Learn Your Religion From Inheritors Of The Prophets

Opening Supplications

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Peace and blessings be upon the Master of Prophets and Messengers, our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and companions.

My Lord, open my heart and ease my affairs, and release the knot from my tongue, so that my speech may be understood. O Allah, nothing is easy except that You make it easy, and You make sorrow easy, if You will. Ameen.

Allah Almighty said:

So ask the people of My Remembrance, if you do not know. And the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, said:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 3641; also recorded in Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 223)

The scholars are the inheritors of the Prophets. Allah Almighty has spoken the truth, and His Messenger, the Noble Prophet, has spoken the truth. And we are of those who witness and are grateful. And all praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.

The Importance of Seeking Knowledge Through Proper Means

One of the avenues and one of the modes of us being able to keep ourselves strong, even after the passing of these blessed days, is through ilm, is through gaining knowledge, and it is through strengthening our own self with regards to the different fields that we could increase our awareness of — with regards to understanding more deeply the Qur'an and the hadith, and improving ourselves both academically as well as spiritually.

But the reality is that Allah Ta'ala, as well as Nabi ﷺ, they stress upon the concept of learning ilm through the proper means, and they stress upon learning ilm from those individuals who have the sanad going back to the Sahaba رضي الله تعالى عنهم, and to Nabi ﷺ himself.

Imam Muslim brings a quotation of Ibn Sirin in the muqaddimah of his Sahih, in which he quotes:

(Muqaddimah of Sahih Muslim)

Imam Ibn Sirin says that knowledge itself is the religion, and religion itself is knowledge — that if we want to make sure that we have the correct aqa'id, if we want to make sure that we are practicing our religion properly, it all depends on the knowledge that we have learned from the scholars. That if we want to make sure that we have the correct amal, if we're practicing our religion correctly, then it has to be through the correct means, and it has to be grounded in the scholarship that has been laid forth for the last 1,400 years. And then he advises the student:

So be very, very cautious — be very wary of who you are adopting as a teacher.

Two Extremes to Avoid

The First Extreme: Rejecting Scholarship Entirely

Now in regards to adopting a teacher, and taking someone as a teacher, and learning from them, there tends to be two extremes. The first extreme being those people who say that we do not need teachers whatsoever. They say:

That these scholars of the past, they were all human beings, and I'm a human being. They all were prone to making mistakes, and I'm also not infallible — I could also make mistakes. And they say that Allah Ta'ala says:

That Allah Ta'ala says: do you not yourselves ponder over the Qur'an? So they argue: if great scholars of tafsir of the Qur'an, like Abdullah ibn Abbas, the cousin of the Prophet ﷺ — the individual for whom the Prophet ﷺ himself made dua — if he was able to think deeply about the Qur'an, then I too can think deeply about the Qur'an. If his students like Mujahid and Ikrimah were able to come to these eloquent points regarding the Qur'an and its tafsir, then I could do that too.

Or this notion of the four imams of fiqh — Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Malik, Imam Shafi'i, Imam Ahmed — if they were able to come to a conclusion and come to a fatwa regarding a certain masa'la, if they were able to understand the entire Shari'ah and come to a conclusion regarding one issue, then if they could do this, I could do this too. That if the great imams of hadith — Imam Bukhari, Imam Muslim, Imam Abu Dawud, Imam Tirmidhi, Imam Nasa'i, Imam Ibn Majah — if these individuals were able to grade a hadith, if they were able to say that a hadith is sahih, da'if, hasan, ma'lul — if there's a hidden defect — if all these different istilahat that can apply to a hadith, if they were able to determine the grading of a hadith and its legibility to practice upon it, then I could do that too.

So basically, these individuals end up completely divorcing themselves and removing 1,400-plus years of scholarship. This is one extreme which leads to an entire reinterpretation of the Shari'ah, where people end up doing tahrif, or they come up with statements and opinions that:

— that we've never heard of them, nor has anyone in the past ever said anything like this.

The Second Extreme: Blind Following of Individuals

The second extreme — whereas the first group holds on to just the Qur'an and the hadith — the second group holds on to individuals. This isn't so common here in the West, but it is elsewhere in the world. People end up holding on to people so firmly, so strongly, that whatever they say goes. If they say this is what we believe in, then that's what we believe in. If they say this is how we practice something from now on, then they agree and say that this is how we're going to practice it from now on.

The famous example in just the recent past is that of the fake prophet — the one who claimed prophethood after the beloved Nabi ﷺ — Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani. Of course, first he started off with claiming prophethood, and then eventually himself claiming divinity, and then holding these erroneous statements and opinions such as: he would say that in the past, you would have to go to Mecca and Medina if you wanted to perform your Hajj and Umrah — now you can come to my hometown and you can perform your Hajj and Umrah.

So this second group is holding on to these individuals while not examining their beliefs in light of the Qur'an and the hadith. Whereas the first group holds on to the Qur'an and the hadith, but they completely let go of the interpretation of the scholars and their contributions to our tradition for the last 14 centuries.

