Khutbah Delivered by Shaykh Saaleh bin
Muhammad aal-Taalib [May Allaah Preserve him]
Grand Masjid, Makkah al-Mukaramah
24/6/1432 – 27/5/2011
After Khutbaah al-Haajah the Shaykh started
by saying:
Human development often gives the
impression that the later generations are better than the first ones, however
the opposite is true in relation to religion and the ‘Aqeedah they have.
Looking at the practice of every true religion (i.e. the pattern of the Prophets
and Messengers), the first of the generations of each Ummah where better than
the last of them. Their Salaf were more guided than the latter generations.
…
As time progressed, the level of
strangeness grew and the lack of knowledge prevailed, thus misguidance
became widespread.
إنه من يعِش منكم بعدي فسيرى
اختلافًا كثيرًا،
So if one wants to be guided then one must
look at the Salaf, this is the case with all the Prophets and Messengers
preceded. If one wants to look at the misguidance of a nation, then one can
take a glance at the latter ones, those who were misguided.
Imaam Ahmad [May Allaah have Mercy on him]
said, “If you see a person reviling any one of the Companions, then doubt that
persons Islaam.”
…
The methodology of the Salaf becomes even
dire in its needs when confusion spreads, the ‘Ulema decrease in number and the
quantity of the good-doers reduce. Doubts are left to prevail, the truth is
dressed with the clothing of falsehood and its people, and between all of this,
callers to misguidance and ignorance increase, causing people to be closer to
misguidance than that which the Islaam and the Messenger had promoted in the
beginning.
…
The Ummah, in large numbers, have had its
children become ignorant. Some of them, and we have good thoughts about them
because of their ignorance, have taken up the name attribution to the Salaf and
they have named themselves with this level, however they have corrupted
communities, conflicted against the organization and as a result this noble tag
or label has been effected by it. Even worse, now we have misguidance and
disputes within this identifier.
Their enemy has taken this opportunity to
target them, and have now debased the attribution to the Salaf as-Saaleh, and
some have even labelled this way as being from as-Salafiyyah. So they have
taken what is right and made ti wrong and made their exaggeration into
something that is moderate and just. To the extent that some even attribute
terrorism and extremism as being as-Salafiyyah. They have used the call to
return back to the Book and the Sunnah as a form of regression and confusion in
the religion, therefore, as-Salafiyyah today has now become an insult with
some, a crime to follow, which is all free and innocent from the very essence
of its call and whom it is attributed to.
Oh Muslims!
Your Salaf is Muhammad [Peace and Blessings
of Allaah be upon him], your Salaf are his Companions and those who lofty
generations that followed [May Allaah be Pleased with them all]. So with which
book can you kill the innocent or corrupt the treaties a nation has with
others?
Your Salaf were always keen to unite the
Muslims, one row, pure in their religious beliefs free from any form of
alternation or exaggeration. They were united in fighting falsehood, explain
affairs to the ignorant. Your Salaf were the most guided and upright on the Correct
Path, the best of manners, the most enthusiastic to follow the Book and the
Sunnah, the most knowledgeable of the Revelation, and they were the most Muslim
out of us all.
Calling oneself Salafee is restricted to
the follow of one person or a particular group or sect, rather Salafism is to
be obedient and to follow the texts, united upon it and abstaining from
disunity and the corruption cause to Muslim accord.
The Salafee Manhaj is Islaam, the first of
them being Aboo Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthmaan and ‘Alee. It is the pathway for which
Khaalid (bin Waleed) and ‘Sad (bin ‘Abee Waqaas) fought for. It is the path
that Hamzah was been martyred and trialled. It is the path of knowledge and
wisdom in which Ibn Ma’sood and Ibn ‘Abbaas strove in. It is the path that Hasan,
Nakhai’ee, and ash-Shu’bah adhered to. It is the route in which Aboo Haneefah,
Maalik, ash-Shafi’ee and ahmad aligned to. It is the path in which mistake was
dispelled by al-Bukhaaree, Muslim, Aboo Dawood and at-Tirmidhee.
These are those and many more not mentioned
who the path of Salafiyya is ascribed to. Their lives are preserved, their
effects are still existent, and their books and works still engraved with ink.
The joyous one is the one who sticks to
this call, the way of the Salaf and removes himself from anything that opposes
it.
How easy is it to follow the guidance if
Allaah Protects us from those who call to misguidance.
Allaah, the Most High, Bares witness to
this fact:
'And the first to embrace Islam of the Muhajirun (those who migrated from Makkah to Al-Madinah) and the Ansar (the citizens of Al-Madinah who helped and gave aid to the Muhajirun) and also those who followed them exactly (in Faith). Allah is well-pleased with them as they are well-pleased with Him. He has prepared for them Gardens under which rivers flow (Paradise), to dwell therein forever. That is the supreme success.' (9:100)
«خيرُ الناس قرني، ثم الذين
يلُونهم، ثم الذين يلُونَهم ..» الحديث؛ أخرجه
البخاري ومسلم
…
The Salafee Manhaj covers everything that
is needed to derive rulings from and how the Islaamic texts correlate with one
another. This covers all aspects of al-Islaam, worship and manners and the way
they are applied. This is the foundation of their approach to the texts of
al-Islaam, despite this the differences that exist within the Ummah is relative
and slender, therefore it is not permissible for anyone to leave the
fundamentals set by the Salaf in approaching the Islaamic texts. Likewise, it
is not permissible for anyone to attribute themselves to anything other than
the way of the Salaf, because in origin, the Muslims must stay free from
innovations and inventions into the religion. For this reason, the way of the
Salaf prevents the Muslim from falling into such error and sin. Whoever abides
by the Book, the Sunnah and Ijmaa (scholarly consensus) is then falling the way
of Ahl as-Sunnah, as for the people of innovation and differing, they abide
neither of these sources of legislation.
