All Praise is due to Allaah, we praise Him and seek His aid and forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allaah from the evils of our souls and the evils of our actions. Whomsoever Allaah guides there is none to misguide and whomsoever Allaah misguides there is none to guide. I bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped except Allaah, alone, without any partners and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger.
To proceed:
With the aim of actualising the saying of the revered Imaam, Maalik bin Anas (d. 179H): "The (affairs of the) latter part of this Ummah will not be corrected except by that which corrected its first part", SalafiPublications.Com is a presentation of the aqeedah (creed), manhaj (methodology) and ibaadah (worship) of the earlier generations, known as the Salaf us-Saalih.
As will not be hidden from any and every Muslim, the earlier one goes back in history, the purer and cleaner is the religion, until we reach the era of the Companions of Allaah's Messenger () to whom the Messenger () gave the advice: "I have left you upon clear proof, its night is like its day, no one deviates from it except that he is destroyed, and whoever amongst you lives for long will see great controversy. So stick to what you know from my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Orthodox, Rightly-guided Caliphs, cling to that with your molar teeth."[1] For this reason we find some of the Taabi'een (Successors) advising those in their time and those after them to stick to the 'original state of affairs'[2]. For it was then and only then that the word of the Muslims was one, their ranks united and their strength and glory realised. And this was due to no other reason save that Allaah had brought their hearts together - after they were on the brink of Hellfire - upon one creed and one methodology and one worship. So as long as that lasted after them did such unity, strength and glory remain - and as much as that was polluted, corrupted and destroyed did the very same befall those after the Companions till this day of ours.
So a return to that original state of affairs necessitates a return to the Notable Scholars and Illuminaries of that age and era[3], those known for their adherence to and defence of the Sunnah and the Madhhab of the Salaf, to their words, statements and clarifications regarding those very same issues and innovations which have never ceased to infest the Ummah to this very day - whether they be related to the Names and Attributes of Allaah, or to His Tawheed, or His Qur'aan, or to the matters of the belief in the Unseen and the Hereafter, or to the nature of a Muslim's eemaan (faith), or to issues of kufr (disbelief) and shirk (associationism), or to political matters regarding rulership and judging by the law of Allaah and other than this from those things which have been the source of controversy.
So this presentation of the creed and methodology of those Notable Scholars at SalafiPublications.Com is also a call - at the one and same time - for the Muslims to return to the beneficial knowledge and its sources, to attend to learning and to be clear and free of doubt in their affair, to proceed upon knowledge along with its proof - whilst clinging to those Scholars before us amongst the Companions and those after them from the Salaf us-Saalih, who have passed on to Allaah, but have left their legacy - and those Scholars of this time who are clearly upon the way of those before them - [and by being exposed to the creed and methodology of the earliest Muslim Scholars can one identify the true Scholars of the Sunnah of the present time] for the Messenger () said: "There will not cease to be a group from my Ummah, obedient to Allaah's orders. They will not be harmed by those who desert them, nor those who oppose them, until Allaah's order comes about and they have ascendancy over the people"[4]. And he (sas) also said: "This Ilm (Deen) will be carried by the trustworthy ones of every generation. They will remove from it the alterations (tahreef) of the ones going beyond bounds, the false assumptions of the liars and the false interpretations (ta'weel) of the ignorant."[5]
And therefore, as a consequence, innovation and its people will be exposed [6] - since a Muslim is left with clear signposts: the guidance of the Notable Scholars from our Righteous Salaf, the creed and methodology with which they worshipped Allaah, and those Scholars of the present time who are clearly in adherence to that which the Notable Scholars of the past adhered to. And so the Muslim, proceeding upon knowledge, can recognise that which is not from the religion as well as the one who propagates that which is not from the religion - and so is saved - as Ibn Shawdhab said: "Verily, it is from the bounty of Allaah upon a youth, that when he performs pilgrimage he befriends a person of the Sunnah who carries him upon it."[7] And he also said: "Verily, it is from the happinness of a youth and a non-Arab that Allaah guides them to a Scholar from Ahl us-Sunnah."[8] And Yoosuf bin Asbaat said: "My father used to be a Qadaree and my (maternal) uncles used to Raafidees, then Allaah saved me by Sufyaan."[9]
Our final word is the supplication that Allaah grants us and all the Muslims success in following that which He loves and is pleased with - which is His Tawheed, the Sunnah and its people - and keeping away from that which He hates and is displeased with - which are Shirk, the Innovations and its people[10].
