What are the foundations you see, based on your views, by which the Islamic world can rise?

The questioner : What are the foundations you see, based on your views, by which the Islamic world can rise?

The Shaykh : As for what I believe, it is what is found in the authentic hadith text, which is an answer to this type of question and to many of the questions that are raised every year... and it is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in the authentic hadith: The foundation is returning to Islam. This matter was indicated by the Imam of the City of Migration, the Imam Malik (may Allah have mercy on him), in a famous saying attributed to him, which was written in gold ink as they used to do in the past. It is his saying (may Allah have mercy on him): "Whoever innovates in Islam a bid'ah (religious innovation) that he considers good has claimed that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) betrayed the message. Read the saying of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He): -Said Malik (may Allah have mercy on him)- What was not a religion at that time will not be a religion today. And the end of this Ummah (the Muslim community) will not be set right except by what set right its beginning." This last phrase is the crux of the matter regarding the answer to that question, where he said (may Allah have mercy on him): "And the end of this Ummah will not be set right except by what set right its beginning." Just as the Arab nation in its era of Jahiliyyah (the pre-Islamic age of ignorance) was not set right except after their Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) came to them with the revelation from the sky, which blessed them in this world and the Hereafter, the foundation upon which a happy Islamic life should be established in this time is nothing but returning to the Book and the Sunnah. However, this requires some detail because of the many Islamic groups or parties currently present in the arena, as every group claims for itself that it is the one that established the methodology by which they can achieve the Islamic society and rule by Islam. So they all claim, as was said in the past: "And they all claim a connection to Layla *** But Layla does not approve of that for them." And we know from the Book of Allah and the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) that the path by which happiness in this world and then happiness in the Hereafter can be achieved is a single path. So it is necessary to define this path so that those who truly seek to work for the benefit of the Islamic call and the Islamic Ummah may follow it. This path is what Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) mentioned in more than one verse in the Noble Qur'an. Our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) says: So the path that leads to what every Muslim today desires, but the masses do not know, is the path indicated in this noble verse. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) clarified this path mentioned in the noble verse with a very wonderful example he drew for his companions on the ground, which was his custom to sit on without any grandeur or arrogance. So the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) one day drew a straight line on the ground, then drew short lines on its sides, then he (peace and blessings be upon him) recited the previous verse while passing his noble finger over the straight line. Then he pointed to the lines on the sides of the straight line regarding the completion of the noble verse: So my belief is that the path is one. What every group or every individual from this Ummah desires of happiness for them in this world and the Hereafter, there is no path other than this one. Especially since the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) completed the explanation of the danger of deviating from the straight path in his saying in the completion of the previous hadith, where he said: So the callers are many, but the true caller is the one who calls people to walk on what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) was upon and what his companions followed, and then those who came after them with excellence. And our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) affirmed in another verse in the Noble Qur'an what was mentioned in the previous verse, along with the explanation of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) of it by the hadith mentioned above. He said, Exalted is He: So the path is always mentioned in the Qur'an in the singular, and there are no paths to follow. Even if the walkers on these paths and the travelers on those roads had good intentions and purposes, and even if that were assumed for them, they would not reach their desired goal as long as they do not follow the only straight path that leads them to their prescribed objective. And there is a hadith that is authentic and agreed upon by every group and Islamic party in thought, although they differ in its application in behavior. I mean the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family): This is the famous narration, and there is another narration that explains the first, which is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): So one of the seventy-three sects is the saved sect, as the scholars unanimously agreed upon. And this saved sect is the only one that can raise the Islamic Ummah today and achieve happiness for them and then for other nations that have not been guided by the guidance of Islam. Perhaps one of the reasons for this is that the Muslims themselves, unfortunately, are no longer as they were before, being callers by their actions and deeds. Words alone do not benefit the general public... When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) mentioned that the saved sect is one sect, and so that Muslims would not be led astray from knowing its description, which would practically lead to misguidance, he answered that question: Who is this saved sect among the seventy-three sects? He said: And thus the two revelations mentioned in the Qur'an in many verses came together, such as His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He) addressing His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family): So in this verse there is an explicit text that the explanation of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) is