The Middle Path: Kitabullah and Rijalullah

But the reality is that the truth is somewhere in between — that if we want to make sure that we are following our religion properly, we need both the Qur'an and the Sunnah, along with the scholarship that our tradition has been present with for the last 14 centuries.

Mufti Taqi حفظه الله says this beautifully in his maqala regarding this topic — that if a person wants to gain hidayah from Allah Ta'ala, if a person wants to gain guidance from Allah Ta'ala and continue on the straight path, then they have to hold on to two things. He calls them the Rijalullah and the Kitabullah. If a person wants to hold on to the firm path, they have to hold on to the Kitabullah — which is the book of Allah Ta'ala, as well as the Sunnah of Nabi ﷺ — along with the Rijalullah. The Rijalullah, what he says, are the Anbiya عليهم السلام — the Prophets.

He says that this concept that individuals may have — that I'm also a human being, I'm also educated, I can figure out what the Shari'ah wants from me on my own, I can figure out what is the correct interpretation of the Qur'an and the Sunnah on my own — but if this was the case, then what was the need for Allah Ta'ala to have sent Prophets in the first place? Allah Ta'ala could have just revealed the Qur'an. And of course Allah Ta'ala could do what He wills — if Allah Ta'ala wanted to preserve the Qur'an in a glass box in a museum, He could have done so without giving it to an individual, without giving it to a Prophet.

If Allah Ta'ala even wanted to, He could have just had every single human being be born with the Qur'an in their heart and be able to recall it at a moment's notice. Rather, what Allah Ta'ala does is — He gave it to an individual, because the human component is necessary. That physical demonstration leads to the proper understanding of what the revelation wants from us. So for this reason, Allah Ta'ala has sent the Anbiya and the Prophets.

The Du'a of Ibrahim and the Coming of the Prophet ﷺ

So after understanding this, after understanding the need and the reason for the prophethood and for Allah Ta'ala sending of Prophets, we will be able to understand the narration of Nabi ﷺ in which he says:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 3641; Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 223)

— that it is the scholars who are the inheritors of the Prophets, that after the passing away of the Prophets, it is up to the scholars of the religion to stand up and fill those shoes to the best of their ability.

So this is part of our culture — with this idea of individualism, where we think that I can figure it out on my own — but we have to admit and see clearly that the book of Allah Ta'ala is not sufficient alone, and that we need the interpretation and the demonstration of the Prophets عليهم السلام.

And this is from the very beginning — when Ibrahim عليه السلام was building the Ka'bah, when he was building the house of Allah Ta'ala, he made dua to Allah Ta'ala:

He makes dua to Allah Ta'ala: O Allah, send to them a Prophet that could teach them Your book, that could teach them the Sunnah, that could teach them the proper methodology of following the book of Allah Ta'ala. If he wanted to, Ibrahim عليه السلام could have just made dua that: O Allah, I ask that You send to them some sort of revelation. But he's specifying — and he understands the Sunnah of Allah Ta'ala of sending down individuals, of sending down human beings, to take up this mantle of guiding a community and showing a community what is the proper method of following the revelation.

When Nabi ﷺ was asked about this — he was asked about his childhood, asked about how he grew up — the Sahabi رضي الله تعالى عنه says:

The Prophet ﷺ was asked by an individual: what was your childhood like — what was it like for you before you became a Prophet? The Prophet ﷺ answered the question and went way back. He said:

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 17163; also referenced in al-Hakim's Mustadrak)

The Prophet ﷺ answered and went way back, saying: I am the answer to this dua of Ibrahim عليه السلام — this dua that Ibrahim عليه السلام made, that Allah Ta'ala send to them a prophet amongst the people of Makkah — I am that prophet that Ibrahim عليه السلام made dua to Allah Ta'ala for.

I am also that prophet in which Isa عليه السلام gave glad tidings of. Allah Ta'ala says:

That Isa عليه السلام mentioned that there's going to be a prophet that comes after him by the name of Ahmad — which is our Nabi ﷺ. As well as the blessed mother of Nabi ﷺ — she saw a dream that her stomach was shining and it was radiating throughout the lands, and it was brightening up the palaces that were in al-Sham. So he says: I am the interpretation of that dream.

So Rasulullah ﷺ was the answer to all three of these things — he was the prophet that Ibrahim عليه السلام made dua for, and he was the prophet that Isa عليه السلام gave glad tidings for.

The Scholars as Inheritors of the Prophets

So Nabi ﷺ eventually passed away. Who is it that could fill this void of Nabi ﷺ to the best of their ability — and who is it that we're supposed to rely on, if there's not going to be any more prophets coming after the final prophet of Allah, Nabi ﷺ? Nabi ﷺ answers this when he says:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 4607; Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 42; Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 17144)

Nabi ﷺ says: hold on firmly to my Sunnah, as well as the Sunnah of the Khulafa' al-Rashidin — the blessed and rightly-guided companions — namely Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman, and Ali رضي الله تعالى عنهم أجمعين — and of course by extension, the rest of the Sahaba رضي الله تعالى عنهم.

