What is the ruling on the statement of the Ibadiyyah: "We take from al-Rabi' because there is no criticism of him, whereas you take from men who have been criticized."?

The questioner : ... But they are specifically our brothers, the Ibadiyyah. By the way, we call them our brothers because they are Muslims.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : They have a basis in the men, which they call "chains of gold" in their Musnad, the Musnad of al-Rabi'. As for other men, there is criticism (jarh) and there is vindication (ta'dil) among them. This criticism and this vindication of the men also carry a high probability of error, thereby weakening our argument, meaning by our reliance on a chain with this probability.

The Shaykh : Live through Rajab and you will see a wonder or hear a wonder. Why is al-Rabi' a prophet? Of course, the answer is no.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Okay, is he not a man?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : How do they take knowledge from the mouths of men? Then he did not write it down in his book, the Musnad, which they called the "Correct Musnad," and there is no basis for this name among them, let alone among others. Rather, this attribute was attached to the book by force, to match what the people of the Sunnah have, namely Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. But what do we have to do with this? Rather, I say that al-Rabi' is the author of the book, not a compiler of the book. And these people, whom you say are our brothers—and they are our brothers in general Islam—this is the case. However, in the details, they may be enemies of the Sunnah. We are not discussing that now. The important thing is this book. If we assume that al-Rabi' himself compiled it, and this is a hypothesis, did he take the hadiths in this book directly from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)? The answer is no. Between him and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) are at least three intermediaries. The highest intermediary is Ibn Abbas, and the one who narrated from him is Jabir ibn Zayd, yes. And the third intermediary, who is al-Rabi's shaykh, what is his name?

Another questioner: Abu Ubaydah.

The Shaykh : Abu 'Ubayd. Yes, they took knowledge exactly as we take it, from the mouths of men. So how did they distinguish themselves from the people of the Sunnah? No, quite the opposite. The people of the Sunnah distinguished themselves from them with knowledge of which they have absolutely no knowledge. And this is an opportunity I must seize to explain the difference between the people of the Sunnah as a whole and the other schools that contradict the people of the Sunnah. The people of the Sunnah are distinguished from all other groups, whether they are Khawarij, Ibadiyyah, Shi'ah, Rafidah, Zaydiyyah, or so on. They do not have anything called "the principles of hadith" ('ulum al-hadith), and they do not have books of criticism and vindication (al-jarh wa al-ta'dil). And if something of that is found, it is disconnected between them and those who are trustworthy, i.e., whoever is trustworthy in the second century, for example, or the third, like this al-Rabi' and like this Abu... what did I say?

Another questioner: Abu Ubaydah.

The Shaykh : Abu 'Ubaydah. Yes, and there are other men, but most of the hadiths in this Musnad revolve around this chain. Where is the biography of this Abu 'Ubaydah? They do not find a book that can be a contemporary of him for his authentication. Rather, between him and him is a century, one hundred years, or even two hundred years, and there is absolutely nothing of these books. They are poor in the material of the science of criticism and vindication, and they cannot criticize or vindicate except by relying on the people of the Sunnah. This is a great loss and makes their school exposed to becoming scattered dust with the slightest scientific discussion if it were to take place between a man from the people of the Sunnah who knows the principles of correct knowledge and one of those who boast and puff themselves up with what they were not given. If we wanted to investigate their jurisprudence in the commentary of their book, which is the only book they have, namely the Musnad of al-Rabi', you would find that the commentator among them relies on the books of the people of the Sunnah. Why? Because they are poor and have no books. And therefore, I am amazed, and what amazes me most, is that they continue to be partisan for their school against the school of the people of the Sunnah, while they feel in the depths of their souls that they can never do without the books of the people of the Sunnah. But whenever they see a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari that agrees with their jurisprudence, opinion, or creed, they bite on it with their teeth. However, if they find in it dozens of hadiths that contradict what they have—and what they have is not taken from the Book of Allah or from the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, but rather they inherited it as a school—they sweep away those authentic hadiths from Sahih al-Bukhari. Even though they pretend that they rely on the books of the people of the Sunnah, on Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim. But they are like the other people of desires (ahwa'). And no blame, for comparison does not imply similarity in every aspect. If I say that Zayd is a lion, I do not mean that he has a tail, but I compare him in one trait, which is bravery. Zayd is a lion means in bravery. So I say they are like the Christians in this respect: they study the Qur'an and they study the Sunnah, then they take from these two Islamic sources what agrees with their desires, and they do not care about or pay attention to anything else, but rather they turn away from it. This is not how a Muslim should be. A Muslim must set a path, a methodology, to follow to reach knowledge. We say now frankly that we have no way to know what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was upon except by observing this logical, scientific sequence that I mentioned earlier. The Companions of the Messenger received knowledge from the Messenger, then they transmitted it to the generation after them, who are the Tabi'un. These Tabi'un, in turn, transmitted it to their followers. Then the writing down of this transmitted knowledge by narration began: "So-and-so told me," "I heard so-and-so say such and such." The books were written down, and the scholars of the early Muslims, the people of the Sunnah—and not the Khawarij, nor the Ibadiyyah, nor the Shi'ah, nor the Rafidah, nor the Zaydiyyah; it was not they who traveled to the far and near lands and collected hadith from various narrators. Here I must pause. We know by necessity what history tells us, without doubt or hesitation, that the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) were not all in Madinah. Some lived in Makkah, some lived in al-Ta'if, and there were the people of the desert. So-and-so came and pledged allegiance to the Messenger (peace be upon him), then returned to his people. So the Companions of the Messenger in the time of the Messenger were not all gathered in the Messenger's mosque in the Messenger's city, but rather they were scattered in the lands that are the Arabian Peninsula. And after that, when the Islamic conquests began to expand their circle, the Companions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) scattered in these far and distant lands. And you know that they reached, if Allah wills, Persia, and later they reached China, they reached the Maghreb, they reached Andalus, which is called Spain now. So what happened to this knowledge that was confined to the Companions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him)? It scattered with the scattering of these Companions in the lands. Who are those who connected with these Companions? Give us one of those who claim that they are on the truth and the people of the Sunnah are on falsehood. Name for us a man from the Tabi'un or the followers of the Tabi'un or after them who traveled all these lands to collect the hadiths that scattered with the scattering of their carriers from the Companions and the Tabi'un. What happened and what occurred when the Companions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) scattered due to the Islamic conquests was that the turn of the Tabi'un came to collect the knowledge. Some of them were in Madinah, so they received knowledge from the Companions in Madinah. Some of them were in Makkah, but few of those who traveled from Makkah to Madinah to receive knowledge from the people of Madinah, let alone other lands like the Levant and others. These Tabi'un, then...