What is the meaning of the hadith: (Do not pray the 'Asr prayer except in Banu Quraizah)? Since some people use it as evidence for the permissibility of disagreement in general and for validating the position of every party in a dispute.

The questioner : The hadith There is a lot of discussion about it. Some innovators use it as evidence for what they want, and others use it as well. We need the correct understanding.

The Shaykh : Here is a question, which is also one of the problems of the present time, and of some of these groups, this group or that, who want to smooth over the bad reality in which Muslims find themselves, unfortunately, and do not want to bring about reform in the land, but rather want to leave the old as it is. They do not want to revive the Sunnah that people have killed off due to their ignorance or their negligence, and they do not want to fall under the generality of the aforementioned hadith after understanding it correctly. The hadith. I say that many people, including some preachers, cling to maintaining the disagreements that we have inherited today over these long centuries. I wish these disagreements had stopped at what they call, and I mean what I say, branches, but unfortunately they have gone beyond that to what they also call principles. By my saying that they call them branches and principles, I mean that this is a modern innovation that has entered the Muslims and made the Shari'ah, in their view, two parts: a part that must be attended to and a part that does not need to be attended to. Whoever does that has done well, and if not, there is no blame. And the calamity, or the misfortune, if this expression is correct, of the aforementioned division is that those who adopted it will not act upon what they called principles or branches, and their religion will become mere desire. This is because dividing Islam into principles and branches, first, requires extensive knowledge of the Book and the Sunnah, and as you see, unfortunately, its people in this age are few, and very few, because most of those who are thought to be scholars are only scholars of a madhhab or of the madhahib. As for the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and the authentic Sunnah in particular, very few of the scholars of the present age are characterized by this correct knowledge. I say that dividing or defining Islam and making it two parts, principles and branches, requires this extensive knowledge of the Book and the Sunnah. Second, is it possible for the Muslims, if they gathered on one platform and in one place, all the scholars and the true scholars, if they gathered on one platform, is it possible for them to make Islam two parts, principles on which they agree and branches on which they agree, or will there remain some matters where some of them include them in the first part and some include them in the second part? In that case, what is the state of the general Muslims if the scholars disagree, and as you see, until now, true is the Great Allah: So disagreement is part of human nature. If they gathered on one platform and wanted to clarify to people what is permissible to be in the first part and what is permissible to be in the other part, they would not be able to agree on that, but they would remain different. Therefore, my firm belief is that it is not permissible to distinguish between one law and another, saying this is a principle that must not be neglected and this is a branch that may be neglected. Yes, if what is meant by branch and principle is what corresponds to the fard and what corresponds to the Sunnah, this is undoubtedly a possible matter, but that is not what is intended. What is intended is what relates to 'aqidah and what relates to worship. What relates to 'aqidah is the principle, and it is what must be held to and not neglected in any part of it. And what relates to acts of worship, the matter is easy, especially since they brought in the hammer: "Whoever imitates a scholar will meet Allah safe." And due to the popularity of this phrase, many people imagine that it is a hadith from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), but it has no basis, not even in the fabricated hadiths. There is no basis for this phrase.