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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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Mentioning the consensus of the Muslims that no one is infallible after the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him).

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The Shaykh : And for this reason, the scholars of the Muslims have agreed that no individual among the Muslims is infallible after the Messenger (peace be upon him), ever, not even the best of people after the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), namely Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, let alone anyone else having that infallibility, as some people claim that Ali is infallible and the Imams of the People of the House are infallible. This is a claim that has no basis in the Book of Allah or in the hadith of the Messenger of Allah; rather, this claim came from narrow sectarian fanaticism.
This is said regarding the people of the Sunnah who affiliate with these four schools of jurisprudence, but they differ from those in that they do not claim infallibility for these four Imams in words. Those others openly say: "The Imams are infallible." As for the followers of the four Imams, they do not claim—praise be to Allah—in words that any of these Imams is infallible. And when I say "in words," I mean that many of them claim infallibility for them in practice; because if you confront one of them with a verse from the Book of Allah or a hadith from the authentic hadiths of the Messenger of Allah that contradicts the Imam's position, he persists in clinging to the Imam's statement and turns away from the Book and the Sunnah, and unfortunately dismisses them entirely. So these people say: "No, because they are not infallible." If that is the case, why do you cling to their statements as if they were revealed in the Book or came in a hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family)?
In summary: The Muslims are in agreement that infallibility does not belong to any individual among the scholars, no matter how high or exalted he is in knowledge, after the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). Therefore, when these followers of taqlid affiliate with the Imams, each of them affiliates with an Imam, but one who is not infallible.
It is even more necessary that you note that those who affiliate in the recent era with a person named such-and-such, or with a group named such-and-such, and this group ultimately returns to one person; it is even more necessary that you know that this affiliation, regardless of the name, we are not concerned with the name as much as we are concerned with the one named; for in reality, they do not affiliate except with a person or a number of persons, but this number of persons does not equal infallibility in the Book of Allah or in the hadith of the Messenger of Allah. Compare this with affiliation to the righteous Salaf, and the difference between the two affiliations will become clear to you: affiliation to the infallible group, as attested by the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), who does not speak from desire
It is not but a revelation revealed, إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا وَحْيٌ يُوحَى
[An-Najm 53:4]
when he said:
My community will not agree upon misguidance لا تجتمع أمَّتي على ضلالة
, but he did not say: "So-and-so does not fall into misguidance," meaning error, nor did he say: "The group that affiliates with such-and-such a group or such-and-such a person does not agree on misguidance." Therefore, it is necessary for all Islamic groups, differing in their names, to share with us in this affiliation: affiliation to the righteous Salaf; because it is an affiliation to infallibility. And it is not obligatory for us to affiliate with the person or the group to which they affiliate; because they do not affiliate with infallibility. And thus the difference between the two affiliations becomes clear. And as was said long ago:
"And this difference between us is sufficient for you *** And every vessel is known by what it contains."
Source www.al-albany.com

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

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