Understanding the Book and the Sunnah has no path except in accordance with the understanding of the righteous Salaf.

The Shaykh : Is there a third thing? Here is the crux of the matter. There is a third thing. Some words, and even sentences, from the Book of Allah and the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), considering that both came in clear Arabic, can bear more than one meaning. For example, it is sufficient to remind people of what is known among scholars of language and rhetoric. They say that speech is divided into reality (haqiqah) and metaphor (majaz). Ah, I wonder: if a word comes that can be interpreted as reality and can also be interpreted as metaphor, and we see that the Salaf interpreted a certain text as reality, and then the Khalaf, or at least some of the Khalaf, interpreted that phrase which the Salaf interpreted as reality, interpreting it as metaphor, what do we do? Here comes the third thing that must be adhered to in understanding the texts of the Shari'ah, just as we are obligated to adhere to the correct Sunnah in understanding the verses of the Qur'an. What is this third thing? It is what our righteous Salaf were upon: what the righteous Salaf understood from the texts of the two mentioned sources, the Book and the correct Sunnah. Accordingly, we must understand the Shari'ah in general and the creed in particular, because the views of the later generations most often dominated the Muslims in the creed. As for the rulings of the Shari'ah, they very rarely differ in their understanding of the texts, whether it is reality or metaphor. But as for what concerns the creed, and especially what concerns the divine attributes in the unseen matters, here a severe disagreement occurred among the Muslims since the end of the first century of the Hijrah, and so on. The matter is as he (peace be upon him) said: Today you hear many and very many disagreements, whether in the creed or in the rulings of the Shari'ah, in accordance with his saying (peace be upon him): So the Muslims differed in the past, and the matter is as He the Exalted said: Now we have problems raised from all corners of the world concerning two very important issues.
The first issue concerns the creed, and the other concerns an aspect of the jurisprudential rulings. As for the creed, the subject is the verses and hadiths of the attributes. As for what concerns some of the jurisprudential rulings, it is religious innovation (bid'ah). The Messenger (peace be upon him) said: Many of the later jurists said, "No, bid'ah is divided into five categories." This research is postponed for later if we have the time. But we return to what is more important, which concerns the creed that relates to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), who is hidden from us, indeed He is the hidden of the hidden. And the Lord of the worlds (Blessed and Exalted is He) said in the opening of Surat al-Baqarah: It seems there is an implied question here, and the answer came previously: Who are they? The answer came: to the end of the verse. Yes, the point is that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) placed here in the mention the belief in the unseen before the establishment of the prayer. Those who believe in the unseen, establish the prayer, and give zakah. So belief in the unseen is absolute, whether it concerns the cosmic signs, or the signs of the Hour, or specifically what concerns the Essence of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). So the first condition for a true believer is to believe in the unseen that Allah has informed about. There is no difference in that between the Book and the Sunnah. If we mention the Sunnah, we must mention here a deviation in which the Khalaf deviated from the Salaf. That is that the Khalaf who opposed the Salaf in many of the creeds related to the attributes of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) first, and then in everything related to the creed second, opposed the Salaf for two reasons. The first reason is that they took the path of metaphor in understanding the verses of the attributes and the hadiths of the attributes. They did not understand them first on the Arabic rule upon which the righteous Salaf proceeded, and it is necessary, because they are the pure Arabs upon whom the Qur'an was revealed directly. I say that the Arabic language establishes that the original rule for every complete and perfect sentence is that it is interpreted as reality, not as metaphor, unless reality is impossible, meaning it is not possible to carry the Arabic sentence to the real meaning. Then it is possible to move from reality to metaphor, because the rule is that the original rule for an Arabic sentence is to be carried as reality unless it is impossible, then we say the meaning is such and such, meaning metaphorically. So the Salaf (may Allah be pleased with them all), when they interpreted the verses of the Qur'an and the hadiths of the Messenger (peace be upon him) related to the attributes of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), they interpreted them on the Arabic original, which is reality, not metaphor, because it is possible and very easy to interpret all the verses of the attributes and the hadiths of the attributes on this Arabic rule, which is reality, unless it is impossible, then it is metaphor. This is how the righteous Salaf proceeded. The Khalaf opposed them and resorted to metaphor in many of the verses. I do not want to go into detail about the verses and hadiths that they interpreted figuratively, but I want to give an example that is currently being debated and discussed in this time, and books have been written, some in Egypt and some outside Egypt, and now a very serious book has been published here by someone who has no knowledge, supporting the methodology of the Khalaf over the methodology of the Salaf in interpreting the verses of the attributes and the hadiths of the attributes.