The Shaykh’s commentary on some of the books of the Tabligh group and warning about the religious innovations in which this group falls.
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The Shaykh : The group in the path of Allah intends by this what they have become accustomed to, which is going out for days to various countries along with the common people. Their call is based on six pillars mentioned at the beginning of the message, and there is nothing in the text except for this last one. He said: Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, said: [At-Tawbah 9:122] This verse is appropriate for the topic, which is going out in the path of seeking knowledge and teaching it. But look at what follows; he connected it to the previous verse and said: And He also said: [At-Tawbah 9:39] This verse has no relation to this title. The title is "The group in the path," as we said, seeking knowledge, and this is what they intend, as will become clear in the fullness of their speech. As for the second verse, it is about the group in the path of jihad in the path of Allah when the disbelievers come and threaten the Islamic lands. At that time, it is obligatory for every Muslim who is able to carry a weapon to go out in the path of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. So, applying the verse of jihad, which is an individual obligation, to the verse of going out in the path of seeking knowledge, which is a collective obligation and not an individual obligation for seeking knowledge, is incorrect. The first verse he mentioned is explicit in this, because it said: [At-Tawbah 9:122] "Not all of them," whereas the second verse, which is about going out in the path of Allah, said: "All of them" etc.
He says in this sixth principle upon which their call is established, and the essence of this principle is abandoning our daily occupations for training and effort in... life according to the Prophetic Sunnah, peace and blessings be upon him, and calling others to training and effort. As I said in the first pages, we cannot abandon human occupations for a lifetime, as that is forbidden, but we can, without difficulty, set aside months in the year or days in the month, just as we set aside time for recreation and relaxation, to the end of his speech. He said: And this going out in the path of Allah is a type of jihad, and experience and observation indicate that this going out for the call, if it is for forty days every year, is a good helper in achieving the objective. Now, we say and testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and now these people have committed themselves to going out for forty days. Where did the number forty come from? If we are calling people to follow the Sunnah of the Messenger, peace be upon him, where did the number forty come from?
This is no different from the paths we have inherited, and we believe that this is a new Sufi path. This is what I have been saying for years when asked about the Tabligh group; I say it is a new Sufi path, because their call is a call that does not include hatred for the sake of Allah. They state in their lessons that faith includes love for the sake of Allah and hatred for the sake of Allah, but in practical application, hatred for the sake of Allah is not present at all. Their previous speech indicates this, and indeed they have words—perhaps I should remind you of their previous speech—that every Muslim must be treated with a peaceful attitude, and so on. The source of this fourth principle is attachment to the status of a Muslim, advising him, and fulfilling the rights we owe him without expecting him to fulfill our rights. Every Muslim must respect his brother, love him, and advise him, no matter how bad his religious state is.
This is not from Islam, because love for the sake of Allah and hatred for the sake of Allah are part of faith. This is removing hatred for the sake of Allah under the pretext of what? Compromise and accommodation. In this way, the Muslim state will never be established, and the Islamic society will not be realized. If I am to be a reformer, and I want to love what? The corrupter? And I want to be pleased with the reformer, and I want to be pleased with the corrupter?
The important point is the last aspect: going out for forty days. Every Muslim knows that this was not the way of the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, nor the way of the Companions, nor the way of the righteous predecessors. Especially since there is something strange about this going out. If a group of scholars and jurists went out, we would say there is no harm. But this specific restriction has no basis. However, part of their plan is that they stay in a village or town, and if they do not find a person who responds to them spiritually, they tell him to go out with them. Well, if he goes out with them, what does he benefit? And this is actually related to what I said in the last speech. This will instill arrogance in these common people, because they are made to feel that they went out for the call, meaning they became preachers, whereas in reality they are in great need of learning the principles of their religion. Instead of this going out, they should attend the gatherings of knowledge in the mosques and the Islamic schools and learn, instead of this going out. This going out distances them from their families, their work, and also from knowledge, because knowledge is not achieved in this going out. We know from experience that some people benefit from this going out because they have a share of knowledge, as travel involves some issues that the resident is not accustomed to. This is true. But the general people do not need this kind of going out. If we mention that the common people go out with them and they do not know anything of the creed, let alone jurisprudence, and then we find that they commit themselves to going out for a specific number, forty, this is a number for which Allah has not sent down any authority. I do not know, it is as if this number has a special meaning or significance in the minds of some Muslims. Here, for example, these people commit themselves to going out for forty days, and some people commit themselves to a consecutive number of forties. And there is the famous "fire prayer" because its number is four thousand, four hundred, and forty-four. It did not become five and forty, but every four is four thousand, four hundred, and forty-four. This is undoubtedly from the inspiration of Satan. And the one who restricts himself to such numbers, knowing that they did not come from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, has not taken the Messenger, peace be upon him, as a unique and solitary follower.
