The scholars are the light illuminating the world from the darkness of ignorance, their similitude on this earth is like that of the stars in the sky. The scholars are the ones giving sight, with the permission of Allah, to people who have been made blind by ignorance and misguided callers. They are the ones teaching and awakening us about Allah, and they are the ones explaining what is permissible and what is not permissible to the Ummah. Even though the scholars know that the deviants will strive to shatter their honour if they speak against their deviation, scholars sacrificed their personal honour, and firmly stand to establish the truth for the ummah and save them from the lies and distortions of the deviants.
Having scholars amongst us is a blessing, for a time will come when there will be no knowledge in the world again and the world would be filled with ignorants and they will issue verdicts that will mislead people. Allah سبحانه وتعالى mentioned the virtue of scholars and He said:
هَلْ يَسْتَوِى ٱلَّذِينَ يَعْلَمُونَ وَٱلَّذِينَ لَا يَعْلَمُون
Are those who know equal to those who know not?¹
Allah sent His prophets to the world to guide people to the straight path, and since there are no prophets amongst us anymore, scholars are those who inherited the knowledge from the prophets to call people to jannah and warn people against jahannam.
Kathir ibn Qays said: I was sitting with AbudDarda’ in the mosque of Damascus.
A man came to him and said: AbudDarda, I have come to you from the town of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for a tradition that I have heard you relate from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. I have come for no other purpose.
He said: “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: If anyone travels on a road in search of knowledge, Allah will cause him to travel on one of the roads of Paradise. The angels will lower their wings in their great pleasure with one who seeks knowledge, the inhabitants of the heavens and the Earth and the fish in the deep waters will ask forgiveness for the scholar. The superiority of the scholar over the devout is like that of the moon, on the night when it is full, over the rest of the stars. The scholars are the heirs of the Prophets, and the Prophets leave neither dinar nor dirham, leaving only knowledge, and he who takes it takes an abundant portion.”²
Scholars inherited the best of people, and that is a great virtue for them. Any Muslim who wants to hold on to what the prophets brought to us should stick to the scholars of sunnah, and anyone who wishes to be in jannah and wishes to be safe from jahannam should stick to the scholars of sunnah.
In a world where people now tag returning issues to senior scholars in the time of general fitan (trials and tribulations) upon evidences as blindfollowing, it is important that we explain the virtues of scholars and the importance of returning general issues affecting the society back to them.
Allah سبحانه وتعالى commanded us to ask the scholars the scholars when He said:
فَسْـَٔلُوٓا۟ أَهْلَ ٱلذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
So ask the people of the Reminder if you do not know.³
And in another verse, He سبحانه وتعالى commanded us to follow them, He said:
يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ أَطِيعُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُوا۟ ٱلرَّسُولَ وَأُو۟لِى ٱلْأَمْرِ مِنكُمْ
“O you who believe! Obey Allah and obey the Messenger (Muhammad ﷺ), and those of you (Muslims) who are in authority.”⁴
In his Tafsir, Ibn Kathīr رحمه الله said regarding the explanation of this verse that those in authority refers to the leaders and the scholars.⁵
Allah specifically stated that returning back to the prophet ﷺ and the scholars is a means of understanding issues affecting the general public. He said:
َإِذَا جَآءَهُمْ أَمْرٌ مِّنَ ٱلْأَمْنِ أَوِ ٱلْخَوْفِ أَذَاعُوا۟ بِهِۦ ۖ وَلَوْ رَدُّوهُ إِلَى ٱلرَّسُولِ وَإِلَىٰٓ أُو۟لِى ٱلْأَمْرِ مِنْهُمْ لَعَلِمَهُ ٱلَّذِينَ يَسْتَنۢبِطُونَهُۥ مِنْهُمْ ۗ وَلَوْلَا فَضْلُ ٱللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَتُهُۥ لَٱتَّبَعْتُمُ ٱلشَّيْطَـٰنَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا
When there comes to them some matter touching (public) safety or fear, they make it known (among the people), if only they had referred it to the Messenger or to those charged with authority among them, the proper investigators would have understood it from them (directly). Had it not been for the Grace and Mercy of Allah upon you, you would have followed Shaytan, save a few of you.⁶
Senior scholars, due to their firmness in knowledge and vast experience in the field of Da’wah, are more befitting to treat general issues than other than them. When the prophet ﷺ predicted the fitnah of misguided and deviant scholars in the hadith of Hudhayfah bn Al Yamān radiyallahu anhu⁷, Hudhayfah bn Al-Yamān asked the Messenger ﷺ of the rectification from these fitnah, He ﷺ told him that “Adhere to the Jama’ah and their Imam”.
