Discussion on the reality of the prescribed dhikr and the prescribed worship.

The Shaykh : I want to give an example, as I did recently, to clarify to these people how the prescribed dhikr and prescribed worship must be understood, as distinct from dhikr and worship that are not prescribed. The majority of people today are surprised by our denial of people gathering in circles of dhikr, which they call circles of dhikr, in various forms and shapes. Among these forms is that they stand in a circle and hold each other’s hands, and they begin to remember Allah by the single name "Allah," as is known to all. This dhikr has no basis, neither in the Shari'ah nor in the language. For a person to say "Allah, Allah, Allah" has no basis, neither in the language nor in the Shari'ah. In the Shari'ah, our Salafi brothers all know that it is not prescribed, because the Messenger did not prescribe dhikr with this phrase. But he said: , . So why did people leave the best dhikr, which the Messenger explicitly mentioned, for a dhikr that the Messenger did not explicitly mention at all, not even by way of possibility, let alone misguidance, or at least by way of possibility of permissibility? They turned to this because the door of religious innovation and imagination is very wide, with no limits. No Muslim is safe from entering this door unless he holds fast to the Book and the Sunnah and adds nothing to it, not even a hair's breadth.
Satan whispered to them, saying: Dhikr with the word "Allah" is better than the dhikr of the phrase "La ilaha illa Allah." Why? We have read this, it is not just talk; we have read it in the books of some of them. Because if you begin to remember Allah with the best dhikr according to the explicit Shari'ah text, death might come to you while you are saying "La ilaha," and you would die having denied the deity. So they shortened the path for themselves and said, what? "Allah," "Allah," and that is all. And this is also from the ignorance of these people. If we imagine this imaginary scenario as a real occurrence: a person sits remembering Allah, saying "La ilaha illa Allah, La ilaha illa Allah," and death actually comes to him while he has said "La ilaha" and has not completed it. What happens from the Islamic perspective? Is he held accountable? Since death, from which no creature is safe, has befallen him, is this person held accountable by the Shari'ah? No. I say more than this: if he is remembering "La ilaha illa Allah" and is suddenly struck by an incident, a sudden accident; suppose, for example, an enemy attacks him, a bomb explodes in front of him, or the like, and he had reached "La ilaha" when his mind went blank, and he had to find a way to escape or defend himself, or the like. Is there anything on him? Nothing is on him. And look from which door Satan came to them: from ignorance of Islam... and so on. So Satan whispered to them to remember their Lord with a phrase that their Lord did not prescribe. So he is worshipping his Lord with whose Shari'ah? I say this from the Shari'ah perspective.
But it remains necessary that at least some of you know that this is not allowed even linguistically. It is a new philosophy. We know that it is not prescribed in the Shari'ah, but it is not prescribed linguistically either. How is that? Because in the language, there must be a complete sentence, and the minimum is, for example, a subject and a predicate. If a person says, by way of speech, "Allah is generous," "Allah is forgiving," "Allah is appreciative," "Allah is merciful," and so on; this is a complete sentence. "Allah" is the subject, as they say, and "generous," "merciful" are the predicate. But what is "Allah"? "Allah, Allah, Allah"!! Yes, this speech is not prescribed even linguistically. So Satan also misled them from the language, which is the language of the Qur'an, and a person cannot understand the Qur'an except through it.
Then I say: The expression is also not linguistic. Because if they want to remember in the Arabic language, they would say "Allah" and take a breath, because the sukun (silence) is on what? On a definite noun. Yes, if you want to reach it, you will not say "Allah, Allah, Allah" with a sukun; you have to say "Allahu, Allahu, Allahu" like this. Because it is not a hamzat al-qat' (cutting hamza), it is a hamzat al-wasl (connecting hamza). So wherever you go and discuss this dhikr, you will find it has no basis, neither in the Shari'ah nor in the language. And yet, this is the preferred dhikr among people. When you come to deny it, they will say to you: You deny dhikr. My dear friend, dhikr has attributes in the Shari'ah, it has methods, it has descriptions. Whoever adheres to these descriptions as they came in the Book and the Sunnah and remembers Allah, the one who denies dhikr is a disbeliever who has apostatized from his religion. Because Allah says: . But He did not say: Remember Allah as it was said—also, with great regret—even if it were the barking of dogs. Have you heard this phrase?! This sentence is written in the books: Remember Allah even if it is the barking of dogs. It is not important that the phrase be a linguistic, Sunni term. Remember Allah even if it is the barking of dogs. Far be it from Allah. As He said: . How do you remember Allah? As the Messenger of Allah remembered. How do you send blessings upon the Messenger of Allah? As the Messenger of Allah sent blessings upon himself, and as he taught his Companions. So now we say: Did the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) gather with his Companions to remember Allah with one voice and the single name "Allah, Allah"? The answer is: No. No one, no matter how much they argue with falsehood, can say: Yes, we have a hadith, even if fabricated, that the Messenger gathered the Companions and they remembered Allah with the single name aloud with one voice. This has no basis.
