A lengthy address by the Shaykh explaining the correct (Salafi) call and the pillars upon which it stands, with a warning against religious innovation.

The Shaykh : I will deliver a brief address, if Allah wills, regarding the call to which we invite people. I begin with the sermon of necessity that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) used to teach his Companions: "Indeed, all praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own selves and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide, and whomsoever He misguides, none can guide. And I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. As for what follows, the best of speech is the speech of Allah, the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and the worst of matters are their innovations. Every innovation is a religious innovation (bid'ah), every religious innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire. Our call, which we have agreed upon—and every people may agree upon what they wish—is the call we have agreed to name the Salafi call. It is based on what all Islamic sects agree upon, namely the Book and the Sunnah. However, we have seen, through experience over these long centuries, and especially in the present age, that it is not sufficient for one who wishes to be certain of his Lord and guided by the Sunnah of His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to merely claim affiliation with these two sources, which are indispensable for every Muslim. It is not enough; rather, one must add to them the methodology of the righteous Salaf. Thus, our call is based on the Book, the Sunnah, and the methodology of the righteous Salaf. We say this because all Muslims, as we have repeated to many of our brothers and continue to repeat, for it is a very important reality, yet it is absent from the minds of most Muslims in the present age. Among them are many who claim to belong to the Islamic call and are said to be callers to Islam, and even some who wish to establish the state of Islam, but not according to the methodology we are discussing. Rather, they base it on an understanding they derive either from some of the past, where the one from whom they derived it was not correct in what he held, or where this contemporary or this caller in the present age exerts independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) to understand a verse or a hadith as it appears to him, without returning to the third reference, which is the Salafi reference. Where did we get this third addition? We say: the Book, the Sunnah, and the methodology of the righteous Salaf. We always and forever took this from the Book, from the Sunnah, and from the sayings of the righteous Salaf as well. In the Book, you all read the saying of Allah (Mighty and Majestic): If Allah (Mighty and Majestic) did not intend to legislate for people the necessity of adhering to this third reference, which is the path of the believers, He would not have added it to the saying of the Lord of the Worlds: He said: Thus, the Lord of the Worlds (Blessed and Exalted is He) mentioned in this verse a third thing besides what the Messenger (peace be upon him) was upon, where He said: Therefore, everyone who is eager to follow the Book of Allah and the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) must understand each of these two sources, the Book and the Sunnah, according to the path of the believers, as the earliest Muslims were. There are many examples in this topic, but I do not wish to expand on it because I want to add something else, as you will hear shortly, if Allah wills. However, I will be brief regarding this call: the call of the Book and the Sunnah, and according to the methodology of the righteous Salaf. Why do we always and forever emphasize "according to the methodology of the righteous Salaf"? You know, first, by this noble verse, where Allah (Mighty and Majestic) warned against deviating from the path of the believers, and He did not limit His warning to deviating from what the Messenger was upon. He combined both and said: Likewise, the Sunnah confirms this additional meaning to the Book and the Sunnah. His saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in the hadith of the factions: This draws attention here, as if it is a quotation from the previous verse. The group means: what the Messenger (peace be upon him) and his group of noble Companions were upon. This hadith fully aligns with the previous verse. Likewise, the hadith of al-'Abd ibn Sari'ah, in which I summarize that he addressed them, and they said: "Advise us." He said: And he did not stop there, but added to his Sunnah, saying (peace be upon him): This is the Book of Allah, and these are the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). As for the sayings of the righteous Salaf, to whom we belong and take pride in our affiliation, and we hope that Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) will grant us success in adhering to their guidance, for they are the ones about whom we can say that they were guided by their Lord. Whereas, as time recedes, people become further removed from understanding the guidance of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) on one hand, and from applying what they understood on the other hand. Among the sayings of these Salaf that align with what preceded from the Book and the Sunnah is what is mentioned in the books of innovations written to warn against them and prohibit them: the saying of Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman (may Allah be pleased with him): "Any act of worship that the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not perform, do not perform it." That is: do not worship Allah with it. "Any act of worship that the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not perform, do not perform it." Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman referred us to this, and you all know that he was the keeper of the secret of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). This warns us and prohibits us from worshipping Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) with an act of worship that the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not practice. From that also is the saying of Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him): "Follow and do not innovate, for you have been sufficed. Hold fast to the old matter." "Follow and do not innovate, for you have been sufficed. Hold fast to the old matter." And there is a story we have mentioned repeatedly and often, the summary of which is that Ibn Mas'ud stood upon circles in the mosque that were not dancing the dance of the dervishes and the people of the paths, like the well-known Whirling Dervishes or their like, who spin and claim that they are remembering Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). No. These circles that Ibn Mas'ud saw in the mosque were remembering Allah, glorifying Allah, praising Allah, and saying Allahu Akbar. And yet he disapproved of them. Did he disapprove of their glorification, praise, and saying Allahu Akbar? No. Rather, because he saw in them an unknown innovation. What? He found in front of each of the members of the circles pebbles with which they counted the glorification, saying Allahu Akbar, and praise. And in the middle of each circle was a Shaykh, the head of the circle, the head of the dhikr. Let us call him that for now, please. He would say to those around him: "Glorify thus, praise thus, say Allahu Akbar thus." So they would click the pebbles or count the number that the Shaykh of the circle ordered them to. This is all that Ibn Mas'ud saw of the members of the circles. What was his stance? He said to them, warning and admonishing: "Woe to you! What is this that you are doing?" And he had covered his face with a veil and removed the veil from his face and said: "I am a Companion of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), Abdullah..."
