Continuing the report on the meaning of adhering to the practice of the righteous predecessors, with examples thereof, and explaining the importance of following the righteous predecessors, foremost among them being the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them

The Shaykh : Now, there are people who have set their heads against the sayings of the predecessors and the sayings of the Imams, so they have permitted something that all scholars know, which is called today "rebellion against the rulers." We have permissible rebellion and impermissible rebellion, and this is explicitly stated in the Sunnah. We do not want to enter into this research, especially since time has been wasted, but I want to say: Do you say that the Companions erred and you were correct? One of two things must be the case: you will say, "Umar, this is a misunderstanding on your part," because, as I said earlier, teaching Umar is as I teach people today. I have read the description of the prayer; I teach people what the Messenger of Allah taught them, and 'Umar ibn al-Khattab is our predecessor in this teaching. So 'Umar ibn al-Khattab did not add anything to what the Messenger of Allah taught. This is obligatory for every Muslim until the Day of Resurrection, and I am among them. I do not contradict the Companions, and I do not contradict the Messenger of Allah, but I rely on the understanding of the Companions to understand what the Messenger of Allah taught them directly. So now you are one of two people: either you say you were correct and the Companions erred, or you say—and this is the truth—I erred, meaning you, and the Companions were correct. In that case, there is no escape from these two options. And if you persist—and I hope you do not persist in your position—it means, at the very least, that you are in a state of confusion. You are confused. You say that you are a Salafi, but you have no Salafi [practice]. You are a Salafi in theory, but you are not a Salafi in practice, as I said earlier. I described our companion who is walking over there; our companion the preacher, our preacher today, was a Salafi, but his sermon was from the later generations. So now, I hope you are a Salafi, but in this issue, you are not on the methodology of the righteous predecessors, because you are blaming the Companions. Previously, it was because you had no knowledge; otherwise, you would directly blame the Companions. You used to think before that this was an ijtihad of Ibn Mas'ud, a suppressed opinion of one Companion who had an opinion and an ijtihad. But, by Allah, it is not suppressed in my view from this person, and in this particular context, the Messenger of Allah taught him the tashahhud... This, our brothers, this description has a very strong psychological and emotional meaning. Allahu Akbar. The sheikhs today have taken over the hearts of the disciples, using the Sufi expression, and you will find the disciple walking behindThe Shaykh : exactly in the same way. I happened to have a story, by the way. They say that knowledge is a bit dry, so let us moisten it a bit, meaning let us get rid of the dryness. I entered the mosque there in Damascus; in some of our mosques, wooden racks are placed for putting on sandals, not like here at the door, but in front of the qiblah, wooden racks like this where the sandals are placed. So I placed my sandal like this, lengthwise, for example, the qiblah is like this, I placed it like this. A Shaykh sitting here said to me, "O so-and-so, do not place your sandal like this, place it like this," meaning, for example, how do you imagine it, crosswise, from east to west, because like this there is a bit of ugliness, meaning a sandal pointing [in that direction]. I said to him, "Why, Professor?" He said, "This is how my Shaykh [does it]." Allahu Akbar. Do you think we follow our predecessors in this following? And I want from our Salafi brothers: if you are not with us in the methodology, that the righteous predecessors are our head, and they are more understanding than us, and their path is what Allah the Mighty and Majestic mentioned in the previous verse If you are not with us, God forbid, this will require lectures and lectures and lectures. But I think, if Allah wills, that we are all on one word, whether we follow the Book and the Sunnah and on the methodology of the righteous predecessors, or that we dare to challenge the status of the Companions, indeed the Companion, and in such an issue, this is in reality, as I said, either a contradiction of the rule fundamentally or branch-wise, and we ask Allah for guidance for us.

The questioner : The rule is famous and known, and it is a proof preserved against those who did not preserve it, and it is very clear here. Ibn Mas'ud preserved [it].

