Commentary on the words of one who is said to believe that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is not protected from error, but rather one who holds fast to the truth.

The questioner : I do not find an entry point that agrees with this statement.

The Shaykh : This is not an answer to this. The problem is with the people. I am asking from here, and he is answering from there. Did he say this as an argument based on a text from the Book and the Sunnah?

The questioner : No, no, absolutely not.

The Shaykh : Nor based on the opinion of someone with him?

The questioner : He did not mention it.

The Shaykh : He did not mention it. How did you lump him in with the thinkers?

The questioner : In terms of reality, he has a wide following, and he is perhaps a distinguished man whose name is mentioned.

The Shaykh : Is every distinguished man a thinker?

The questioner : I mean, there is an Islamic movement, and the man has an echo in terms of reality.

The Shaykh : There is no power nor strength except in Allah. How does this opinion agree with His saying, the Exalted: Is he protected from error or one who holds fast to the truth? I am asking you.

The questioner : Protected from error.

The Shaykh : Protected from error. How did he deny that he is protected from error? And he brought in the philosophy of distinguishing between his being protected from error and this being an innovation, and between the Sunnah in his claim, that it is said that he did not hold fast to the truth. In his claim, he was holding fast to Allah, whereas our Prophet (peace be upon him) was protected by Allah . Before I complete this answer, I want to know and inform this one whom I called a thinker—though this title requires repentance to Allah (Mighty and Majestic)—this thinker, how old is he approximately? I do not want his identity, just approximately.

The questioner : Between fifty and sixty.

The Shaykh : Between fifty and sixty. Is he knowledgeable of the Book?

The questioner : Knowledgeable of the Book?

The Shaykh : Of the Noble Qur'an.

The questioner : By Allah, I have not conversed with him. I saw him once on a plane; he came with us on the plane.

The Shaykh : May Allah forgive you. And this one time justified for you lumping him in with the thinkers?

The questioner : I mean, Shaykh, we might mention his name.

The Shaykh : No, we do not want names. So you do not know if he is among those knowledgeable of the Book of Allah. And thus I wanted to ask you a second question, which perhaps should have been the last, but you did not encourage me to direct this question to you, because if you do not know if he is knowledgeable of the Book, you will not know if I directed to you the question: is he knowledgeable of the Sunnah? Therefore, I will not direct it to you. Heh. The important thing is that this is a mistake without a doubt, embodied and corporeal, and it is not like this, but it has two horns. However, in fairness to this man who is absent from me, and accusing you in that you are the intermediary between him and me, I want to enter the subject with a possibility in favor of the man so that we do not wrong him. I think that he means he is not protected from error, not as you transmitted from him regarding the conveying of the message, but rather that he is not protected from error in committing a mistake. This mistake has no relation to the conveying of the message, but rather the Messenger (peace be upon him) might see an opinion and commit a mistake. Here your statement about him that he is not approved in it is true. Is this possibility present in what you transmitted from him or not?

The questioner : I asked him by the text. I said to him.

The Shaykh : Do not limit. May Allah guide you. Do not limit the answer, because it provides a way of understanding.

The questioner : He spoke clearly.

The Shaykh : I am not asking you what he said? May Allah guide you. I am asking you: does what you mentioned earlier allow that he intended it, or does it not allow it? Do you know the difference between what you understood from him and what I mentioned in his defense?

The questioner : What he said is that he perhaps erred in ijtihad.

The Shaykh : There is no power nor strength. Your friend here, I am just asking him a question and he does not answer.

The questioner : Perhaps he does not understand the question.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : Perhaps he does not understand the question.

The Shaykh : I am asking and he is not answering me.

The questioner : He said he forgets and errs in ijtihad, and errs in conveying, but the difference.

Another questioner : Did you understand the wordsThe Shaykh : of the last one? If you understood these words.

Another questioner : No, by Allah, I did not.

Another questioner : I did not pay attention. It is fine.

The Shaykh : Now he is confirming the first transmission, but he added something that agrees with my words.

The questioner : ... The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is protected from error in conveying, but not protected from error in life matters.

The Shaykh : Yes, but what did he say now? He said: he errs in ijtihad, and errs in what? And then he added conveying.

The questioner : By the text, he said these words.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : He said these words by the text.

The Shaykh: Verbatim.

