A complete lecture on following the Book and the Sunnah according to the understanding of the righteous Salaf.

The questioner : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, and may blessings and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah, and may Allah the Exalted send blessings upon him and his family and his Companions. After that, know that Allah the Exalted has bestowed upon us the blessing of faith, and He has bestowed upon the ummah (the Muslim community) scholars whom Allah the Exalted has honored by granting them knowledge to illuminate for people the path to Allah and the worship of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. They are the heirs of the prophets, without doubt. Our coming was motivated by, and will remain, if Allah wills, the pleasure of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, first, and the seeking of knowledge that leads to that, if Allah wills. By Allah, it is a fine hour that we meet with our shaykh, our scholar, and our great teacher.The Shaykh : Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani. In the name of the residents of the neighborhood, first the Shuyukha neighborhood, we welcome our noble shaykh with the warmest welcome. In the name of the residents of al-Mafraq, and specifically the students of knowledge there, they also welcome him, all of them. They were eager to meet our honorable teacher today. There is no harm in that, for we are all eager to hear the pearls of knowledge and wisdom he possesses, if Allah wills. So let us listen to what Allah the Exalted has granted him of knowledge. Then, after our shaykh is satisfied, the door for questions will be opened, provided that the questions are written, and the sheets are available, if Allah wills. A fine hour, I repeat, and welcome to our honorable shaykh.

The Shaykh : Welcome. Praise be to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own souls and the badness of our deeds. Whom Allah guides, none can mislead, and whom He leaves to mislead, none can guide. 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. As for what follows, the best of speech is the speech of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). The worst of matters are their innovations, and every innovation is a misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire. I thank my brother, Professor Ibrahim, for his words and his praise. I have nothing to say in response to that except to follow the example of the first caliph, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him), who was the true and first caliph of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). Yet, when he heard someone praising him, and I believe that praise, no matter how much the person exaggerated, was justified because he was the caliph of the Messenger of Allah, he still said, "Allah is the Helper." And he would say: "O Allah, do not hold me accountable for what they say, and make me better than what they think, and forgive me what they do not know." This was said by the Greatest Siddiq, so what can we say after him? So I say, following his example: "O Allah, do not hold me accountable for what they say, and make me better than what they think, and forgive me what they do not know." The truth, and the truth I say, is that I am not the one described as you just heard from our noble brother Ibrahim. I am merely a student of knowledge, nothing else. And every student should be at the level of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family): In response to this noble Prophetic text and the other texts that come repeatedly in the Book of Allah and in the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), we make an effort to convey to people what they may not know. But this does not mean that we have reached the good opinion our brothers have of us. That is not the case. The truth I feel in the depths of my heart is that when I hear such words, I recall the old proverb known among the literati: "The small birds in our land are mistaken for eagles." "The small birds in our land are mistaken for eagles." Some people may not understand the intent of this saying or this proverb. The "baghat" is a small bird of no value, but this small bird becomes an eagle in the eyes of people due to their ignorance of the strength and size of the eagle. This proverb applies to many of those who call to Islam, whether rightly and truly or wrongly and falsely, but Allah knows that the Islamic land is empty except for very, very few individuals in whom it can be said that so-and-so is a scholar, as came in the authentic hadith narrated by Imam al-Bukhari in his Sahih from the hadith of Abdullah Amr ibn al-As (may Allah be pleased with him). He said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: When Allah wills to take away knowledge, He does not pluck it from the hearts of scholars such that the scholar becomes as if he had never learned at all. It is not the way of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, with His servants, especially His righteous servants, to remove from their hearts the knowledge they acquired to please the Face of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, as you just heard a brief word from brother Ibrahim, may Allah bless him, that this gathering was for the seeking of knowledge. So Allah, Mighty and Majestic, is a just Judge who does not pluck knowledge from the hearts of scholars truly, but it is the established way of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, in His creation to take away knowledge by taking away the scholars, as He did with the master of scholars and prophets and messengers, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), until when no scholar remains, people take ignorant heads as leaders, and they are asked for rulings and they issue rulings without knowledge, so they go astray and lead others astray. This does not mean that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, leaves the earth without a scholar by whom the argument of Allah against His servants is established. But it means that as time passes, knowledge decreases, and the later it becomes, the more it diminishes and decreases, until there is no one on the face of the earth who says: "Allah, Allah." This hadith you hear repeatedly is an authentic hadith. Who says: "Allah, Allah." And many of those referred to in the end of the aforementioned hadith, Allah took away knowledge by taking away the scholars, until when no scholar remains, people take ignorant heads as leaders. Among these heads are those who interpret the Qur'an and the Sunnah with interpretations contrary to what the scholars were upon. I do not say only the Salaf, but also the Khalaf (the later generations), for they argue with this hadith "Allah, Allah" for the permissibility, or even the recommendation, of mentioning Allah, Mighty and Majestic, with the singular word "Allah, Allah," and so on, so that no one who is deluded or ignorant, when he hears this hadith, is misled by such an interpretation. It seemed to me, even if only briefly, to remind our brothers present that this interpretation is false. First, because its explanation came in another narration from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). Second, because if this interpretation were correct, the practice of our righteous Salaf (may Allah be pleased with them) would have followed it. Since they did not do so, their turning away from acting upon this interpretation indicates the falsity of this interpretation. How much more so when this other narration is added, which is the crux of the matter, as they say, that Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) narrated this hadith in his Musnad with a sound chain with the wording: So this is the intent of the repeated word of majesty in the first narration. The point is that the earth today, unfortunately, is empty of the scholars who used to fill the vast, wide earth with their knowledge and spread it among the ranks of their ummah. And they have become today, as it was said:
"And when they were counted, they were few, so they have become today fewer than few."
