All praise and thanks are due to Allāh, we seek His Help and we seek His Forgiveness. We seek refuge with Him from the evil of our souls and the evil of our actions. Whosoever Allāh guides then none can misguide him, and whosoever Allāh leaves to stray then none can guide him. I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship save Allāh, the One Who has no partner and we bear witness that Muḥammad (ﷺ) is his servant and Messenger.

“O mankind! Be dutiful to your Lord, Who created you from a single person (Ādam), and from him (Ādam)He created his wife [Hawwa (Eve)], and from them both He created many men and women and fear Allāh through Whom you demand your mutual (rights), and (do not cut the relations of) the wombs (kinship. Surely, Allāh is Ever an All­ Watcher over you.” [Sūrah al-Nisāʾ’, 4:1]

“O you who believe! Fear Allāh (by doing all that He has ordered and by 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 Islām (as Muslims) with complete submission to Allāh.”

[Sūrah Āli-ʿImrān, 3:102]

“O you who believe! Keep your duty to Allāh and fear Him, and speak (always) the truth.  He will direct you to do righteous good deeds and will forgive you your sins. And whosoever obeys Allāh and His Messenger, he has indeed achieved a great achievement (i.e. he will be saved from the Hell-fire and made to enter Paradise).
[Sūrah al-Aḥzāb, 33:70-71]

As for what follows: Verily the most truthful speech is the Word of Allāh and the best guidance is the guidance of Muḥammad (ﷺ), and the worst of affairs are the newly invented matters (in the Religion) and every newly invented matter is an innovation and every innovation is a going astray and every going astray is in the Fire.

Before I begin today, just to get the date correct Inshaa’Allāh, for the record, which is the 7th ofSha’baan, which is the month after Rajab, the month before Ramaḍān in the year 1435, coinciding with Thursday 5th of June 2014. I am here, and honoured to be here in the presence of my brothers, my respected and noble students of knowledge, and at this Masjid here, Masjid as Sunna-tu-Nabawiyyah, in the City of Philadelphia in the United States of America. I am honoured to be introduced by my beloved brother Abū ‘ʿAbdillāh Ḥasan As Somaali (hafiẓahullāhu Taʿālá), and also to be in the presence of others of his calibre from the students of knowledge that have been praised by ahl ‘ilm, the likes of our brother Abū al Ḥasan Mālik, (hafiẓahullāhu Taʿālá), our brother Anwar Wright and our brother ʿAbd al Wali, and others who are present from the students of knowledge and the duʿāʾʾʾt who have been active in the da’wat-us-Salafīyyah here in the United States of America. This of course, as you are well aware, is not my first visit to the United States, I have  visited on several occasions before, even in the era of our noble brother Abū ‘Uwais (raḥimahullāhu Taʿālá), in his era when the daʿwah was being solidified and consolidated and clarified in his era, and we were honoured also in those times to be invited by the likes of Abū ‘Uwais for the purpose of being united on the haqq, regardless of where we are, whether we be in the United Kingdom or the United States.

I remember Abū ‘Uwais (raḥimahullāhu Taʿālá), inviting him myself, after being advised by our brother Abū Talha Dāwūd Burbank (raḥimahullāhu Taʿālá), I remember I think it was in 1996, that I said to our brother Abū Ṭalḥah (raḥimahullāh), I said to him, ‘who do you advise with inviting from the United States to come and aid us in the daʿwah with the translations, with the durūs’, and so on. He said, ‘I can’t think of anyone beyond Abū ‘Uwais’ (raḥimahullāh), and I said to him, ‘but I’ve heard that some of the people are refuting him in the United States’, and some of them were, like the likes of Abū Muslimah, and others were speaking ill of him. He said ‘I don’t care what they say, Abū ‘Uwais is the one who introduced me to da’wat-us-salafīyyah, and he is the one that I trust, and he has been steadfast since the day that I knew him’, and that was of course back in 1996 or 1997 when I had this conversation with him.

So we invited him to the United Kingdom, and without a doubt he had a strong effect upon thedaʿwah in the United Kingdom, and I saw him in the company of our brother Abū Talha, both of them of course now have passed away, (rahimahumullāh), they have passed away, and both of them,  may Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá) shower them with His Mercy and forgive them their shortcomings and enter them into the gardens of Paradise; and both of these, I saw them and I was in their company, and I saw over the years their effect upon the daʿwah.

Of course they were not the only two, and they were from those individuals who introduced us to the scholars, Abū Talha with his translations (raḥimahullāh) of the works of Shaykh al Albaani, Shaykh Rabīʿ, Shaykh Muqbil, Shaykh ibn Bāz, Shaykh ibn ‘Uthaymīn, and other than them from the ‘Ulema, and likewise our brother Abū ‘Uwais, was from the first, if not the first and Allāh knows best, of those who openly refuted Abū Muslimah and his bidʿah and his ḥizbiyyah, that he wished to spread in the United States of America.

So these people were brave men. They had courage and they wouldn’t fear the blame of the blamers, and anyone who met the likes of Abū ‘Uwais (raḥimahullāhu Taʿālá), then no one could have doubted the man’s courage and his standing in the face of opposition of the mukhaalifīn.

Abū Talha (raḥimahullāhu Taʿālá), likewise in his writings, he was vehement against Ahlul Bid’ah. He translated Sharḥ us Sunnah in a time when the ‘ʿaqīdah and the manhaj in the Western world generally was vague, the methodologies were vague. He translated that back in 1993. Photocopies of his handwriting, handwritten translation of the book were being circulated before the book actually came out, and then the book was published in 1995, Sharḥ us Sunnah of Barbaharee in 1995. It shows the effort of these types of individuals and this is not to raise them beyond their level; neither of them wanted to be called an ‘aalim, neither of them; they would race even if you called either of them ‘Shaykh’, then they would get angry, how dare you call me Shaykh, because the connotation in the West of the word ‘shaykh’ has the connotation of ‘aalim, even thought amongst the Arab it is different. So they didn’t even want to be called Shaykh, brother is enough, uncle at the most, ustaadh, maybe; Shaykh, no, they didn’t want to be called Shaykh or ‘aalim.

So we are from them and they are from us. I benefitted from them and I regard both of them to be from my teachers, amongst of course, not to take away from that which we have benefited from the ‘Ulema, as they benefitted from the ‘Ulema; but everyone is given his due, and we do not glorify anyone beyond Allāh.

Nevertheless the ‘Ulema that they introduced their brothers to, and the ‘Ulema you are continually being introduced to, and being connected to, they are Ahlussunnati wal Jamāʿah, they are considered as the Jamāʿah, as Ishāq ibn Rāhuway (raḥimahullāhu Taʿālá) said, the great Imām who died in the year 238 AH, Imām Ishāq ibn Ibrāhīm ar Rāhuway, when he was asked who was the Jamāʿah, look at the answer, his answer was actually quite lengthy, but he said ‘the Jama’aah are the ‘Ulema’ they are the Jamāʿah, and likewise when ʿAbdullāh ibn Mubārak the great Imām who died in the year 181AH, he was asked a question, ‘Who is the Jamāʿah?’ he said, ‘Abū bakr and ʿUmar’, so it was said, ‘but Abū Bakr and ʿUmar are dead, so who is the Jamāʿah, he said it is ‘fulān wa fulān’, they said, ‘and so and so has also died, so who is the Jamāʿah’, then he said it is Abū Hamza as Sukkari al Khurasaani, (raḥimahullāhu Taʿālá), quoting an ‘aalim from the ‘Ulema of that time, an Imām from the a’immah.

