What is your opinion of those who say: We rely on the report of a single narrator in matters of rulings, but we do not rely on it in matters of creed because it only yields conjecture?

The questioner : May Allah reward you. There are those who distinguish between the validity of accepting the report of a single narrator in matters of creed and matters of rulings. They say we accept it in legal rulings, but in matters of creed, it only yields conjecture. What is your response to that? May Allah reward you.

The Shaykh : Our response to this is very long, and we have two published theses on the matter, but we must give an answer, even if briefly, especially sinceThe questioner : he has two rights. Distinguishing between worship and creed is also one of the innovations in matters. Our righteous predecessors did not know of this distinction at all. The events narrated to us in the authentic Sunnah regarding the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sending callers from among his Companions to the Arabs and the non-Arabs indicate the invalidity of this distinction between creed and worship. For them, worship is established by an authentic hadith, but creed is not established by an authentic hadith; it must be a mass-transmitted report. In truth, I consider these people to be sick. To the extent that I am distressed by their error and misguidance, to that extent I feel pity for them because of their sickness, for sickness can be physical, and it can also be spiritual. Thus, disbelief and misguidance that controls many of the servants of Allah is a sickness. Therefore, we must treat the sickness of these people by calling them to Allah, as Allah the Exalted said: We all know there is no difference between a scholar and a student of knowledge, or between an educated person and an uneducated one. We all know that Islam did not spread in the early times or in the later times except through individual callers. It was not the practice of the earliest predecessors, as the later generations do today, to go out in groups of dozens to where? They say to call people, yet they are in need of someone to call them. They send out callers who are not skilled in calling, who do not know the call, and who do not know the evidence from the Book and the Sunnah. I think you do not need me to state explicitly whom I mean by this speech, for the speech is very clear. It was not the practice of the predecessors to send a group containing one person who is slightly learned in jurisprudence, and the rest being common Muslims, to where? To the ignorant Arab tribes to teach them, or to the polytheists among the Jews and Christians. It was not the practice of the predecessors, nor did the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) send individuals in this manner. Rather, he sent from the elite of the Companions of the Messenger (peace be upon him) in knowledge, character, and worship. Among the most famous of these were 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, Mu'adh ibn Jabal, Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, Abu 'Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah, and the like of these great Companions. So Mu'adh ibn Jabal went to call the people of Yemen. To what did he call them? He called them to worship and left off calling them to creed. This is not reasonable, especially since when the Messenger (peace be upon him) sent Mu'adh, the first thing he advised him was to say to him: "You are going to a people from among the People of the Book, so let the first thing you call them to be: There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. If they respond to you, then order them to pray," until the end of the hadith. So Mu'adh ibn Jabal, first in obedience to his command (peace be upon him), began with creed, and also in application, he did so. How can it be said that the report of a single narrator does not establish creed, when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not send except individuals? Mu'adh alone, Abu Musa alone, Abu 'Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah alone, and so on. And I recall a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari that Abu Musa visited his brother in his house in Yemen, and there was a man bound in chains. When Abu Musa descended, he asked what was the matter with him. They said he had apostatized from his religion. He said, "By Allah, I will not sit down until the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is applied to him: So he was killed, and he sat down. That is, this noble Companion conveyed this ruling and it was executed immediately, and he was coming from a land to which he was calling, and he was alone. So how can it be said in the last times that authentic hadiths, because they are not mass-transmitted, do not establish creed? And I once made a joke with people like these, a joke that is truly not a joke, but knowledge, if they only knew. I said: It is claimed that one of these people who say that creed is not established except by the number of mass transmission went to Japan to call to Islam. And according to the rule followed by all Muslims, and as Mu'adh did, he began with creed. What do the people of Japan know of Islam? Nothing. So he began with creed, but from their perspective, unfortunately, it is part of Islamic creed that the report of a single narrator is not accepted in creed. So there was in the gathering a clever, perceptive young man in a corner of the gathering, and it was said long ago that in corners there are secrets. So he raised his finger and said, "Oh teacher, you are ruling that it is part of Islamic creed that creed is not established by the report of a single narrator, and yet I see you ruling upon us the creed of Islam thus and so and so. But I see you are contradictory. According to your call, you must return to your country and bring the group of mass transmission, all of them, and they must testify with you that this is Islam, so that we may accept it from you, because you say that creed is not established by the report of a single narrator, and you are one person, and you are one person." In truth, they are destroying their own houses with their own hands, let alone that they are contradicting the call of true Islam. They are contradictory; they call to Islam, and he is an individual from among individuals. For this reason, we say: Every Muslim who receives from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) through an authentic path that he informed of a hidden matter or informed of a legislative matter, must immediately believe in it. If it is a creed, he adopts it, and if it is a ruling, he adopts it in action and deed, and so on. We do not distinguish between the hadith of the Messenger (peace be upon him), whether it was creed or ruling; it is all from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). And the righteous predecessors proceeded in this manner. I conclude this speech with what I previously said, and this is to be firmly established in your minds, the saying of the scholars: "
And all good is in following those who came before *** And all evil is in the innovation of those who came after." And peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.