something additional to the Qur'an, and that the Qur'an is explained by his explanation (peace and blessings be upon him). So the explained thing is one thing and the explainer is another thing, something additional to it, even though it does not depart from being drawn from a single source, as the text explicitly states, which is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): In another hadith: ... Because Allah (Mighty and Majestic), as He explicitly stated in the previous verse, revealed the Qur'an to the heart of His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) and charged him to explain it to the people. This explanation is the Sunnah. But here is something else that the previous narration indicated when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked about the saved sect, he said: So the companions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned in this hadith for the point mentioned previously in His saying, Exalted is He: So we say in this verse there is a profound wisdom. The previous hadith and "and my companions" was mentioned in the hadith as an addition to his Sunnah (peace and blessings be upon him), meaning his noble companions. Similarly, here in the noble verse, the path of the believers is added to what the Messenger brought. And He said, Exalted is He: He did not say, O Lord of the worlds, "And whoever opposes the Messenger after the guidance has become clear to him, We will turn him to what he has turned to and throw him into Hell, and evil is the destination." Rather, He inserted a clause added to what came before it, and He said, Exalted is He: It is as if the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), when he said "I and my companions," if it was not a revelation directly from Allah (Exalted is He) to him, it was a quotation from the verse that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) revealed to him when He said: So what is the point and what is the wisdom in Allah (Mighty and Majestic) mentioning the path of the believers in this verse and urging the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) to his companions in the previous hadith? The answer is that these noble companions, as we indicated previously, are those who received the two revelations from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), explained by him to them directly without an intermediary, as is the case with those who came after them. And without a doubt, the matter is as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the well-known hadith: And therefore, the faith of the first companions was stronger than the faith of those who came after them. And he (peace and blessings be upon him) indicated to that in his saying in the authentic, indeed mass-transmitted hadith: And thus, no Muslim can independently understand the Book and the Sunnah by himself, but he must seek help in understanding them by returning to the noble companions who received that from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) explained and clarified, sometimes by his saying (peace and blessings be upon him), sometimes by his action, and sometimes by his approval. Perhaps you all know that the Sunnah is divided into these three categories: saying, action, and approval. If someone diverts his attention from this Sunnah and wants to independently understand the Qur'an, limiting himself to that with the Arabic language, he will not be able to reach the understanding of what Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) intends from His verses. The greatest proof of this is that there are some verses in which a specific term is repeated, such as "hand" in the verse of tayammum (dry ablution with clean earth) and "hand" in the verse of the punishment for the thief, and the like. You will find the verse is explained in light of what came in the Sunnah. So it is not permissible for anyone to independently understand the verse without seeking help with the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) in its three categories that I mentioned above. For example, the verse: The word "hand" in the language, if used absolutely, may mean the palm, or the palm and the forearm, or what is above that up to the shoulder. With which of these meanings can one who does not return to the Sunnah, which is the explanation of the Qur'an as we mentioned above, interpret such a verse? And the word "thief" includes every thief, no matter how small the value of what he stole, low and little, with no value to speak of. It is necessary in this and this and other matters to return to the Sunnah in its three categories. The clearest example known to scholars is the prayer, which we were commanded in the Noble Qur'an, and Hajj (the major pilgrimage), fasting, and zakah (the obligatory alms), and the like. No one, absolutely, can understand these pillars that we were commanded in the Qur'an except in light of the explanation of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) of them by his saying, his action, and his approval. Since the matter is so, it is necessary to return to the Sunnah with the Qur'an, because the Sunnah explains the Qur'an, as we mentioned above in the noble verse: There remains one other thing, which is the crux of my speech now, at the end of this speech or this answer, and that is the companions who transmitted to us his sayings (peace and blessings be upon him), his actions, and his approvals. His sayings (peace and blessings be upon him) are not known to us from the Qur'an, which is transmitted by mass transmission as is well known, but we know that from the Sunnah. His approvals (peace and blessings be upon him), where he saw something and approved it, are not known to us except from the transmission of the companions, and not from his saying (peace and blessings be upon him). So if it is very necessary to add to the call to the Book and the Sunnah, as we always say on such an occasion, and as our righteous predecessors were upon, implementing what was mentioned previously in some of the verses and hadiths above, when Allah mentioned the path of the believers and His noble Prophet mentioned his companions, let that be for a profound wisdom, which is that it is necessary to return to the understanding of the Book and the Sunnah as it was upon our first predecessors, the companions (may Allah be pleased with them all).