So we hope that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, will make us among the students of knowledge who follow the path of the scholars truly and walk their way sincerely. This is what we hope from Allah, Mighty and Majestic, that He will make us among these students who walk that path about which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: And this opens for me the door to speak about this knowledge which is mentioned in the Qur'an frequently and very frequently, such as His saying, the Exalted: And His saying, the Exalted: What is this knowledge about which Allah, Mighty and Majestic, praised its people and those who are adorned with it, and those who follow their path? The answer, as said by Imam Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (may Allah have mercy on him), the student of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him), is:
"Knowledge is what Allah said, what His Messenger said, *** What the Companions said, not deception
What knowledge has placed you in the foolishness of disagreement *** between the Messenger and the opinion of a jurist?
Nor denial of the attributes and their negation *** Out of fear of likening and comparing"
So, knowledge: we take this from this word and from this poem, which we rarely hear in the speech of poets, because the poetry of scholars is different from the poetry of poets. This man is a scholar and also good at poetry, so he says: "Knowledge: Allah said in the first rank, the Messenger of Allah said in the second rank, the Companions said in the third rank." Here, I will make my word in this blessed, good evening, if Allah wills, be this word of Ibn al-Qayyim. It reminds us of a very, very important truth that the masses of preachers spread today in Islam under the name of calling to Islam have neglected. What is this truth? It is known to all these preachers that Islam is nothing but the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). This is true, without doubt, but it is incomplete. This is the deficiency that Ibn al-Qayyim pointed to in his previous poem, where he mentioned the Companions after the Book and the Sunnah: "Knowledge: Allah said, His Messenger said, the Companions said..." and so on. Now, we rarely hear anyone mention the Companions along with the Book and the Sunnah. And as we all know, they are the head of the righteous Salaf, about whom the hadith is mass-transmitted from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in his saying: And do not say, as the masses of preachers say, "the best of the generations." "The best of the generations" has no basis in the Sunnah. The authentic Sunnah in the two Sahihs and other references of hadith and Sunnah is based on the narration of the hadith with the wording: These Companions, who are at the head of the three generations attested to as the best, were included by Imam Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah with the Book and the Sunnah. Was this inclusion from him an opinion, ijtihad, and derivation that could be subject to error, because every horse has a stumble, if not multiple stumbles? The answer is no. This is not derivation, nor is it ijtihad that accepts the possibility of being wrong. Rather, it is reliance on the Book of Allah and the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). As for the Book, the saying of our Lord in the Noble Qur'an: and he follows other than the way of the believers. Our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) did not limit Himself in the verse to this, and if He had, it would have been true. He did not say, "And whoever opposes the Messenger after the guidance has become clear to him, We will turn him to what he has turned to." Rather, He said, "and he follows other than the way of the believers" for a profound wisdom, which is what we are now in the process of explaining and elaborating. He said, "and he follows other than the way of the believers" I hope this verse will be fixed in your minds and hearts and not leave you, because it is the truth, just as you speak it. And by that, you will be saved from deviating to the right or the left, and from being, even in one detail or one issue, of one of the sects that are not saved, if not one of the misguided sects. Because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the well-known hadith, and I will limit myself now to the relevant part of it: The community is the way of the believers. So, if the hadith is not direct revelation from Allah to the heart of His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), then it is a quotation from the previous verse: "and he follows other than the way of the believers." If the one who opposes the Messenger and follows other than the way of the believers has been threatened with the Fire, then the opposite is the opposite: the one who follows the way of the believers is promised Paradise, without doubt or hesitation. When the Messenger of Allah answered the question, "What is the saved sect? Who are they?" he said: "The community." So, the community is the group of Muslims. Then the other narration came to confirm this meaning, and indeed to add clarification and explanation, where he (peace be upon him) said: My Companions. If it is the way of the believers, then when Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned in his previous statement "and the Companions and his Companions (peace be upon him)," he only quoted that from the previous verse and this