The Jamāʿah, my brothers and sisters, are the ‘Ulema, and they are present in every era and in every time, just as the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) said in the aḥadīth that we are all familiar with, or we should be familiar with, reported by Imām Muslim in hisṢaḥīḥ, wherein the Prophet (ﷺ) said ‘There will never cease to remain a group of my Ummah, manifestly upon the truth’, or ‘aala al haqq mansooreen’, or that they are upon the Truth, aided, taa’ifatul mansūrah, and they are manifest ‘dhaahireen ʿalá al haqq’, that they are apparently upon the truth, they are apparent, they are not hidden, ‘they don’t conceal that which they possess, and they are not harmed by those who betray them, forsake them’, those who don’t aid them upon the haqq, those that when you expect the daʿwah to be aided and the Sunnah to be aided and look around for support and you don’t find them there, because they are mukhadhileen, they are betrayers, they betray the people of Truth and they betray the Truth itself, because they don’t want to defend it, and they don’t want to stand up for the haqq.

Ahlussunnah, the taa’ifatul mansūrah, the aided group are not harmed by them, nor are they harmed by those who oppose them from the mukhaalifīn, and they will remain as such up until the command of Allāh comes, wa hum ʿalá dhaalik, and they will remain as such upon the haqq. Every generation.

Imām at Tirmidhī (raḥimahullāhu Taʿālá) said that ‘they are ahl ilm’, in another narration they are ‘ahl ḥadīth’, and ‘ahl fiqh’. They are the people of knowledge, they are the people of ḥadīth, they are the people of understanding the fuqaaha, the jurists; those who have understanding of the religion, they are the taa’ifatul mansūrah, and they exist in every era. There has not come a generation except that they have been present; they are the likes of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, as ʿAbdullāh ibn Mubārak said, and ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd and Ibn ʿAbbās, and Abū Hurayrah and ‘Aa’ishah, and likewise from the generation that came thereafter, it is ‘Abū al Āliyah, who died in the year 90 AH and Saʿīd ibn Mūsāyyib, who died in the year 94 AH. These are from the students of the Ṣaḥābah (radhiyAllāhu ʿʿʿanhum), or the likes of al Ḥasan al Basri, who died in the year 110 AH, raised in the household of the wife of the Prophet (ﷺ) Umm Salamah. He said that ‘I remember hearing the khuṭbah of ‘Uthmān ibn Affaan at the age of eight, in the Masjid an Nabawee’, and then he migrated after the assassination, he left after the assassination of ‘Uthmān, he went to Baṣrah, and Anas ibn Mālik, (radhiyAllāhu ʿʿanhu), the Sahaabi used to refer the people to al Ḥasan al Basri (raḥimahullāhu Taʿālá), and the likes of ʿUmar ibn ‘Abd al-ʿAzīz; and the likes of Imām az Zuhri, who died in the year 124 AH, and the likes of Imām Mālik, his student, who died in the year 179 AH, and the likes of Fuḍayl ibn Iyāḍ, who died in the year 187 AH, and the likes of Sufyān ath-Thawri, 161 AH, al-Awzāʿī 157 AH, Imām Ash-Shaafi’ee, 204 AH.

You can see as the generations are going by, look at the names of these illustrious Imām’s, they are the Jamāʿah; and then Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal in his era, and the ‘Ulema of his era, the likes of himself, Aḥmad, Imām of Ahlussunnah, died in the year 241 AH, Imām al Bukhārī 256 AH, and then the generation that came after them, the likes of al-Barbaharee, 329 AH.

So in to the third Century we enter and we see that Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá) has not left a generation, has not left an era, except that Allāh has raised a ai’mmah, and then in the fourth century, the likes of Imām as-Saaboonee, fifth Century, the likes of al-Lālikaa’ee, sixth Century, the likes of ʿAbd al-Ghani al-Maqdasee, and then the generation that came after that, ibn Qudaama, then the generation that came after that. From there we enter the era of Shaykh al-Islām ibn Taymīyyah, and then his students, the likes of ibn Kathīr, and ibn al-Qayyim, being the one who took and inherited the daʿwah of Shaykh ul Islām ibn Taymīyyah, ibn al Qayyim. So ibn Taymīyyah. So now we enter the eighth Century 728 AH, ibn al Qayyim, 752 AH, and the likes of ibn Kathīr, Imām ad-Dhahabee; these are from the produce of the daʿwah of Shaykh ul Islām ibn Taymīyyah, then the generation that came thereafter, from those who took the knowledge of  ibn Taymīyyah, and they carried it, even though those from the Ahlul Bid’ah and from the people who wished to extinguish the light of Sunnah, the flame of Sunnah; they wished to stop the people from drinking  the pure Sunnah, they tried to extinguish the books of Shaykh al-Islām ibn Taymīyyah, so much so that Ahlul Bid’ah used to purchase the manuscripts of ibn Taymīyyah, purchase them just for the purpose of burning them, so that everything that ibn Taymīyyah wrote in or ibn al Qayyim wrote in, that they could demolish it, annihilate it and extinguish it, so the daʿwah of ibn Taymīyyah is crushed; because the daʿwah of ibn Taymīyyah revived the daʿwah of the likes of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, and Imām ash Shaafi’ee and Sufyān ath-Thawri, and Imām al Awzaa’ee, and Abū al Āliyah; this is why Majmūʿ ul Fatāwá and other books of ibn Taymīyyah, Minḥāj-us-Sunnah and other than them are filled with the quotes of those a’immah of the Salaf.