In light of this, something of great importance arises here, which many of the Islamic groups or parties currently existing on earth overlook. That is: what is the path to knowing what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said, did, or approved of, and then knowing how his Companions understood and applied this Sunnah? There is no way to do this except by turning to the science known to all scholars as the science of hadith, the science of hadith terminology, and the science of the critique and vindication of narrators. It has its rules and its technical terms, by which scholars are able to distinguish what is authentic from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) from what is not authentic. Most Islamic groups today do not even raise their heads to what is known as the Sunnah. The Sunnah in the language of the Shari'ah is broader and more comprehensive than it is in the usage of the jurists. This is because the jurists use the term "Sunnah" to refer to acts of worship that are not obligatory for the Muslim, distinguishing between the obligatory and the recommended. However, the Sunnah in the language of the Shari'ah is the way, methodology, and conduct followed by the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in his interpretation, explanation, and application of the Qur'an. Accordingly, his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in the authentic hadith, agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim,The Shaykh : ...from the hadith of Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) regarding the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), in which he said: The intention here is not the recommended practice of the Fajr prayer, the pre- and post-Zuhr prayers, and so on, up to all the regular voluntary prayers (rawatib). That is not what is intended in this hadith. Rather, the intention is the Sunnah and the methodology by which the Prophet (peace be upon him) came to this community to explain the Qur'an, as has been mentioned previously. Two things confirm this meaning for us. The first relates to the reason for the hadith's occurrence, and the second is the consensus of the community that whoever preserves the obligatory duties and avoids the forbidden things is, if Allah wills, among the people of Paradise, as stated in Sahih Muslim: So here, there is nothing of what is called "Sunnah" in the terminology of jurists, because whoever performs what was mentioned in the hadith regarding the obligatory duties, his leaving off the Sunnah does not prevent him from entering Paradise. However, the opposite is the case: if he leaves off the Sunnah in its legal sense, the necessary consequence is that he has deviated from the path of the Messenger (peace be upon him), which is the path of the believers. As for the reason for the hadith, which is the first thing indicating the correct meaning of this phrase, "Whoever turns away from my Sunnah..." [they] followed them, meaning they found his worship (peace be upon him) to be little. They found it little compared to what was in their minds, namely that the Messenger (peace be upon him) should be the most worshipful of people in what they imagined worship to be. And without doubt, he was the most worshipful of them all. But worship is not by the abundance of prayer and fasting; rather, it is by the abundance of performing acts of worship according to what the Messenger (peace be upon him) brought. Based on what was in their minds regarding exaggeration in worship, they found his worship (peace be upon him) to be little, and it seemed to them that this was a deficiency regarding the Messenger (peace be upon him). So they came up with an explanation that invalidated what might be [a deficiency], and we hope that Allah the Mighty and Majestic forgives them for it because of their companionship with their Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). They said, after discussing worship, "This is the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him); Allah has forgiven him what has passed of his sin." As if they were saying, why does the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) tire himself and exhaust himself, when he has already attained the ultimate goal, which is, as Allah the Exalted said: So the Messenger (peace be upon him) has been forgiven by Allah for what has passed of his sin and what has come after, so there remains nothing that would call him to stand the entire night in prayer, fast the entire day, and stay away from women entirely. So they returned to themselves, saying, "As for us, we have not yet obtained the forgiveness of Allah, so we must strive to worship Allah the Exalted, perhaps Allah will forgive us." So they made a pact among themselves. One of them said, "As for me, I will stand the night in prayer and not sleep." The second said, "As for me, I will fast the whole year and not break the fast." The third said, "As for me, I will not marry women." And they departed having made this pact. When the Messenger (peace be upon him) came to his wives and they informed him of the news of these men, he (peace be upon him) ascended the pulpit and delivered a sermon to his companions, saying: He repeated the words of each of them: this one says, "I will fast the whole year and not break the fast," and that one says, "I will stand the night in prayer and not sleep," and the third says, "I will not marry women." This is part of his (peace be upon him) etiquette: he uses euphemism and hints without being explicit. He says, "What is the matter with so-and-so? He said such and such, and so-and-so said such and such," rather than "What is the matter with a group of people who say such and such?" Because the intention is not to expose them, but to teach. So he (peace be upon him) said: This is the place of this hadith, and