How to reconcile the hadith found in "Sahih Muslim": (Indeed, Allah has angels who move about seeking out gatherings of dhikr)

The questioner: Reconciling the hadiths found in "Mukhtasar Sahih Muslim" ... , and the hadith: Mu'awiyah went out to a group in the mosque and said: "What has made you sit here?" They said: "We sat to remember Allah - Mighty and Majestic -" to the end of it. Reconciling these two hadiths with the hadith of Ibn Mas'ud regarding his standing over the groups who remember Allah with pebbles, in my opinionThe questioner : that they are in contradiction; so how to reconcile them?

The Shaykh: There is absolutely no contradiction, and I will clarify this for you with an example. I think that no one, even if they have some knowledge of fiqh, even traditional fiqh, would approve of this gathering for dhikr, assuming that the two hadiths mentioned in the question include this form.
Many people, even today, remember Allah - Mighty and Majestic - in a way that is not approved by any of the four madhahib followed by the majority of Muslims today. Among these is that they remember Allah with one voice, limiting themselves to the Name of Allah alone, not with "La ilaha illa Allah," and some of them take each other's hands and form a circle. They begin the dhikr saying: "Allah, Allah, Allah" with some deliberation, then the voices speed up, then they overlap, and then you hear nothing but moans. The faster their voices become, the more they move to the right and left. This is undoubtedly a gathering for the remembrance of Allah; so doesThe questioner : this type of collective dhikr fall under such hadiths that were mentioned?
I believe that no one - at least in this gathering, at leastThe questioner- I do not think anyone would say that this type of dhikr is included in that hadith.
I want to ask: Why? Perhaps some of the responsible people would say because this is something unreasonable. I do not want the answer to be like that. I want the answer to be because this thing is not transmitted; because not every unreasonable thing is necessarily not transmitted, and vice versa; not every transmitted thing is necessarily what? Reasonable; because these believing minds must submit to the transmitted, but with the condition of authenticity, as you always know from us, forever. Is it reasonable for a stone to be struck with a wooden stick and twelve springs of water like water ... to come out of it? Reasonable? Not reasonable, but it happened. Is it reasonable for him to strike the sea with his staff and for a path to open before him as if newly paved, and for the army of Musa - peace be upon him - and the Children of Israel to pass through, and for Pharaoh to be deceived by this phenomenon and follow them, and when the last soldier of the Children of Israel reached the shore, the sea returned as it was? Reasonable? Reasonable, but it is reasonable; why? Because we are now hearing news that we do not digest; because we did not study its prerequisites nor did we see its effects with our own eyes, but we believe in it, why? Because the people of knowledge have become certain for us that the people of knowledge verified this news, this thing, before we saw the radio and these recorders, and so on. And there are people you know who used to narrate about them that when they heard the radio they would say: This is a devil, while it is a machine that man invented by the power of Allah - Mighty and Majestic -. All these things were unreasonable before they were seen, but they became real scientific facts.
Similarly, exactly, regarding the transmitted matters in the Book of Allah and the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, they are reasonable for some people and unreasonable for others; like scientific matters; reasonable for people who studied them and studied those who established them and trusted the transmitted news about them, and did not see them, just as we did not see those who landed on the moon, and so on, but we became compelled to believe in that from a scientific perspective. Similarly, the matters of faith are reasonable for some people and unreasonable for some people, contrary to the previous example.
The matters of faith are reasonable for the believers; because Allah - Mighty and Majestic - is first, capable of everything, and second, because this thing came as news from the truthful, the one who is verified, which is the Messenger - peace be upon him - either by Book or by Sunnah. Therefore, we believe in everything that came from the Messenger - peace be upon him -. So the previous example that I depicted for you, I said: The answer to this must not be because we do not accept what will be in the hadiths encouraging the gathering for dhikr; because it is unreasonable? No, because it is not transmitted, and consequently, as long as it is not transmitted, it is unreasonable.
And now we expand the circle after I have prepared that we must return to transmission in religious matters before reason, unlike worldly matters, in which Islam does not intervene; as he explicitly said: , here he gave reason its extension to infinity; with the condition that it does not contradict the Shari'ah.
So if we move to another form of gathering in dhikr, other than the previous one; either the matter remains in a state of back and forth, meaning the one who said in the first form: No, it is not transmitted and not reasonable, perhaps we come to another form where we hesitate, is it transmitted or not? So we judge by the Shari'ah: if it is transmitted, we accept it, and if it is not transmitted, we reject it. An example is the gathering for prayers, so some gatherings are transmitted, and some gatherings are not transmitted. For example, we enter the mosque and each one of us prays the sunnah before the Zuhr - for example - or after it, each one prays for himself; so is it prescribed to gather for this prayer, which is a nafilah, which is the rawatib? The answer: No.
So if a person is made to think that, my brother, the hand of Allah is over the congregation, why are we praying like this, separated? Let us pray in congregation before the obligatory prayer is established; would this gathering be prescribed? The answer: No, why? Because it is not reasonable?! Because it is not transmitted, and consequently it becomes what? Unreasonable, why does it become unreasonable? Because the mind of the Muslim judges that this gathering, which we are certain was not transmitted, if it were good, we would have preceded us to it, it is judged by reason certainly; so it is not good. So knowing good and evil in the Shari'ah, its path is not rational and your mind, but its path is the path of correct, established transmission from Allah and His Messenger. This is an example of gathering.
So we now take any gathering in dhikr, we request that it be transmitted through a correct transmission from the Messenger - may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him -, and any gathering in dhikr, either in the Qur'an or with the tahlil, tasbih, tahmid, and takbir = -- may Allah have mercy on you -- = was not transmitted from the Salaf al-Salih at all, the gathering for reciting the Qur'an in a group with one voice or for the tahlil and other dhikr with one voice; so this was not transmitted, but what was transmitted is the opposite of that; one of them would meet his brother and say to him: "Sit with us and we will believe for a while"; so what do they do? Do they remember this dhikr which is not transmitted and not reasonable? No, but the matter is one of two things; either they sit and they study a verse from the Book of Allah, one of them recites it, and he interprets it if he is the most knowledgeable and learned of them, or another takes charge of interpreting it, or each of them sits and remembers Allah with what he wishes, with what he memorizes of the Sunnah of the Messenger - peace be upon him -, so this is the gathering for the remembrance of Allah - Mighty and Majestic -; either a gathering like our gathering for understanding the religion of Allah from the Book of Allah and the hadith of the Messenger of Allah - may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him -, or a gathering for secret dhikr with no loudness, and each one remembers what he memorizes and feels that his soul is purified and cleansed by this type of dhikr; because souls differ.
This is the Sunnah in dhikr, and for this reason there is no contradiction between the hadiths that were mentioned byThe questioner : , and this is sufficient, and praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.