So they wanted that extinguished because they wanted the people to take from the ‘ʿaqīdah of the Ashāʿirah and the Ṣūfīyyah, and other than them; the Mu’tazillah and other than them; so they wanted the books of ibn Taymīyyah to be extinguished. They worked for one Century, two Centuries, three Centuries, and they tried to bring down the daʿwah of Shaykh al-Islām ibn Taymīyyah; but Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá) was not going to allow that to happen. Just like Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said in his Radd ʿalá al-Jahmiyyah wal Zanādiqah, that he mentions, Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, that between the Messengers Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá) raises individuals, ‘Ulema, a’immah; these a’immah that give life to the dead, whose hearts have been killed by Iblīs by the permission of Allāh, Allāh gives them life, whose hearts have been killed by Iblīs. ‘Ulema, my brothers and sisters, then the generation that came after, up until we reach the time, of Shaykh al-Islām Muḥammad ibn ‘Abdil Wahhāb, (raḥimahullāhu Taʿālá), and Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhāb, he gave life to the books of ibn Taymīyyah, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhāb; he gave  life to the manhaj and the daʿwah and the ‘ʿaqīdah of the Salaf of thisUmmah; so even though the people tried to hide, the Ahlul Bid’ah, they tried to extinguish that flame, they tried to extinguish the daʿwah of Ahlul Ḥaqq; Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá) raised the likes of ibn ʿAbd al Wahhāb, and his children and his grandchildren, and the Imāms of Ale Sa’ood, the Rulers of Ale Sa’ood, Muḥammad ibn Sa’ood who became a student of Shaykh ul Islām Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab, a ruler; and then his children who became Imāms and Scholars in their own right, and that daʿwah continued up until this day. From the  sons of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhāb, then his sons, then his sons, his grandchildren, his great grandchildren, known as the a’immatu daʿwah, the Imāms of the daʿwah, compiling, writing, explaining the books of ibn Taymīyyah, explaining the books of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, and giving khidmah and service to the books of their great grandfather and their great great grandfather, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhāb  (raḥimahullāhu Taʿālá).

Up until the era that we were introduced to the daʿwah, to Islām and da’wat-us-Salafīyyah, the era of the likes of Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm Āli ash Shaykh, the Shaykh of ʿAbd al ʿAzīz ibn Bāz, and ʿAbd al ʿAzīz ibn bBāz himself, and Imām as Sa’dee the Shaykh of ibn ‘Uthaymīn, and al Qar’aawee, the Shaykh of Aḥmad an Najmee, who was sent by the ruler, Mālik ʿAbd al ʿAzīz, the ruler, the founder of the third state of the kingdom of Saudi al-ʿArabīa. He wrote him a letter, he said go down to Saamitah, go down to Jazaan, and go and teach the people tawḥīd, so he left Najd, al Qar’aawee, and he went down to Jazaan to teach them tawḥīd, and then he remained there, and from his students, Ḥāfiẓ al-Hakami, Ma’aarij ul-Qubool, and the likes of Aḥmad al-Najmī, from his students, the likes of our Shaykh, Shaykh Rabīʿ al Madkhalī, Zayd al Madkhalī; look how Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá) in every age and every era. Not an era passes except that Allāh will raise rijāl, and I use the term rijāl, not in the sense that you are males, rijāl in the sense that they were courageous; Imām’s stood for the truth, stood for the Sunnah, stood for Salafīyyah, and they remained till this time, and we like to think of ourselves as being a product of their daʿwah, by the permission of Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá), and what an honour that is, my brothers and sisters, that you can live in a time, in the fifteenth Century of the Hijri calendar, and that you are thousands of miles away from where the Prophet (ﷺ) was born and raised and spread the Sunnah and spread the Revelation; yet in this land, that Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá) guided you to Islām and the Sunnah. That in itself, my brothers and sisters, should be enough for us to continually thank and praise Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá), without ever stopping; that in itself my brothers and sisters is a bounty and a ni’mah, that my brothers, we could never repay to Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá), that Allāh guides us in a land like this, a land my brothers and sisters where you are surrounded by non Muslims in every direction, yet Allāh guided you not only to Islām, but to the Sunnah and the Jamāʿah, that is  a point of gratitude, my brothers and sisters that we take for granted, we don’t think about what Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá) has given us, by way of blessings by way of bounties, that Allāh guides you, guides your wife, guides your children, guides whole communities, like this community; and then on top of that Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá) gives you the ability to establish a Masjid upon the Sunnah, upon Salafīyyah, where we can sit here now, one thousand two hundred years after Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, and say qaala Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (raḥimahullāhu Taʿālá),

أصول السنة عندنا

التمسك بما كان عليه أصحاب رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم ، والإقتداء بهم ، وترك البدع ، وكل بدعة فهي ضلالة

We can utter these words twelve hundred years later from a manuscript that was written in that time, and then passed on generation after generation till it reached us. That’s a blessing my brothers and sisters, you’re looking at the hardship that you’re living in, and the difficult times you are living in, that Islām is under attack, the Sunnah is under attack, the enemies ofSalafīyyah have gathered against us; we are living in those times, and you have other problems that you face on a daily basis, your work, your families, your children, tarbiyyah of your youth, tarbiyyah of the next generation, these are all things my brothers and sisters that the solution to all of these problems, you will not find it except in the Kitāb and the Sunnah and the madh′hab of the Salaf; that’s exactly what Imām Mālik ibn Anas (raḥimahullāhu Taʿālá) said, and that’s what he intended when he said, ‘the latter part of this Ummah will not be rectified except by that which rectified its earliest part.’

This is the basis of our unity, the basis of our mutual love, our mutual respect for each other, our affection for each other, that’s why the Prophet (ﷺ) said ‘the similitude of the believers is like a body, the similitude of the believers in their mutual mercy, and their love and their mutual affection between each other is like a body.’ This is what the Salafī’s are and this is more applicable to the Salafī’s than everybody else, because everybody else is divided even though they claim that they are united, they’re not united, Ahlul Bid’ah, all of the other sects of misguidance, they are not united even if they display outwardly that they are united.

حۡسَبُهُمۡ جَمِيعً۬ا وَقُلُوبُهُمۡ شَتَّىٰ‌ۚ

You would think they were united, but their hearts are divided (Al Ḥashr: 14)

That you will consider them, or would imagine that they are united but their hearts, they are scattered and shattered, they are not united my brothers and sisters, because the foundation of unity is the Revelation itself, and the understanding of that Revelation in light of the Ṣaḥābah (radhiyAllāhu ʿʿanhum) with the understanding of the Ṣaḥābah and the earlier generations. There is a beautiful narration from Shaykh ul Islām ibn Taymīyyah (raḥimahullāhu  Taʿālá), from Majmūʿ ul-Fatāwá, Shaykh ul Islām ibn Taymīyyah he said, in volume four of his Majmoo‘, he said, ‘Allāh subḥānahu wa Taʿālá he said,

وَلاَيَزَالُونَمُخْتَلِفِينَإِلاَّمَنْرَحِمَرَبُّكَ

But they will not cease to differ (disagree) – Except him on whom your Lord has bestowed His Mercy…
(Hud: 118-119)

There will never cease to be a difference with each other, they will never cease, who? Mankind will never cease to differ, except upon whom your Lord has bestowed his Mercy, and for this Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá) created them. So then, Shaykh ul Islām after mentioning, and remember the quote here, or the statement of Allāh ‘that they will never cease to differ, except for whom your lord has bestowed his mercy’ he mentions, Allāh (subḥānaahu wa Taʿālá), he stated thatAhlul Raḥmah, the People of Mercy, that they do not differ, wa Ahlul Raḥmah, the People of Mercy, they are those who don’t differ, my brothers and sisters, this is the point here, that Allāh mentions that all of mankind differ, except for the people who Allāh has given Mercy. So who are the people that Allāh has given mercy to, who don’t differ? He mentions, Ahlul Raḥmah, meaning the People of Mercy who do not differ because Allāh has showered them with His Mercy; they are the followers of the Prophets, in speech and in action. Not just giving lip service that we are Sunni, we love the Sunnah, we love Muḥammad we love ‘Isa, we love Moosa we love Hārūn, we love Ibrāhīm we love Nūḥ. Not just lip service, because every Muslim does that, this is why he mentioned  in speech and in action, they are the followers of the anbiyaah, and they are Ahlul Qurʾān wal Ḥadīth, they are the People of the Qurʾān and ḥadīth in this Ummah; and whomsoever differs with them in anything, then such a person leaves the Mercy of Allāh to the extent that he differs with them, he differs with whom? With Ahlul Rahma. Who are Ahlul Rahma?  Ahlul Qurʾān Ahlul Ḥadīth, the People of Qurʾān and the People of Ḥadīth. So the more that you differ with the People of Qurʾān and ḥadīth; who are the People of Qurʾān and ḥadīth? Ahlussunah wal Jamāʿah. Look at the thinking of this great Imām Shaykh ul Islām ibn Taymīyyah, from this one āyah , what he extracted.