this is the reason for its occurrence. Meaning, whoever comes with a form of worship by which one worships Allah and draws near to Allah, but I did not worship Allah with it, then he has turned away from my path and my methodology, and he is not from me. If a man did not stand the night in prayer at all, and did not fast anything of the year except the month of Ramadan, he is the one who deserves to be among the people of Paradise by the testimony of that hadith, and it cannot be said of him that he has turned away from the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace be upon him). But if he fasted with Ramadan, fasting all the days that the Wise Lawgiver did not prohibit fasting on, and then stood the night in prayer throughout the year, the entire night in its full length, then he is the one who has turned away from his Sunnah (peace be upon him). And so, there is a great difference between the one who is content with the obligatory duties and the one who adds to the Sunnahs, thinking that he has increased in obedience and worship, when in reality he has contradicted the methodology and conduct of the Messenger. For this reason, he (peace be upon him) said in the authentic hadith: Once we know that the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace be upon him), which his noble Companions transmitted to us, it is obligatory upon us to know it as if we were living with him (peace be upon him). And likewise, the explanation by the Companions of what the Messenger (peace be upon him) explained to them, it was necessary, as I said earlier, to return to the science of hadith. The science of hadith is an independent science from the other Islamic sciences, and there is no way to understand the religion and to understand the Noble Qur'an except through the path of this Sunnah. Therefore, I believe, and this will, if Allah wills, be the end of this answer, that the Muslims today, or to be clearer, the Muslims who want to restore the honor of Islam, the glory of Islam, and the rule of Islam, must achieve two things. They must restore to the minds of the Muslims the Shari'ah of Islam, purified from everything that has entered it that was not part of it when Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, sent down His word: Restoring this matter today as it was in the first era undoubtedly requires tremendous efforts from many Muslim scholars in various parts of the earth, spreading the correct knowledge, which is the Qur'an explained by the Sunnah and transmitted by the Companions and their understanding of it. Returning to what the Companions were upon in understanding the Shari'ah is a very important matter, and it is the fundamental thing in restoring the correct concept of Islam. Even if the paths diverge and the ways multiply, until some of the extremists among the Sufis said, "The paths leading to Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, are as numerous as the breaths of the creatures." Because that means they do not need to study the knowledge of the Book and the knowledge of the Sunnah. Rather, one of them secludes himself in a retreat, and he conditions that it be dark. He does not stop there, but he closes his eyes. He does not stop there, but he places his head between his knees, darknesses upon darknesses. Despite this, he prepares himself, in his claim, to receive [revelation]. They do not say "revelation" (wahy) because if they said that, they would exit the circle of Islam. But they say they receive inspiration from the Lord of Mankind, and he acts according to this inspiration. So they do not have one path leading to Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, contrary to everything mentioned previously. So I say that the Muslim scholars must truly bring this Islam, purified from everything that has entered it: what has entered the beliefs, what has entered the hadiths in the Sunnah of weak and fabricated hadiths, what has entered the jurisprudence of crude opinions and very strange sayings from which Islam disowns itself, as it was said, "as the wolf disowns the blood of the son of Jacob." And what has entered the conduct and morals of deviation from what the Messenger (peace be upon him) and his Companions were upon of moderation. What has entered the conduct of exaggeration in asceticism regarding the world and turning away from people. The Messenger (peace be upon him) says: They describe these scholars as purifying Islam from every blemish and every foreign element that has entered this Islam from any side, whether in beliefs, jurisprudence, hadith, or conduct. Then, the second thing, along with this purification, action must be coupled with it: action with this knowledge. So I will summarize that in two words: the Muslim community must truly perform the duty of two things: purification and education. Purifying Islam from what we mentioned earlier, so that the Muslims return to their understanding of their religion as if they were in the company of their Prophet, or at least in the company of his Companions (peace and blessings be upon him), finding Islam fresh and green as it was sent down. Then they must be eager to apply this purified Islam correctly. On the day when they prepare such purification for the Muslims and direct and educate them based on acting upon it, on that day I believe the believers will rejoice in the victory of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He. This is what I can say on this occasion. And we ask Allah for us and for the general Muslims to understand Islam with a correct understanding in the light of the Book and the authentic Sunnah, and in accordance with what our righteous predecessors (Salaf) were upon, and to make us successful in acting upon it. Indeed, He is the All-Hearing, the Responsive. And all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.