The Necessity of Understanding the Salaf

The Shaykh : Then, in the last of time, it is not sufficient to merely hold fast to the Book and the Sunnah. Why? For the reason I mentioned to you earlier: there are fourteen centuries between us and the Sunnah. So, what is added? What is appended to these two sources? The first source, the Qur'an, is appended with the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), by the evidence of the Qur'an and by the evidence of the hadith of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). The third appended element is the path of the Companions, the path of the first believers, as we mentioned earlier at the beginning of the session. He (Mighty and Majestic) said: . Thus, our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) did not limit Himself in this verse to saying: . He did not limit Himself to that, but He said: . It was possible, and Allah is able to do all things, that He could have said, "And whoever opposes the Messenger after the guidance has become clear to him, We will turn him away from what he turned away from and cast him into Hell, and evil is the destination." So why did He say: ? To remind the believers in the last of time of the necessity of holding fast to the guidance of the first believers, because, as we mentioned in the past, they were the closest to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in receiving, understanding, comprehending, and applying his guidance. Therefore, they are the ones who transmit to us his guidance (peace and blessings be upon him) and his Sunnah in its three categories. And this is sufficient for you as an example right now; this is sufficient for you as an example right now: what the Shaykh drank, you do not drink.
The student : No.
Another student: In, in.

The Shaykh : No, no, I do not drink. May Allah reward you.
The student : In, in, in.

The Shaykh : In the last of time, it is necessary for us, in order to be upon the guidance of our Lord, to hold fast to the Book and the Sunnah and to what the righteous Salaf were upon. The righteous Salaf transmitted to us the Sunnah in its three categories. Whoever does not take these three categories, his case is exactly like that of the one who does not take the three categories of tawhid (the oneness of Allah). If he omits one of them, his tawhid is not complete. And if his tawhid is incomplete, he is not a believer. Likewise, if one does not follow the Book and the Sunnah along with following the righteous Salaf, he is not upon the guidance of his Lord. Why? Because we say that whoever follows or limits himself to taking Islam from the Qur'an without the Sunnah has turned away from the Qur'an, because Allah said what He said in the previous explanation. And I say now: . So if he says, "I do not take Islam except from the Qur'an," he is not a Muslim; he is not a Muslim, because in this statement he has disbelieved in the Qur'an itself, as I mentioned earlier, and there is no need to repeat it. And whoever takes only the Qur'an and the Sunnah is not upon the guidance of his Lord, because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has commanded us to follow the path of the believers. So when we do not follow the path of the believers, we are not—likewise—following the Noble Qur'an, let alone that we have not applied what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) told us about many of his hadiths. You all know, if Allah wills, the hadith of the seventy-three sects, when he (peace and blessings be upon him) said that the saved sect is one, and he described it by saying: . This is a quotation from the previous verse: . The Lord of the worlds linked opposing the Messenger with opposing the path of the believers. Similarly, here the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not limit himself to saying, as a distinguishing mark for the saved sect from the perishing sects, "What I am upon, and that is all." Rather, . Thus, whenever we want to understand the Qur'an and the Sunnah, we do not rely on our own understanding of the Qur'an and the Sunnah based only on our knowledge, but also on our ignorance, as many people do today. Rather, it is necessary that we receive the interpretation of the Qur'an and the Sunnah as the righteous Salaf understood it and as they practiced it, otherwise we will go astray, far astray.