How can the following of the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs be limited to the four, when many of the Companions transmitted much of the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)?

The questioner : Hmm, regarding the matter of the one who knows the circle, and his saying: Because the Sunnah is not limited to these four, meaning Abu Bakr, 'Umar, 'Uthman, and 'Ali. For example, 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar brought many hadiths and much Sunnah, and Abu Hurayrah likewise brought much Sunnah. So how can we limit the hadith to this narrow circle of these four?

The Shaykh : So let us study the meaning of the Sunnah here in the hadith, and perhaps by studying the Sunnah, the difficulty will be resolved. What is the Sunnah?

The questioner : The Sunnah is his saying

The Shaykh : No, this is the Messenger of Allah

The questioner : Yes

The Shaykh : No, I am asking about the Sunnah conjoined with the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs.

The questioner : The Sunnah that they took from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)

The Shaykh : It is as if you mean the hadiths spoken by the Messenger and the practical Sunnahs performed by the Messenger.

The questioner : Yes

The Shaykh : So it is the same, meaning the Sunnah of the Caliphs is the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace be upon him), meaning following exactly?

The questioner : Or what they deduced or what they understood

The Shaykh : Or they understood

The questioner : Or they deduced or established

The Shaykh : So it is not necessary that it be exactly the same and identical? Repeat your objection after this addition. What is your objection?

The questioner : The objection is his saying: Meaning limiting the circle in the Sunnah and restricting the hadith to these four. This is the objection. It should be.

The Shaykh : You now, when you say the hadith, naturally recall the addition that you last thought in your mind, or that they understood, and you are not forgetting it, are you?

The questioner : Yes, yes, no, I am not forgetting, no, I am not forgetting.
Another questioner: Shaykh, he says that the method of deduction is not limited to the four.

The Shaykh : Never mind, Shaykh, let us understand from him. Okay, do you believe that the deduction of any Companion resembles the deduction of any other Companion, or are there degrees?

The questioner : No, degrees according to jurisprudence.

The Shaykh : Very good. So, according to what some said earlier, that all the Companions... I think you are free from this statement, meaning all the Companions, every Companion must be followed in what he went to in his independent legal reasoning and opinion?The questioner : Meaning, if his independent legal reasoning does not contradict the Sunnah or something, or take precedence over others.

The Shaykh : Take precedence meaning you must adopt it?

The questioner : Yes, as long as it contradicts or clashes with a text from the texts, actually, adopting it.

The Shaykh : The clash, perhaps one of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, if he clashed with a text, you do not take his Sunnah, is that not so? If this condition is a precautionary condition?

The questioner : Yes

The Shaykh : Regarding every Companion.

The questioner : Yes

The Shaykh : So you say that every Companion must be followed in his opinion unless he contradicts the Book or the Sunnah. What is your evidence for this?

The questioner : Yes

The Shaykh : The caliphate after the Messenger (peace be upon him), how long? There is a hadith that says: The questioner : But this is weak.

The Shaykh : I am asking you, after your correction, Is this hadith weak in your view?

The questioner : Yes, others weakened it.

The Shaykh : Others weakened it, and others strengthened it?

The questioner : Yes

The Shaykh : Does its weakness prevail in your view?

The questioner : Yes

The Shaykh : By what?

The questioner : From the perspective of examination.

The Shaykh : From the perspective of examination, this is not the way of the scholars of knowledge.

The questioner : No, the hadith has weakness in it. I want to take it in the criticism, meaning according to what prevails for me.

The Shaykh : Meaning this is not the way of the scholars of knowledge.

The questioner : No, the way of the scholars of knowledge is that they trace the chain of narration.

The Shaykh : You did not trace the chain of narration now, and this is what I am asking you for. You looked at its text and did not look at its chain.

The questioner : Likewise, I am aware of its weakness.

The Shaykh : It will become a turn with us.

The questioner : No, it is not a turn. You told me.

The Shaykh : How will I clarify it? You said, and you mentioned that some weakened it and some authenticated it, so you took the statement of those who weakened it. Why? Because you looked at its text, and not because you looked at the strength of the weakening and preferred it over the strength of the authentication. So when you looked at its text and made it the preferred one, this is what I said is not from the way of the scholars of knowledge in weakening hadiths. The scientific method is to apply the scientific principles of usul al-fiqh when, for example, hadith scholars differ in authenticating or weakening this, or differ in authenticating or weakening a narrator, you apply the scientific principles of usul al-fiqh, for example, in the field of al-jarh wa al-ta'dil, as you know, they say the criticism is preferred over the vindication, with its condition, with its condition, which is that it be explained, and after the explanation, it becomes clear that the criticism is decisive. Did you do any of this in this hadith?

The questioner : No, I am satisfied with what others did?

The Shaykh : And why did you not satisfy yourself with what others did in authenticating it?

The questioner : Meaning I am on the text of the hadith.

The Shaykh : The text of the hadith?

The questioner : Meaning on another hadith about the Rightly Guided Caliphs.

The Shaykh : This is the Rightly Guided Caliphs. This leads to this, and this is connected by a strong cause to this.

The questioner : Meaning, for example, the caliphate, meaning we do not want to end, meaning it extends to the Day of Resurrection.