Other ‘Ulema have mentioned, from them the likes of Imām ash Shaatibee, from them the likes of ibn Taymīyyah himself, that Allāh created two types of mankind, those who are mukhtalifīn, those who differ, and those who are Ahlul Rahma, from this āyah; because Allāh only divided mankind into two, ‘mankind will never cease to differ except the people of mercy’ that Allāh has showered with His Mercy, two types of people.

So who are Ahlul Rahma, and who are the mukhtalifīn? The mukhtalifīn are those who oppose the People of Qurʾān and the People of Ḥadīth. Who are the People of Qurʾān and Ḥadīth?Ahlussunnati wal Jamāʿah, and who are at the head of Ahlussunnati wal Jamāʿah, the ‘Ulema. Who are the best of the ‘Ulema of this Ummah?  They are the Ṣaḥābah and those who came after them, then those who came after them. ‘Khayrun naas qarni’, as the Prophet (ﷺ) said, ‘the best of mankind is my generation, thumma ladheena yaloonahum thumma ladheena yaloonahum, then those who come after them then those who come after them’.

First three generations. In a narration the Prophet (ﷺ) was asked which of mankind are the best he said ‘I and those alongside me’,  so the best of mankind, Prophet (ﷺ) and those who are with him, thummalladheena ʿalá al al-athar, then those who are upon that path and follow that way, thummalladheena ʿalá al al-athar, then those who are upon that path and follow their way. These are Ahlussunnati wal Jamāʿah, they are the best of mankind and they are the best of Ahlussunnah. They are Ahlul Qurʾān wal Ḥadīth, and whomsoever follows their way, then they are considered to be amongst them, and whomsoever differs with them to the extent that he differs with them then he exits the Mercy of Allāh.

So this thing is not just in academic knowledge, we are talking about being under the Mercy of Allāh, the Forgiveness of Allāh, the Aid of Allāh, the Bounty of Allāh the Blessings of Allāh. The more that you oppose the People of Qurʾān and the People of Ḥadīth; the further you are away from the Mercy of Allāh, the more distanced you are from being from Ahlul Rahma, which is amazing my brothers and sisters with regards to that which Allāh (subḥānaahu wa Taʿālá) has guided us to in his book; like we mentioned that statement of Imām ash Shaatibee (raḥimahullāhu Taʿālá), he likewise mentions this statement ‘that they will never cease to differ except for those who your lord has shown mercy’, he said ‘here we realise and we understand that the people of two types, Ahlul Ikhtilāf wal Marhoomeen, those who are the People of Differing and those who are the People of Mercy, those who have been shown Mercy by Allāh (subḥānahu wa taʿālā) if you want to be from those whom Allāh showers His Mercy upon, then you must be from Ahlul Qu’raan wal Ḥadīth, and you must be from the atbaa’ul anbiyyaah, wa ruṣūl, qawlan wa f’ilan, and you must follow the Prophets and the Messengers, both in speech and action.

That’s why our brother Ḥasan as Somalee (hafiẓahullāhu Taʿālá) mentioned what he mentioned in the beginning, that those who speak and those who talk, and they claim attachment to the Sunnah, and they say that we are Sunni and we follow the Sunnah, even they will say ‘we are Salafī’, then the label itself is not enough my brothers and sisters, the label is not enough, without following that up with speech and action, then the label itself is nothing. What about those people that take on the label and then they contraḍīct the label? They say ‘we are Salafī’and then they oppose the uṣūl of Salafīyyah, and then they ascribe to the Salafī ʿaqīdah and theSalafī manhaj, that which the Salafī daʿwah is free of. You find people like that, and America is ridden with those types of people, wAllāhul musta’aan, who claim attachment to Salafīyyah, Yasir Qadhi, Shadeed Muḥammad, and how many other countless others, who claim that they are Sunniupon the Sunnah and then they will utter statements which clearly oppose the Kitāb and the Sunnah, and then when they are corrected, instead of humbling themselves and returning back to the haqq, you find them staunch and arrogant and haughty, and proud upon the falsehood that they  have embarked upon. The likes of Shadeed Muḥammad, look what he said about the Ṣaḥābah, he said the Ṣaḥābah differed in ‘ʿaqīdah, people might say, well what’s the big deal?! So he made a statement, one sentence you’re going to condemn a man!? Look at what he’s saying, the Ṣaḥābah differed in their ʿaqīdah, so therefore, why are we worrying about other differences for? Meaning let us sweep our differences under the  carpet, that’s why you find him where you find him now, with all types of people of deviation and misguidance, praising Abū Usama Khaleefah al Mubtadi’ as Aḥmad an Najmee quite correctly labelled him as an innovator, Abū Usama, formally American, unfortunately he’s over with us at the muʿmīnt, may Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá) rid us of him. Those types of individuals, my brothers and sisters.

Ṣaḥābah differed in ‘ʿaqīdah? Abū Usama, the Ṣaḥābah initiated bidʿah, in the time of the Prophet (ﷺ), they were upon innovation and bidʿah, that you find all of them that they want either to make some kind of belittlement of the Ṣaḥābah, or ascribe something to the Ṣaḥābah that the Sahaaba were free from. Shaykh ul Islām ibn Taymīyyah he said, that the Ṣaḥābahh (radhiyAllāhu ʿʿanhum), that they did not differ, rather he said, that they did not fight with each other for any differing that occurred between them that was connected to the aqaa’idah min qawaa’idal Islām, from any fundamentals from the fundamentals of Islām, never did the Ṣaḥābah; rather he said they did not differ in any ‘asl from the uṣūl of al Islām at all, the Ṣaḥābah did not differ in any fundamental asl of the dīn at all.

Not in the qaa’idah, not in any asl from the uṣūl, not in any point of ‘ʿaqīdah, the Ṣaḥābah did not differ. Then he starts giving examples, Shaykh ul Islām himself ibn Taymīyyah, Minḥāj us Sunnah volume 6, he said ‘in asmaa wa sifaat they were united, in the issue of qadr they were united, in the issue of the rulership they were united’, i.e. that you don’t rebel against the rulers, he said they were united, ibn Taymīyyah, Minhaj us Sunnah.