hadith. Also, the well-known hadith of al-'Abd ibn Sariyyah (may Allah be pleased with him) — I will limit myself now to the relevant part of it to make room for some questions — where he (peace be upon him) said: From here, we say, especially in this time when opinions, ideas, and schools of thought have conflicted, and parties and groups have multiplied, until many of the Muslim youth live in confusion, not knowing to which group they belong. Here, the answer comes in the verse and the two mentioned hadiths: Follow the way of the believers. The way of the believers in the present age? The answer is no, but rather in the past age, the first age, the age of the Companions, the righteous Salaf. These should be our role models and those we follow, and no one else on the face of the earth, absolutely. So, our call here, and the point of the poem, is based on three pillars: the Book, the Sunnah, and following the righteous Salaf. Whoever claims that he follows the Book and the Sunnah but does not follow the righteous Salaf, and says in his state, and may say in his words, "They are men and we are men," then he is in deviation and misguidance. Why? Because he did not take these texts that we heard from you just now. He did not follow the way of the believers. No, he did not follow the Companions of the Noble Messenger. No, what did he follow? He followed, if not his desire, then his intellect. And is his intellect infallible? The answer is no. So, he has strayed in clear misguidance. I believe that the cause of the much inherited disagreement in known sects in the past, and the disagreement entrenched today in the present, is the failure to return to this third source, which is the righteous Salaf. So, everyone claims belonging to the Book and the Sunnah, and we have often heard such words from the confused youth, where they say, "My brother, these say the Book and the Sunnah, and these say the Book and the Sunnah, so what is the decisive ruling?" The Book and the Sunnah and the methodology of the righteous Salaf. So, whoever relies on the Book and the Sunnah without relying on the righteous Salaf has not relied on the Book and the Sunnah, but rather on his intellect, if not his desire. It is my habit to give some examples to clarify this issue, and indeed this important principle, which is the methodology of the righteous Salaf. There is a word narrated from al-Faruq 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), where he says: "If the people of desires and innovations argue with you using the Qur'an, then argue with them using the Sunnah, for the Qur'an is capable of multiple meanings." Why did 'Umar say this word? I say, for that reason, Allah the Exalted addressed His Prophet (peace be upon him) in the Qur'an with His saying: Do you think that a Muslim Arab, who is, as it is said, the Sibawayhi of his time in knowledge of the Arabic language and its literature and style, can understand the Qur'an without the way of our Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him)? The answer is no. Otherwise, His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He): would be in vain, and far be it from the speech of Allah that there be any inanity in it. So, whoever wants to understand the Qur'an without the way of the Messenger (peace be upon him) has strayed in far misguidance. Then, is it possible for that man to understand the Qur'an and the Sunnah without the way of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him)? The answer is also no. That is because they are the ones who transmitted to us, first, the wording of the Qur'an that Allah revealed to the heart of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and second, they transmitted to us his (peace be upon him) explanation, which was mentioned in the previous verse, and his (peace and blessings be upon him) application of this Noble Qur'an. Here, I must make a pause, which I hope will be short. His (peace be upon him) explanation is of three types: verbal, practical, and tacit approval. Verbal: who transmits it? His Companions. His practice: who transmits it? His Companions. His tacit approval: who transmits it? His Companions. For that reason, we cannot be independent in understanding the Book and the Sunnah based only on our linguistic levels. Rather, we must seek assistance in that. This does not mean that we can do without language. No. And for that reason, we firmly believe that the non-Arabs who did not master the Arabic language fell into many, many errors, especially if they fell into this fundamental error, which is their failure to return to the righteous Salaf in understanding the Book and the Sunnah. I do not mean by my previous statement that we do not rely on language. How could we, when if we want to understand the speech of the Companions, we must understand the Arabic language, just as it is necessary to know the Arabic language to understand the Qur'an and the Sunnah? But we say that the explanation of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned in the previous verse is in three categories: saying, doing, and approving. Let us give an example or more, if we are compelled to do so, to encompass that this division is a matter of reality, not something with a motive. His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): The thief. Look now at how we cannot rely on language alone in interpreting the Qur'an. The thief, linguistically, is everyone who steals money from a secure place, no matter how