The Shaykh : Excuse me, I want to add something. There is something about which the scholars say that this is taqdiri. Do you hear this word? Good, what does taqdiri mean? It means the Companions did not do anything of these acts of worship except by taqdir from the Messenger of Allah. But this taqdir, its text did not reach us. Here, the lesson is: the thing is taqdiri, its text did not reach us. And this connects us to the issue of the saying of the Companion: is it a proof or not? The saying of the Companion, not his action. Now, the saying of the Companion is a proof sometimes and not a proof at other times. If the saying of the Companion relates to the unseen matters, first, and not to the unseen matters that could be from the Isra'iliyyat, in that case it is said that this is mawquf in the ruling of marfu'. Why? Because it is not said by mere opinion, it is not said by mere ijtihad. May Allah bless you, this is taqdiri. It means Ibn Mas'ud here did not act on his own; rather, he understood in one way or another, as the scholars understand when they say this is a taqdiri matter from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. And the taqdiri matter is that they transmitted to us what they understood, and the matter ended. And to bring this issue closer to you, there are hadiths placed under the heading of prohibitions: The Messenger of Allah prohibited such and such, and the Messenger of Allah prohibited such and such, and he prohibited such and such, by the hundreds. Where is the text of the Messenger of Allah? This is not the text of the Messenger of Allah, right or wrong? Good, do we follow these prohibitions? We do not doubt that we follow them, but this is not the speech of the Messenger of Allah; this is what the Companion understood from the Messenger of Allah. So, glory be to Allah, I am telling you now: the saying of Ibn Mas'ud in the tashahhud, when he died, we said, "Peace be upon the Prophet." This is what Ibn Mas'ud understood. If you go back and say he ijtihaded, did the Companions all ijtihad as well? You will say the one who narrated erred.

The questioner : What is the answer to this objection?

The Shaykh : The answer has already been given. I say the answer has already been given and I repeated it. Ibn 'Umar, excuse me, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab. I am like him. If I narrate the hadith from the Messenger of Allah now, how do I narrate it? As he said. But, my brother, as he said. Do you think 'Umar would do the opposite of what Al-Albani does? If not, there is no proof in this if Al-Albani narrates a hadith from the Messenger of Allah like this: The Messenger of Allah taught [it] like this. There is no proof in this if another proof comes to us. So 'Umar ibn al-Khattab narrated what he narrated. All the Imams of the Muslims, all the Companions. And I mentioned earlier the hadith narrated by Ibn Mas'ud, narrated by Ibn 'Umar, narrated by 'Aishah, and 'Umar, and, and, and, and so on. These mean the issue has two branches or two parts: a branch relating to narration and a branch relating to understanding. So 'Umar ibn al-Khattab taught people what he heard from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and I teach people what we learned from those who transmitted the hadith to us. The Messenger of Allah said to Ibn Mas'ud, "Peace be upon you, O Prophet, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings." But here, something may be said that I named earlier, and something may not be said that I heard earlier. But the important thing is that we now have knowledge of something extra beyond the teaching of the Messenger of Allah, which is what we teach people. And this is what 'Umar taught all the people. We have something extra. What is our position regarding this extra thing? I do not know if the issue is also difficult for you to understand that 'Umar ibn al-Khattab himself prohibited tamattu' from 'Umrah to Hajj? What? Yes, I did not understand. Good, is this not contradictory to the Qur'an?

The questioner : Contradictory to the majority of the Companions.

The Shaykh : It happened to me.

The questioner : Contradictory to the Qur'an, yes.

The Shaykh : May Allah forgive you. Good, this contradiction, which is more severe? May Allah bless you. Is teaching people the tashahhud as the Messenger of Allah taught people this more severe contradiction, or his contradiction of the Qur'an? Which is more severe?

The questioner : His contradiction of the Qur'an.

The Shaykh : So why do you still care about the severe one, which is not severe, and do not care about the more severe one? If this is permissible, then that is permissible. Yet, there is a great difference between them. We do not say about 'Umar in teaching the tashahhud except that he hit the Sunnah. But we say about the one who prohibited tamattu' that he erred from the Sunnah, but he is rewarded. This is not an objection, but he erred from the Sunnah. And what do you say about prohibiting the traveler from tayammum if he does not find water? Do you understand this?

The questioner : I did not know.

The Shaykh : You have done well, may Allah reward you with good. This is established in Sahih al-Bukhari. The important point is, may Allah bless you, that we must make our commitment to our methodology, which is the Book and the Sunnah and the methodology of the righteous predecessors, not to an individual. An individual may err or be correct, and so on. But I say here, briefly, and I apologize to Shaykh 'Abd al-Rahim again, that I absolutely cannot conceive that Ibn Mas'ud, if he were alone, would contradict the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) direct teaching to him, especially when he held the teachers accountable for a single letter. I absolutely cannot conceive of that. But the furthest thing from reason, taste, and everything else is that the Companions said, "When he died, we said, peace be upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)." May Allah help us. This is a relief for us, and may Allah reward you with good.