The reality of the Salafi call is the obligation to follow the Book and the Sunnah and to understand them.
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The Shaykh : Then here we clarify the matter somewhat. We say, why do we call ourselves Salafis and the Salafi call? We have mentioned to you repeatedly that all Muslims call for following the Book and the Sunnah, but this following is not restricted to a specific subject and a limited, clear, and distinct methodology. So we saw that it is necessary to restrict the call to the Book and the Sunnah as it was with the righteous Salaf. How was the righteous Salaf? Were they all scholars? Were they all cultured and wise, or was the scholar among them few and the majority of them not scholars? Was there this division that the writer keeps harping about? That scholars are ordered to follow the Book and the Sunnah, or that the general public must follow a specific madhhab? Every Muslim knows by necessity that in the generations attested to as being in the best of times, there was no adherence to a specific madhhab. We all know there was no difference between a scholar, a student, and an ignorant person, that in the time of the Salaf there was no madhhab called the madhhab of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq to which some people would belong and say, "I am an Abu Bakrite." Nor was there an Umarite madhhab, nor an Uthmanite, nor an Aliite.
So these three generations attested to as being in the best of times, the general people whom the writer wants to impose rigidity upon regarding madhhab adherence, how were the general people in those golden generations? I say in summary, and the details are known, how were they? However they were, they must be so today. However the general Muslims were in the generations attested to as being in the best of times, the general Muslims today and after today must also be so. We are striving to revive the true Islamic life. History must repeat itself. The Muslims, their scholars, must return to being as their scholars were. The Muslims, the followers of the scholars and the general Muslims, must return to being as the followers of the scholars and the general Muslims were there. So if we say we do not call the cultured and the scholars to follow the Book and the Sunnah.
... as if they understood the Salafi call from ... and their enemies, and these are the ones who ... this calamity of misunderstanding this call. Many people quote from us, some ... and some fight us and attack us in secret, saying that we call all Muslims, even the general public, to understand directly from the Book and the Sunnah. And I say explicitly, if there were actually people calling the ignorant illiterates who cannot read or write to take fiqh, 'aqidah, and the whole religion directly from the Book and the Sunnah, and they are not proficient in reading any verse or narrating any hadith, then the words of this person and the words of those enemies would be correct. But is the call like this? We call the one who does not understand anything of knowledge to take control of the Book and the Sunnah and to impose his ignorance, his commonness, and his illiteracy on the Book and the Sunnah, and then say, "I understand it this way, and I am commanded to follow the Book and the Sunnah." There is no Muslim ... whether you want Salafi or Khalfi, there is no Muslim who ever says such a thing. And we have always said, and forever, and recently ... people came to me from Homs, among them a young man somewhat cultured, who heard from ... the well-known and similar to it ... the disbeliever that we call all people to follow the Book and the Sunnah ... that the ignorant understand the Book and the Sunnah with their ignorance. So I explained the matter to him with some detail, briefly.
I told him, the text of the Noble Qur'an divided people in terms of knowledge and ignorance into two groups. It made them scholars, who are those who understand the Book and the Sunnah, and their opposite are the non-scholars, whom we call the ignorant, who do not understand the Book and the Sunnah. Two groups, and each group has its obligation by the text of the Noble Qur'an. Allah the Exalted said:[An-Nahl 16:43].
So He is addressing the Ummah in its entirety, in its scholars and its ignorant, in its cultured and its illiterate. We say, you are two groups: scholars and non-scholars. The non-scholars must ask the scholars:[An-Nahl 16:43]. This is what we call people to. But we may differ with the opponents in the concept of knowledge and the scholar. What is knowledge? And who is the scholar?
If it is ... from our scholars, as for the scholar, he is the scholar of the Book and the Sunnah, and he is not a scholar even if he encompassed all the books of the branches ... knowledge. This is not a scholar, but rather he is ... and he is ... he collected everything the scholars said in their books, despite the many differences in these opinions ... he saw what is ... and what is ... he told you with complete frankness, "I do not know."
