allah has revealed. And so, our problem is a problem.

The questioner: Okay, our Shaykh, the truth is we are afflicted at home right now.

The Shaykh: The children are coming... “Nizam,” give them news so they can wait.
Yes.