For example, when we recite the counted dhikr: thirty-three tasbeehs, thirty-three tahmeeds, and thirty-three takbeers, we do so in submission to the text, because Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said: To whom is this submission? To the Messenger of the Lord of the worlds. This is one of his special attributes. So now we are receiving numbers in every era, in every country, new numbers of dhikr, and other than dhikr, even in going out for the call. These numbers did not come at all. Does this align with our testimony to our Prophet, may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him, that he is the Messenger of Allah? The answer is no.
It does not apply except to people who have not first realized the implications of the testimony, the testimony to the Messenger, peace be upon him, with prophethood and messengership.
Or they realized it but did not know, they did not know the Messenger, peace be upon him, they did not know his biography, they did not know his Shari'ah. And in reality, this is a very important point, because knowing what the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, was upon requires studying the Sunnah and the science of hadith. On this occasion, I say that this message, despite its smallness, look now at the unauthentic hadiths in it regarding the Messenger, peace be upon him, along with some expressions that do not fit the Shari'ah. Among them is what we have spoken about more than once: that man is the vicegerent of Allah on earth. So he says here: And if a person believes in his Lord and acknowledges His greatness and majesty and establishes the prayer, etc., he knows the essence of being the vicegerent of Allah, the vicegerent of Allah on earth. This is one thing.
These are brief remarks. Then he brought a hadith:Sahih al-Bukhari 5401 This portion is an authentic hadith without doubt, but the issue of completeness is: "It was said: What is its sincerity? He said: It is that it restrains you from the prohibitions of Allah." He says in the takhrij (tracing to sources): "Al-Tabarani narrated it; it is authentic. Al-Tabarani narrated it." But when is this takhrij valid? If Al-Tabarani narrated it with a chain that is not authentic, then I am saying a word that may not please many, but it is the truth, and I say the truth. Tracing hadiths in this manner mentioned—saying "Al-Tabarani narrated it," "Abu Dawud narrated it," "Ahmad narrated it"—is the farthest thing from advising the readers. This is especially so because the majority of readers today, due to their distance from lessons in general and from hadith lessons in particular, as soon as one of them hears "So-and-so narrated it," they consider this a confirmed hadith in the expression of the common people. A confirmed hadith, "So-and-so narrated it." The poor man does not know that "So-and-so narrated it" in this takhrij means that this so-and-so transmitted its chain from him to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) with this hadith, and we do not know whether this chain is authentic or not. This is the meaning of "Al-Tabarani narrated it." People do not understand this understanding, which corresponds to reality; rather, they understand "Al-Tabarani narrated it" to mean a confirmed hadith, and the matter ends there. Therefore, the requirement of advising the readers is not merely attributing the hadith to its source, but it must be accompanied by an explanation of its grade. Otherwise, this takhrij is closer to deceiving the readers than to advising them. And this is an example.
Another example is from Abu Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Renew your faith." It was said: O Messenger of Allah, how do we renew our faith? He said: "Increase your saying: There is no god but Allah." Ahmad narrated it. Of course, they will say this is a confirmed hadith, narrated by Ahmad. But this is a weak hadith, and Ahmad narrated it in the Musnad with a weak chain. Therefore, I traced it in *Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Da'ifah* (The Chain of Weak Hadiths) under number nine hundred. And of this kind is the hadith narrated from Mu'adh ibn Jabal: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said to me: The keys of Paradise are the testimony that there is no god but Allah." This too was narrated by Ahmad, and it is also a weak hadith. Of course, there are many authentic hadiths, but I am concerned with clarifying the weak hadiths first because of what relates to this message, and secondly for the benefit of those present. Then he said, from al-Hasan, as a mursal (report missing the Companion link): The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever death comes to him while he is seeking knowledge to revive Islam, there is one degree between him and the prophets in Paradise." And this, naturally, if its chain to al-Hasan al-Basri were authentic, it would still be weak, because al-Hasan is a Tabi'i (successor) and did not mention an intermediary between him and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Therefore, the scholars of hadith say that the mursal reports of al-Hasan al-Basri are like the wind, meaning they have no value.
