Our need to learn the Book and the Sunnah according to the understanding of the righteous Salaf? With an explanation of how to know what they were upon.

The Shaykh : We are now in need of many means and media. We are now in need to know something other than the Book and the Sunnah, which is what we constantly talk about, and that is knowing what our righteous Salaf were upon. How can we know what our righteous Salaf were upon? We cannot do so except through: First, the Book; second, the Sunnah; and third, the Salafi athar. We do not now find scholars by the dozens who are proficient in the knowledge of the Sunnah. Where are these scholars by the hundreds and thousands who are skilled in knowing what our righteous Salaf were upon from the athar they left behind? Because it is their saying, doing, and application of the Book and the Sunnah. There are now many difficulties in the path of the da'is today, truly. These difficulties did not exist in the early centuries due to the proximity of the era to the revelation of the revelation upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). So we are today in need of massive and very extensive efforts. These meanings are not considered by Muslim da'is in general. They do not know that this Islam today requires the specific Muslims to study many and very many sciences, including following the Salafi athar, so that they may protect themselves from becoming one of the misguided sects, such as the Mu'tazilah, the Khawarij, the Murji'ah, and the like. Because these people relied on their own heads and interpreted the verses and hadiths with their minds, and did not try to seek help from what the righteous Salaf were upon. Moreover, these sects were close in time to us; between them and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) were two hundred or three hundred years. Now, between us and him (peace be upon him) are fourteen centuries. So purifying the knowledge requires a long and broad time, and then the generation of education upon this knowledge also requires tremendous efforts. Where are these scholars in such numbers that the correct idea is not realized except with correct knowledge, and this does not happen except as we explained through the Book, the Sunnah, and the Salafi athar, and then that this correct education is accompanied by correct upbringing? Without this and that, it is not possible for the Muslim state to stand, in which all Muslim da'is participate in name but differ in methodology and application. The easiest thing is for one of them to say, "We want to establish an Islamic state," even if they do not know anything about Islam. There is a Syrian joke that says: A man from the non-Arabs met a Jew on his way, and said to him while armed with a dagger: "Convert to Islam or I will kill you." He said: "What do you want me to say?" He said to him: "By Allah, I do not know." So he is enthusiastic about his Islam and wants to kill the disbeliever, but when the disbeliever surrenders and tells him to teach him what to say, he says to him, "I do not know." So these are the ones who want to establish the state of Islam. The state of Islam needs a constitution, it needs an interpreter of this constitution, which is called law today. Where are these people? Now, the issue of Afghanistan, in my opinion, will be a great lesson for the Muslims, because if they are victorious—and we hope this will be soon—and they drive out the tails of the Soviets and the communists from Kabul and other capitals there, and the mujahideen occupy it in the path of Allah, what is the color of this state that they keep talking about establishing, the Islamic state? The best of their cases is that they will establish it as a Hanafi state. I do not want from this to say, "Leave them and the Russians, and do not help them in driving out the Russians." No, by your compassion, some evil is less than some. But we must look at the consequences, "And whoever does not look at the consequences, the age will not be his companion." They will establish it as a Hanafi state. What is in this Hanafi state?