Shaykh Rabīʿ bin Hādī al-Madkhalī:

All praise is due to Allah and may the peace and salutations of Allah be upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and upon his family, companions and those who follow the guidance. To what proceeds:

Indeed I advise myself and my salafī brothers located in every place – in fact, all of the muslims, to have taqwá of Allah ﷻ and to be mindful of Him when in seclusion and in public. I advise myself and them to have serious concern for knowledge, because the people in this time period are in dire need of the presence of scholars; and the presence of scholars is not feasible, unless there are groups of students who dedicate themselves to Islamic knowledge and prepare themselves correctly so as to move up to the level of scholarship, and thus lead the ummah with the Book of Allah and the sunnah of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ upon the way of the (pious predecessors) salaf al-ṣāliḥ, in that which pleases Allah and absolves them from the displeasure of Allah – and who deter the ummah from disobedience and sins and shield the people from innovations and misguidance and falling into prohibited desires –because this ummah was not established except by way of knowledge derived from the Book and the sunnah; and it never prevailed and conquered the world except by way of knowledge and noble character. Character that is derived from the Book of Allah and the sunnah of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

So I advise them to attain knowledge and to exert every effort in that, upon the way of the salaf who were serious about attaining knowledge and would venture across vast distances, (wayfaring) from the east of the world to its west.

A man would travel for the period of a month or two for the sake of attaining one ḥadīth, why?! Because they knew the great value of the knowledge that Muḥammad ﷺ came with. I advise them to be sincere to Allah ﷻ, in their seeking of knowledge – whether it be what they study among themselves or what they get from the scholars of knowledge.

I advise them to have manners and Islamic character and that the elderly have mercy on the young and the young respect the elderly, so that we give life (by being a living example) to what Muḥammad ﷺ came with in knowledge, action, character and manners – for indeed (implementation of) these affairs have become very weak and have been degraded completely with some of the deviant groups; there is no praiseworthy character, no manners, no knowledge, and no truthfulness which is very disappointing. We ask Allah ﷻ to purify the earth of these types of people and to bring about successors of them who are better than them: carriers of knowledge and the true religion, along with righteous actions, and virtuous characteristics.

This is what I advise myself and my dear brothers and I believe that this amount of advice is sufficient for the one who listens attentively and takes heed.