How Allah Preserved This Religion

The Shaykh : Here I must make a statement that is necessary for me. Many scholars, both past and present, know that matters entered the Sunnah that were not part of it, even in the first century, when some of the misguided sects began to raise their voices and call for opposing the Book and the Sunnah by following their desires. As was reported from some, or one, of the Khawarij (an early sect that declared sinners disbelievers) when Allah Mighty and Majestic guided him to the Sunnah, he said: "Look at where you are taking your religion from, for when we desired a matter, we made it a hadith." Therefore, it was reported from Ibn Sirin (may Allah have mercy on him), the noble Tabi'i (the generation after the Companions) who frequently narrated from the Companion who was the memorizer of the Sunnah and hadith, Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), that he said: "Look at where you are taking your religion from." This was also narrated as a hadith traced to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), but its tracing is not authentic; the authentic version is that it is a report stopping at Ibn Sirin (may Allah have mercy on him). Therefore, some of the imams of hadith said: "The chain of narration is part of the religion; if not for the chain of narration, whoever wished would say whatever he wished in the religion." If the matter is as such, by the consensus of scholars in theory—and I mean what I say when I say "in theory" because I want to state a bitter truth, which is that the majority of scholars did not pay the necessary attention to this chain of narration, but rather a group of Muslim scholars, namely the imams of hadith, such as Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Imam Yahya ibn Ma'in, and Ali ibn al-Madini, and their students, such as Imam al-Bukhari and Muslim, and other imams of hadith and critics who spoke about narrators regarding their critique and vindication (al-jarh wa al-ta'dil)—these are the ones to whom one must refer and rely upon to conduct the purification of this Sunnah to which one must refer after its purification. The books of the Sunnah are now available, and that is due to the complete care of Allah Mighty and Majestic for this Ummah (the Muslim community) and His fulfillment of the ruling He mentioned in the Noble Qur'an: On this occasion, I must remind you that when this Noble verse mentions , some people, who have no knowledge of the Sunnah or who do not give weight to the Sunnah, assume that the preservation guaranteed by Allah Mighty and Majestic in this verse is specific to the Noble Qur'an. I say: Yes, our Lord Mighty and Majestic mentioned the Reminder (the Qur'an) in this verse, so He preserved the Noble Qur'an with its letters, but He preserved its meanings with the Sunnah of His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Therefore, this purification of the Sunnah cannot be achieved except through the scholars of hadith, and consequently, the Qur'an cannot be understood except through this purified Sunnah. Otherwise, the Muslims would fall into what the sects that deviated from the saved sect fell into, namely that the Qur'an is open to multiple interpretations.