Who are the Salaf al-Salih? And are the Tabi'un among them?

The questioner : After that, these are questions related to da'wah matters, in which much talk and disagreement occurs among students of knowledge in general and among da'is in particular. I wanted to present what I have recalled of them to our Shaykh (may Allah preserve him) so that his answer, if Allah wills, would be supported by evidence, and may Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) benefit us with what he says, and may Allah benefit the da'wah from the disagreement and discord occurring among many students of knowledge. In the beginning, Shaykh (may Allah preserve you), it is known that the Salafi da'wah is based on the Book and the Sunnah and on the methodology of the Salaf al-Salih. There is disagreement among students of knowledge in defining the Salaf al-Salih; some say they are only the Companions, some broaden the definition, and some narrow it. What is the stronger position in this matter? May Allah preserve you.

The Shaykh : What we know and testify to Allah with is that the Salaf al-Salih includes the three generations who were attested to by the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) as the best, in the hadith agreed upon by al-Bukhari and MuslimThe Shaykh : Indeed, it reached the level of mutawatir due to the multitude of its chains from a large number of the Companions, in the two Sahihs and elsewhere, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said In some narrations that I have not been able to confirm as authentic because they did not appear in most of the chains mentioned earlier, the fourth generation was also mentioned. The three generations attested to as the best are undoubtedly the ones intended by the Salaf al-Salih, especially since the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them), as every student of their history knows, were dispersed in those lands that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) facilitated for them to conquer due to their preoccupation with the Islamic conquests. Their hadiths, statements, and ijtihad were not gathered in the hands of even a few individuals. Rather, the gathering of these hadiths and those opinions and ijtihad began with the generation that followed them, namely the Tabi'un. And as time progressed, it became easier for the later generations to gather the knowledge of the earlier ones. I mean by "knowledge" here the knowledge they transmitted directly from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and the knowledge they derived themselves from the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). This knowledge, in its two categories, passed to the group of the Tabi'un because it was facilitated for them to connect with a large portion of the Companions, each according to his own ijtihad, his own travel in the path of seeking knowledge, providing him with what was scattered in the hearts of a group of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). And so the turn came to the followers of the Tabi'un, and the knowledge of the Tabi'un, which is the sum of the knowledge of the Companions, passed to the sum of their knowledge, including what they exerted effort in, understood, and detailed in some issues. And thus the knowledge that emanated from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and passed to the sum of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and not to the heart of just one of them, this knowledge that was scattered among the Companions passed to the Tabi'un, and after the Tabi'un it passed to their followers. And because they received this attestation from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in this authentic hadith that I mentioned earlier, we do not find such comprehensive attestation for the generations that followed these three generations. We cannot include anyone else with them, except perhaps individuals who may be in the generations that followed them. And as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the hadith whose authenticity is agreed upon, namely his saying to the end of the hadith. And also his saying (peace be upon him), which, even if it is not in the two Sahihs, is authentic from the sum of its chains: For this reason, we do not restrict goodness to only the Companions, in brief, for two reasons: the praise of the Messenger for the three generations, and because history testifies that the knowledge that was with the noble Companions, whether transmitted knowledge from the words of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in the Book and Sunnah, or derived knowledge from these two noble sources, this knowledge passed to the Tabi'un, and they in turn transmitted it to their followers. Therefore, when the scholars use the term Salaf al-Salih, they mean the Companions, the Tabi'un, and their followers. This is what appears to us based on our knowledge, and above every possessor of knowledge is the All-Knowing.

The questioner : May Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : May Allah bless you.

The questioner : You also mentioned, Shaykh, and who are the individuals, the great Imams, who came in the generations following the three generations?

The Shaykh : This is what we mentioned earlier.