Not an ‘aalim from the ‘Ulema ever opposed that speech of ibn Taymīyyah (raḥimahullāh), fromAhlussunnah, no one said that ibn Taymīyyah was wrong there. That is why Shaykh ul Islām Imām Ahlussunnati wal Jamāʿah, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, at the beginning of his Uṣūl us Sunnah,look what he said

أصول السنة عندنا :

التمسك بما كان عليه أصحاب رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم ، والإقتداء بهم ، وترك البدع ، وكل بدعة فهي ضلالة

That ‘the foundations of the Sunnah with us is that which the Ṣaḥābah radhiyallahu ʿʿanhum which the Ṣaḥābahh of Allāh’s messenger ﷺ were upon, and to take them as a model and an example to be followed and to abandon innovation, meaning as the ‘Ulema say, to abandon that which they were not upon, for every innovation is misguidance.

So why did Imām Aḥmad begin with the foundations of being with the Ṣaḥābah? Because the Ṣaḥābah were united upon uṣūl; they did not differ with each other, they were united in their belief, they were united in their tawḥīd, they were united with regard to all of those fundamentals, whether it be with regard to the Names and Attributes , with regard to pre decree with regard to how to deal with the Muslim ruler, with regard to how to deal with Ahlul Bid’ah, the Ṣaḥābah were united, they were united that Jannah and Naar are already created, the Ṣaḥābahh were united that there is a Bridge over the Hellfire, that all of the creation will have to cross, the Ṣaḥābah were united in the fact that there is a meezan yawmul qiyyaamah, that there are Scales and that the good deeds and the evil deeds will be weighed; the Ṣaḥābah were united my brothers and sisters.

So now a man turns up in 2012 or 2013, and said the Ṣaḥābah differed in ‘ʿaqīdah meaning that if the Ṣaḥābah differed in ʿaqīdah then you, O Muslim don’t worry about the ‘ʿaqīdah of Ṣūfī, don’t worry about the ‘ʿaqīdah of the  Tableeghi, don’t worry about them, because the Ṣaḥābah differed in ʿaqīdah. So what if Jamaa’at-ut-Tableegh differ, do you understand where they’re coming from my brothers and sisters, this is why they say what they say. This is the mantra of al Ikhwānul Mufliseen, the Ikhwānul Mufliseen, this so called Islamic Brotherhood that was established in the 1920s by their founder Ḥasan al Banna, and then the cause was furthered by Sayyid Qutb, in the in1940s and 1950s up until he was executed in 1966, that’s what they’re trying to push across to the Muslim Ummah, is that all of these differences with the fundamentals of belief are unimportant, what’s important is ruler-ship and political ascendancy. So therefore if the Ṣaḥābah for nearly five six decades…Ikhwānul Muslimīn have been trying to find out where the Ṣaḥābahh differed in ‘ʿaqīdah. They’ve been trying to push that on to theUmmah, and those who follow in their footsteps; the likes of Shadeed Muḥammad and other than them, and the likes of Yasir Qadhi and other than them, they try to push forward this ‘the Ṣaḥābah differed, the Saahabah differed’ so then eventually you and I will say, well if the Ṣaḥābah differed we can differ.

So it doesn’t matter if someone worships at the grave, prostrates his head to the dead one at his grave and seeks his help, and assistance, it doesn’t matter because the Ṣaḥābah differed in belief! So what if he carries a different belief to you? If a person comes along and says that Allāh is everywhere, and you say, no Allāh is above the seven heavens, then ‘leave him alone akhī, that’s his ijtihād, you have your ijtihād’; so now the ‘ʿaqīdah becomes ijtihādiyyah, open to one’s own personal juristic opinion. So now if a person says that Allāh is everywhere, fī kulli makaan, or Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá) is dwelling inside of the creation, it doesn’t matter, because the Ṣaḥābah differed; that’s why they want to push upon you this idea that the Ṣaḥābah differed, why? Because they want to unite with the groups who oppose the ‘ʿaqīdah of the Ṣaḥābah, that’s why they want to go to their platforms, sit upon their platform, take money as they’re sitting, you think these guys leave their houses for free?! Do you think that they sit upon those platforms and they don’t get paid? They won’t leave their house and speak upon a microphone unless it’s paid for.

So how do they open up the fact that they now want to go and sit on the platforms of Ahlul Bid’ah, and sit with them and hug them, even if they call it the ‘jannah hug’.

No matter what they do, they want to sit with them because this is the way to gain status and to gain some sort of standing within the community, and to gain money. So now you find them sitting upon all types of platforms, you find Abū Usama in the United Kingdom sitting withSurooree’s, Qutubi’s, Ikhwāni’s. This is what you find from them, and then when they are warned against, they say ‘wAllāhi! these people they call to disunity!’, look what Shaykh ul Islām ibn Taymīyyah said, go back to the āyah, mankind are of two types, Ahlul Ikhtilāf and Ahlul Rahma, so which one are you, are you a people who have differed from the Ṣaḥābah, are you upon that which Abū Bakr and ʿUmar were upon, are you upon what they were upon? Are you upon what the khulafa ar raashidīn were upon, when the Prophet (ﷺ) said ‘I have left you upon clear proof, its night is like its day, and no one strays from it except that he is destroyed.‘

And then he said, (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi w salām), ‘whomsoever lives for long from amongst you will see  a great amount of differing and controversy’, so stick to what you know from my Sunnah when? When the differing occurs stick to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided successors after me’, like Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ‘ʿUthmān, and ‘Ali. Stick to their Sunnah, hold onto that with your molar teeth. He didn’t say ‘go and differ with the people go and differ with the Sunnah, it doesn’t matter, makes no difference, follow any path that you want all rivers lead to the same sea’. That’s not what the Prophet (ﷺ) said. The Prophet (ﷺ) said ‘when differing occurs, return back to what you know of my Sunnah, and the Sunnah of the rightly guided Successors after me. Hold on to that with your molar teeth’, and then he said ‘beware of newly invented matters’, beware of what? People who come along and they introduce new affairs into the religion, they ascribe things to Islām that Islām is free of; so here we find the Prophet (ﷺ), commanding us to stick to the Sunnah in times of differing, look what Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá) likwise said in the Qurʾān,

وَٱعۡتَصِمُواْ بِحَبۡلِ ٱللَّهِ جَمِيعً۬ا وَلَا تَفَرَّقُواْ‌ۚ وَٱذۡكُرُواْ نِعۡمَتَ ٱللَّهِ عَلَيۡكُمۡ إِذۡ كُنتُمۡ أَعۡدَآءً۬ فَأَلَّفَ بَيۡنَ قُلُوبِكُمۡ فَأَصۡبَحۡتُم بِنِعۡمَتِهِۦۤ إِخۡوَٲنً۬ا وَكُنتُمۡ عَلَىٰ شَفَا حُفۡرَةٍ۬ مِّنَ ٱلنَّارِ فَأَنقَذَكُم مِّنۡہَا‌ۗ كَذَٲلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ ٱللَّهُ لَكُمۡ ءَايَـٰتِهِۦ لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَہۡتَدُونَ

And hold fast, all of you together, to the Rope of Allāh (i.e. this Qur’ân), and be not divided among yourselves[], and remember Allāh’s Favour on you, for you were enemies one to another but He joined your hearts together, so that, by His Grace, you became brethren (in Islamic Faith), and you were on the brink of a pit of Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus Allāh makes His Ayât (proofs, evidence, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.,) clear to you, that you may be guided. (ʿImrān: 103)

Hold fast to the rope of Allāh all of you together, to the rope of Allāh and be not disunited, and remember the bounty of Allāh upon you when you were enemies one to another and Allāh brought your hearts together, and you became by the grace of Allāh brothers one to another. Allah brought your hearts together, my brothers and sisters based upon what, upon the rope of Allāh, what is the rope of Allāh, what they decide, what Ahlul Bid’ah decide is the rope of Allāh something ijtihādi? Well I’ll decide what the rope of Allāh is that we’re all going to hold onto. The rope of Allāh, as Shaykh ul Islām ibn Taymīyyah said in ‘Minḥāj us Sunnah’ volume 3‘Indeed the rope of Allāh has been explained to mean the Book of Allāh, meaning His Book the Book of Allāh, and His Religion, and Islām and Ikhlās and His Commands and His Covenant and obedience to Him and with sticking to the Jamāʿah.’

This is what the rope of Allāh is, all of this is the rope of Allāh. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (raḥimahullāhu Taʿālá) in ‘at Tamheed’ he said that ‘The rope of Allāh, it is the Jamāʿah and they are the Ṣaḥābah (radhiyallahu ʿʿanhum). That is the rope of Allāh that we have been commanded to stick to, so then he mentioned, Shaykul Islām ibn Taymīyyah, that these terms, all of them, have been narrated from the Ṣaḥābah and the tābiʿīn, who came after them and all of these meanings are correct. He mentions, ‘for indeed the Qurʾān, it commands with the religion of Islām, and it commands with the covenant to Allāh, and obedience to Allāh and it commands also that we stick to the obedience to Allāh and to the covenant to Allāh, and to the religion of al Islām, and to hold fast to it, together, united’, and he said, ‘that is not done except by way of the Jam’aa’ah’.

So returning back to the Jamāʿah, and the Jamāʿah, my brothers and sisters, as we mentioned are the ‘Ulema who take from the Kitāb and the Sunnah, they are Ahlul Ḥaqq, they are the People of Truth, because they adhere to the Truth, and this is what ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd intended by his statement, ‘the Jamāʿah is whatever is in accordance to the truth even if you are one person’. Even if you are one person, it is the truth which is beloved my brothers and sisters.

I have travelled now in the United States just on this visit here, I started in Washington DC, with the brothers that organised the conference at the Masjid Ahlul Qurʾān wal Ḥadīth, and the reason why that narration came to me was because when I visited them for the first time, I thought to myself there’s a narration from ibn Taymīyyah  about Ahlul Qurʾān wal Ḥadīth. I said to them, you named your Masjid, Ahlul Qurʾān wal Ḥadīth, do you know what you’ve done, by calling your Masjid Ahlul Qurʾān wal Ḥadīth; do you realise the burden of responsibility you have placed upon your shoulders, that you’ve ascribed yourselves to Ahlul Qurʾān wal Ḥadīth, they are the atbaa’ul anbiyyaah, qawlan wa fi’lan, they are the followers of the Prophets in speech and action. Do you know what you’ve done, can you adhere to those principles, can you adhere to that weight upon your shoulders, that you are going to adhere to the Qurʾān and ḥadīth to the extent that you are now called Ahlul Qurʾān wal Ḥadīth?  Do you know that Ahlul Qurʾān wal Ḥadīth they are Ahlul Raḥmah. They are the ones under the Mercy of Allāh, you’ve carried a burden upon your shoulders; and of course ascriibng ourselves to Salafīyyah, and to the madh′habof the Salaf, they are Ahlul Qurʾān wal Ḥadīth also,  because all of these terms are synonymous, Ahlussunati wal Jamāʿah, they are the Salafīyyoon; they are the Salafīyyoon as Shaykh ibn ‘Uthaymīn said(raḥimahullāhu Taʿālá) in his Sharḥ of al ‘Aqeeadtul Waasitiyah, when he was asked a question, ‘who is Ahlussunnati wal Jamāʿah, are they the Salafīyyoon, or are they the Ashāʿirah, he said ‘Ahlussunati wal Jamāʿah are one, and they are the salafiyoon.’

It is a burden, my brothers and sisters, that if a person is going to ascribe himself to something he has to adhere to its principles, to its fundamentals.

Hold onto it with his molar teeth because this is what Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá) has commanded; you were enemies, one to another, and Allāh brought your hearts together, brought your hearts together upon what, upon Kitāb and Sunnah and way of the Ṣaḥābah, and the Salaf of this Ummah.

From there we saw the brothers in Washington dc, we saw the brothers from Baltimore, we saw the brothers from North Carolina, the brothers with Rasheed Barbee, and those brothers, the brothers from Philadelphia, New York came down, the Salafī brothers; brothers travelled from Florida and other places to that conference. From that conference we went down to Florida and we spent the weekend there, for the conference in Palm Beach at the Islamic Centre of Palm Beach. I didn’t know that they had a Salafī community that strong. Salafī’s turned up from Orlando, from Miami; I didn’t know there were Salafī’s in Miami, I just thought there were gangsters in Miami! Salafī’s in Miami, sitting down with notepads and pens in the durūs, and now I’m here in Philadelphia at the brothers here in Germantown, and then tomorrow Insha’Allāh we’re going to travel to Newark to the conference there, thereafter to Chicago, thereafter to Toronto.

Salafīyyah as I see it today, and I was here in the United States in 1997, I came to the United States and I stayed with our brother Abū ‘Uwais (raḥimahullāhu Taʿālá), at his house, in Asbury park, and I travelled to DC and I travelled to New York from that time till this time on and off I’ve been coming to the United States; I have never seen the daʿwah as strong as it is today and as united as it is today in the United States of America, and after Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá) we thank the brothers who have aided in that unity, and in that strengthening of the daʿwah. I have never seen the kalimah of the brothers so united as it is today, that’s why Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá) said to the Prophet (ﷺ)

هُوَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَيَّدَكَ بِنَصۡرِهِۦ وَبِٱلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ

‘It is Allāh who aided you with His support and with the support of the believers. (Anfal: 62)

But the point is, here, and this is the aid that the Messenger of Allāh (sallāllāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) received, but the point here is the next statement of Allāh,

وَأَلَّفَ بَيۡنَ قُلُوبِہِمۡ‌ۚ لَوۡ أَنفَقۡتَ مَا فِى ٱلۡأَرۡضِ جَمِيعً۬ا مَّآ أَلَّفۡتَ بَيۡنَ قُلُوبِهِمۡ وَلَـٰڪِنَّ ٱللَّهَ أَلَّفَ بَيۡنَہُمۡ‌ۚ إِنَّهُ ۥ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ۬