Ibn Mas'ud: "What is this that you are doing?" They said: "Beads," just as the innovators say today, "My brother, there is nothing wrong with us praying upon the Messenger and remembering Allah." They said: "Beads by which we count the glorification, praise, and magnification of Allah." He said: "Count your sins, and I guarantee you that nothing of your good deeds will be lost. Count your sins, and I guarantee that nothing of your good deeds will be lost. Woe to you! How quickly you are destroyed! These are his garments (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) and they have not worn out, and these are his vessels and they have not been broken. By Him in whose hand is my soul, are you not more guided than the Ummah of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family)?" That is, the companions of Muhammad, the community of Muhammad. "By Him in whose hand is my soul, are you not more guided than the Ummah of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), or are you clinging to a sin of misguidance?" Look at the eloquent, classical Arabic rhetoric; he did not say "or are you clinging to misguidance," but rather "a sin of misguidance," to belittle the misguidance. So their response was the response of every innovator in every time and place. So memorize this response from Ibn Umm Maktum, from Ibn Umm 'Abd. This is Ibn Mas'ud; the reference to him by this expression came in the hadith . So memorize his response. What did he say in response to their statement? "By Allah, O Abu 'Abd al-Rahman, we did not intend anything but good." He said: "How many are those who intend good but do not attain it." "How many are those who intend good but do not attain it." He cited evidence for that, saying: "Indeed, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) told us: Ibn Mas'ud said to the people of the circles: "We heard the Messenger (peace be upon him) narrate about a group who are more devoted in worship than we, the companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and yet they will emerge from the religion as an arrow emerges from its target." The lesson from this story is that its narrator said: "And indeed, we saw those people fighting us on the day of al-Nahrawan." That is, they became among the Khawarij who rebelled against the Commander of the Faithful, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, and fought him, while they were in the wrong and he was in the right, until he uprooted their roots and put an end to their misguidance, and only a few individuals were saved. So this small innovation, which they belittled and did not care about, and which they thought was of no consequence, led these innovators to the major innovation, which is rebelling against the Rightly Guided Caliph. From this, we quoted from the saying of the scholars: "Minor sins are the herald of major sins." By this word, they mean that a Muslim should not belittle committing minor sins and say, "It is no big deal," because if it becomes a habit and a routine for the one committing these minor sins, it will lead him to committing major sins. I quoted from the words of these scholars that a small innovation is the herald of a large innovation. And this is the example that occurred in this story, which is narrated with a sound chain in the Sunan of al-Darimi. When the Book and the Sunnah and the sayings of our righteous Salaf agree that if Muslims want to understand their religion correctly, they must adhere to three things as their foundation: the Book, the Sunnah, and what the righteous Salaf were upon. This is very clear, because they were eyewitnesses who saw how the Messenger acted, and therefore they transmitted to us everything the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) was upon, including what concerned his clothes, what concerned his hair, and even what concerned his sandals. It came in the two Sahihs from the hadith of Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: "Two sandals with straps," meaning two leather straps, sandals or chappals, or whatever they are called, which varies by country, used in the Hijaz region: four toes in one compartment and the thumb in a compartment. The two compartments in the Arabic language—what does this matter have to do with the subject? That the Messenger had two sandals with straps. This has absolutely no relation to worship and religion. But if this indicates anything, as they say today, it indicates the eagerness of the Prophet's companions (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) to transmit to those who would come after them what they witnessed from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). And in that lies another benefit, which I hope you will pay attention to: it is as if they transmitted everything and left the research into these matters to those who would come after them, influenced by his saying (peace and blessings be upon him and his family): Meaning, it is possible that in the second generation, in the second century, individuals from the Tabi'un will understand from what they heard from some of the Companions what some of the Companions did not understand. So they transmitted everything concerning the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), whether it is what some jurists call the Sunnah of worship or what they call the Sunnah of custom. So there is no escape for every Muslim from getting to know not only the Book and the Sunnah, but also what the righteous Salaf were upon. And it must be mentioned here that getting to know what the Companions were upon has only one path, and it is not the path of the exegetes, nor the jurists, nor the linguists, nor whatever you count of the specialists in various sciences, but rather it is the path of one group: the people of hadith. The people of hadith are the ones who can provide the conditions that follow the first condition, the Book. The first condition is this, and praise be to Allah, as He the Exalted said: As for the Sunnah, no group can present it to the Muslims except one group: the people of hadith. And so it came from some of the Salaf, and foremost among them Ahmad ibn Hanbal, the Imam of the Sunnah, that his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in the mass-transmitted hadith: He said: "They are the people of hadith." This victorious group is the people of hadith in every time and place, because they are the ones who can know what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) was upon first, and then they are the ones who can know what his companions (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) were upon. Therefore, the decisive ruling, and this is the summary of the speech, the decisive ruling in distinguishing those who truly cling to the Book and the Sunnah, not just in name, is that they know what the righteous Salaf were upon first, and then they follow their way, as you heard in the previous verse regarding the warning against opposing the path of the believers. The first thing that comes to the mind of the one following this noble verse is that the intended meaning of "the path of the believers" is the companions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), due to the known characteristics they possessed, which are known to you all. So you have understood why we call for the Book and the Sunnah and upon the methodology of the righteous Salaf, because all the schools, all the paths, and all the parties that have occurred, especially in this time, do not fall outside the circle of Islam. There is no group or party that says, "We are not upon the Book and the Sunnah." But if you place them on the path of the believers, you will find them deviating from the path of the believers. Why? Because they interpret the texts of the Book and the Sunnah according to their own concepts that arise in their minds, and in that they oppose what the righteous Salaf were upon of guidance and light. The second thing I want to add, after I have summarized for you the reason for our call to the Book and the Sunnah, which is upon the methodology of the righteous Salaf.