Were the people upon disbelief or upon faith?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : [Al-Baqarah 2:213] So were the people upon faith or upon disbelief?
The Shaykh : Upon faith, without a doubt.
The questioner : Well,[Al-Baqarah 2:213], meaning the verse hints that they were not upon faith, otherwise Allah would not have sent the prophets after that...
The Shaykh : This matter is easy, my professor. They were upon faith and tawhid (the oneness of Allah) and upon the laws that Allah revealed to Adam, and those after him. Then they differed, so Allah sent the prophets, and the matter ended. The sending of prophets does not mean that there was no tawhid (the oneness of Allah) and no legislation; rather, it means that there were violations and necessities that, by divine wisdom, required the sending of these messengers.
The questioner : Does it mean, as they say, there is an omission in the verse?
The Shaykh : Yes, they say there is a concealment in the verse. Yes.
The Shaykh : ... a book. After we had extracted the hadiths and clarified which were authentic and which were weak, he was not pleased with the work; because in his opinion it diminishes the value of his book. So what did he do? Every hadith that scientific research led to being classified as weak, he deleted. He deleted everything related to tracing and to the saying of the Messenger, and he placed it between crescent-shaped brackets. Whenever someone reads your book and sees that you have placed the hadith between brackets, they will say to you, "You know that this hadith is [weak]." So this going back and forth is not correct. "Speak to people according to the capacity of their minds."
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : Ah, it is possible, and this is a possible reality...
The questioner : I asked at the beginning when I was sure that he told me it was weak.
The Shaykh : No, that answer is not correct.
Mankind was [of] one religion [before their deviation]; then Allah sent the prophets as bringers of good tidings and warners
كان الناس أمة واحدة فبعث الله النبيين مبشرين ومنذرينThe Shaykh : Upon faith, without a doubt.
The questioner : Well,
then Allah sent the prophets
فبعث الله النبيينThe Shaykh : This matter is easy, my professor. They were upon faith and tawhid (the oneness of Allah) and upon the laws that Allah revealed to Adam, and those after him. Then they differed, so Allah sent the prophets, and the matter ended. The sending of prophets does not mean that there was no tawhid (the oneness of Allah) and no legislation; rather, it means that there were violations and necessities that, by divine wisdom, required the sending of these messengers.
The questioner : Does it mean, as they say, there is an omission in the verse?
The Shaykh : Yes, they say there is a concealment in the verse. Yes.
The Shaykh : ... a book. After we had extracted the hadiths and clarified which were authentic and which were weak, he was not pleased with the work; because in his opinion it diminishes the value of his book. So what did he do? Every hadith that scientific research led to being classified as weak, he deleted. He deleted everything related to tracing and to the saying of the Messenger, and he placed it between crescent-shaped brackets. Whenever someone reads your book and sees that you have placed the hadith between brackets, they will say to you, "You know that this hadith is [weak]." So this going back and forth is not correct. "Speak to people according to the capacity of their minds."
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : Ah, it is possible, and this is a possible reality...
The questioner : I asked at the beginning when I was sure that he told me it was weak.
The Shaykh : No, that answer is not correct.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.