The Refutation of Those Who Deny the Report of a Single Narrator

The Shaykh : The Sunnah is of two types: a Sunnah of action and a Sunnah of omission. Have you heard this term...?

The questioner : Our Da'wah tape?

Another questioner: No, no.

The Shaykh : They want to make worship as if it were a custom. You see now how the rituals of Hajj are being turned into a vacation, but Hajj is not like that.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: Go ahead.
What spread in the beginning of time and in the end of time was only through individual callers; that is, what was done by the early Salaf, as the later Khalaf do today, is that they go out in groups of dozens. Where to? They say: to Da'wah. And they are in need of someone to call them, so they go out as callers without being skilled in Da'wah, and they do not know Da'wah, nor do they know the evidence from the Book and the Sunnah. I think you do not need me to state explicitly whom I mean by this, for the speech is very clear. It was not the practice of the Salaf to send out a group in which there was one person with a little knowledge of jurisprudence and the rest were common Muslims, to where? To the ignorant Arab tribes to teach them, to the polytheists among the Jews and the Christians. It was not the practice of the Salaf, nor did the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) send out individuals like this, but rather he sent out a select group of the Companions of the Messenger (peace be upon him) in knowledge, morals, and worship. Among the most famous of these were Ali ibn Abi Talib, Mu'adh ibn Jabal, Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, Abu Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah, and the like of these great Companions. So Mu'adh ibn Jabal went to call to Yemen. To what did he call? Did he call to worship and leave the call to creed? This is not reasonable, especially since when the Messenger (peace be upon him) sent Mu'adh, the first thing he advised him with was that he said to him: to the end of the hadith. So Mu'adh ibn Jabal, first in obedience to his command (peace be upon him), began with creed, and in application as well, he did so. How can it be said that the report of a single narrator does not establish creed, when the Messenger of Allah did not send out except individuals? Mu'adh alone, Abu Musa alone, Abu Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah alone, and so on.
And I remember a hadith in "Sahih al-Bukhari" that Abu Musa visited his brother in his house in Yemen, and there was a man bound in chains. When Abu Musa descended, he asked what was the matter with him? He said: He apostatized from his religion. He said: By Allah, I will not sit down until the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is applied to him: , so he was killed and he sat down; that is, this noble Companion conveyed this ruling and it was executed immediately, and he was coming from a country to which he was calling while he was alone. So how can it be said in the end of time that authentic hadiths, because they are not mass-transmitted, do not establish creed? And I once made a joke with people like these, a joke that is truly not a joke, it is knowledge if they only knew it. I said: It is claimed that one of these people who say that creed is not established except by the number of mass transmission went to Japan to call to Islam, and according to the rule followed by all Muslims and as Mu'adh did, he began with creed. What do they know of Islam in Japan? Nothing. So he began with creed, but of the creed with them—regrettably—it is that the reports of single narrators are not taken in creed. So there was in the gathering a clever, sharp young man in a corner of the gathering, and it was said in old times: "In the corners are secrets," so he raised his finger and said: O Professor, you are deciding that it is part of Islamic creed that creed is not established by the report of a single narrator, and I see you deciding for us the creed of Islam thus and thus and thus, but I see you are contradictory. According to your call, you must return to your country and bring the group of mass transmission, all of them, and they testify with you that this is Islam until we accept it from you; because you say: that creed is not established by the report of a single narrator, and you are one person.
The truth is they are destroying their own houses with their own hands, let alone that they are contradicting the true call of Islam. They are contradictory; they call to Islam and he is an individual from among individuals. For this reason we say: Every Muslim to whom it has come from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) by a correct path that he informed of a hidden matter or informed of a legislative matter, it is obligatory immediately to believe in it. If it is creed, adopt it, and if it is a ruling, adopt it in action and deed, and so on. We do not differentiate between the hadith of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), what was of it creed and what was of it ruling, it is all from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). And upon this the righteous Salaf proceeded. And I conclude with this word as an answer to what I previously said, and this is to be firmly established in your minds, the saying of the scholars:
And all good is in following those who came before *** And all evil is in the innovation of those who came after
And peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.

Those present : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
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The questioner : The hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): ...

The Shaykh : Yes, my brother—may Allah bless you—... in this matter.
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