So who are they? These individuals were all human beings. In fact, even in Surah al-Fatiha, Allah Ta'ala says:

That Allah Ta'ala commands us to make dua to Him that we increase in guidance, that we increase in our hidayah. And how does Allah Ta'ala define what hidayah is? He says صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ — Allah Ta'ala could have said صِرَاطَ كِتَابِ اللهِ وَسُنَّةِ نَبِيِّهِ, He could have defined the guidance as the Qur'an and the Hadith. Rather, Allah Ta'ala defines guidance as صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ — of those individuals, of those human beings, of those people whom You have favored and those whom You are pleased with.

So we need the Anbiya, we need the Prophets, and we need the وَرَثَةَ الْأَنْبِيَاءِ — the inheritors of the Prophets — and we need this human element along with the revelation.

So who exactly are the رِجَالُ اللهِ? Who exactly are these men of Allah Ta'ala? They are those individuals who have studied the Qur'an and the Hadith. They are those individuals who have followed it themselves and implemented it in their own lives, and they preserve it and they teach it to others. And we understand the Qur'an and the revelation as explained by these scholars and how they implement it in their lives — so we could see what it is in reality for the revelation to come into how we understand it, both in theory and in practice.

But after the Prophet ﷺ passed away, after the Sahaba رضي الله عنهم passed away — who are the individuals that we need to follow? Because this Ummah is still here today. And this is where the hadith comes:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 3641; Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 223; Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2682)

This hadith that I've been citing throughout this khutbah — that it is the scholars whom we need to hold on firmly to, because they have inherited from the Prophets what they have left behind, which is ilm — the knowledge of this religion. And the Prophet ﷺ gives glad tidings to these individuals, to these scholars, when he says فَمَنْ أَخَذَ بِهِ أَخَذَ بِحَظٍّ وَافِرٍ — that these individuals have a great share, they have a very good fortune, that they have adopted when they chose to become the leaders of this religion.

The Prophet ﷺ also says:

(Reported by al-Bayhaqi in al-Madkhal ila al-Sunan al-Kubra; also cited by Ibn Abd al-Barr in Jami' Bayan al-'Ilm)

The Prophet ﷺ says that from every single generation there will be a group of individuals who carry this religion — they act upon it, they implement it, and they preserve it in its pristine form. And these are the individuals who are going to protect and preserve the religion from interpretations that completely go against our tradition, and from interpretations of people who don't understand the reality of what the Shari'ah wants from us, as well as interpretations that are completely false and completely made up.

And we see this time and throughout our history — that it was these scholars who were able to stand up against the false interpretations of both the extreme right and the extreme left. It was these scholars who were able to stand up to the Khawarij and the Mu'tazila — the Khawarij who were on the extreme right and were claiming that any sin will take an individual out of the fold of Islam, and on the extreme left was the Mu'tazila, who would prefer their own intellect and their own interpretations over that of the zahir of the Qur'an and the Hadith.

The Marvel of the Isnad System

And I'll end with this — our system of isnad, our system of traditional scholarship that has been going on for 14 centuries, is one of the greatest feats of the world, really. This system of having an unbroken chain from our time here all the way back to the Sahaba رضي الله تعالى عنهم أجمعين, to the Prophet ﷺ, is one of the marvels of the world and is something that proves that the ilm that we are gaining of this religion, and the ilm that we have, is directly from the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba رضي الله تعالى عنهم — as preserved and shown to us by way of the 'Ulama.

And we ask that Allah Ta'ala allow us to continue in this path, that Allah Ta'ala allow us to continue to preserve our religion and allow us to uphold it, and that He protect us from any false interpretations and from any deviant beliefs.

Announcements

Insha'Allah we could all stand up — please move forward so that we have more space in the back, and if we could all pray our sunnahs. Jazakumullah Khayran.

Just a few quick announcements insha'Allah. Please pass the donation boxes from the right to the left and donate generously — sadaqah wards off calamities and draws the mercy of Allah Ta'ala.

We also request that there be no more curb parking — do not park on the curbs behind the seminary building or on the Swift Highway. We have additional parking spaces in the used car lot, so please do not do that from next week forward.

We also invite you to join us for our weekly programs. The Ta'lim Fajr will continue tomorrow, Saturday, with the Fajr Iqamah at 4:45am, as well as the Tafsir which will continue on Surah al-Hajj on Tuesday insha'Allah after Maghrib.

Registration is open for the following programs: our Tanween Intensive Arabic/Islamic Studies one-year program for boys and girls separately, and the Tadrees Integrated High School Program — high school education in an Islamic environment. Classes will begin from August 14th insha'Allah. For more information, feel free to visit the Darul Salam website.

We will also be having a students' gathering on Sunday, July 9th, between Maghrib and Isha. All high school, madrasa, and college students are welcome to attend.

There are two dua requests: for Sister Saeedah Raza's oral health and procedure, as well as a dua for shifa for Ayman Siddiqa who is sick. We ask that Allah Ta'ala cure them of their illnesses and allow their procedures to go smoothly, and that He makes this a means of forgiveness of their sins. Jazakumullah Khayran.