Shaykh ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd ar-Raḥīm al-Bukhārī delivered this reminder to Masjid Daar us Sunnah, London, by telephone link in 2010.
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah the Lord of Mankind and may the peace and salutations be upon our Prophet Muḥammad and upon his family and companions.
To proceed,
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ
“O you who believe! Fear Allah [by doing all that He has ordered and abstaining from all that He has forbidden] as He should be feared [obey Him, be thankful to Him and remember Him always], and die not except in a state of Islam, as Muslims in complete submission to Allah.” [Q 3:102]
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اتَّقُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ مِنْ نَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالًا كَثِيرًا وَنِسَاءً ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ الَّذِي تَسَاءَلُونَ بِهِ وَالْأَرْحَامَ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًا
“O mankind! Be dutiful to your Lord, who created you from a single person (Ādam), and from him He created his wife [Ḥawwāʾ (Eve)], and from them both He created many men and women. Fear Allah through whom you demand your mutual rights, and do not cut the ties of kinship. Indeed, Allah is ever an All-Watcher over you.” [Q 4:1]
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَقُولُوا قَوْلًا سَدِيدًا يُصْلِحْ لَكُمْ أَعْمَالَكُمْ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ ۗ وَمَنْ يُطِعِ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَقَدْ فَازَ فَوْزًا عَظِيمًا
“O you who believe! Keep your duty to Allah and fear Him, and always speak the truth. He will direct you to righteous good deeds and forgive your sins. Whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has indeed achieved a great achievement [he will be saved from the Hell-fire and admitted to Paradise].” [Q 33:70–71]
To proceed, indeed the best speech is the speech of Allah, and the best guidance is the guidance of Muḥammad , and the worst of matters are those innovated by the people, and every innovated matter is a bidʿah and every bidʿah is astray, and every going astray is in the fire.
We thank Allah as He has made easy this meeting between us and we ask Him to increase us in His blessings for He should be thanked at the beginning, end, inwardly and outwardly for He is most deserving of praise.
My words of reminder to you O brothers, and I say that these words of reminder are certainly admonitions and advice since the reminder benefits the believers.
It is not hidden from anyone who is conscious, rational and mature that Islam is undergoing transgression and enmity in many different ways. The people of desires from the people of misconceptions and innovations do not give up attacking this noble and dignified religion.
They want those who hold on to it to depart from the straight path, the path which they supplicate to their Lord in every unit of their prayers, whether obligatory or voluntary, supplicating to Allah to guide them to it with the statement of Allah in Sūrat al-Fātiḥah
اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ
“Guide us to the straight path.” [Q 1:6]
Muḥammad ibn Jarīr aṭ-Ṭabarī (d. 310 AH/923 CE) ؒ relates in his Tafsīr a report that the speaker describes as having a ḥasan chain. Abū al-ʿĀliyah ar-Riyāḥī explained Q 1:6, and ʿĀṣim reported his explanation to al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī:
هو رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم، وصاحباه من بعده أبو بكر وعمر. قال: فذكرت ذلك للحسن، فقال: صدق أبو العالية ونصح.
“It is the Messenger of Allah and his two Companions after him, Abū Bakr and ʿUmar. [ʿĀṣim] said: ‘I mentioned this to al-Ḥasan, who said: “Abū al-ʿĀliyah has spoken the truth and given sincere advice.”’” (Aṭ-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, on Q 1:6, report no. 184 in the King Saud University transcription.)
The meaning of their statements is that whoever sought from Allah guidance to the straight path and was guided to it and followed it and remained upon it, is indeed saved and successful. So let him stay firm upon the Sunnah of the Messenger and his Companions after him, foremost among whom are Abū Bakr and ʿUmar ().
Abū ʿAbd Allah Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ayyūb Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (d. 751 AH/1350 CE) ؒ discusses the straight path in Badāʾiʿ al-Fawāʾid, in the twentieth issue:
فنذكر فيه قولا وجيزا فإن الناس قد تنوعت عباراتهم فيه وترجمتهم عنه بحسب صفاته ومتعلقاته وحقيقته شيء واحد وهو طريق الله الذي نصه لعباده على ألسن رسله وجعله موصلا لعباده إليه ولا طريق لهم إليه سواه بل الطرق كلها مسدودة إلا هذا وهو إفراده بالعبودية وإفراد رسوله بالطاعة فلا يشرك به أحدا في عبوديته ولا يشرك برسوله أحدا في طاعته فيجرد التوحيد ويجرد متابعة الرسول.
“We shall offer a brief statement about it. People’s descriptions and explanations vary according to its qualities and connections, but its reality is one. It is Allah’s path, which He has set out for His servants through the tongues of His messengers and made a means for His servants to reach Him. They have no other path to Him; all other paths are closed. It consists of singling Him out in worship and singling His Messenger out in obedience: associating no one with Him in worship and no one with His Messenger in obedience. Thus, one makes tawḥīd pure and follows the Messenger exclusively.” (Badāʾiʿ al-Fawāʾid, twentieth issue concerning the straight path.)
So whoever yearns that Allah should guide him to the straight path, for certainly the one who is guided to it is saved and successful, then let him hold on to this path and let him take from this guidance for without doubt he will become happy and victorious. He will be one who contributes to the making of this great establishment and from the preservers of the entity of this noble Islam.
