Does the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): (Whoever says: "The people have perished," is the most perished of them) apply to the one who says

Eid Abbasi: Among the questions is one that says: Does his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): apply to the one who says: "The people have perished because of their ignorance of the Sunnah and their distance from it," or does the hadith intend something other than this? I ask for clarification?

The Shaykh: It does not appear to us that in the saying of the one who says: "The people have perished because of their ignorance of the Sunnah," there is a negation. Rather, the intended meaning is... for the Muslim not to rush to place the responsibility on the people and cause them to perish, while he is sharing in it with them, so he exempts himself and blames others. This is the intended meaning of the hadith: . There are two narrations in the hadith: . The intended meaning of this is what we mentioned, that there is a general affliction as is the case today, where every person in the Muslim community bears a certain proportion of the responsibility. So when the one who says: "The people have perished," means that he is not among these people, he is the most perished of them; because he has purified himself and cleansed it from what is happening to him just as it happens to the rest of the people. But when the Muslim says: "The people have perished because of their ignorance of the Sunnah," and the people do not perish except because of their ignorance of the Sunnah, and the first of the Sunnah—as we all know—is tawhid (the oneness of Allah), and Allah (Mighty and Majestic) did not send the messengers nor reveal the books except for His tawhid (Blessed and Exalted is He), a true tawhid with the details we have mentioned repeatedly, and we know that the Hour will not stand until there remains on the face of the earth no one who says: "Allah," and the meaning of this is that there remains on the face of the earth no one who knows tawhid; so the people do not perish except by their ignorance of the Sunnah in reality.