Explaining that Islam has been affected by what has entered it of corruption, particularly in the exegesis and the Prophetic Sunnah.

The Shaykh : ... There is no doubt that any treatment by a skilled, qualified doctor, if his prescription "the prescription", as they say today, is not carried out exactly as written, then that prescription has not borne its fruit. Rather, if something not part of it is introduced into it, the result may be reversed, and the patient's illness may increase while he thinks he is treating himself with the doctor's prescription. This is like the divine treatment that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, revealed to the heart of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). If something not from it had entered into it, would this forbidden thing have occurred? Did something enter into Islam that was not in it? The answer, unfortunately, is yes. It did not enter into the Qur'an; the Qur'an, praise be to Allah, is preserved. But it entered into its interpretation, just as it entered into the Sunnah, meaning into the interpretation of the Sunnah. And in addition to the Qur'an, things not from the Sunnah entered into the Sunnah. So the Qur'an is preserved, but it was interpreted with incorrect interpretations, and thereby this treatment became corrupted. Take very simple examples: the majority of Muslims seek blessing from the Noble Qur'an. Some hang the mushaf on the front of their shop, but they do not read a single verse from it over a long period. Some, when they do read, go to the deceased to read over his heart. This living person is in greater need of its recitation and reflection than that dead person, because the dead person benefits nothing from this recitation. First, he does not hear what is recited over him. Then, even if he heard, he would not be able to benefit from it in any way, because the time of testing and examination ended with his transition from this abode to the Hereafter, the first of which is the barzakh (the interval between death and resurrection). The revelation of the Qur'an, as our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, said in it: So the Qur'an was revealed to the living to act upon it, not to be read over the dead. This is not from the Sunnah; rather, it is contrary to the Sunnah to read the Qur'an over the dead, whereas it is supposed to be read by the living, and they should reflect upon it and interpret it as it came in the authentic Sunnah. As for the Sunnah, speak of it, and there is no harm. And what entered into it that is not from it is the cause of people's deviation. This is the cause that led them to this submission and this submissiveness that every Muslim feels. Some may ask, "What is the cause?" And as for the majority, they are heedless and unaware, not asking. Those who ask do not know the cause. That this divine medical prescription, first, is not applied; it is placed on the shelf. Second, if it is intended to be applied, it has been misunderstood. As for the Qur'an, as we said earlier, it was interpreted with types of interpretations far removed from the Shari'ah. As for the hadiths, things not from them entered into them by the thousands. As mentioned in the history of some of the caliphs of the Banu 'Abbas, one of the zindiqs (heretics) was arrested during the time of one of the aforementioned caliphs. When he was brought before the caliph, he ordered his execution on the grounds that he was a zindiq and an apostate. When he saw that death was closer than the straps of his sandals, he wanted to vent the anger in his heart and said, "I will not die until I have introduced six thousand hadiths into the hadiths of your Prophet, which I fabricated." The caliph said to him, "You are wretched! How is that? We have so-and-so, and he named among them 'Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak, from the sheikhs of Imam Ahmad, so-and-so and so-and-so, and they have taken the sieves to sift those hadiths." So the scholars of hadith are, in reality, those who preserved the Sunnah for us and distinguished its authentic from its weak. Today, most Muslims do not pay attention to the hadiths, nor to the science of hadith, nor to the scholars of hadith. And therefore, you hear hadiths of all shapes and colors. So it is obligatory for the Muslim, if he wants to interpret a verse, to know the path by which, if he follows it, he will be able to interpret the verse correctly. And for this, there are reliable books in the books of tafsir, such as the book of Ibn Jarir al-Tabari, Ibn Kathir al-Dimashqi, the tafsir of al-Shawkani, and al-Siddiq Hasan Khan, and the like. Likewise, the books of the Sunnah: he must turn to the scholars of hadith who distinguish the authentic from the weak, and he must rely particularly on the most authentic books after the Book of Allah, which are Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. If the Muslim follows this path, Allah will take him by the hand, because Allah, Mighty and Majestic, So our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, by His grace and generosity, if He knows from His servant that he wants guidance, He makes the path of guidance easy for him, and the opposite is the opposite. And this is among the meanings of the saying of the Exalted: So Allah indicates the path of good and commands it, and indicates the path of evil and forbids it. And therefore, it was the wisdom of Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman, the keeper of the secret of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), that he said: "The people used to ask the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) about good, and I used to ask him about evil, fearing that I might fall into it." All the people used to ask the Messenger about good, but he, with his intelligence and acumen, used to ask the Messenger about evil. Why? So that he would be warned against it. And for this, the poet said:
"I know evil not for evil, but to avoid it *** And whoever does not know evil from good falls into it."
If the Muslim does not distinguish the fabricated hadith from the authentic hadith, he falls into the fabricated hadith and fabricates hadiths about the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) without realizing it. And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: If the Muslim follows the path of distinguishing the authentic hadith from the weak, and then gains knowledge in the authentic hadith, he is the one the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) gave glad tidings of, that he will be from the saved sect. And it came in the authentic hadith: They said, "Who are they, O Messenger of Allah?" He said: How does the Muslim know what the Messenger and his Companions were upon? Through the hadith. There is no other means whatsoever.