little value that money has. He stole an egg, for example, or a small coin. This is the linguistic meaning of "thief." He said (Glorified and Exalted is He): Is the hand of everyone who steals cut off? The answer is no. Why? Because the one who explains the explained, the explainer, is the Messenger of Allah, and the explained is the word of Allah. The Messenger of Allah has explained to us who among the thieves has his hand cut off. He said: So, whoever steals less than a quarter of a dinar, and even if he is called a thief linguistically, he is not called a thief legally. So, from here, we arrive at a scientific truth that many students of knowledge are unaware of. There is an inherited Arabic language and a legal language that Allah has agreed upon. The Arabs who spoke the language of the Qur'an in which the Qur'an was revealed did not know such a terminology before. So, if "thief" is used linguistically, it includes every thief. But if "thief" is mentioned legally, it does not include every thief, but only the one who steals a quarter of a dinar or more. So, this is a real example that we cannot be independent in understanding the Book and the Sunnah based on our knowledge of the Arabic language. And this is what many contemporary writers fall into today. They apply their knowledge of the Arabic language to the Noble Verses and Prophetic Hadiths and interpret them, and they come to us with an innovative interpretation that Muslims did not know before. Therefore, we say it is necessary to understand that the mission of true Islam is based on three principles and three rules: the Book, the Sunnah, and what our righteous Salaf were upon. So, do not interpret this verse according to the linguistic requirement, but rather according to the legal language that says, "No cutting off except for a quarter of a dinar or more." Then he said in the completion of the verse: What is the hand in language? All of this is a hand, from the front to the armpit, it is all a hand. Is it cut off from here, or from here, or from here, or from here? The Messenger explained that by his action. We do not have a hadith there, as came in the specification of the theft for which the thief deserves to have his hand cut off. We do not have a hadith that specifies for us the place of cutting from his verbal explanation. Rather, we have a practical, applied, operational explanation. Where do we know this application? From our righteous Salaf, the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). This is the second section, which is the practical explanation. The third section is the tacit approval of the Messenger (peace be upon him) of a thing, not denying it and not forbidding it. This approval is not a saying from him, nor an action that came from him. Rather, this action came from someone else. Everything that came from him is that he saw it and approved it. So, if he saw a matter and remained silent about it and approved it, then he saw an approved, permissible matter. And if he saw a matter and denied it, even if that matter was a reality from some of the Companions, but it was established that he forbade it, then at that time, what he forbade differs completely from what he approved. And here is the example of the two matters, and this is from the curiosities of hadiths. 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with them both) says: 'Abdullah spoke in this event about two matters: drinking while standing and eating while walking, and that this was a reality in the time of the Messenger (peace be upon him). What is the legal ruling regarding these two matters, drinking while standing and eating while walking? If we apply our previous speech, we can take the ruling with a necessary addition, which is that the one who was aware of what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was upon in saying, doing, and approving. If we return to the authentic Sunnah regarding the first matter, which many Muslims, if not most Muslims, were afflicted with by opposing the saying of the Noble Messenger, which is drinking while standing. They were drinking while standing. They were wearing gold. They were wearing silk. These are facts that cannot be denied. But did the Messenger approve of that? The answer is that he denied something and approved something. What he denied became within the limits of what is denied, and what he approved became within the limits of what is known. So, he denied drinking while standing in many hadiths, and I do not want to elaborate on them either, so that we do not first go beyond what we planned for ourselves in shortening the speech on this topic to make room for questions, and second, this issue alone needs a special session. But it is sufficient for me to narrate to you an authentic hadith that Imam Muslim extracted in his Sahih from the hadith of Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: And in a wording: So, this which was done, by the testimony of the hadith of Ibn 'Umar, in the time of the Messenger (peace be upon him), he forbade it, so what they were doing became a nullified matter by the forbidding of the Messenger. But the second part of the hadith, which is that they were eating while walking, no forbidding came to us from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). So, we benefited from this approval a legal ruling. I am sufficient here now to explain the necessity of relying on the understanding of the Book and the Sunnah as it was with the