Similar to this is the saying from Wa'il ibn al-Hujr, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever seeks knowledge and attains it, he has two shares of reward. If he does not attain it, he has one share of reward." This hadith, in addition to having a weak chain, the division in it is, in my opinion, an unjust division. The one who seeks knowledge and gets it has two shares, and the one who does not get it has one share. I do not think there is fairness in the matter. Then he said, regarding the fourth principle, which is honoring the Muslim, from Anas, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "No young man honors an old man for his age except that Allah provides for him at his age someone to honor him." This is a beautiful hadith, but it is a munkar (denounced) hadith in terms of narration; it is not authentic. It is also... among the weak hadiths, and the hadith that follows it suffices for it, for example, from the confirmed hadiths:Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 357 This is a confirmed hadith. Then he said, from Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Cursed is the one who harms a believer or plots against him." But for the first time, the author says: Al-Tirmidhi narrated it and said: This is a strange (gharib) hadith. But do you see if the reader understands the meaning of "strange," meaning weak? Allah knows best.
So this is a brief word about this message. I wanted to speak about it because I am often asked about the group, and we have looked into this message and learned from a reliable source something related to it. Before that, we used to hear some things we were aware of, and some things we would pause on because we had not heard them except from some sources. For example, they have this practice that when they sit for food, they begin with salt. We know the secret behind this beginning, because there is a fabricated hadith that beginning with salt in food repels seventy diseases from its owner. So they made this fabricated hadith a methodology for themselves. We have a friend, a doctor, who mixed with them in Kuwait for a long time. He said to them: You people, really... The people's speech is following the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) as you heard here. But in reality, there are things the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did that they do not do, and there are things the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not do that they do, either from the perspective of istihsan (juristic preference) in religion, as you saw in the forty-day departure, or from the perspective of acting upon weak hadiths, as they say today. The majority of people act upon weak hadiths in the virtues of deeds. Then they do not distinguish, due to their lack of study of hadith science, between a weak hadith and a fabricated hadith. So any hadith they found in any book, they acted upon it. If it was authentic, then... for them. And if it was weak, the weak hadith is acted upon in the virtues of deeds, but it may be fabricated, and they have no knowledge of that. And this is an example: beginning with salt before food. If they were to eat sweets, they would have to salt them before, because that is how the hadith came, and the hadith is fabricated. It is not permissible to act upon it by consensus. This is what I did not see fit to speak about on this occasion. And I hope that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) will inspire us to act upon the Sunnah and upon the methodology of the righteous Salaf.
For there should separate from every division of them a group [remaining] to obtain understanding in the religion and warn their people when they return to them that they might be cautious.
فلولا نفر من كل فرقة منهم طائفة ليتفقهوا في الدين ولينذروا قومهم إذا رجعوا إليهم لعلهم يحذرونIf you do not go forth, He will punish you with a painful punishment and will replace you with another people
إلا تنفروا يعذبكم عذابا أليما ويستبدل قوما غيركمFor there should separate from every division of them a group
فلولا نفر من كل فرقة منهم طائفةIf you do not go forth
إلا تنفرواHe will punish you with a painful punishment
يعذبكم عذا أليماHe says in this sixth principle upon which their call is established, and the essence of this principle is abandoning our daily occupations for training and effort in... life according to the Prophetic Sunnah, peace and blessings be upon him, and calling others to training and effort. As I said in the first pages, we cannot abandon human occupations for a lifetime, as that is forbidden, but we can, without difficulty, set aside months in the year or days in the month, just as we set aside time for recreation and relaxation, to the end of his speech. He said: And this going out in the path of Allah is a type of jihad, and experience and observation indicate that this going out for the call, if it is for forty days every year, is a good helper in achieving the objective. Now, we say and testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and now these people have committed themselves to going out for forty days. Where did the number forty come from? If we are calling people to follow the Sunnah of the Messenger, peace be upon him, where did the number forty come from?
