Abu Taymiyyah – Who is a SALAFI & what does SALAFIYA really mean
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Brothers and sisters inshallah w Ta'ala in this
sit,
what I wanna speak about
is a Salafiya.
Due to there being so many misconceptions,
people having misunderstood
what a Salafiya means, people being allergic to
the word Salafi
and a Salafiya.
We want to inshallah,
portray and explain to the people
what it truly means.
And another misconception people have
that Salafis
are against the scholars.
People like Imam Mohammed, people like Imam Al
Shafi'i, Imam Malik, Imam
Buhanifa, Rahim Ullahu Ta'ala, Rahimat Anwasi'ah. So Insha'Allah
Ta'ala, we hope to clarify
and clear up any misunderstandings regarding the word
Salafi
so that we are all upon clarity.
So one can either become distracted
while being upon clarity or he can live
while being upon clarity.
Brothers and sisters
in Islam, may Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'la bless
you all and make you from those that
are righteous.
Where did this word Salif come from? Does
it have an Asal?
Does it have
an origin in our religion?
It came inside a Muslim
that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said
to Fatima,
his daughter,
What an excellent
Salaf I am to you!
Yani, the meaning of Salaf,
it means Predecessor. So he's saying to Fatima,
what an excellent
Salaf, predecessor I am to you, oh Fatima,
may Allah SWT
be pleased with her.
So when a person now says
Salafi yun,
who is he ascribing to?
He is ascribing
to the Quran al Mufawwala,
The 3 blessed
Golden Generations,
those that were mentioned in the Hadith when
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said
the best of you
is my generation.
Then those that come after them, and those
that come after them.
And also, one thing that we need to
bear in mind
is a principle from the Arabic language.
We have now the word Salef, which means
predecessor.
And you've got something else that have been
connected to it, which is Yun,
which in the Arabic language is called You
Nispah,
the You
that ascribes.
So
when I have now
said
that
when we know the origin of this word
now is Yemen, is the country Yemen.
If I have now added u at the
end, I am now ascribing myself to a
Yemen.
And likewise with the word Somali,
if one says, Ana Somali yun,
adding the Ayun at the end, the yaun
isba, he is now ascribing himself to who?
Somalia.
If a person says Sudan,
which is the country Sudan,
he is not ascribing himself to Sudan.
Wohallum Majara,
and it goes on with any word that
you want to.
Obviously, if you're trying to ascribe something to
something,
you have to put the Yun at the
end. This is something, a side benefit,
from the Arabic language.
So when a person now says Salaf
Fi Yoon,
he has added now the Yoon at the
end, he's ascribing himself to who? The Quran
and Mufabbala,
the 3 golden generations.
The Sahaba,
the Tabi'in,
the Tabi'i Tabi'in.
Brothers and sisters,
it is not a party. It is not
a group. It is not
partisanship.
Rather, it is the way
that one has been commanded to
follow as Allah
said to him,
from those that have proceeded with Sabi'un al
Awalun of the Muhajireen
and the Ansar and then Allah
says
Those
who then follow them
in goodness
RadiAllahu anhu.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is pleased with them,
and
they are pleased with them as well.
Brothers and sisters, if I can try and
explain this in more simple terms,
Salafiya
is to pick up the Quran
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
the Sunnah of the Messenger sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam
and understand the way the Sahaba understood
it.
It is as simple as that.
The way Ibn Abbas,
the way Ibn Masood, Abdullah Masood, Abu Bakr,
Umar ibn Khattab, Uthman, ibn Affan, Ali RadiAllahu
anhu, the way they came and understood the
Quran,
this is what Salafiya is.
The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam told us
by Abbas,
Allahumma'alimu Ta'weel, Allahumma'alimu Quran, Oh Allah teach him
the Quran,
Oh Allah teach him the Ta'weel, Oh Allah
give him understanding in the religion.
Taking the Quran and understanding it the way
they understood it, this is what Salafiya means.
Prophet and sister, it's not fair because you
have seen
a badly
ill mannered individual who is ascribing to the
Salaf
as if it is some football team going
on about it, banging on about it,
as some they tend to do.
It's been turned into a banner, a slogan,
and it's become like as if we're trying
to push a gang.
Wallahi, this is not Salafiya.
Rawat is something that is open for anyone
now
to come
and put into practice that which the Salafi
Ridwan Ullahi put into practice. The Quran and
the Sunnah, the way
of whose understanding? The Sahaba Ridwanullahye Alayim is
understanding.
That is what Salafiyah is. When it comes
to Aqeedah, the belief, believing that which they
believed.
When it comes to Suruq, when it comes
to the behavior,
when it comes to Minhaj, the methodology,
the way of the Salaf,
and everything else, Muamalat, the dealings, the akhlaq,
the ethics that we have,
it needs to be in accordance to who?
The Sahaba Radwan Allahi Alaihi. The Tabi'ayn, the
Tabi'i Tabi'ayn, the Quran and Mufala, the 3
golden generations.
This is what a Salafi'i is.
And there's no shame regarding this. As Ibnatayim
mentioned,
in Majmoo Al Fatawah,
volume number 4, page 149,
where he said,
walaAAibaalaman
adharaman have a salif. There is no aib.
There's no shame. There's no embarrassment
regarding the individual now that
comes out openly
with the way of the Salaf.
And the one thou that ascribes to it
and associates himself to it.
Rather, it is mandatory that we accept this.
This has been
unanimously agreed upon. For
ini,
the
Mal
Habas
Salaf cannot be accept
the truth,
so there's no problem regarding it.
Likewise,
Imam Adabbi
said:
that which the Haafib
needs.
He mentioned some of the characteristics that a
Hafid needs and from the things that he
mentioned,
that he needs to be a Salafi.
Salafi,
someone that ascribes to the Sahaba.
