7K subscribers
6,152 views·
Shaykh ʿAbdullāh Ibn ʿAbdul-Raḥīm Al-Bukhārī On Whether or Not The Basic Principle Regarding The Muslim Is That He Is Salafī And The Difference Between Belief And Methodology: The Questioner: Several doubts have spread in my land regarding the methodology [of the Salaf]. So I am asking you to expose these doubts and may Allāh reward you with good. [The first doubt is:] What is the basic principle regarding the Muslim is he to be considered ignorant or should he be considered Salafī? Shaykh ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbdul-Raḥīm al-Bukhārī: “This doubt; all praise is due to Allāh, this doubt was dealt with a very long time ago. I say that all of the weapons of the Sunnah fell upon this doubt, may Allāh bless you, however without a doubt, the people of desires, they do not invent anything new when it comes to creating doubt amongst the people and confusing them regarding the issues related to adhering to the Sunnah and the Salafī methodology. Shaykh ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbdul-Raḥīm al-Bukhārī: “This doubt; all praise is due to Allāh, this doubt was dealt with a very long time ago. I say that all of the weapons of the Sunnah fell upon this doubt, may Allāh bless you, however without a doubt, the people of desires, they do not invent anything new when it comes to creating doubt amongst the people and confusing them regarding the issues related to adhering to the Sunnah and the Salafī methodology. However, what is obligatory is that this doubt is exposed now. We will address it without any problem. Or we will refer to an [existing] answer. But for how long will this continue? What is obligatory upon you whether you are the questioner or the questioner was other than you from those who put forth their questions, what is obligatory is that this person seeks the correct knowledge of the Sunnah and that he increases himself in this since this is the best thing in which a person might seek an increase. And it is for this reason that Ibn al-Qayyim –may Allāh have mercy upon him- said: ‘And if you were to ask about provisions (provisions for travel), then the travelers provision is the knowledge that has been inherited by the last of the prophets (); so there is no provision for you other than this. And whoever does not take for himself from this provision, then he will remain amongst those who have fallen behind. So those who have taken falling behind as a close companion and who are also inactive are numerous. So it will not benefit a person to follow their example.’ So it is obligatory for a person to have knowledge of the Sunnah which is correct and well grounded in order to protect him against these doubts. In fact, some of these doubts do not even deserve to be discussed publically, not to mention deserve to be refuted, may Allāh bless you. So is the basic principle as it relates to the Muslim that he is ignorant or is he Salafī? We have previously discussed this and we said, and I'm summarizing, that the basic principle as it relates to the Muslim is not that he is Salafī. We say that the basic principle regarding the Muslim is that he is Muslim. Whoever's Islām was confirmed with certainty cannot be removed except with certainty. To describe a Muslim as being Salafī is a description that is in addition to his Islām. Just like if you were to say that so & so is trustworthy (ʿadl). It is not possible for an individual to be considered trustworthy (ʿadl) [as it relates to the narration of ḥadīth] when an individual is a non-Muslim. So he must first be Muslim in order for you to say afterwards that he is considered trustworthy (ʿadl). So the description of being trustworthy is something which is an addition to the description of Islām. And this description requires knowledge and experience in order to describe a person as being trustworthy (ʿadl). The same can be said about the description Salafī and that this description requires knowledge and experience and affirmation or commendation (tazkiyyah) or something like this in order to say tha