Notes
[1] Reported by Ahmad (4/126), Ibn Maajah (no.43), al-Haakim (1/96) and others by way of Abdur-Rahmaan bin Amr as-Sulaamee and the hadeeth is Hasan.
[2] Abdullaah bin Mas'ood said: "O people, verily you will invent new things and new things will be invented for you, so when you see an innovation then you must return to the first affair." Ad-Daarimee (no.174)
Abu Ma'shar said: "I asked Ibraaheem about something from these desires (i.e. innovations) and he said: "Allaah has not placed a single atom of goodness in them and they are nothing but whisperings from Shaytaan. You must stick to the original affair."" Abu Shaamah (no.37)
And Aasim al-Ahwal reports that Abul-Aaliyah (d. 90H) said: "Learn Islaam, the when you have learnt Islaam, do not turn away from it to the right or the let. But be upon the Straight Path and be upon the Sunnah of your Prophet and that which his Companions were upon... And beware of these innovations because they cause enmity and hatred amongst you, but stick to the original state of affairs which was there before they divided." Aasim said: I narrated this to Hasan al-Basree (d. 110H) so he said: "He has given you sincere advice, and has told you the truth." Ibn Battah in al-Ibaanah (no. 136) and al-Aajurree in ash-Sharee'ah (p. 24).
[3] The Messenger of Allaah () said: "Indeed the Children of Israa'eel split up into seventy-one sects and my Ummah will split up into seventy-three, all of them are in the Fire except one." It was said: What is the one? He said: "That which I and my Companions are upon." Reported by at-Tirmidhee (no. 2792), al-Haakim (1/128-129) al-Laalikaa'ee (no. 147) and others from Abdullaah bin Amr ibn al-Aas.
[4] Reported by al-Bukhaaree (no. 4719) and Muslim (no.4719)
[5] Reported by Ibn 'Asaakir, Abu Nu'aym and Ibn 'Adee from Ibraaheem bin Abdur-Rahmaan al-'Udhree and it is Saheeh.
[6] Ibn al-Jawzee said: "Abul-Wafaa Alee bin Aqeel al-Faqeeh said: Our Shaikh Abul-Fadl al-Hamdaanee said: The Innovators of Islaam and the Fabricators of Hadeeth are more severe than the Non-Muslims (Mulhideen) because the Non-Muslims desire to corrupt the religion from the outside and these, they desire to corrupt it from within - they are like the people of a town who strive to corrupt it (from within) but the Non-Muslims are like those who have surrounded it from outside. So the ones who are inside open up the fort, so they are more evil to Islaam than those who do not wear (the) gown (of Islaam)." Al-Mawdoo'aat (1/51).
[7] Al-Laalikaa'ee in Sharh Usool ul-I'tiqaad (no. 30)
[8] Al-Laalikaa'ee in Sharh Usool ul-I'tiqaad (no. 31)
[9] Al-Laalikaa'ee in Sharh Usool ul-I'tiqaad (no. 32)
[10] The Messenger () said: "Whoever innovates or accomodates an innovator then upon him is the curse of Allaah, His Angels and the whole of mankind." Reported by Bukhaaree (12/41) and Muslim (9/140)
Ibn Abbaas - may Allaah be pleased with him - said: "Verily, the most detestable of affairs to Allaah the Exalted are the innovations." Al-Bayhaqee in as-Sunan al-Kubraa (4/316)