The Ruling on Following the Tijaniyyah Method

Our brother from Chad, Muhammad Ahmad Shuy—apparently—and he resides in Jeddah, we presented his question at the beginning of the session, and he is asking now, saying: We have many people who are attached to the Tijaniyyah method, and I heard on your program that the Tijaniyyah method is an innovation and it is not permissible to follow it, but my family has the daily recitation (wird) of Shaykh Ahmad al-Tijani, which is the Salat al-Fatih, and they say: that Salat al-Fatih is the sending of blessings upon the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and I ask now: Is Salat al-Fatih the sending of blessings upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) or not? I ask for clarification of this, as they say: that whoever reads Salat al-Fatih and abandons it is considered a disbeliever, and they say: if you do not bear this and you abandon it, there is nothing on you, and if you bear it and abandon it, you are considered a disbeliever, and I said to my father: that this is not permissible, so they said: you are a Wahhabi, and they insulted me, and this continues in this manner, O Shaykh, and he asks you for guidance and direction?
Answer: The Tijaniyyah method is undoubtedly an innovative method, and it is not befitting for the people of faith to follow innovative methods, neither the Tijaniyyah nor any other, rather it is obligatory to follow what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) brought; because Allah says: [Al-Imran:31], meaning: Say, O Muhammad! to the people: And He, the Exalted, says: [Al-A'raf:3] And He, the Exalted, says: [Al-Hashr:7] And He (Glorified and Exalted is He) says: : [Al-An'am:153] And the paths: are the newly invented ways of innovations, desires, doubts, and forbidden lusts, so Allah has made it obligatory upon us to follow His straight path, which is what His great Book, the Qur'an, indicated, and what the authentic, established Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) indicated.
This is the path that must be followed, as for the path of al-Tijani or al-Shadhili or so-and-so or so-and-so or so-and-so, this is not obligatory to follow and it is not permissible to follow it except what of it conforms to the Shari'ah of Allah, what of these methods conforms to the Shari'ah of Allah is accepted; because it conforms to the Shari'ah of Allah, not because it is the path of al-Tijani or Shaykh 'Abd al-Qadir or al-Shadhili or so-and-so or so-and-so, no, we take what is in the method of good, we take it because it conforms to the pure Shari'ah, and what is in these methods of things that contradict the Shari'ah of Allah must be abandoned.
And Salat al-Fatih is the sending of blessings upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) as they mentioned, but it is a formulation that did not come from the Lawgiver, where they said in it: O Allah, send blessings and peace upon our master and our Prophet Muhammad, the Opener of what was closed and the Sealer of what preceded, and the Victor of the truth with the truth, this wording they invented from themselves, it has no basis in... and its meaning is correct, the meaning is correct, but the thing that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) guided to and taught the Ummah is better, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when they asked him: how do they send blessings upon him, he said: And in another formulation he said to them (peace and blessings be upon him): And in a third wording he said: So these wordings that came from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and what came in their meaning is the sending of blessings that should be adopted and used.
As for Salat al-Fatih, and if its meaning is correct on the surface, but deviating from what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) explained and guided the Ummah to, there is concern in it and there is a type of turning away from what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) guided to, so it is as if al-Tijani is more knowledgeable about what Allah legislated and more worthy of what he mentioned than what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) explained and taught the Ummah and guided them to.
And it is not befitting for a person of intellect to say this, and it is not befitting for a Muslim to say this, so the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is more knowledgeable about what benefits his Ummah, and more knowledgeable about what is closer to the pleasure of Allah, and more knowledgeable about the legislations; because he is the teacher and the conveyor to whom revelation comes from the sky (peace and blessings be upon him), so he is more knowledgeable about what Allah legislated and he is more knowledgeable about what pleases Allah, and he is more knowledgeable about the appropriate wordings than anyone else (peace and blessings be upon him).
Then in their saying: the Opener of what was closed, there is something of ambiguity in it, it may be said: that they intended by this meaning: of the prophethood, when it was cut off by the raising of 'Isa (peace be upon him), it was opened by his sending (peace and blessings be upon him), so it would be true, and it may be that they intended something they did not specify or clarify, for the Opener of what was closed has ambiguity, so if they intended by this that he opened the prophethood, meaning: that Allah opened the prophethood through him after it was closed by the raising of 'Isa (peace be upon him), and that there is no prophet after 'Isa except Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), then this is a correct meaning, he is the prophet after 'Isa, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: He (peace and blessings be upon him) says, he (peace and blessings be upon him) says: (peace and blessings be upon him), so this is a correct meaning, and if they intended by their saying the Opener of what was closed another meaning, they did not clarify it until it is looked into.
As for the Sealer of what preceded, this is correct, he is the Sealer of the prophethood, the Sealer of the prophets, as He, the Glorious and Exalted, said in His great Book: [Al-Ahzab:40].
And he is also the Victor of the truth with the truth (peace and blessings be upon him), and he guided to the straight path, all of this is true.
The ambiguity is only in their saying: the Opener of what was closed, this has some ambiguity in it.
And in any case: even if it were at the peak of soundness and had nothing of ambiguity, using the wording that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) brought and guided to and indicated to the Ummah is more preferable and more preferable, so it is not befitting for the Ummah to deviate from anything the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said, and guided to, and he is the protected one in what he conveys from Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, and he is the most sincere to the Ummah and the most sincere to the people and the most knowledgeable of the people about the Shari'ah of Allah, it is not befitting for a person of intellect among the Muslims to deviate from what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) guided to to something said by someone else, whether the one who said it is Ahmad al-Tijani or Shaykh 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani or so-and-so or so-and-so, or even from the Companions, even if it were from the Companions, even if it were Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, and he is the best of creation after the prophets (peace and blessings be upon them) (Glorified and Exalted is He), so if al-Siddiq said a word and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said a word and guided to it, the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would be prioritized over Abu Bakr and over 'Umar and over 'Uthman, so how would it not be prioritized over one who was in the twelfth century, who is Ahmad al-Tijani.
May Allah grant all success and guidance. Yes.