You mentioned that whoever acts according to the general texts in public life has not followed the path of the believers. We ask you to clarify this?

The questioner : My master... The general hadiths and the general verses on any subject... the path of the believers.

The Shaykh : Yes, indeed

The questioner : So what is the rank of the path of the believers with respect to the sources of Islam, with respect to the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and how one trusts in it? The path of the believers is not...

The Shaykh : The path of trust: First, the intended meaning of "the believers" is the righteous Salaf, who are attested to as the best in the authentic hadiths . The intended meaning of "the path of the believers" is not the later generations who are blamed, as mentioned in the Noble Qur'an , except when we know that a later generation is following the methodology of the Salaf, and this has been passed down. This exists in many cases, and praise be to Allah. As we say on some occasions, to this day there is no Muslim who considers it permissible to take riba (usury or interest) in exchange for a loan, but he considers it permissible to take types of riba through other means that are not explicitly riba first, and secondly, they are a matter of disagreement among the scholars themselves. In this second case, the Muslim must refer to what Allah the Exalted said: . But in the first case, there is no need. If you find the Muslims following an interpretation of a verse or an interpretation of a hadith, or an application of a verse or an application of a hadith, then a person should not come up with a new opinion. Even the scholars of exegesis and verification, like Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him), say: If there is a text from the previous scholars interpreting a certain verse or hadith, and this text has, for example, two aspects, it is not permissible for us to introduce a third aspect; rather, we must choose one of the two aspects or texts in the interpretation. He notes that the one who brings a new interpretation that contradicts the path of the believers is because the believers did not mention in the interpretation of a certain text anything other than what we assumed, namely two aspects just now. So when we know that the early Muslims followed a pattern of worship, we must adhere to it. Knowing this pattern of worship has two ways: one is transmission, explicit transmission that is stated. For example, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), when he went out for the night prayer to the place of prayer, prayed without an adhan (call to prayer) and without an iqamah (second call), and without combining prayers, and without anything else. This is an explicit text. Whereas, for example, regarding the prayer for rain and the eclipse prayer, we do not have a text stating there is no adhan and no iqamah; we do not have a text, but the ruling is the same. How is it regarding the two festivals? It is clear because the text came in Sahih Muslim from the hadith of Jabir: without adhan and without iqamah. As for the prayer for rain, for example, and what is among people, and the eclipse prayer, it is by induction and the saying of the scholars in such induction. It did not reach transmission because of the presence of the causes for transmitting this to the Muslims, because we said just now that the Companions transmitted to us things they did not transmit, and there is no blame on them for not having concealed the knowledge, but out of their eagerness to transmit what came from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), they transmitted to us some of the things I mentioned just now, and they transmitted to us that when he entered Mecca, he had four braids, four plaits, although no one says this is a worshipful sunnah (recommended practice). But not everything related to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is such; they were extremely eager to transmit it to the Muslims who came after them. So the way of knowing what the Salaf were upon has two methods. The first method is known by every student of knowledge, and it is that it is transmitted that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not do this, nor did he order it, nor did he encourage it. The second method is that by induction, we know that they did not do it; we do not have a text from some of the predecessors that they did not do it. But when the scholar researches the books of the Sunnah and the books of hadith, the biography, and so on, he does not find anyone from the righteous Salaf saying, for example, that there was a minaret in the mosque of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). There is no need now to say that this minaret is a bid'ah (religious innovation) because we have a text, as the ignorant say when we say this is a bid'ah, meaning there is a prohibition from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). There is no need; we say this is from the newly invented matters. When there is a prohibition, it is not said this is a bid'ah; this is said to be haram (forbidden), a ruling that is textually established. Similarly, and this is less than the first matter, look at the issue of the minaret. Who sees minarets in the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and the time of the Salaf and then nothing is transmitted from that at all? That is impossible. It is simpler than that: one person transmitted to us that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) had a mihrab (prayer niche) in his mosque. And this writing that is written on the mihrabs today is from misguidance in a deep place, because first, it misleads people into thinking that the intended meaning of the mihrab in the verse is this mihrab. This is an opening in a mosque, and this is not the intended meaning of the verse at all. Rather, the intended meaning of the mihrab is the place of prayer, meaning this room or other, if its owner takes it for prayer, then it is a mihrab. So when they place this Noble Verse above the innovated mihrab which has no basis in it, there are two misguidances: first, the distortion of the meaning of the Noble Verse, and second, the mihrabs that are placed in mosques have no basis. And for that reason, the Imam al-Suyuti wrote a treatise in this field, which he named... Yes, "On the Bid'ah of Mihrabs" by al-Suyuti. In conclusion, we say: Is there a transmission from some of the Companions or some of the Tabi'un (the generation after the Companions) that there was no mihrab in the mosque of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him)? Of course not. And many, many things, for example, the misbaha (prayer beads)... Some animals among humans say that when the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) died, he left such and such, and among his bequests was a misbaha. Subhan Allah (Glory be to Allah), we do not have any athar (report) at all that the misbaha existed in his time. But the scholars infer this from indications, and no one shares their view, not even those like them. For example, naming this modern tool "misbaha" is an error in Arabic. So the people of knowledge of Arabic, especially if they are from the people of the Sunnah and the community, it is sufficient for them to infer the bid'ah of the misbaha from the fact that this name is not known in the books of language. The later books of language say that "misbaha" is a coined word. "Misbaha" meaning the device with which one glorifies Allah is coined, meaning it was not in the time of the first ones, the Companions and the Tabi'un. So in brief, I think I have clarified to you, Abu 'Adil, the history of knowing what the early Muslims were upon. There are two ways. The first way is stated explicitly... such and such which did not exist. And the other way is induction, which makes the scholars feel that these are newly invented matters that did not exist. And this is in reality one of the subtleties of knowledge that many of the shaykhs today overlook, unfortunately.