The Shaykh’s advice to adhere to the Book and the Sunnah according to the understanding of the Salaf
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The Shaykh: All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own selves and from the badness of our deeds. Whoever Allah guides, no one can mislead, and whoever He misleads, no one can guide. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger: [Ali 'Imran 3:102].
[An-Nisa 4:1] .
[Al-Ahzab 33:70-71] .
As for what follows: It is obligatory for every Muslim to worship Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) with beneficial knowledge and righteous action. Perhaps all of you, or most of you, know that beneficial knowledge is not achieved unless it is derived and extracted from the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and then from what came to us from the righteous Salaf; for they are the people whose companion does not suffer. The command to follow the Book, the Sunnah, and the righteous Salaf has come in more than one hadith. So perhaps we will limit ourselves to reminding you of just one hadith from them; namely, the hadith of al-‘Arba’ ibn Sariyah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: In this hadith—as you have heard—there is a command for something in addition to the Book and the Sunnah, which is following the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs after the noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). And that is only because the Rightly Guided Caliphs received the knowledge, the Book, and the Sunnah directly from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) without any intermediary, and they understood this Sunnah and the Noble Qur’an as the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) taught them. Therefore, every seeker of knowledge should not forget this noble Prophetic command to follow the Rightly Guided Caliphs, and those who joined them from among the other Companions who were people of knowledge.
If that is the case, then we must make our call and our knowledge derived from the Book, the Sunnah, and the practice of the righteous Salaf. For that reason, Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) says:
Knowledge is: Allah said, His Messenger said, the Companions said; it is not deception.
Knowledge is not setting you up for foolish disagreement between the Messenger and the opinion of a jurist.
Nor is it denying the attributes and negating them out of fear of ta'til (denial of the divine attributes) and tashbih (likening Allah to creation).
This is what concerns beneficial knowledge, which must be the goal of every student of knowledge, not that his goal be seeking traditional knowledge based on sectarian fanaticism: this one is a Hanafi! That one is a Maliki! The third is a Shafi'i! The fourth is a Hanbali! These Imams—there is no doubt or ambiguity—that we revere them and appreciate them in their true worth. Therefore, we follow the path they embarked upon and proceeded along, which is nothing but the path of the righteous Salaf as we mentioned earlier. But we do not become fanatical for one of them over the other. This is the beneficial knowledge, meaning: that which is derived from the Book, the Sunnah, and the practice of the righteous Salaf.
As for action, the Muslim must be sincere to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in it, not seeking any reward or gratitude behind it, not seeking any wage or fame or position behind it, or anything similar to that. Rather, he performs righteous action for Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), as He (Mighty and Majestic) said in the Noble Qur’an: Say: “Indeed, I am a human being like you. It has been revealed to me that your God is one God. So whoever hopes for the meeting with his Lord, let him do righteous work and not associate in the worship of his Lord anyone.” The scholars of tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis) and fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) said regarding this last phrase of the noble verse: فَلْيَعْمَلْ عَمَلاً صَالِحاً وَلا يُشْرِكْ بِعِبَادَةِ رَبِّهِ أَحَداً let him do righteous work and not associate in the worship of his Lord anyone."[Al-Kahf 18:110]; they said: “The action is not righteous unless it is in accordance with the Sunnah, and it is not acceptable to Allah, even if it is in accordance with the Sunnah, unless it is pure for the Face of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He).”
The verses and hadiths in this meaning are many and very many. So this brief word is sufficient for us before these questions. It is summarized by the fact that it is obligatory for every Muslim to seek knowledge well in the light of the Book, the Sunnah, and the practice of the righteous Salaf, and that he should not seek from his righteous deeds anything but the Face of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). This is what Allah (Mighty and Majestic) facilitated based on this request. Please proceed.
O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims [in submission to Him].
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَO mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And fear Allah, through whom you ask one another, and the wombs. Indeed Allah is ever, over you, an Observer.
