The Neglect of Many Aspects of the Sunnah by Some of the Later Generations Due to the Principles They Adopted from the Science of Theology, and How This Led to Their Great Distance from the Sunnah

The Shaykh : Then, after them, there came a generation that neglected the Prophetic Sunnah and abandoned it because of principles adopted by some scholars of theology and rules claimed by some scholars of jurisprudence and those who follow scholars without knowing their evidence. The result was the aforementioned ambiguity, which in turn led to doubt regarding a large portion of the Sunnah and the rejection of another portion because it contradicted those principles and rules. Thus, the verse was inverted for these people; instead of referring the verse to the Sunnah and judging by it, they reversed the matter and referred the Sunnah to their rules and principles. They accepted whatever of the Sunnah agreed with them and rejected the rest. In this way, the complete connection between the Muslim and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was severed, especially among the later generations. They returned to being ignorant of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), his biography, his worship, his fasting, his night prayers, his Hajj, his rulings, and his fatwas. When asked about any of these matters, they would answer you either with a weak hadith that has no basis, or with what is in such-and-such a school of jurisprudence. If it happened to contradict an explicit hadith and they were reminded of it, they would not mention it and would not accept returning to it, citing doubts that are not worth mentioning now. The cause of all this is those principles and rules referred to, some of which will be mentioned shortly, if Allah wills. This plague has spread and engulfed all Islamic lands, scientific journals, and religious books, with few exceptions. You will not find anyone issuing fatwas based on the Book and the Sunnah except for a few rare individuals. In fact, the majority of them rely on one of the four schools of jurisprudence in these matters, and they may even go beyond them to others if they find a benefit they claim in doing so. As for the Sunnah, it has become forgotten and neglected among them, except when benefit also demands it, as some did regarding the hadith of Ibn Abbas concerning divorce with the phrase "three times," and that it was considered a single divorce in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). They reduced it to the status of one of the weaker positions in the schools of jurisprudence. Before, they had not adopted it; before, they had not adopted it, and before adopting it, they had fought it and fought those who called to it.