The Shaykh : It is not by your wishes.
Another questioner: As long as he is holding on, let him be.

The Shaykh : Okay, what is your opinion that we do not want the deal to end with thousands upon thousands to the Day of Resurrection?

The questioner : Because companionship is limited, because companionship is limited.

The Shaykh : Good, and the caliphate is limited to thirty years.

The questioner : The hadith is weak.

The Shaykh : This turn, you weakened it on the pretext that you have no proof. You have the statement of those who weakened it. As long as this statement is opposed by another statement from those who authenticated it, either you follow the way of the hadith scholars, which came in the explanation of " al-Nukhba " by al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar, in the chapter " Mukhtalif al-Hadith ". There, following others, of course, if two contradictory hadiths come from the category of acceptable, the least rank of the acceptable is the hasan hadith. So if two contradictory hadiths come, both from the category of acceptable, it is obligatory to reconcile them by one of the many methods of reconciliation that al-Hafiz al-'Iraqi mentioned in his marginal notes on the introduction of Ibn al-Salah, to more than a hundred methods. Meaning, the scholar of hadith, if he stands between two apparently contradictory hadiths, he must pass through all these methods, one after another, on these two hadiths, so that the contradiction between them may be removed. If he is unable and none of these methods of preference succeeds in reconciling them, he moves to the second stage, which is tracing the abrogating and the abrogated. If it can be established that one is the abrogating and the other the abrogated, then good. If that is not facilitated for him, he moves to the third rank, which is the rank of preference, by saying this is more authentic in chain than this. For example, if one is hasan and the other is sahih, it is said, as long as we were unable to reconcile and unable to trace the abrogating and abrogated between them, we must prefer. The sahih is stronger than the hasan. Al-Hafiz said, if they are also equal in strength and rank and we cannot prefer, he said, we suspend judgment. So either you suspend judgment if you see a contradiction between two hadiths, or you follow the way of the Hanafis, whose position, instead of the position of al-Hafiz of suspending judgment, they say they contradicted and thus fell. So choose for yourself which of the two.

The questioner : It is the same as suspending judgment.

The Shaykh : The pause in expression is what lacks proper conduct with the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). As for you coming and preferring one opinion over another with your own view, without employing the rules of hadith criticism—meaning, if I were to definitively determine which is correct, which is good, or which is more authentic—on the contrary, you have brought forth something that the Amir al-Mu'minin in hadith, al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar, did not do. I said, "Look at the text." I looked at the text, and the opinion of the one who weakened it became preferred to you. For this reason, no one among the masters of hadith makes such a preference. Therefore, my advice to you is to return to the research of the hadith from the perspective of the chain of narration. Look at those who criticized it and weakened it: what is their argument? And those who authenticated it: what is their argument? Compare them. Personally, I am currently far from the practice of authenticating and weakening hadith, but it is certainly authentic, and it is from the story in my book *Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah*. In this hadith, I traced it because I found, and it is likely his basis for weakening it, that Imam Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi al-Mu'arrif—not al-Nakirah—holds the view that this hadith is weak. So perhaps that is your basis for weakening it. In that case, it is said, "You are not the first gray-haired man to be deceived by the moon." He is a great Imam in knowledge and hadith, and he weakened this hadith. Therefore, I found myself compelled to trace the path of this hadith which he weakened, and to trace its paths and corroborating narrations, and it became clear that it is an authentic hadith. This is sufficient, or sufficient for persuasion, that the hadith is authentic, even for one who has no knowledge of the critique of hadith paths, because Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah affirms the authenticity of this hadith. He says, "This is sufficient." This is from the perspective of following and emulation, not from the perspective of knowledge, because knowledge has its own path which we have indicated. Considering that Ibn Taymiyyah is undoubtedly much more knowledgeable about hadith and its paths than Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi, and secondly, he is a generation later, so perhaps the later scholar corrected the earlier one. In conclusion, the stronger position for one who traces this hadith is that it is authentic, and that in reality there is no difference between it and his saying (peace be upon him) . And the hadith of the thirty years testifies that the intended meaning of the Rightly Guided Caliphs is the four well-known ones. And so I said at the beginning of my speech that some scholars included 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz with them, because he certainly and obviously does not fall within the thirty years. They included him not to derive legal rulings from this inclusion in the chapters of jurisprudence, but to be known for the virtue of this Rightly Guided Caliph who came after them for more than half a century. Nevertheless, I see that you misunderstood the meaning of . It seems you understood this phrase by assuming the omitted possessive to be the following: "Follow my Sunnah and the Sunnah of one of the Rightly Guided Caliphs after me." This assumption is wrong. The assumption is the collective instead of the singular: "Follow my Sunnah and the Sunnah of all the Rightly Guided Caliphs." There is a very great difference between the first concept and the second. This is like His saying, Blessed and Exalted is He, . Is it the path of one believer or all? All. Place this omitted possessive here so that your understanding becomes correct, and I think the problem will be resolved from its root.

The questioner : Now, has it fallen?

The Shaykh : Yes

The questioner : Now, has it fallen?

The Shaykh : I say, meaning, it has not fallen; this is in the hand of Allah.
The attendees: Hehehe