A word by Shaykh Al-Albani on the meaning of renewal in the hadith
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The Shaykh : The truth is that this hadith: , so renewing the religion does not mean bringing something new; rather, its meaning is removing what has attached itself to this religion that is not part of it, so that it returns to being new and fresh. And if that is the case, then only scholars of the Book and the Sunnah can do it; because it is assumed of the renewer that he restores the explanation of the religion to the Muslims in his time as it was in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). And if it is self-evident that one who has not studied the Sunnah cannot explain to people how the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) performed wudu, the simplest of matters; because these are practical matters, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) performed wudu in front of people hundreds of times, and they witnessed it. So if he cannot describe to people the wudu of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), all the more so that he cannot... explain to people the comprehensive Islamic law covering all matters related to Islam, whether economic, military, social, political, or devotional. So all the more so that he absolutely cannot do it. And this is, in reality, a long and long discussion, but let us give a simple example:
Let us say to any person who is thought to have knowledge: Pray for us the prayer of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). Some of our brothers present may be surprised that the one who is told this, if he knows himself what he is, meaning if he knows that he is not a scholar of the Sunnah but rather a follower of a madhhab, will tell you frankly: What makes me know the prayer of the Messenger of Allah?! I will tell you the prayer we studied in the madhhab. And if he is more ignorant than necessary; it is necessary that he be a follower; because there is no path to learning except taqlid. But if he is more ignorant than necessary, he will tell you: The prayer of the Messenger was that when he stood for prayer he would say: I intend to pray for Allah (the Exalted) four rak'ahs of the obligatory 'Isha, following as a ma'mum, facing the qiblah... and so on. That is the prayer of the Messenger of Allah, to the end of it. But he is unaware that the scholars of the madhhab themselves said that verbalizing the intention is a bid'ah; meaning the Messenger did not say: I intend to pray for Allah (the Exalted) and so on. And this poor man, out of his intense knowledge of the prayer of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), as soon as he started it, he started it by contradicting the prayer of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).
These are very sad facts; if people knew them, it would spur them a little to be jealous of the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and to care about studying it, or to make the shaykhs care a little; because we feel in reality that some people of knowledge, due to their weak personality, get carried away with the current; whether this current is good or evil. We know this, so for more than twenty years you would not see a khatib saying in his sermons: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said so and so, narrated by al-Bukhari, never. Even those of you who are young and do not know the history before twenty years, you will see what they call the... minbar...
Eid Abbasi : Sermons.
The Shaykh : "Minbar sermons," you will not find in them any hadith with a source cited at all. But today, in many mosques, with many khatibs, we hear them say after mentioning the hadith: Narrated by al-Bukhari, narrated by Abu Dawud, narrated by so-and-so and so-and-so. And the one who did not witness the previous state, which was the lack of citing sources for hadiths in sermons, and the subsequent state in citing sources; knows the reason. The reason is that the Muslim youth have gained a little awareness, a little, not much, but as it was said: "The first of the rain is a drop, then it pours down," if Allah wills. The Muslim youth, or the Muslim youth, have some awareness; they hear the hadith as they used to hear it from the minbar: The Messenger of Allah said... The khatib comes down from the minbar and he says to him: My master, Shaykh, who narrated this hadith? This is a new bid'ah; the shaykhs never used to be asked such a question: Who narrated this hadith? Is this hadith authentic? A truly new tone!!
And this became particularly strong with us in Damascus in the "Al-Ghara' Association School," which is called the "Tinkiz" Association, "Tinkiz School" previously. About twenty years ago, there were two students from Lebanon in the school who got to know me, and I was working in the shop at that time. They started visiting frequently, and these two young men opened up, out of all the students of "Al-Ghara' Association," regarding authentic and weak hadiths, and "narrated by al-Bukhari, narrated by Muslim." After that, not every hadith narrated by Abu Dawud necessarily has to be as authentic as al-Bukhari and Muslim, and so on. They started attending the lesson as they used to attend; the fiqh teacher brought a hadith; Professor, please, who narrated this hadith? He was silent the first time, the second time, then the Shaykh noticed that these were being educated with a non-school culture. The tafsir teacher brings him a hadith during the tafsir; Professor, is this hadith authentic? Yes, by Allah, this tone is also new!! The summary: they verified, they scrutinized, they knew that these were from Al-Albani. What is the method? Detain them and not allow them to leave the school. We did not see them except in escapes. What is the story? They told us what the story was.
