Discussion of the hadith: (Until no scholar remains, and the people take ignorant ones as their leaders)

The Shaykh : ... , and it may be settled in the minds of some people today that there are many, many fuqaha (jurists); for this is because the legal term fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) has been affected, just as many texts from the Book and the Sunnah have been affected by deviation from their correct meaning. So fiqh is understanding from Allah and His Messenger, as it came in "Sahih al-Bukhari" in the hadith of 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him), that Abu Juhayfah al-Sa'idi asked him—he asked 'Ali—saying: Did the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) give you, O people of the House, anything that the people did not have? He said: No, except what is in this sheath of my sword, or understanding that Allah grants to a servant in His Book.
This understanding of the Book of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and consequently of the Sunnah of His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), which interprets the Qur'an by the text of the Qur'an: , this understanding of the Book and the Sunnah is fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), and it is what the Messenger (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) intended by the authentic, famous hadith agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim: . So this fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) in religion has been affected by deviation and a lack of understanding of it; for it has become customary that fiqh is the recitation of the sayings of scholars without this reciter knowing what he took these sayings from in the Book and the Sunnah. So there is no difference, in this state, between this one who is called a faqih (jurist) and has no fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) except "so-and-so said this and so-and-so said that." If he is asked: What is the evidence for such-and-such a saying? He does not know, he does not have an answer. What is the evidence for such-and-such a saying? Likewise, he does not know an answer, and so on. So this fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) which is intended to be understanding from Allah and His Messenger is what Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) means. Otherwise, the fuqaha (jurists) in the later sense, which is transmitting the sayings of the earlier people of knowledge without understanding, this is not of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) at all. And among the effects of the lack of this fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and our belief in these fuqaha (jurists) is that a person may fall into disbelief... and that the legal realities may be reversed, as you heard just now, so that the Sunnah becomes a bid'ah (religious innovation) and the bid'ah (religious innovation) becomes a Sunnah, due to the loss of this distinguishing fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). And this Ibn Mas'ud is the one whom many of you know was at war with bid'ah (religious innovation) and the mubtadi' (innovator), and he would deny the least thing he saw that had occurred in some of the Muslims, so he would hasten to deny it, no matter how insignificant that which he denied was in the eyes of others due to their ignorance.
Ibn 'Umar says, as if he is explaining the famous hadith: , he says: "Every bid'ah (religious innovation) is misguidance, even if people see it as good." These people who see the bid'ah (religious innovation) as good, that is only due to their ignorance of the correct fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) from the Book and the Sunnah.