What is your opinion on what is called contemporary free thought?

The Shaykh : Raise your voice.

The questioner : If you would allow me, Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Please go ahead.

The questioner : Salvation lies in following the word of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), which is suitable for all times and places. We find that some opinions and contemporary ideas in this age say, yes, the Shari'ah is suitable for all times and places, but we lack the proper dealing with this Shari'ah. They expand the door of unlegislated public interests and expand the door of jurisprudential principles that stipulate, for example, matters of the...

Another questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Never mind, let him express what is in his heart.

The questioner : Yes, they call it by the term "free thought," Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Ah.

The questioner : They say, yes, we are from the people of the Sunnah and the community, and the source of reception...

The Shaykh : If he says that, it will be in its proper place, from the people of the Sunnah and the community, if Allah wills.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good, Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Ah.

The questioner : They intensify their study and expand in the field of the principles of jurisprudence and in studying the principles established by those before us from the Salaf (may Allah have mercy on them) to accommodate the age. This is called free thought that does not deviate from the Islamic Shari'ah, if Allah wills. So I do not know, Shaykh, what is your opinion, your view, on this methodology?

The Shaykh : Why do they call it free thought when, as you have reported from them, it is not free but is bound by the Book and the Sunnah? Is this naming correct? If it is correct, it is a statement that negates part of itself; its end negates its beginning, and its beginning negates its end. This is one point. The second, and perhaps the last, is: are they actually studying the Book and the Sunnah so that that would be a guarantee for them in applying what they claimed regarding the naming of free thought in what does not contradict the Book and the Sunnah? Is that not what they say?

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : Their thought is free on the condition of not contradicting the Book and the Sunnah.

The questioner: Yes, Shaykh

The Shaykh : Are they sincere in practice in applying this principle they established, despite the conflict and contradiction in it, as I mentioned earlier? One of them might say, yes, we study the Book and the Sunnah and do not present a free opinion that contradicts anything from the Book and the Sunnah. It is easy for any claimant to make a claim, but the matter is as that old poet said: "And claims, unless you establish *** upon them clear proofs, their claimants are false." So it is easy for a person to make a claim: "And everyone claims a connection to Layla *** but Layla does not approve of that for them." So the report must be true; the report must be that they show us what confirms to the Muslims that they are sincere in their claim that in their development, when they called it free thought, they claimed they do not contradict the Book and the Sunnah. They must present to the Islamic world what obligates them to believe their claim. And I am certain that they will not be able to find a way to that. This is because we might believe them because they studied the Book and the Sunnah, and all Islamic sects study the Book and the Sunnah. Because they are, in appearance, all agreed, and I mean what I say: in appearance, they are agreed that the Qur'an is as the Lord of mankind said: And that all the sects return to them. I say some other sects claim that there is a lost and missing Qur'an, the Mushaf of Fatimah, as you must know, three-quarters of the Qur'an, they claimed it is in the missing Mushaf of Fatimah. The point is, they might claim that they study the Qur'an, but we say: do they study the Qur'an based on the statement of the Blessed and Exalted in it, addressing the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) with His saying: And are they with us, I mean with the people of the Sunnah and the community and all Islamic sects that consider the Sunnah to be the second source after the Noble Qur'an? Do they interpret the saying of the Exalted: meaning by the Sunnah that gathers His saying, his doing, and his approval? Or perhaps they will say, yes, we are with you. We will say finally, and it will appear that they are not with us in practice. Did they study the Sunnah on the methodology of the people of hadith and the Sunnah? Did they study the chains of narration? Did they study the science of the critique and vindication of narrators? Did they study hundreds, thousands, of narrators of the Sunnah and know the rank of each narrator among them, his history, his truthfulness, his memorization, his connection with those he narrates from, his disconnection from them, and so on? Do you think they did that? I am asking you now, do you think?