And He has united their (i.e. believers’) hearts. If you had spent all that is in the earth, you could not have united their hearts, but Allāh has united them. Certainly He is All-Mighty, All-Wise. (Anfal: 63)

So Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá) is addressing as Shaykh Fawzān mentions, in his explanation of al haa’eeeyyah, that it was Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá) who brought their hearts together, that even if the wealth of the earth the treasures of the earth were to be spent in bringing the hearts of mankind together, were you each to give a bullion of gold, it would not bring their hearts together; rather Shaykh al Fawzān said that the dunyā only causes the hearts to be split, because everyone has his own goal, everyone has his own passions his own desires in what he seeks, so the dunyā will not unite the hearts, but Allāh will unite their hearts. Allāh aided the Messenger of Allāh, and the Companions, Allāh (subhaaanahu  wa Taʿālá) sent to the messenger of Allāh (ﷺ), the best of mankind aided the Messenger of Allāh (sallʿaláhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), he had the best of companionship (ﷺ), and they had the best leader, the best teacher, the best Imām and the best Prophet and the best Messenger over them. So Allāh united their hearts, the closer you are to revelation, the closer you are to the truth, the more that you bite onto the truth, up until you follow themadh′hab of the Salaf in totality, then the more united your hearts become, and then you truly become Ahlul Rahma, and Allāh will shower you with His Mercy, in your families, in your dealings, in your brotherhood, in your mutual love, you will not hate each other. The Prophet (ﷺ) said, ‘do not hate one another, and do not try to outbid one another, or inflate the prices against one another, and do not turn your back on one another.’

Your brother needs you, when Salafīyyah is being attacked, we need to be more united, we don’t need to split our ranks; just like we stand in prayer, and we say to you stand shoulder to shoulder, foot to foot, heel to heel, don’t let the Shayṭān come in between you, this is in theal-Ṣalāh, in your rows in the prayer; likewise, in our daʿwah do not allow the Shayṭān to come in  between you, be united, be upon the haqq, ‘dont turn your backs upon one another’ dont abandon your brother dont betra your brother’ he needs you. The da’wat-us-Salafīyyah, when it is being attacked, don’t run, don’t run for cover, stand like a man! Let them come, we’ll stand, and we’ll stand as one, we’ll stand united. Who wants to come and damage this daw’ah, theAshaai’rah, the Mu’tazillah, the Ṣūfīyyah, the Shia, the Jam’iyaat the Jama’aat the firaq, the sects, the groups, the parties; they want to come and give us their sweet words and throw money at us; we are not interested. The Salafī cannot be bought.

Muḥammad (ﷺ) could not be bought. They said, we’ll give you the wealth of Quraysh, if you give up, he said I don’t want your wealth, he wouldnt take it. They said we’ll give you the most beautiful woman, he said I don’t want it. They said we’ll make you our leader, not interested. What do you want?

All he wanted (ﷺ) was for them  to say lā ilāha ilAllāh, to believe in Allāh, and to submit to Allāh,

إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ قَالُواْ رَبُّنَا ٱللَّهُ ثُمَّ ٱسۡتَقَـٰمُواْ

Verily, those who say: “Our Lord is Allāh (Alone),” and then they stand firm, (Fuṣṣilat: 30)

Those who say our Lord is Allāh and they are steadfast. The reason why da’wat-us-Salafīyyah is now so strong in the United States of America, thousands, tens of thousands, I would say, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, New Jersey, Philadelphia; other parts, Pennsylvania, Washington, Maryland, Florida; Salafī’s in Florida, Salafī’s in California. We got some brothers that we met in Madīnah about two weeks ago, they work in Rīyaḍh and they live in Rīyaḍh, and they’re doingdaʿwah in Mexico City, Masjid Markaz Salafī in Mexico city; the world capital of kidnapping.Salafī’s there, Salafī’s in Brazil. I’m on a Whatsapp group and there’s Salafī brothers in brazil, giving daʿwah, returning back to the United States, saying daʿwah Salafīyyah is strong, because of this tamassuk, the further you are away from Ahlul Qurʾān wal Ḥadīth, the further you are away from the Mercy of Allāh and the closer you are to ikhtilāf and differing and splitting.

So hold fast my brothers and sisters, to the Book and the Sunnah. Don’t let people come and divide your word, be as the Prophet (ﷺ) said ‘the believer in his mutual mercy and his love and his affection is like one body,‘ it’s like one body my brothers and sisters, that’s how we should be. This is why you see dawat-us-Salafīyyah spreading, so vehemently across the United States of America; that we make idhaar of our Salafīyyah, we don’t hide it in our pockets, we make it apparent; we show the people that we are upon Salafīyyah, and we tell the people these are our ‘Ulema, and it is a shame that you don’t know the ‘Ulema. We don’t hide the fact that we take from ibn Bāz, ibn ‘Uthaymīn, al Albaani, Muqbil, Aḥmad an Najmi, Zayd al Madkhalī, Rabīʿ al Madkhalī, Fawzān, al Luhaydaan, ʿʿUbayd al-Jābirī, Muḥammad ibn Hādī.

We don’t hide that from the people, we don’t hide from the people Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, and we’re upon the madhdab of imām Aḥmad, in our ‘ʿaqīdah and the madh′hab of Shaafi’ee in ourʿaqīdah, the madh′hab of Mālik in our ‘ʿaqīdah; because their ‘ʿaqīdah was one  ‘ʿaqīdah, we don’t hide it. Like Ahlul Bid’ah, when you speak to them you say what’s your madh′hab? They sayoh ‘I’m Māliki’, I say you’re Māliki, in everything you’re Māliki, Imām Mālik, khʿalás?, they say, ‘no my ʿaqīdah is Asha’ari’. I thought you said you’re Māliki?! I’m Māliki but ‘Ash’ari in ʿaqīdah.’ I say ok, anything else? ‘Yeah I’m sahwardee in tareeqah, Ṣūfī’, anything else? Yeah, Ikhwāni in outlook.’ So where’s Mālik gone then?! Mālik’s been relegated, somewhere in the background you make wuḍūʾ’ like Mālik, but your ‘ʿaqīdah is Ash’ari which opposes the ‘ʿaqīdah of Mālik; your tareeqah is some Ṣūfī, Chishti, Qaadiree tareeqah in Ṣūfīyyah that opposes Mālik. Your outlook is Ikhwāni, basically Khaarijee Mu’tazilee, so where’s Mālik gone!

They just use these as covers my brothers and sisters, that, by the way, is the likes of Hamza Yusuf and  those people, and the likes of Nūḥ Haa Mīm Keller a Shaafi’ee, what Shaafi’ee? He said I’m Shaafi’ee, ʿaqīdah Ash’ari. What, Shafi’ee was Ash’ari?! Yes Shaafi’ee was Ash’ari. How is that possible when Shaafi’ee died in 204 AH, Abū al Ḥasan al Ash’ari he died in 324 AH two Centuries later. How can the one before follow the one who came after!