Muʿāwiyah bn Abī Sufyān said⁸:
“Indeed, Allāh’s Messenger ﷺ stood among us and said: Beware! Those who came before you from the people of the book split up into seventy two sects, and this religion (Islām) will split into seventy three. Seventy two of them will be in the Fire and one of them will be in the Jannah, and it is the Jamāʿah.⁹
The word Jama’ah has been explained by the Salaf, and one of their explanation to the word is that it refers back to scholars upon the truth, and those who are with them. Imām At-Tirmidhī reported from Ibn ‘Umar that Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said: “Allah will not unite my Ummah upon misguidance. And the Hand of Allah is with the Jamā’ah , and whoever deviates from that, he deviates himself to the Fire.”¹⁰
Abu ‘Īsā At-Tirmidhī said: “And the meaning of Al- Jamā’ah in the view of the scholars is: The people of understanding and knowledge and hadīth (ahlul-fiqh wal-‘ilm wal-hadīth).”
Abu ‘Īsā At-Tirmidhī said: I heard Al-Jārūd Ibn Mu’ādh saying: I heard ‘Alī Ibn Al-Hasan saying: I asked Abdullāh Ibn Al-Mubārak: “Who are the Jamā’ah ?” He said: “Abu Bakr and ‘Umar.” It was said to him: “But Abu Bakr and ‘Umar are dead.” He said: “Then it is so-and-so and so-and-so.” So it was said: “But so-and-so and so-and-so are also dead.” So he said: “Then Abu Hamzah As-Sukkarī is the Jamā’ah .”
Abu ‘Īsā At-Tirmidhī said: “Abu Hamzah is Muhammad Ibn Maymūn. He was a righteous scholar. He said this regarding him in his lifetime.”
So the Jamā’ah about whom the Messenger (ﷺ) said: “The Hand of Allah is with the Jamā’ah,” are the scholars and whoever deviates from that Jamā’ah, “deviates himself to the Fire.” ¹²
When Is’hāq bn Rāhawayh was asked about the Jama’ah¹¹, he said it is Muhammad bn Aslam (At-Tūsiy), his companions and those who follow him; then it was mentioned to him that Abdullah bn Al Mubaarak said it was Abu Hamzah As Sukkari (as it was mentioned in the narration of At Tirmidhi above), Abu Is’hāq said: “That is at that time and at our time, it is Muhammad bn Aslam and those who follow him.” Is’hāq bn Rāhawayh also said:
If you were to ask the ignoramuses about the Sawād al-Aʿẓam (the main body of muslims), they would say the majority of people, and they do not know that the Jamāʿah is a scholar who holds fast to the narrations of the Prophet ﷺ and his path. So, whoever is with him and follows him is [part of] the Jamāʿah.¹³
The above narrations from the Salaf has explained to us that scholars are referred to as the Jama’ah that should be held on to at the time of division among the ummah. And it should be noted that scholars in those context do not refer to just any common scholar, but the refer to senior scholars of those time.
عن ابن عباس قال : قال رسول الله – صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم – : ” البركة مع أكابركم
‘Abdullah bn ‘Abbas narrated from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that: “Blessing is with your elder ones”¹⁴
Abdullah bn Mubaarak رحمه الله was also a scholar at his time, yet he referred people to Abu Hamzah As Sukkari. Is’hāq bn Rāhawayh was also a scholar at his own time, yet he referred people back to Muhammad bn Aslam At-Tūsiy. Another clear evidence for this was when the fitnah of the Qadariyyah happened in Basrah at the time of the companions and the tābi’een, scholars from the tāb’een; the likes of Yaḥya ibn Ya’mar and Humayd ibn Abdirrahman Al Himyaree were there in Basrah, yet they referred the issue back to the companions, who were the senior scholars of that period, and that can be captured in the below narration:
Yahyaa Ibn Yamar said: The first one to speak about [the denial] Al-Qadr in Basrah was Mabad Al-Juhanee. So Humaid Ibn Abdir-Rahmaan al-Himyaree and I set out for Hajj and Umrah and we said:
“If we meet any of the Companions of Allaah’s Messenger, we shall ask them about what these people are saying about Al-Qadar.” It so happened that we came across [the Companion of the Prophet] Abdullaah Ibn Umar whilst he was entering the Masjid, so my friend and I came alongside him, one on his right the other on his left. So I said: “O Abu Abdir-Rahmaan (i.e. Ibn Umar)! There are people who have appeared in our land that read the Qur’aan and seek knowledge.” – so I spoke about them – “and they claim there is no Qadar and that things are not pre-decreed.”