His actions
are in accordance to their actions. His dealings
are in accordance to their dealings.
It's not just the name that we go
on about, rather it is action.
It's like one saying that he's a Muslim,
and then he doesn't come with that which
al Islam requires of him.
He doesn't come with the shahada, and then
he claims al Islam. Can we say this
person is a Muslim? We can't say that
person is a Muslim.
Likewise, Salafi.
Someone claiming to be upon the way of
the Salaf,
and then it completely goes against what the
Sahabarid 1, who am I, believed, this is
not Salafiya.
Rather it is to just pick up the
Quran, brothers and sisters, I don't know a
simpler way to put this
and to understanding the way the Sahaba
understood
it,
and that's what a Salafiya is.
So Rabbis and sisters will ask you, Billahi
Alaik, is it fair now?
That because of what some people have done,
we take the whole Da'wah to Salafiya
and
we throw it to the side simply because
of how maybe Fulan
and I learned
this person and that person behaved
and ascribed to the Salaf.
In reality,
the Salaf are free from this
and I beg you all, do not base
and make a judgment
due to what you saw from certain individuals
who are claiming Salafiya.
Rather look at the scholars
of the past
and those that have just recently passed away
and those who are alive today.
From the scholars that are Ma'aruf, well known.
From those that have just recently passed away,
people like Sheikh Uthaimin.
Go read his books.
How he dealt with the people. Sheikh Bimbaaz,
Rahmahullah
Ta'ala,
Sheikh Al Bani, Sheikh Mookbeli, Nahi Alwadi a'i.
The way they dealt with the people,
the dawah that they gave.
When it came to putting things in its
proper place,
especially just look at the dealings they had
with the people and how they dealt with
them.
And then you have the scholars of this
time, people like who? Sheikh Sal Alfuzan,
who is currently Riyadh. Read his books, look
at the way he behaves, the way he
deals.
Do not base it upon some certain individuals
that you might find in Britain who are
running with the slogan of a salafiya.
Look at the scholars,
Sheikh Salih al Fozan,
Sheikh Salih al Louhaydan,
Sheikh Abdul Muhasin al Abbad
and
also Sheikh Saad al Chitiri,
and other than them that you find today
upon the face of this earth.
That's only some of them that have basically
come to our mind at the moment, but
there's many others that you can look at.
Look at the scholars and the way they
deal with the people, and do not look
at those
who may be new to the Dawah.
And they corrupt and they destroy more than
that which they rectify.
And then people think this is Salafiya.
And some of these people haven't even smelled
the fragrance of knowledge, concluse to it.
But because of emotion
and personality,
they tend to treat things in a certain
way.
We ask Allah
to make a salafis in reality,
following the way of the Sahaba,
following the
way
of the Tabi'ayn and the Tabi'ayn
in that which is preceded.
And another misconception, inshaAllah, that I want to
mention
is that a Salafiya or the Salafis
are against
the 4 Imma.
They disrespect the 4 Imma.
Wallahi, this is another misconception.
You won't find any of the scholars today
who claim to follow the way of the
Salaf, who ascribe themselves to a Salafiya
ever speaking ill
of these ima. Whether it is Imam Abu
Hanifa,
whether it is Sheikh Abdul Muhsan Al Abbad,
Sheikh Salih al Sahimi
and other than them speaking ill of these
great scholars that have preceded us.
Rather,
we have excuses for them
in that which they
erudin,
and we don't say anybody is perfect.
Rather, we say that which Imam Malik Rahim
Allahu Ta'ala said, ma'am min olin illa yukhadwayuradillasahebhadulqabar.
Imam Imatayn
has a whole book,
Where he talks about the scholars
defending them, defending their honor.
Sometimes maybe a great Imam like Imam Wa
Hanifa or Imam
Ahmed came and gave a fatwa regarding a
matter.
But he gave that fatwa incorrectly.
Nobody is masum, nobody is infallible, they're gonna
make mistakes.
And we ask Allah to reward them because
this is what the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
said.
Llahashtaalhaqimfuaktafaalahu
ajar
faizaasaba
faloajaran. Iba hakim.
A mushtaheed, someone that strives,
falls into a mistake when trying to strive,
he gets one reward,
and if he's not correct, he gets 2
rewards.
Sometimes they give a fatwa
and maybe
they gave a fatwa in such a way
that
could be for many different reasons.
Maybe sometimes even a hadith reached someone like
Imam Abu Hanifa.
But because
he saw that chain of narration
to have defects in there,
he decided to disregard the hadith, which is
an excuse for him.
Or maybe sometimes when he gave a fatwa,
they
may have forgotten the actual ruling or the
hadith,
and they gave a fatwa in such a
way.
Or maybe
the Hadith
reached them, but they saw it to be
abrogated,
and there's many many exclusions that we can
give them.
But rather all of them were in agreement.
If a hadith now comes to you,
that is Sahih, then this is Palma Madhab.
Imam Abu Hanifa said that and Imam Ashafi
said
that as all.
They connected the people to the Quran, to
the Hadith.
That doesn't mean we disregard them, we put
them to the side. Ra, but we look
at the aqwal, the ishtihad, we respect it.
And likewise,
Imam Al Shafi, rahamullah ta'ala, said, if you
ever find a statement that goes
if you ever find my statement that goes
again in the Quran, throw against the word.
Imam Ahmed said,
take from that which we took from. The
point is, they connected people to the Quran
and Sunnah
and we don't disrespect the Ulama who have
made mistakes.
Rather, there's many excuses that we can give
them, and Ibn Taymah
has a whole book,
which finds many exclusives for them, and we
ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
to benefit us from that which we heard.
Subhanahu wa bihamdik
ashaduallalai
laa antastaghfirukawwai'tu
bi reek.