So Allāh – the Most High – ordered all of the Believers to cling to the Rope of Allāh collectively, and not to split-up. And clinging to this Rope of Allāh has been explained as meaning: Clinging to the Book of Allāh, to His Religion, to Islām, to ikhlās (purity of belief and actions to Allāh), to His Commands, to His Covenant, to His obedience and also to the Jamāʿah.
Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymīyyah (d.728H) raḥimahullāhAllāh – the Most High – said:
“O you who believe! Have taqwá (fear and obedience) of Allāh as you should do, and do not die except that you are Muslims….
Imām Ibn al-Qayyim [d. 751 AH] said:
[The Ṣaḥābah], all praise and thanks to Allāh, never differed with one another in even a single issue pertaining to the names, attributes, or actions [of Allāh]. Nay, they confirm all that is in the Book [of Allāh] and the Sunnah with a completely united front. From the first of them to the last. They never denigrated it with an interpretation [from themselves], neither did they ever distort [passages] beyond their [proper] usages with the goal of changing its contents. They did not come out falsifying a single word from it, nor did they take those pass…
Do not precede them with the salams…
Imām Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah
Chapter: His ﷺ Guidance In Greeting The Ahl Al Kitāb1
It is authenticated from him ﷺ: “Do not precede them with the salams, and if you meet them in a street, “2.
However, it is said that he ﷺ said this in a specific matter, regarding travelling to Bani Quraydhah, he ﷺ said, “Do not precede them with the Salāms.” So what about the regular person from Ahl al-Dhimma?
Or is it specific to whomsoever is in a state such as theirs?
Verily there occurs in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim that, “Do not precede the Jews and the Christians with Sa…
Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah [d. 721 AH] said:
What was mentioned by Allāh, the Most High, in the verse that guides towards arguing with the People of the Scripture in a way that is best, except for those who commit injustice among them, is a fully actionable passage, free from abrogation. This is also the case with what the Most High has alluded to from arguing with any individual from the creation as a whole:
ادْعُ إِلَىٰ سَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ بِالْحِكْمَةِ وَالْمَوْعِظَةِ الْحَسَنَةِ ۖ وَجَادِلْهُم بِالَّتِي هِيَ أَحْسَنُ ۚ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَن ضَلَّ عَن سَبِيلِهِ ۖ وَهُوَ أَعْل…
Imām Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī [d. 310 AH] said:
Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq [may Allāh be pleased with him] said: ‘Which earth will shelter me, and which sky shall shield me, if I deign to utter my own opinion concerning the Qurʾān-or [I say concerning it] that which I do not know.’
[Imām] Abū Jaʿfar explained: These narrations testify to the truthfulness of what we have postulated, that it is impermissible for anyone to voice their own opinion in interpretation of the aspects of the Qurʾān whose knowledge could only be acquired by the elucidation of the Messenger of Allāh [ﷺ], or t…
Imām Ibn al-Qayyim [d. 751 AH] said:
ʿAbdullah ibn Ḥārith ibn Nawfal once mentioned [the prophet] Sulymān ibn Dāwūd and the kingdom that he was granted [by Allāh], then he recited the saying of the Most High:
هَٰذَا مِن فَضْلِ رَبِّي لِيَبْلُوَنِي أَأَشْكُرُ أَمْ أَكْفُرُ ۖ ﴿٤٠﴾
‘This is from the favour of my Lord to test me whether I will be grateful or ungrateful,’
[Al-Naml, 27:40]
but he did not claim it to be due to his own munificence. Then he mentioned Qārūn and his saying:
قَالَ إِنَّمَا أُوتِيتُهُ عَلَىٰ عِلْمٍ عِندِي ۚ ﴿٧٨﴾
“He said, ‘I was only given it because of the knowle…