Verily people in current times are in dire need of clarity of the correct Islam, that which the Prophet came with and that which his companions followed after him. They need it to be clarified and explained to them and there is no other way for you O student of knowledge, O seeker of the truth in reality except to stick to the guidance of the Messenger of Allah and the guidance of his companions, and the way to achieve that (guidance) is by the knowledge which is inherited from the chief of the children of Ādam (Muḥammad) .
Indeed he came to us with light and guidance.
Allah says,
يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ قَدْ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولُنَا يُبَيِّنُ لَكُمْ كَثِيرًا مِمَّا كُنْتُمْ تُخْفُونَ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ وَيَعْفُو عَنْ كَثِيرٍ ۚ قَدْ جَاءَكُمْ مِنَ اللَّهِ نُورٌ وَكِتَابٌ مُبِينٌ يَهْدِي بِهِ اللَّهُ مَنِ اتَّبَعَ رِضْوَانَهُ سُبُلَ السَّلَامِ وَيُخْرِجُهُمْ مِنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ بِإِذْنِهِ وَيَهْدِيهِمْ إِلَىٰ صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ
“O People of the Book! Our Messenger has come to you, clarifying much of what you concealed from the Book and passing over much. There has come to you from Allah a light and a clear Book. Through it, Allah guides those who seek His pleasure to the ways of peace, brings them from darkness into light by His permission, and guides them to a straight path.” [Q 5:15–16]
So the Prophet is a light (the guidance) for whoever takes him as a light, takes his methodology and guidance and whoever adopts his Sunnah is saved, successful and will become victorious.
The well-known report of ʿIrbāḍ ibn Sāriyah ؓ, narrated in the Sunan collections and described here as authentic, includes the following:
فَوَعَظَنَا مَوْعِظَةً بَلِيغَةً ذَرَفَتْ مِنْهَا الْعُيُونُ وَوَجِلَتْ مِنْهَا الْقُلُوبُ فَقَالَ قَائِلٌ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ كَأَنَّ هَذِهِ مَوْعِظَةُ مُوَدِّعٍ فَمَاذَا تَعْهَدُ إِلَيْنَا فَقَالَ أُوصِيكُمْ بِتَقْوَى اللَّهِ وَالسَّمْعِ وَالطَّاعَةِ وَإِنْ عَبْدًا حَبَشِيًّا فَإِنَّهُ مَنْ يَعِشْ مِنْكُمْ بَعْدِي فَسَيَرَى اخْتِلَافًا كَثِيرًا فَعَلَيْكُمْ بِسُنَّتِي وَسُنَّةِ الْخُلَفَاءِ الْمَهْدِيِّينَ الرَّاشِدِينَ تَمَسَّكُوا بِهَا وَعَضُّوا عَلَيْهَا بِالنَّوَاجِذِ وَإِيَّاكُمْ وَمُحْدَثَاتِ الْأُمُورِ فَإِنَّ كُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ.
“He gave us an eloquent exhortation at which eyes shed tears and hearts trembled. Someone said: ‘Messenger of Allah, it is as though this were a farewell exhortation. What do you enjoin upon us?’ He replied: ‘I enjoin you to fear Allah and to hear and obey, even if [your leader is] an Abyssinian slave. Whoever among you lives after me will see much disagreement. You must follow my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs. Hold fast to it and bite onto it with your molars. Beware of newly invented matters, for every newly invented matter is an innovation and every innovation is misguidance.’” (Sunan Abī Dāwūd, no. 4607, excerpt.)
The Prophet set out the path of salvation and mentioned the many disagreements that would occur. The reminder retells the question as asking what would bring salvation, and repeats the answer:
فَعَلَيْكُمْ بِسُنَّتِي وَسُنَّةِ الْخُلَفَاءِ الْمَهْدِيِّينَ الرَّاشِدِينَ.
“You must follow my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs.” (Sunan Abī Dāwūd, no. 4607, excerpt.)
This concerns holding to their guidance after him.
With this, O brothers, it becomes apparent to us the importance of acquiring authentic knowledge which was inherited from the chief of the children of Ādam, in order that we may know his guidance and the guidance of his companions and we hold on to that and call to it and become of those who have been guided to the straight path of Allah , the path of those upon whom He has bestowed His favour and not of those who receive His anger nor the misguided ones.
This is what I advise you and myself. I ask Allah, Exalted in His Highness, to bless our actions, our lives and our times and to make them sincere for His sake. Indeed, He is Noble and Generous and may the peace and blessings be upon Muḥammad and upon his family and companions.
References
The Qurʾān, Q 3:102, 4:1, 33:70–71, 1:6 and 5:15–16.
Abū Dāwūd, Sulaymān ibn al-Ashʿath (d. 275 AH/889 CE). Sunan Abī Dāwūd, no. 4607 (Sunnah.com numbering).
Al-Bukhārī, ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd ar-Raḥīm. Telephone-link reminder to Masjid Daar us Sunnah, London, 2010.
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ayyūb (d. 751 AH/1350 CE). Badāʾiʿ al-Fawāʾid, twentieth issue concerning the straight path.
Aṭ-Ṭabarī, Muḥammad ibn Jarīr (d. 310 AH/923 CE). Jāmiʿ al-Bayān ʿan Taʾwīl Āy al-Qurʾān, commentary on Q 1:6, report no. 184 in the King Saud University transcription; report numbers vary by edition.
