A word by "Abu Malik" on the virtue of the knowledge of the Companions and those who came after them in matters of creed and jurisprudence.
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Abu Malik: ... or regarding the nation that occurred, or did not occur, I say: Glory be to Allah! How were the Companions - may Allah be pleased with them - the most knowledgeable of this nation.
The Shaykh : What Allah willed!
Abu Malik: In every generation, their knowledge was such that they took it fresh.
The Shaykh: "And whoever enters the sea, he masters the waterwheels."
Abu Malik: "He masters the waterwheels," but Allah - Mighty and Majestic - decreed that the knowledge of the Companions - may Allah be pleased with them - should be hidden, and only a little of it should appear. Perhaps this is part of the wisdom of Allah - Blessed and Exalted is He - so that the nation would not rely on the inherited jurisprudence of the Companions except on this small amount that was gathered for us, and without the intention of its gatherers to make the knowledge of each Companion independent of the others. Therefore, I say that the generations or scholars who came in the centuries following the first century, or the early centuries, should take from this small amount that reached us or was inherited from the Companions a methodology for our understanding of the Book and the Sunnah. Otherwise, if the statements of the Companions - may Allah be pleased with them - had remained regarding these many issues and innovations that occurred in the life of the nation, we would not have labored, and the scholars who came in the subsequent generations would not have exhausted themselves by looking into the issues; because they covered all the issues that existed, especially in creed and worship; because they counted them, meaning.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The Shaykh : What Allah willed!
Abu Malik: In every generation, their knowledge was such that they took it fresh.
The Shaykh: "And whoever enters the sea, he masters the waterwheels."
Abu Malik: "He masters the waterwheels," but Allah - Mighty and Majestic - decreed that the knowledge of the Companions - may Allah be pleased with them - should be hidden, and only a little of it should appear. Perhaps this is part of the wisdom of Allah - Blessed and Exalted is He - so that the nation would not rely on the inherited jurisprudence of the Companions except on this small amount that was gathered for us, and without the intention of its gatherers to make the knowledge of each Companion independent of the others. Therefore, I say that the generations or scholars who came in the centuries following the first century, or the early centuries, should take from this small amount that reached us or was inherited from the Companions a methodology for our understanding of the Book and the Sunnah. Otherwise, if the statements of the Companions - may Allah be pleased with them - had remained regarding these many issues and innovations that occurred in the life of the nation, we would not have labored, and the scholars who came in the subsequent generations would not have exhausted themselves by looking into the issues; because they covered all the issues that existed, especially in creed and worship; because they counted them, meaning.
The Shaykh: Yes.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.