Important my brothers and sisters that we recognise that though they claim they are united, their hearts are divided and separated. Ahlussunnah we are united. Even if I differ with my brother, I may argue with my brother, I may fall out for a couple of hours with my brother, then get on that phone and ring him and say yaa akhī I’m sorry, this is Ahlussunnah.

There’s a ḥadīth that Abū Bakr and ʿUmar had a dispute, they argued with each other on an occasion, voices were raised, ʿUmar stood up and left. As ʿUmar reached his house he felt remorse, how can I argue with Abū Bakr? As ʿUmar is leaving going to his house, Abū Bakr feels remorse in his heart; this is ʿUmar, how can I be angry with ʿUmar. Abū Bakr gets up and goes to the house of the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ), to ask him to intercede and he said to the Prophet (ﷺ) I argued with ʿUmar, and voices were raised and we disputed. ʿUmar in the meantime is returning back to the house of Abū Bakr, to apologise, in the meantime Abū Bakr continues explaining to the Prophet (ﷺ), I believe it was my fault. The Prophet (ﷺ) said no, he should not argue with you. So when ʿUmar reaches the house of Abū Bakr he finds Abū Bakr is not there, so then he thinks, aah he must be with Rasūl Allāh (ﷺ), so he goes back to the house of Rasūlullah (ﷺ), knocks on the door to come in to apologise to Abū Bakr, the Prophet (ﷺ) says you ʿUmar, are arguing with him, Abū Bakr says, no ya Rasooslullāh, it’s my fault, it’s me. He says no, you were there one who said that I believe in you when the people disbelieved in me. Look at how the Ṣaḥābah were, look at how their hearts were my brothers and sisters; how much love affection, even if something occurred between them, look how quick they were. Love, muhabbah that they had between each other why, because they knew that they were upon the same path as the Prophet (ﷺ) said ‘this is the straight path of Allāh, and follow my straight path and do not follow other paths for they will divide you from His straight path.’

The straight path is what they were upon. So whatever may occur between them, wAllāhi! They were united in their hearts, they didn’t even like their physical bodies being separated from each other; they didn’t even like that my brothers and sisters, as the ḥadīth of the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘ʿalayhi wa-sallam) on an occasion they were upon a journey and the Companions they disembarked and they separated from each other whilst they were just relaxing. So the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘ʿalayhi wa-sallam) called them; he said this separation of yours in the pathways, this separation of yours is from Shayṭān, physical bodily separation is from Shayṭān. Let me ask you my brothers, were their hearts united? The Ṣaḥābah, were their hearts united, yes. So if the physical bodily separation upon a journey is from Shayṭān what about the division of the hearts?

That is from Shayṭān, that is more from Shayṭān because the man can physically be separate from another brother, like we are in the United Kingdom and you’re in the United States, they are brothers. Did you know there are brothers up in the Antarctic? A brother Whatsapp’d me and he said akhī listen, we are up in the Antarctic and one of these Inuit, Indians…Eskimos basically, becoming Muslim, Salafī; can we organise some tele-links and introduce them to the Scholars and the works of the Scholars. Salafī’s up there! From Toronto,  I think it’s about a six-hour flight or something ridiculous like that, north you have to go, one flight every two weeks or something like that.

Salafī’s in Alaska, Salafī’s in Brazil, Salafī’s in Pakistan, Salafī’s in China; Salafī’s in Japan, Salafī’sin Australia; we do tele-links, Salafī’s in New Zealand. Our hearts are united because our ‘ʿaqīdah is one, our methodology is one our outlook is one. We look at the world through the same, lens. we look at the Revelation through the eyes of the Ṣaḥābah (radhiyAllāhu ʿʿanhum), that’s what unites our hearts; but when they’re upon a journey those Ṣaḥābah, they separated from each other, just relaxing, one there, one there; he said no, come together, for this bodily division is from Shayṭān, so what about Muslims? One Muslim believes Allāh is everywhere, and this is a belief of kufr, to believe that Allāh is everywhere; another Muslim believes that Allāh is above the Seven Heavens, that He is distinct and separate from His Creation, above the Seven heavens, that is the belief of Ahlussunnah.

So if they’re divided in their ʿaqīdah, one Muslim believes he can bow down to the graves, the other one says it’s shirk; one Muslim believes that you can go to a soothsayer or to a fortune teller or to an astrologer, another Muslim says that that’s kufr, that’s the knowledge of the Unseen possessed only by Allāh. Can their hearts be united?

Impossible! Cannot be united because their ʿaqīdah is not one, their belief is not one their outlook is not one; so never mind bodily separation, their hearts aren’t united in the first place! But it is the Revelation that united the heart of the Ṣaḥābah, it is Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá) who united their hearts, so may Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá) keep our hearts united,baarakallahu fīkum.

we have invited the brothers, we have a conference in the United Kingdom –  by the way there is a conference in Toronto Canada, Insha’Alalah, I advise you all to try and attend the conference in a week from now on Family and Children; not only on the basis that we support Ahlussunnahwherever they are.  I told the brothers in Washington DC, I said you brothers that are sitting here today come to Florida and meet your brothers from Ahlussunnah in Florida; I told the brothers in Florida come to Newark New Jersey, there’s a conference in Newark New Jersey; and I’m telling you now my brothers, come to Newark for the conference this weekend and come also to Toronto.

How far is the drive? Twelve hours…nothing! I must have driven about 72 hours by now! Look, I  landed in Newark, drove to Washington DC; from DC all the way down to Orlando, and then to West Palm Beach, South Florida, and then a;l the way back up to here. then tomorrow up to Newark New Jersey, then to Chicago, then to Toronto, join me!

America’s renowned for these  road trips…route 66 and all of that, America’s renowned for it, how come no one likes travelling. Or jump on a flight, but make it, yaa ikhwaan, we have a conference in the United Kingdom, Birmingham, you can fly to that one.  We’ve invited our brothers ʿAbd al Wali, Abū al Ḥasan Mālik, Anwar Wright, Ḥasan Somalee and Kashiff Khan; five brothers we’ve invited, all five have agreed to come, for their love of Ahlussunnah. Abū Iyāḍ has been here, Abū Ḥakīm has been here before we travel we meet each other to benefit from each other and to remind each other of the dīn of Allāh (subḥānahu wa Taʿālá); this is all that we’re here for, baarakAllāh fīkum. So we ask that you likewise aid in your cities across the United States, if the brothers have organised a conference, tell your wife, forget the shopping this weekend, forget it. Put your money in your pocket, we’ll spend it on the road trip. And we’re going to…there’s a Cleveland conference coming upon the 20th, go to the Cleveland conference, go to the Toronto conference…

Wa jaazakumAllāhu khayran, walhamdulllāhi rabbil ‘ʿalámeen  wa ṣallallāhu ‘ʿalá nabiyyinah Muḥammad wa ‘ʿalá alihi  wa sahbihi wa-sallam, wa jazakumallahu khayran.