The questioner : Yes, he said, but the difference between his error in ijtihad and his error in conveying is that if he errs in conveying, Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) does not leave it; rather, He corrects his error.

The Shaykh : By Allah, I cannot say anything except that you are mistaken, or he is, or that you are mistaken in transmitting from him, or he is, because now something new is appearing that you did not show in the first question. Now you distinguished and said he is not approved in his error in conveying, so you restricted the non-approval to what? To conveying. If he errs, he is not approved. Well, and if he exerts ijtihad, is he approved in his error? Ah, why do you not speak? I do not know. He.

The questioner : Of course, I do not know.

The Shaykh : And this will confirm that he does not understand. I mean, have a good opinion of the man.

The questioner : I saw a book in the market that responds to him.

The Shaykh : The book does not please me.

The questioner : So the reason for my question to him is that I saw this book that this book proves that he transgresses against the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and transmitted words, meaning.

The Shaykh : Good, if Allah wills. In any case, if the man said that the Messenger errs in conveying, then he is ignorant, and it is not permissible for you to call him a thinker. He is mistaken, and you are mistaken. And if he said that the Messenger (peace be upon him) may err in matters of ijtihad, then this is true, but he is not approved in it. And this is the difference between the ijtihad of the Messenger and the ijtihad of the scholars. A scholar may err and die without knowing whether he hit the mark or erred. But the Messenger (peace be upon him) is extended by the revelation of the sky, so if he errs in a ruling or an opinion, the revelation quickly descends upon him correcting it , , and so on. As for forgetting, he is forgotten, but he does not forget. He does not forget the conveying. This is impossible, by the proof of the previous verse. He forgets what he conveyed to the people. He performed the duty, he performed the trust, he conveyed the message, and he rested. But he is a human, so he forgets. And this is found in "Sahih al-Bukhari." He (peace be upon him) entered the mosque one day and heard a man reciting from the Book of Allah, so he said: . And I think that this one who was described with a description other than his, that he is a thinker, I think this hadith is among his doubts, but this is not among his proofs, because the Messenger says: . What did this person know that this is a verse? Who conveyed it to him? It is the Messenger. So we must distinguish between the conveying of the message, in which the Messenger is protected from error by a million, and when he exerts ijtihad with his opinion, he is a human who errs and hits the mark, but he is an exception to all humans in that he is not approved in an error from him. The story of pollinating the palm trees. This is regarding the first so-called thinker. Let us see the state of the second so-called thinker.

The questioner: It is the same.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner: It is the same.

The Shaykh: It is the same.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Glory be to Allah. I believe this man is an ignorant, closed-off person. Now, be patient with me for a while, even though the time has ended.

The questioner : He said a point, Shaykh.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : I am saying he said a point.

The Shaykh : How?

The questioner : The one who is transmitting from him is a point, meaning a doctor in Shari'ah.

Another questioner : In law.

The Shaykh : Well, what does he have to do with knowledge of the Shari'ah? Now, one of my brothers present. I start with myself, then I move to the least knowledgeable of you, and I naturally do not know him, and therefore I do not name him. If I say what will come, is this statement permissible for me Islamically? I say: If a fly falls into the vessel of one of you, let him dip it, for in one of its wings is a disease and in the other is a cure, and when it falls, it falls on the wing that has the disease. Is this statement permissible for me to say? I am a human like the common people. Is it permissible for me to say it? How is it permissible for this animal to say this statement to the Prophet of Islam and build upon it that if one of the disbelievers says to him, "This is a hadith from the beliefs of the first age of ignorance, your Prophet took it as old Arab medicine," if I am a person not protected from error, and not even perhaps one who holds fast to the truth, I am not allowed to say this statement. How is this statement attributed to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)? This is disbelief itself. But you see, I am not declaring him a disbeliever. Keep in mind, there is a difference between intending disbelief and not intending it. He erred with his tongue, and his tongue says. Perhaps our friend did not transmit well from that man. He is asserting, so he is responsible.

The questioner : Then he adds the word "protected from error," which is a linguistic term, whereas it is from the Book.

The Shaykh : This is an ignorant person, yes.

The questioner: Allahu Akbar.

The Shaykh : I think I have given you the answer to your question. So, Glory be to You, O Allah, with Your praise. I bear witness that there is no deity but You. I seek Your forgiveness and I repent to You.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : So depart, being guided.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good, our Shaykh, and may Allah bless you.