The point is: So the hammers increased on the ears; who narrated this hadith? Is this hadith authentic? And so on. The khatibs, however much they are human, have a feeling. Finally, they found no way except to respond to the requests of these youth. So it is necessary to prepare the khutbah, even if it is just preparing two hadiths, even from an easy-to-handle book, "Riyad al-Salihin" by Imam al-Nawawi, yes, a good book. So take for yourself a few hadiths from the book, narrated by al-Bukhari, narrated by Muslim, narrated by al-Tirmidhi, and by Allah, a good khutbah. And this is a "thank you" phenomenon now on the ears of people today, from khatibs to teachers, and so on.
And we found this also in a thesis being written that has no relation to the science of the Shari'ah at all, in literature, in language, in grammar, a hadith comes. It started coming—for example—the one who has not held a hadith book in his time comes to Shaykh Al-Albani: Come with me, in the thesis there are two or three hadiths, I want to know their source. So I, if their source is easy to access, I facilitated the way for him, otherwise, refer to such-and-such book, refer. So this writer also started working on hadith books, the book "Al-Jami' al-Saghir," they never held it; they started referring to the book "Al-Jami' al-Saghir," and so on. There became a movement, there became activity.
So if we, the people of knowledge, find a deficiency on our part, we can that they provide us with this deficiency, they correct it and present it to us in a polite, smooth, and gentle way. And therefore, I see that every khutbah in which a hadith is mentioned by the khatib, if he is your companion, if he is your Shaykh, if he is a stranger to you... after the khutbah, no, after the prayer, that: Professor, please, you mentioned such-and-such hadith; can I know its source? Certainly he will not know its source, but you from here, and the second from here, and the third from here, he will become your Shaykh, he will become your companion, he will become the one who is a stranger to you working on hadith "from his own initiative." Why? According to supply and demand!! [Everyone laughs!]
Another questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : Absolutely; because there is a demand, so what is necessary?
Another questioner : To learn.
The Shaykh : To become a faqih, and so on. And our belief is that the Muslims have no return to their past glory, nor any establishment of their desired state, ever, except by the path of the Book and the Sunnah.
Indeed, Allah will send to this Ummah (the Muslim community) one who will renew its religion for it at the head of every hundred years.
إنَّ الله يبعث لهذه الأمة مَن يجدِّد لها دينها على رأس كلِّ مئة سنةLet us say to any person who is thought to have knowledge: Pray for us the prayer of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). Some of our brothers present may be surprised that the one who is told this, if he knows himself what he is, meaning if he knows that he is not a scholar of the Sunnah but rather a follower of a madhhab, will tell you frankly: What makes me know the prayer of the Messenger of Allah?! I will tell you the prayer we studied in the madhhab. And if he is more ignorant than necessary; it is necessary that he be a follower; because there is no path to learning except taqlid. But if he is more ignorant than necessary, he will tell you: The prayer of the Messenger was that when he stood for prayer he would say: I intend to pray for Allah (the Exalted) four rak'ahs of the obligatory 'Isha, following as a ma'mum, facing the qiblah... and so on. That is the prayer of the Messenger of Allah, to the end of it. But he is unaware that the scholars of the madhhab themselves said that verbalizing the intention is a bid'ah; meaning the Messenger did not say: I intend to pray for Allah (the Exalted) and so on. And this poor man, out of his intense knowledge of the prayer of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), as soon as he started it, he started it by contradicting the prayer of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).
These are very sad facts; if people knew them, it would spur them a little to be jealous of the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and to care about studying it, or to make the shaykhs care a little; because we feel in reality that some people of knowledge, due to their weak personality, get carried away with the current; whether this current is good or evil. We know this, so for more than twenty years you would not see a khatib saying in his sermons: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said so and so, narrated by al-Bukhari, never. Even those of you who are young and do not know the history before twenty years, you will see what they call the... minbar...
