Explanation of the hadith: “Hold fast to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs,” and whether the intended meaning is the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs as a collective or of any one of them individually.

The questioner : Our Shaykh, the hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and the hadith , we want an explanation of this hadith, especially this phrase “the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs.” What is meant by it? Of course, in many cases: when it agrees with the texts, when it contradicts the texts, when there is disagreement among them, and so on?

The Shaykh : There is no doubt that the command in the first hadith —there is no doubt that they are the people whose companion does not suffer, and that they are the second model after the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). The reason for this is very clear to anyone who knows the history of these two great men, as they were the closest people to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in following him, connecting with him, and learning from him. So, if a person wants to issue a ruling on a matter based on opinion, whether that opinion originates from himself or from another scholar, and it contradicts what is established from the two Caliphs mentioned in the hadith, Abu Bakr and ‘Umar, there is no doubt that their opinion takes precedence over the opinion of others due to their special relationship with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). As for his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in the hadith of al-‘Arba’ ibn Sariyah to the end of the hadith, many people misunderstand this hadith. They think the meaning is “hold fast to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Caliphs,” meaning the Sunnah of any one of the Caliphs. Here, there is undoubtedly a deleted genitive. One wonders: is this deleted genitive estimated to be “any one of the Caliphs” or “all of the Caliphs”? There is a very big difference between these two estimations. Because the first estimation, “the Sunnah of any one of the Rightly Guided Caliphs,” means that it is sufficient for one of the Rightly Guided Caliphs to have stated an opinion or exercised independent legal reasoning, and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) commands the Muslims to adopt it, and considering deviation from it as misguidance and religious innovation. Whereas the opinion or the other estimation, “the Sunnah of the collective Rightly Guided Caliphs,” the matter is completely different. It is certain that the agreement of the Rightly Guided Caliphs on something is almost impossible to be wrong in itself, unlike when one of them holds an opinion alone without the others. Thus, the great difference between the meaning of each estimation becomes apparent. And there is no doubt or doubt in my mind that the second estimation is the one that agrees with other legal texts, among which is the saying of Allah the Exalted: Allah the Mighty and Majestic says: No, it is the path of all the believers. Likewise, the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs means the four of them, not one of them. Then, historical reality indicates that it is far-fetched that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would command the Muslims to follow the Sunnah of any one of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, especially if it later turns out that it was his independent legal reasoning, and evidence or reality shows that it was not accompanied by success. We said earlier in the hadith: , and we said that there is no doubt that a Muslim must follow these two noble Companions and prioritize their opinion over his own. But does he prioritize the opinion of one of them over his own? This is a matter of research, because the opinion here may be correct from the one who came before or correct from the one who came after. If the correct one is the one who came before, then the one who came after is wrong, and vice versa. Take, for example, some instances. It is established with certainty that ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) used to prohibit the tamattu’ of Hajj, knowing that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) performed tamattu’ and commanded it, and became angry with those who did not respond to his command. I say “performed and commanded,” looking at this expression, because tamattu’ is of two types: tamattu’ known in books of jurisprudence as qiran, and tamattu’ known in them as tamattu’. But qiran itself contains tamattu’ as well. Therefore, it was a way of reconciling some hadiths, some of which say the Messenger performed qiran and some say he performed tamattu’. And since tamattu’ in the minds of many people, both past and present, is what is done between Hajj and ‘Umrah, separated by exiting the state of ihram, he comes with ‘Umrah, exits the state of ihram, then comes with Hajj. This is the tamattu’ known in books of jurisprudence; ... So when they hear, for example, the hadith of Ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) in the two Sahihs , let this matter not be difficult for them, and let the hadith of the Prophet’s qiran not contradict his hadith of tamattu’, because every qiran is tamattu’, but not every tamattu’ is qiran. What is the aspect of tamattu’ for the one performing qiran? It is that he enjoys the benefit of ‘Umrah without making a specific journey for it. This is a tamattu’, but the complete tamattu’ is to separate between ‘Umrah and Hajj. The point is that ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) prohibited people from performing tamattu’ after the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family).