This is no different from the paths we have inherited, and we believe that this is a new Sufi path. This is what I have been saying for years when asked about the Tabligh group; I say it is a new Sufi path, because their call is a call that does not include hatred for the sake of Allah. They state in their lessons that faith includes love for the sake of Allah and hatred for the sake of Allah, but in practical application, hatred for the sake of Allah is not present at all. Their previous speech indicates this, and indeed they have words—perhaps I should remind you of their previous speech—that every Muslim must be treated with a peaceful attitude, and so on. The source of this fourth principle is attachment to the status of a Muslim, advising him, and fulfilling the rights we owe him without expecting him to fulfill our rights. Every Muslim must respect his brother, love him, and advise him, no matter how bad his religious state is.
This is not from Islam, because love for the sake of Allah and hatred for the sake of Allah are part of faith. This is removing hatred for the sake of Allah under the pretext of what? Compromise and accommodation. In this way, the Muslim state will never be established, and the Islamic society will not be realized. If I am to be a reformer, and I want to love what? The corrupter? And I want to be pleased with the reformer, and I want to be pleased with the corrupter?
The important point is the last aspect: going out for forty days. Every Muslim knows that this was not the way of the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, nor the way of the Companions, nor the way of the righteous predecessors. Especially since there is something strange about this going out. If a group of scholars and jurists went out, we would say there is no harm. But this specific restriction has no basis. However, part of their plan is that they stay in a village or town, and if they do not find a person who responds to them spiritually, they tell him to go out with them. Well, if he goes out with them, what does he benefit? And this is actually related to what I said in the last speech. This will instill arrogance in these common people, because they are made to feel that they went out for the call, meaning they became preachers, whereas in reality they are in great need of learning the principles of their religion. Instead of this going out, they should attend the gatherings of knowledge in the mosques and the Islamic schools and learn, instead of this going out. This going out distances them from their families, their work, and also from knowledge, because knowledge is not achieved in this going out. We know from experience that some people benefit from this going out because they have a share of knowledge, as travel involves some issues that the resident is not accustomed to. This is true. But the general people do not need this kind of going out. If we mention that the common people go out with them and they do not know anything of the creed, let alone jurisprudence, and then we find that they commit themselves to going out for a specific number, forty, this is a number for which Allah has not sent down any authority. I do not know, it is as if this number has a special meaning or significance in the minds of some Muslims. Here, for example, these people commit themselves to going out for forty days, and some people commit themselves to a consecutive number of forties. And there is the famous "fire prayer" because its number is four thousand, four hundred, and forty-four. It did not become five and forty, but every four is four thousand, four hundred, and forty-four. This is undoubtedly from the inspiration of Satan. And the one who restricts himself to such numbers, knowing that they did not come from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, has not taken the Messenger, peace be upon him, as a unique and solitary follower.
For example, when we recite the counted dhikr: thirty-three tasbeehs, thirty-three tahmeeds, and thirty-three takbeers, we do so in submission to the text, because Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said:
and they greet with a greeting
ويسلموا تسليماIt does not apply except to people who have not first realized the implications of the testimony, the testimony to the Messenger, peace be upon him, with prophethood and messengership.
Or they realized it but did not know, they did not know the Messenger, peace be upon him, they did not know his biography, they did not know his Shari'ah. And in reality, this is a very important point, because knowing what the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, was upon requires studying the Sunnah and the science of hadith. On this occasion, I say that this message, despite its smallness, look now at the unauthentic hadiths in it regarding the Messenger, peace be upon him, along with some expressions that do not fit the Shari'ah. Among them is what we have spoken about more than once: that man is the vicegerent of Allah on earth. So he says here: And if a person believes in his Lord and acknowledges His greatness and majesty and establishes the prayer, etc., he knows the essence of being the vicegerent of Allah, the vicegerent of Allah on earth. This is one thing.
