Explaining that what has entered Islam of corruption, particularly what has occurred in the exegesis and the Prophetic Sunnah.

The Shaykh : There is no doubt that if any treatment by a skilled, qualified doctor is not carried out exactly as prescribed—what they call the "prescription" today—then this prescription will not yield its results and fruits. In fact, if something not part of it is introduced into it, the result may reverse, and the patient’s illness may increase while he thinks he is treating himself with the doctor’s prescription. This is the parable of the divine treatment that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) revealed to the heart of Muhammad (peace be upon him), in the case where something not originally part of it enters it. Did this prohibited thing happen? Did something enter Islam that was not in it? The answer, unfortunately, is yes. It did not enter the Qur’an, because the Qur’an—praise be to Allah—is preserved. But it entered its exegesis, just as it entered the Sunnah; that is, in the interpretation of the Sunnah. In addition to the Qur’an, things not part of the Sunnah entered the Sunnah. So the Qur’an is preserved, but it was interpreted with erroneous interpretations, and thereby this treatment became corrupted. I mean, take very simple examples: the majority of Muslims seek blessing from the Noble Qur’an. Some hang the mushaf on the wall of the place, but they do not read a single verse from it over a long period. Some, when they do read, go to the deceased to read over his heart, whereas this living person is in greater need of its recitation and reflection than that dead person. Because the dead person will not benefit from this reading in any way; because, first, he does not hear what is recited over him, and then, even if he heard, he would not be able to benefit from it in any way, because the time of testing and examination ended with his transition from this abode to the Hereafter, the first stage of which is the barzakh (the interval between death and resurrection). So this heart... the revelation of the Qur’an, as our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) said in it: ; therefore, the Qur’an was revealed to the living so that they may act upon it, not to be read over the dead. This is not from the Sunnah; rather, it is contrary to the Sunnah for a Muslim to read the Qur’an over the dead, whereas it is supposed that he should read it for the living, and that they should reflect upon it and interpret it as it came in the authentic Sunnah.
As for the Sunnah, speak of it and there is no harm. Among the things that entered it that are not part of it is the cause of the people’s deviation, this deviation that led them to this submission and this submissiveness that every Muslim feels. Some may ask, what is the cause? As for the majority, they are heedless and unaware, not asking. Those who ask do not know that the cause is that this divine medical prescription, first, is not applied; it is placed on the shelf! Second, if it is intended to be applied, it has been misunderstood regarding the Qur’an, as we mentioned earlier; it was interpreted with types of interpretations far removed from the Shari'ah. The hadiths had things not part of them entered into them by the thousands; as it came in the history of some of the caliphs from the Banu Abbas that one of the zindiqs (heretics) was arrested during the time of one of the aforementioned caliphs. When he was brought before the caliph, he ordered his execution considering him a zindiq apostate. When he saw that death, as it came, was closer than the straps of his sandal, he wanted to relieve the anger in his heart and said: "I will not die until I have introduced into the hadiths of your Prophet six thousand hadiths that I fabricated." The caliph said to him: "You are wretched; how is that, when we have so-and-so—and he named Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak from the sheikhs of Imam Ahmad—and so-and-so, and they have taken the sieves to sift those hadiths?!"
The scholars of hadith are, in reality, those who preserved the Sunnah for us and distinguished its authentic from its weak. Today, most Muslims do not pay attention to the hadiths or to the science of hadith or to the scholars of hadith; therefore, you hear hadiths of all shapes and colors. So it is obligatory for the Muslim, if he wants to interpret a verse, to know the path by which, if he follows it, he will be able to interpret the verse correctly. For this, there are reliable books in the books of tafsir (exegesis); such as "The Book of Ibn Jarir al-Tabari," Ibn Kathir al-Dimashqi, "Tafsir al-Shawkani," al-Siddiq Hasan Khan, and the like.
Likewise, regarding the books of the Sunnah, one must resort to the scholars of hadith who distinguish the authentic from the weak, and rely particularly on the most authentic books after the Book of Allah; namely "Sahih al-Bukhari" and "Sahih Muslim." If the Muslim follows this path, Allah will take hold of his hand; because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) says: , so our Lord (Mighty and Majestic), by His grace and generosity, if He knows from His servant that he wants guidance, He makes the path of guidance easy for him, and the opposite is the opposite. And this is among the meanings of His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He): , so Allah indicates the path of good and commands it, and indicates the path of evil and forbids it. Therefore, it was the intelligence of Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman, the keeper of the secret of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), that he said: "The people used to ask the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) about good, and I used to ask him about evil, fearing that I might fall into it." All the people used to ask the Messenger about good, but he, with his intelligence and acumen, used to ask the Messenger about evil; why? So that he would beware of it. For this reason, the poet said:
"I knew evil not for the sake of evil, but to avoid it; *** And whoever does not know evil from good falls into it."
If the Muslim does not distinguish the fabricated hadith from the authentic hadith, he falls into the fabricated hadith and fabricates hadiths against the Messenger of Allah while he does not know and is not aware. And he (peace be upon him) said: . If the Muslim follows the path of distinguishing the authentic hadith from the weak, and then gains knowledge in the authentic hadith; he is the one the Messenger (peace be upon him) gave glad tidings of, that he will be from the saved sect. And it came in the authentic hadith: . They said: Who are they, O Messenger of Allah? He said: ; so how does the Muslim know what the Messenger and his Companions were upon? The path of hadith; there is no other means at all.