righteous Salaf, and not that a person be independent in understanding the Book and the Sunnah however it appears to his knowledge, if not his ignorance. But it is necessary, after clarifying the importance of this condition on the methodology of the righteous Salaf, that I bring you some examples from the past. The Muslims divided into many sects. You hear of the Mu'tazilah, you hear of the Murji'ah, you hear of the Khawarij, you hear of the Zaydiyyah, let alone the Shi'ah and the Rafidah, and so on. Is there any of these groups, no matter how deep-rooted in misguidance, that does not share with the rest of the Muslims in their saying, "We are upon the Book and the Sunnah"? None of them says, "We do not adopt the Book and the Sunnah." Otherwise, if one of them said this, he would exit Islam completely. So, why this division, as long as they all rely on the Book and the Sunnah? And I testify that they follow and rely on the Book and the Sunnah. But how was this reliance without relying on the third principle, what the righteous Salaf were upon? With another addition that must also be pointed out, which is that the Sunnah differs completely from the Noble Qur'an in that the Noble Qur'an is preserved between the two covers of the mushaf, as is known to everyone. But the Sunnah is, first, distributed in hundreds of books, if not thousands of books, a large part of which is still in the world of the unseen, in the world of manuscripts. Then, even in these printed books today, there is the authentic and there is the weak. Those who rely on the Sunnah, whether they are from those who belong to the people of the Sunnah and the community and are upon the methodology of the righteous Salaf, or they are from the other sects, many of these do not distinguish the authentic Sunnah from the weak, and they fall into opposing the Book and the Sunnah because of their reliance on weak or fabricated hadiths. The point is that some of the sects we mentioned deny some of the Qur'anic facts and Prophetic hadiths, in the past and also in the present. The Noble Qur'an establishes and announces to the believers a great blessing they will enjoy on the day they meet Allah the Exalted in the Garden of Delight, where the Lord of the Worlds will manifest Himself to them and they will see Him, as that Salafi scholar said:
The believers see Him without asking how, without likening Him to creation, and without any kind of comparison.
The texts from the Qur'an and dozens of texts from the hadiths of the Messenger (peace be upon him) bear witness to this. How did some of the old and new sects deny this blessing? As for the old ones, the Mu'tazilah, I do not know of anyone today who says, "We are Mu'tazilah; we follow the doctrine of the Mu'tazilah." However, I saw a foolish man who declared himself a Mu'tazili and denied very clear legal realities because he was stubborn. Those Mu'tazilah denied this blessing and said, with their weak minds, "It is impossible that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is seen." What did they do? Did they deny the Qur'an? Allah says in the Noble Qur'an: Did they deny this verse? No, if they had denied it, they would have become disbelievers and apostatized. But to this day, the true people of the Sunnah judge the Mu'tazilah to be misguided, yet they do not expel them from the fold of Islam because they did not deny this verse itself, but rather they denied its true meaning, which was explained in the Sunnah, as we will mention. When Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said regarding the believers, the people of Paradise: They interpreted it and twisted it. They believed in it verbally but disbelieved in its meaning. As the scholars say, words are the molds of meanings. So if we believe in the words but disbelieve in the meaning, this faith neither fattens nor satisfies hunger. Why did these people deny this vision? Their minds were too narrow to conceive or imagine that this created, weak servant could see Allah (Mighty and Majestic) openly, just as the Jews asked Moses, and Allah (Mighty and Majestic) defeated them in the well-known story: Their minds were too narrow, so they were forced to manipulate the Qur'anic text and interpret it figuratively. Why? Because their faith in the unseen is weak, and their faith in their own minds is stronger than their faith in the unseen, which they were commanded to believe in at the beginning of Surat al-Baqarah: Who are they? So Allah is the unseen of the unseen. Whatever our Lord says about Himself, we must believe and have faith in Him, because our faculties are very limited. The Mu'tazilah did not acknowledge this reality, and therefore they denied many legal realities, including His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): Likewise, the other verse, which may be more hidden for those people than the first verse, is His saying (Mighty and Majestic): "For those who do good, there is the best" is seeing Allah in the Hereafter. This is how the hadith came in Sahih Muslim with its authentic chain from Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: "For those who do good, there is the best قال عليه السلام: الجنة و زيادة: رؤية الله He, peace be upon him, said: The best of the good is the vision of Allah." The Mu'tazilah denied this, and likewise the Shi'ah. The Shi'ah are Mu'tazilah in creed. They denied the seeing of Allah established in the first verse and explained by the Messenger of Allah in the other verse, despite the mass transmission of hadiths from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). So their interpretation of the Qur'an led them to deny the authentic hadiths of the Messenger (peace be upon him), and they fell out of being among the saved sect. ما أنا عليه و أصحابي What I am upon and my Companions.Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2641 The Messenger was upon the belief that the believers see their Lord, because it came in the two Sahihs from the hadiths of a group of the Companions of the Messenger (peace be upon him), including Abu Sa'id al-Khudri and Anas ibn Malik, and outside the Sahih, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, and so on. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: إنكم سترون ربكم يوم القيامة كما ترون القمر ليلة البدر لا تضامون في رؤيته you shall see your Lord as you see the moon on the night of a full moon, you shall not crowd one another to see HimJami` at-Tirmidhi 2554 There are two narrations: "You do not doubt" with a light taa, and "You do not doubt" with a heavy taa. The intended meaning is that you do not doubt in seeing Him, just as you do not doubt in seeing the moon on a clear night when there are no clouds between you and it. They denied these hadiths with their minds. So they did not submit and did not have faith, and they were weak in faith. This is an example of what some sects fell into in the past, and recently today, the Khawarij, including the Ibadis, who are now active in calling to their misguidance. They have articles and messages they publish, and they revive the rebellion that the Khawarij were known for from old times, in many of their deviations, including their denial of seeing Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in Paradise. Now we give you a recent example: the Qadianis. Perhaps you have heard of them. They say, as we do, "I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." They perform the five prayers, they establish Friday prayer, they perform Hajj to the House of Allah (the Haram), and they perform 'Umrah. There is no difference between us and them; they are Muslims. But they differ from us in many creeds. And here is the point: they say that the door of prophethood has not been closed. They claim that prophets will come after Muhammad (peace be upon him), and they allege that one of them came in Qadian, a town in India. Whoever does not believe in this prophet, according to them, is a disbeliever. How did they say this despite the explicit verse: و لكن رسول الله و خاتم النبيين but he is the Messenger of Allah and the Last of the ProphetsJami` at-Tirmidhi 3207? How did they say this despite the mass-transmitted hadiths that there is no prophet after me? So they interpreted the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and they did not interpret the Qur'an and the Sunnah as the righteous Salaf interpreted them, and the Muslims continued to follow that without disagreement among them, until this misguided, deviant man named Mirza Ghulam Ahmad al-Qadiani came and claimed to be a prophet. He has a long story, which is not our concern now. Many people who have no knowledge of these realities were deceived by him. These are a betrayal of the Muslim, who deviates to the right and to the left, just as the Qadianis deviated. What did these people, along with their false messiah who claimed prophethood, do with the verse: و لكن رسول الله و خاتم النبيين but [he is] the Messenger of Allah and last of the prophets[Al-Ahzab 33:40]? They said: "The Seal of the Prophets" does not mean there is no prophet after him. It means the adornment of the prophets. Just as the ring is the adornment of the finger, so Muhammad is the adornment of the prophets. So they did not disbelieve in the verse; they did not say, "This is not what Allah revealed to the heart of Muhammad." But they disbelieved in its true meaning. So what is the benefit of believing in the words without believing in the realities of the meanings, if this is a fact in which there is no doubt? What is the path to knowing the realities of the meanings of the Book and the Sunnah? You have known the path. It is not that we rely on our knowledge of the language and its literature and interpret the Qur'an and the Sunnah according to our desires, or our customs, or our traditions, or our schools of thought, or our methods. Rather, as it was said, and I end my speech with this saying:
"And all good is in following those who came before, and all evil is in the innovation of those who came after."
Perhaps this is a reminder for whoever has a heart or lends an ear while being a witness. And I must, after finishing this speech of mine, remind you of some matters that contradict the Sunnah, indeed that contradict the noble Prophetic command. Some people enter the mosque at this time and sit in the mosque as a hen sits on her chicks. He does not pray two rak'ahs to Allah (Mighty and Majestic). I know that he thinks that because this is a time of dislike, it is not prescribed to pray the two rak'ahs of greeting at this time. The answer is: for every rule, there is an exception. It is true that there are times when prayer is disliked, but the scholars in the past differed on whether these times include every prayer, even if it is an obligatory one. For example, a man put his head down after praying Zuhr and did not wake up until the time of dislike. Does he pray this prayer, the 'Asr prayer, or not? The answer is yes, by consensus. So