What is the interpretation of Ibn Taymiyyah's rule: "Every general text that the practice of the Salaf did not follow..."?

The questioner : I would like you to explain to us, O Shaykh, the rule that Imam Ibn al-Qayyim, as I believe, stated: "Every general text that the practice of the Salaf did not follow"

The Shaykh : I wanted to reach this conclusion because when I mentioned that man who, with every takbir, would point ten times, he took that from this general text, and I wanted to say that what I fear most is that he will come and take from other general texts for another claim. For example, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And we know that in the prayer there are supplications, some short and some long. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said, for example, between the two prostrations: "O Allah, forgive me and have mercy on me," and so on. What do you think of a person who acts on this hadith and raises his hands, specifically in the final tashahhud, where he (peace and blessings be upon him) said, after seeking refuge from four things: So he supplicates and raises his hands acting on that hadith. This is ignorance of a very important scientific rule, which is: any general text that contains many parts, where one of these parts is indicated by the general text but the knowledge of it was not established by practice, then knowing it is a religious innovation. These examples are before you. But I was inspired one day, and it became clear to me with an example. What do you think? We entered the mosque for one of the prayers that has a sunnah before it, for example, the Zuhr prayer, which has four or five rak'ahs, all of them one. He moved to one side wanting to pray the sunnah. One of the congregation, like those who do not understand how to comprehend the texts, said: "O people, why is this separation? This is He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: 'Come here, let us pray in congregation.' And stronger in indication than this hadith is the prayer of two men being better than the prayer of one man alone, and the prayer of three men being better than the prayer of two men. Let us pray in congregation. How do we respond to these people? The word they use is the word of the scholars of the Salaf, meaning those who understood the methodology of the Salaf and followed the methodology of the Salaf, which is: "If it had been good, they would have preceded us to it." Take an example from these examples, and it will become clear to you that these general arguments have no value at all. In fact, I say that the origin of most of the religious innovations that we fight people over is derived from taking general texts where the practice was not established on some of their parts. So they began adding to the adhan and the iqamah, and they began the raising of the hand in front of the khatib on Friday, which is found in some mosques. All of these have a basis in the Book and the Sunnah: "Remember Allah with much remembrance." O people, Allah said this. What are we doing? "Pray for him and send peace upon him." These are general proofs. So the origin of every religious innovation, to a small extent, is resorting to acting on a general proof on which the practice of the Salaf was not established. And therefore, this research, this knowledge, a person cannot simply read a book and say, "By Allah, what is the meaning of this hadith? What is the meaning of that hadith?" I need a comprehensive understanding of what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was upon and what the righteous Salaf were upon. And if this is achieved, it requires a matter that is not hidden from you all, which is to distinguish between what is authentic, whether from the Sunnah or the athar of the righteous Salaf. This leads me to remind you of a matter in which I differ with some of our Salafi brothers, the shaykhs in India and outside India, who place the right hand over the left after raising the head from the ruku', in the same way that these people resort to in the previous examples. Unfortunately, these people fell into it. They do not have a hadith, neither weak nor fabricated, that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) used to place his right hand over his left in the prayer after raising his head from the ruku'. Where did they come from? They came from general texts, for example: They give you this general text. But O people, did the action of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) follow this general text that you understood? Did the Salaf act upon it? Did any of the imams ever say it? No one.

The questioner : Is it established that the practice of the Salaf did not follow this?

The Shaykh : We are mistaken, and they cannot refute us. We say to them: If this practice had not existed in the first standing, what would you have done? Would you have invented it on your own? Of course, they say no, because this is a form that they cannot legislate with their minds. We say: With this principle, you must provide us with a text that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to do this in the second standing, so that we may proceed together. They say: By Allah, you must bring us evidence that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not do this. And if the innovators heard them, they would take this as a mature weapon against them. Why? By Allah, adding to the adhan after the prayer, or adding the salutation upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) after the adhan, is an innovation. Bring me a text, my brother, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade it, or that they did not do it? We have nothing, of course. But we know the life of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), which some scholars described as such that if it were to be transmitted, it would be because these are matters that the efforts of people converge to transmit. A mu'adhdhin calls the adhan five times a day for five prayers, and then all these centuries pass, and no narration comes that one of them used to add this extra. This is, without a doubt, pure fabrication. And so we say: All these centuries have passed, and none of the mujtahid imams, whether they were the four, or the forty, or the four hundred—we are not fanatical for one over the others—none of them said that it is from the Sunnah to do this. So the error arises from imposing a personal understanding by a person who, in our Syrian expression, is in the shallows, meaning in the shallow water, after he has entered the swimming pool, and he does not dive; he cannot dive into the seas, and he comes up with these opinions. Once, a student of knowledge whom I know came to me; he graduated from the Islamic University. He is originally from Tunisia and was in Damascus. He got to know me, and I was the one who recommended him at that time, so they accepted him as a student at the university. He continued and graduated. Then he was sent for da'wah to Belgium. He visited me, I think a year or two ago, at home. We prayed Maghrib, and since he was a traveler, and with him was a person who came with him from Belgium, originally from Morocco, when he prayed, he raised his finger between the two prostrations. He raised his head from the first prostration and moved his finger between the two prostrations. I had, before witnessing this, also given this example, saying: Perhaps you heard something. And then I was surprised that it happened before me. After we finished the prayer, he said: It is in a hadith. We said to him: Where is this hadith? He said: In the Musnad of Imam Ahmad. We said to him: Is it authentic? He said: Yes. I said to him: My dear, this hadith is called by the scholars of hadith a shadhdh (anomalous) hadith, and it is one of the categories of weak hadith. Because when we move for the tashahhud, we took from the hadith of Wa'il ibn Hujr. He said: This hadith has routes; these routes converge on one person, who is 'Asim ibn Kulaib, from his father, from Wa'il ibn Hujr—three people. Then the routes multiply below him. All the routes narrate the hadith as we mentioned to you: the pointing in the tashahhud is one route that became anomalous in "Musnad of Imam Ahmad", in "Mu'jam al-Tabarani", and in "Musannaf 'Abd al-Razzaq". And through this route, these scholars received it from Sufyan, from 'Asim ibn Kulaib, from his father, from Wa'il, describing the prayer. So when he raised his head from the first prostration, he pointed with his finger, and when he mentioned the tashahhud, there was no pointing. This is a shadhdh hadith, an erroneous hadith. You might even call it, or consider it an example of a mawquf (inverted) hadith, because the pointing was inverted from the tashahhud to what is between the two prostrations. All of this comes from what I mentioned earlier, a word you remember: We said that one must encompass, to the extent of his ability, the Sunnah that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and the righteous Salaf were upon, with the condition of distinguishing the authentic from the weak. Otherwise, he will fall into innovations without wanting it or realizing it. And this is the example. This is an action based on a hadith, and it exists in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad, but this is a shadhdh hadith. How does one know this shadhdh hadith? Every student of knowledge? This is impossible. Therefore, I consider it among the profound sayings what some Sufis mistakenly narrate as a marfu' (prophetic) hadith attributed to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): They consider it a hadith, but it is not a hadith; it is wisdom in its place. When a person knows his state, that he is still walking the walk of a nursing infant, one day he makes a leap and acts as if he is the greatest mujtahid. And when he is asked: Where did you get this from? He says: This is my opinion. Well, every person has an opinion and has ijtihad. This is the calamity of the time, and this is a calamity specific to those who claim to follow the Book and the Sunnah. So we ask Allah to inspire us with guidance, to correct our behavior, and to inspire us to act with the correct action, which requires that we know the ways of reaching correct knowledge. Please.