Eid Abbasi : Sermons.
The Shaykh : "Minbar sermons," you will not find in them any hadith with a source cited at all. But today, in many mosques, with many khatibs, we hear them say after mentioning the hadith: Narrated by al-Bukhari, narrated by Abu Dawud, narrated by so-and-so and so-and-so. And the one who did not witness the previous state, which was the lack of citing sources for hadiths in sermons, and the subsequent state in citing sources; knows the reason. The reason is that the Muslim youth have gained a little awareness, a little, not much, but as it was said: "The first of the rain is a drop, then it pours down," if Allah wills. The Muslim youth, or the Muslim youth, have some awareness; they hear the hadith as they used to hear it from the minbar: The Messenger of Allah said... The khatib comes down from the minbar and he says to him: My master, Shaykh, who narrated this hadith? This is a new bid'ah; the shaykhs never used to be asked such a question: Who narrated this hadith? Is this hadith authentic? A truly new tone!!
And this became particularly strong with us in Damascus in the "Al-Ghara' Association School," which is called the "Tinkiz" Association, "Tinkiz School" previously. About twenty years ago, there were two students from Lebanon in the school who got to know me, and I was working in the shop at that time. They started visiting frequently, and these two young men opened up, out of all the students of "Al-Ghara' Association," regarding authentic and weak hadiths, and "narrated by al-Bukhari, narrated by Muslim." After that, not every hadith narrated by Abu Dawud necessarily has to be as authentic as al-Bukhari and Muslim, and so on. They started attending the lesson as they used to attend; the fiqh teacher brought a hadith; Professor, please, who narrated this hadith? He was silent the first time, the second time, then the Shaykh noticed that these were being educated with a non-school culture. The tafsir teacher brings him a hadith during the tafsir; Professor, is this hadith authentic? Yes, by Allah, this tone is also new!! The summary: they verified, they scrutinized, they knew that these were from Al-Albani. What is the method? Detain them and not allow them to leave the school. We did not see them except in escapes. What is the story? They told us what the story was.
The point is: So the hammers increased on the ears; who narrated this hadith? Is this hadith authentic? And so on. The khatibs, however much they are human, have a feeling. Finally, they found no way except to respond to the requests of these youth. So it is necessary to prepare the khutbah, even if it is just preparing two hadiths, even from an easy-to-handle book, "Riyad al-Salihin" by Imam al-Nawawi, yes, a good book. So take for yourself a few hadiths from the book, narrated by al-Bukhari, narrated by Muslim, narrated by al-Tirmidhi, and by Allah, a good khutbah. And this is a "thank you" phenomenon now on the ears of people today, from khatibs to teachers, and so on.
And we found this also in a thesis being written that has no relation to the science of the Shari'ah at all, in literature, in language, in grammar, a hadith comes. It started coming—for example—the one who has not held a hadith book in his time comes to Shaykh Al-Albani: Come with me, in the thesis there are two or three hadiths, I want to know their source. So I, if their source is easy to access, I facilitated the way for him, otherwise, refer to such-and-such book, refer. So this writer also started working on hadith books, the book "Al-Jami' al-Saghir," they never held it; they started referring to the book "Al-Jami' al-Saghir," and so on. There became a movement, there became activity.
So if we, the people of knowledge, find a deficiency on our part, we can that they provide us with this deficiency, they correct it and present it to us in a polite, smooth, and gentle way. And therefore, I see that every khutbah in which a hadith is mentioned by the khatib, if he is your companion, if he is your Shaykh, if he is a stranger to you... after the khutbah, no, after the prayer, that: Professor, please, you mentioned such-and-such hadith; can I know its source? Certainly he will not know its source, but you from here, and the second from here, and the third from here, he will become your Shaykh, he will become your companion, he will become the one who is a stranger to you working on hadith "from his own initiative." Why? According to supply and demand!! [Everyone laughs!]
Another questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : Absolutely; because there is a demand, so what is necessary?
Another questioner : To learn.
The Shaykh : To become a faqih, and so on. And our belief is that the Muslims have no return to their past glory, nor any establishment of their desired state, ever, except by the path of the Book and the Sunnah.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.