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اتَّقُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ مِنْ نَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالاً كَثِيراً وَنِسَاءً وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ الَّذِي تَسَاءَلُونَ بِهِ وَالْأَرْحَامَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيباً(70) O you who have believed, fear Allah and speak words of appropriate justice. (71) He will [then] amend for you your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great attainment.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَقُولُوا قَوْلاً سَدِيداً * يُصْلِحْ لَكُمْ أَعْمَالَكُمْ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَمَنْ يُطِعِ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَقَدْ فَازَ فَوْزاً عَظِيماًAs for what follows: It is obligatory for every Muslim to worship Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) with beneficial knowledge and righteous action. Perhaps all of you, or most of you, know that beneficial knowledge is not achieved unless it is derived and extracted from the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and then from what came to us from the righteous Salaf; for they are the people whose companion does not suffer. The command to follow the Book, the Sunnah, and the righteous Salaf has come in more than one hadith. So perhaps we will limit ourselves to reminding you of just one hadith from them; namely, the hadith of al-‘Arba’ ibn Sariyah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said:
The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) gave us a sermon that made our hearts tremble and our eyes shed tears. So we said: “O Messenger of Allah! Give us advice.” He said: “I advise you to fear Allah, and to listen and obey even if a slave from Abyssinia is appointed over you. And whoever among you remains will see much disagreement. So hold fast to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs after me. Cling to them with your teeth. And beware of newly invented matters, for every newly invented matter is a bid'ah (religious innovation), and every bid'ah is misguidance.”
وعظنا رسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم موعظة وجلت منها القلوب، وذرفت منها العيون، فقلنا: يا رسول الله! أوصنا، قال : أوصيكم بتقوى الله، والسمع والطاعة وإن ولي عليكم عبدٌ حبشي، وإنه من يعش منكم فسيرى اختلافاً كثيراً، فعليكم بسنتي وسنة الخلفاء الراشدين المهديين من بعدي، عضوا عليها بالنواجذ، وإياكم ومحدثات الأمور، فإن كل محدثة بدعة، وكل بدعة ضلالةIf that is the case, then we must make our call and our knowledge derived from the Book, the Sunnah, and the practice of the righteous Salaf. For that reason, Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) says:
Knowledge is: Allah said, His Messenger said, the Companions said; it is not deception.
Knowledge is not setting you up for foolish disagreement between the Messenger and the opinion of a jurist.
Nor is it denying the attributes and negating them out of fear of ta'til (denial of the divine attributes) and tashbih (likening Allah to creation).
This is what concerns beneficial knowledge, which must be the goal of every student of knowledge, not that his goal be seeking traditional knowledge based on sectarian fanaticism: this one is a Hanafi! That one is a Maliki! The third is a Shafi'i! The fourth is a Hanbali! These Imams—there is no doubt or ambiguity—that we revere them and appreciate them in their true worth. Therefore, we follow the path they embarked upon and proceeded along, which is nothing but the path of the righteous Salaf as we mentioned earlier. But we do not become fanatical for one of them over the other. This is the beneficial knowledge, meaning: that which is derived from the Book, the Sunnah, and the practice of the righteous Salaf.
As for action, the Muslim must be sincere to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in it, not seeking any reward or gratitude behind it, not seeking any wage or fame or position behind it, or anything similar to that. Rather, he performs righteous action for Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), as He (Mighty and Majestic) said in the Noble Qur’an: Say: “Indeed, I am a human being like you. It has been revealed to me that your God is one God. So whoever hopes for the meeting with his Lord, let him do righteous work and not associate in the worship of his Lord anyone.” The scholars of tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis) and fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) said regarding this last phrase of the noble verse: فَلْيَعْمَلْ عَمَلاً صَالِحاً وَلا يُشْرِكْ بِعِبَادَةِ رَبِّهِ أَحَداً let him do righteous work and not associate in the worship of his Lord anyone."[Al-Kahf 18:110]; they said: “The action is not righteous unless it is in accordance with the Sunnah, and it is not acceptable to Allah, even if it is in accordance with the Sunnah, unless it is pure for the Face of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He).”
The verses and hadiths in this meaning are many and very many. So this brief word is sufficient for us before these questions. It is summarized by the fact that it is obligatory for every Muslim to seek knowledge well in the light of the Book, the Sunnah, and the practice of the righteous Salaf, and that he should not seek from his righteous deeds anything but the Face of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). This is what Allah (Mighty and Majestic) facilitated based on this request. Please proceed.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.