So Ibn Umar (radiyallaahu anhumaa) said:
فَإِذَا لَقِيتَ أُولَئِكَ فَأَخْبِرْهُمْ أَنِّي بَرِيءٌ مِنْهُمْ وَأَنَّهُمْ بُرَآءُ مِنِّي وَالَّذِي يَحْلِفُ بِهِ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ عُمَرَ لَوْ أَنَّ لِأَحَدِهِمْ مِثْلَ أُحُدٍ ذَهَبًا فَأَنْفَقَهُ مَا قَبِلَ اللَّهُ مِنْهُ حَتَّى يُؤْمِنَ بِالْقَدَرِ
“If you meet those people, tell them I have nothing to do with them and they have nothing to do with me. By the One whom Abdullaah Ibn `Umar swears! If One of them had gold like the mountain of Uhud and he was to give it away in charity, Allaah would not accept it from him until and unless he believed in the Pre-Decree.”¹⁵
Same was the case with Zubayd bn Al-Hārith Al-Yāmī, when the deviant sect of Mur’jiah appeared in his time, even though he was a scholar at that time, yet he referred the issue to the senior scholars of that time; he referred back to Abu Wā’il Shaqeeq bn Salamah رحمه الله.
عَنْ زُبَيْدٍ، قَالَ سَأَلْتُ أَبَا وَائِلٍ عَنِ الْمُرْجِئَةِ،، فَقَالَ حَدَّثَنِي عَبْدُ اللَّهِ، أَنَّ النَّبِيَّ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ “ سِبَابُ الْمُسْلِمِ فُسُوقٌ، وَقِتَالُهُ كُفْرٌ ”.
Zubayd said: “I asked Abu Wā’il about the Mur’jiah and he said that ‘Abdullah narrated to me that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Reviling a Muslim is sinfulness and fighting against him is disbelief.”¹⁶
The honoured reader should not be deceived by innovators and misguided people who try to cut people away from the major scholars for them to establish themselves to people as scholars; they do this to be able to oppose the scholars in their rulings backed up with evidences and they deceive people with emotion and deception to follow the path of the devil.
The famous devilish statement of the Sufis “They are men and we are men” in referring the major scholars is to portray the scholars as common men like themselves. The Ikhwaanul Mufsideen and Khawarij would also depict the scholars as puppets of rulers and money, so as to direct the people to deviants like Sayyid Qutb. Safar and Salmān, the two leaders of misguidance in the last century would depict scholars as ignorants and claim that they know the current affairs that scholars do not know. The innovators of today, Al-Ma’ribee, Al-Halabi, Al-Hajūri and their followers would falsely allege those who follow the major scholars upon evidences as blindfollowers, just to make them feel guilty of following the correct path.
The followers of Muhammad bn Haadi, the Musa’fiqah, has also embarked on that way and have found a new way of presenting Ibn Haadi, the wicked oppressor to people as a victim and they try to excuse the major scholars who have refuted Ibn Haadi heavily by saying that those scholars do not know the reality of those whom they have oppressively tagged as Sa’afiqah. We beseech Allah to relieve us of their harms.
A true Salafi should be firm as a mountain, he should hold on the Qur’ān and Sunnah upon the path of the pious predecessors. A Salafi should be firm upon the truth, no matter how fierce the wind is, he should develop a thick skin without fearing the blame of the blamers, he should hold on to the major scholars and be part of those who the prophet ﷺ described below:
لاَ تَزَالُ طَائِفَةٌ مِنْ أُمَّتِي قَائِمَةً بِأَمْرِ اللَّهِ لاَ يَضُرُّهُمْ مَنْ خَذَلَهُمْ أَوْ خَالَفَهُمْ حَتَّى يَأْتِيَ أَمْرُ اللَّهِ وَهُمْ ظَاهِرُونَ عَلَى النَّاسِ
“There shall not cease to remain a group (tā’ifah) from my Ummah steadfast upon the command of Allah. They are not harmed by those who abandon them nor by those who oppose them, until the command of Allah comes – and they shall by manifest over the people.”¹⁷
May Allah ease our affairs
Mubaarak Olayemi Ismail
Abu Muhsinah
1. Zumar:9
2. Sunan Abi Dawud 3641 (Graded Sahih by Shaykh Al-Albāni)
3. Anbiyaa:7
4. Nisaa:59
5. Ibn Kathīr 1/518
6. Nisaa:83
7. Bukhari 3606
8. As Reported by Abū Dāwūd in his Sunan (4597)
9. Classed Ḥasan by Imām al-Albānī in Ṣaḥīḥ Sunan Abī Dāwūd
10. no. 2167
11. I’tisaam of Ash-Shātibi 2/778
12. Taken from abukhadeejah.com
13. Reported by Abū Nuʿaym in al-Ḥilyah (9/239)
14. Reported by At-Tabarani in Awsat 8991 and Al Bazzār 1957
15. Muslim: 8
16. Bukhari 48
17. Reported by Muslim, no 1037