Well, he used to gather the Companions in a gathering that they call today the gathering of sending blessings upon the Messenger (peace be upon him). The gathering of sending blessings upon the Messenger is like the gathering of dhikr. Just as the gathering of dhikr has what is Sunnah and what is bid'ah (religious innovation), so the gathering of sending blessings upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) has what is Sunnah and what is bid'ah. The Companion would say to his companion: "O so-and-so, come, let us sit and believe for an hour." So they would sit, each of them remembering Allah, either with contemplative dhikr, or with verbal and heart dhikr together. And this is what is derived from His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He): . Who are they? . So contemplating the verses of Allah is heart dhikr. And remembering Allah with the tongue must be verbal and heart dhikr together. As for closing your eyes, sealing your mouth, and watching your heart, and your heart saying "Allah, Allah"!! All of this is a foreign philosophy in Islam that Islam does not know at all.
So this gathering of sending blessings upon the Messenger (peace be upon him), if it is in the way of the Salaf, with each person sending blessings upon the Messenger with a transmitted formula, there is absolutely no objection. And this type of dhikr that does not contradict the description of dhikr in the time of the Messenger (peace be upon him) is what the hadiths of dhikr in circles of dhikr are to be understood as, which the angels specifically seek and pursue from the sky, following the circles of dhikr. These later people, up to today, would not understand why this dhikr is not prescribed, and why this gathering is not prescribed. They immediately cast blame on us, claiming we denied dhikr. Far be it. The one who denies dhikr is a disbeliever. They immediately cast blame on us, claiming we denied sending blessings upon the Messenger. People, sending blessings upon the Messenger is mentioned in the Qur'an. It means you have expelled us from Islam entirely. But a thought came to me a few days ago, and I saw that I should present it to you as a proof that increases your reassurance, proof upon proof, for those who dispute with us. I said to them: These people gather in the remembrance of Allah in the manner they wish, and they gather in the gathering of sending blessings upon the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in the manner they wish, with voices and melodies that are known to you.
They are missing a third gathering. This is an invention and innovation on my part, but the difference between me and them is that I innovate so that others may consider it, not so that I worship and draw near to Allah through what I have invented and introduced. So listen now: they have two gatherings, a gathering of dhikr and a gathering of sending blessings upon the Messenger. They are missing a third gathering, a gathering of prayer to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) alone, who has no partner. Have you heard of such a gathering in your time? A gathering... for Allah alone, who has no partner. What is the form of this gathering? We choose a suitable time, like this time between the two 'Isha' prayers, or between Maghrib and 'Isha'. Prayer in it is prescribed, and prayer, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . We choose this time or another, every day, every week, or every month, according to what? Our time. We gather in it so that each of us prays two rak'ahs to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). Is there anything wrong with that? Prayer to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). We gather so that each of us prays two rak'ahs, but we do not pray in such chaos, one here and one there; no, we gather for it? Because the Messenger (peace be upon him) said: . So our third gathering will be a gathering of prayer to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), two rak'ahs in congregation; in congregation.
I think the first to deny this gathering will be the owners of the previous two gatherings. Do you know the reason? It is not because of their fiqh; if they had fiqh, they would not have innovated the first and second gatherings. They will deny it because they have simply not heard of it. But, may Allah forbid, if a misleading shaykh wants to exploit the people and call them to such a gathering, and one or two or three come, and then two or three days pass and it becomes a sunnah, then come, if you can, deny it. What do you deny? Prayer to Allah (Mighty and Majestic). Do we approve of this prayer in the third gathering? Do we deny it or approve it? We do not approve of it; rather, we deny it. Why? Because it is prayer to Allah, two rak'ahs? No, because it is a prayer described with a characteristic that Allah has not prescribed and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) has not clarified, so it became a bid'ah in the religion. And why do we go far to a gathering in the week or in the month? We will make for you a prayer to Allah, two rak'ahs, with every prayer, five times or twice. We enter for the Fajr prayer and pray two rak'ahs, the sunnah of Fajr. Why do we pray it individually, one here and one there?! Let us pray it in congregation. . Is there anyone who would say, "I will regret saying this"? Perhaps a time will come when we hear this, just as we say things... we hear them from before.
So if a person's soul suggests to him, or Satan beautifies for him, that he should gather the Muslims for the sunnah of Fajr in congregation; what is our argument in denying them? Our argument is the righteous Salaf. Did they not pray the sunnah of Fajr? The Messenger would enter the mosque and find the people praying the sunnah of Fajr. Sometimes he would see a man who had started the sunnah prayer while the iqamah had been called, and he would take his shoulder and say to him: "Two prayers together? Is the Fajr four?" They used to pray the sunnah, they used to pray it individually. So why are you contradicting the sunnah and the righteous Salaf and gathering for the sunnah of Fajr?! They did not gather for the sunnah of Fajr, they did not gather, and, if Allah wills, they will not gather; do you see? Because this separation is what is prescribed, my brothers. We do not truly know the Shari'ah. The Shari'ah is pure following: where Allah has gathered, we gather, and where Allah has separated, we separate. This is the sincerity and following of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and of His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).
So I wanted to direct our brothers present to this reality: that the salvation from innovation in the religion is that we follow the sayings of the early, preceding jurists from the Companions, the Tabi'un, and those who followed them with excellence until the Day of Judgment. Otherwise, we will not have been sincere to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) first in worship to be saved on the Day of Reckoning, and second, we will remain in this world as the most humble, enslaved by many types of enslavement due to our lack of obedience and submission to the rulings of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). On the contrary, we compose our minds and our desires, and the most ignorant one says to you: "What is wrong with it?" The problem is that you are not establishing your servitude to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and your servitude to Allah is not established except by following, as Allah said: .
Bring it so we can see what you have...?