These are brief remarks. Then he brought a hadith:
Narrated 'Urban bin Malik: who attended the Badr battle and was from the Ansar, that he came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and said, "O Allah's Apostle! I have lost my eyesight and I lead my people in the prayer (as an Imam). When it rains, the valley which is between me and my people, flows with water, and then I cannot go to their mosque to lead them in the prayer. O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! I wish that you could come and pray in my house so that I may take it as a praying place. The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Allah willing, I will do that." The next morning, soon after the sun had risen, Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) came with Abu Bakr. The Prophet (ﷺ) asked for the permission to enter and I admitted him. The Prophet (ﷺ) had not sat till he had entered the house and said to me, "Where do you like me to pray in your house?" I pointed at a place in my house whereupon he stood and said, "Allahu Akbar." We lined behind him and he prayed two rak`at and finished it with Taslim. We then requested him to stay for a special meal of Khazira which we had prepared. A large number of men from the adjoining area gathered in the house. One of them said, "Where is Malik bin Ad-Dukhshun?" Another man said, "He is a hypocrite and does not love Allah and His Apostle." The Prophet said, "Do not say so. Do you not think that he has said: "None has the right to be worshipped but Allah," seeking Allah's pleasure? The man said, "Allah and His Apostle know better, but we have always seen him mixing with hypocrites and giving them advice." The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Allah has forbidden the (Hell) Fire for those who testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah, seeking Allah's pleasure. "
من قال لا إله إلا الله مخلصا دخل الجنةAnother example is from Abu Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Renew your faith." It was said: O Messenger of Allah, how do we renew our faith? He said: "Increase your saying: There is no god but Allah." Ahmad narrated it. Of course, they will say this is a confirmed hadith, narrated by Ahmad. But this is a weak hadith, and Ahmad narrated it in the Musnad with a weak chain. Therefore, I traced it in *Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Da'ifah* (The Chain of Weak Hadiths) under number nine hundred. And of this kind is the hadith narrated from Mu'adh ibn Jabal: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said to me: The keys of Paradise are the testimony that there is no god but Allah." This too was narrated by Ahmad, and it is also a weak hadith. Of course, there are many authentic hadiths, but I am concerned with clarifying the weak hadiths first because of what relates to this message, and secondly for the benefit of those present. Then he said, from al-Hasan, as a mursal (report missing the Companion link): The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever death comes to him while he is seeking knowledge to revive Islam, there is one degree between him and the prophets in Paradise." And this, naturally, if its chain to al-Hasan al-Basri were authentic, it would still be weak, because al-Hasan is a Tabi'i (successor) and did not mention an intermediary between him and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Therefore, the scholars of hadith say that the mursal reports of al-Hasan al-Basri are like the wind, meaning they have no value.
Similar to this is the saying from Wa'il ibn al-Hujr, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever seeks knowledge and attains it, he has two shares of reward. If he does not attain it, he has one share of reward." This hadith, in addition to having a weak chain, the division in it is, in my opinion, an unjust division. The one who seeks knowledge and gets it has two shares, and the one who does not get it has one share. I do not think there is fairness in the matter. Then he said, regarding the fourth principle, which is honoring the Muslim, from Anas, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "No young man honors an old man for his age except that Allah provides for him at his age someone to honor him." This is a beautiful hadith, but it is a munkar (denounced) hadith in terms of narration; it is not authentic. It is also... among the weak hadiths, and the hadith that follows it suffices for it, for example, from the confirmed hadiths:
Part of respect for Allah is to show respect to an old Muslim and to someone who knows the Qur'an, as long as he does not go to excess in it nor turn away from it, and to respect a just ruler.
إن من إجلال الله إكرام ذي الشيبة المسلم وحامل القرآن غير الغالي فيه ولا الجافي عنه وإكرام السلطان المقسطSo this is a brief word about this message. I wanted to speak about it because I am often asked about the group, and we have looked into this message and learned from a reliable source something related to it. Before that, we used to hear some things we were aware of, and some things we would pause on because we had not heard them except from some sources. For example, they have this practice that when they sit for food, they begin with salt. We know the secret behind this beginning, because there is a fabricated hadith that beginning with salt in food repels seventy diseases from its owner. So they made this fabricated hadith a methodology for themselves. We have a friend, a doctor, who mixed with them in Kuwait for a long time. He said to them: You people, really... The people's speech is following the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) as you heard here. But in reality, there are things the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did that they do not do, and there are things the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not do that they do, either from the perspective of istihsan (juristic preference) in religion, as you saw in the forty-day departure, or from the perspective of acting upon weak hadiths, as they say today. The majority of people act upon weak hadiths in the virtues of deeds. Then they do not distinguish, due to their lack of study of hadith science, between a weak hadith and a fabricated hadith. So any hadith they found in any book, they acted upon it. If it was authentic, then... for them. And if it was weak, the weak hadith is acted upon in the virtues of deeds, but it may be fabricated, and they have no knowledge of that. And this is an example: beginning with salt before food. If they were to eat sweets, they would have to salt them before, because that is how the hadith came, and the hadith is fabricated. It is not permissible to act upon it by consensus. This is what I did not see fit to speak about on this occasion. And I hope that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) will inspire us to act upon the Sunnah and upon the methodology of the righteous Salaf.