So he admits that he does not know, because knowledge, as Ibn al-Qayyim said: "Allah said, His Messenger said", etc., the well-known poetry ... Allah said:[An-Nahl 16:43], meaning, ask the people of knowledge if you do not know. Who are the people of knowledge? The people of ... in the books ... The people of knowledge are, as Allah the Exalted said: [Al-Hijr 15:9]. The people of knowledge are the people of the Qur'an, meaning, ask the people of knowledge of the Qur'an ... the scholar of other than the Qur'an ... if he is a scholar of the Sunnah, because ... the Qur'an: [An-Nahl 16:44]. The scholar is the scholar of the revealed Qur'an and the clarifying Sunnah. The scholar of the Qur'an ... and the clarifying hadith is the speech of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): [An-Nahl 16:44]. So we, the scholar is the one who, in what he holds in all matters of religion, in all ... of Islam, we say, "Allah said, the Messenger of Allah said," and ... is not the scholar ... the scholar ... and the ignorant ... is not a scholar ... he asks what the scholars understood ... from here ... in the mind of some of those who heard the call of the Messenger ... he adopted it, but he ... the truth is that the Salafi call ... the Salafi call ... but I say ... .
So these three generations attested to as being in the best of times, the general people whom the writer wants to impose rigidity upon regarding madhhab adherence, how were the general people in those golden generations? I say in summary, and the details are known, how were they? However they were, they must be so today. However the general Muslims were in the generations attested to as being in the best of times, the general Muslims today and after today must also be so. We are striving to revive the true Islamic life. History must repeat itself. The Muslims, their scholars, must return to being as their scholars were. The Muslims, the followers of the scholars and the general Muslims, must return to being as the followers of the scholars and the general Muslims were there. So if we say we do not call the cultured and the scholars to follow the Book and the Sunnah.
... as if they understood the Salafi call from ... and their enemies, and these are the ones who ... this calamity of misunderstanding this call. Many people quote from us, some ... and some fight us and attack us in secret, saying that we call all Muslims, even the general public, to understand directly from the Book and the Sunnah. And I say explicitly, if there were actually people calling the ignorant illiterates who cannot read or write to take fiqh, 'aqidah, and the whole religion directly from the Book and the Sunnah, and they are not proficient in reading any verse or narrating any hadith, then the words of this person and the words of those enemies would be correct. But is the call like this? We call the one who does not understand anything of knowledge to take control of the Book and the Sunnah and to impose his ignorance, his commonness, and his illiteracy on the Book and the Sunnah, and then say, "I understand it this way, and I am commanded to follow the Book and the Sunnah." There is no Muslim ... whether you want Salafi or Khalfi, there is no Muslim who ever says such a thing. And we have always said, and forever, and recently ... people came to me from Homs, among them a young man somewhat cultured, who heard from ... the well-known and similar to it ... the disbeliever that we call all people to follow the Book and the Sunnah ... that the ignorant understand the Book and the Sunnah with their ignorance. So I explained the matter to him with some detail, briefly.
I told him, the text of the Noble Qur'an divided people in terms of knowledge and ignorance into two groups. It made them scholars, who are those who understand the Book and the Sunnah, and their opposite are the non-scholars, whom we call the ignorant, who do not understand the Book and the Sunnah. Two groups, and each group has its obligation by the text of the Noble Qur'an. Allah the Exalted said:
So ask the people of the message if you do not know.
فاسألوا أهل الذكر إن كنتم لا تعلمونSo He is addressing the Ummah in its entirety, in its scholars and its ignorant, in its cultured and its illiterate. We say, you are two groups: scholars and non-scholars. The non-scholars must ask the scholars:
So ask the people of the message if you do not know.
فاسألوا أهل الذكر إن كنتم لا تعلمونIf it is ... from our scholars, as for the scholar, he is the scholar of the Book and the Sunnah, and he is not a scholar even if he encompassed all the books of the branches ... knowledge. This is not a scholar, but rather he is ... and he is ... he collected everything the scholars said in their books, despite the many differences in these opinions ... he saw what is ... and what is ... he told you with complete frankness, "I do not know."
So he admits that he does not know, because knowledge, as Ibn al-Qayyim said: "Allah said, His Messenger said", etc., the well-known poetry ... Allah said: