Magnificent Points of Advice for those who have turned to the Way of the Salaf

Author: Abu ‘Abdillaah Muhammad bin Ahmad ash-Shihhee

Source: Al-Manhaj
Translator: Abu Maryam Isma’eel Alarcon

Published: Wednesday 5th August, 2015



The Second Advice: Seeking Knowledge Is The Foundation For The Correctness Of Your Repentance

So knowledge is the foundation for the correctness of your repentance. This is due to two reasons:

First: For the most part, the misconceptions (you had prior to your repentance) will remain attached to your heart and your mind. So if you do not correct it with beneficial knowledge, you will find yourself accompanied by these misconceptions in your statements, actions and circumstances. Rather, you will find them mixed into your Da’wah (calling to the Way of Allaah), as is the condition of many of those who have leaped from (just) making their repentance to (being active in) the field of Da’wah.

So they have begun calling to the Salafee Da’wah, however this call is mixed with the Ikhwaanee misconceptions of gathering people together (regardless of Creed) or the Qutubee misconceptions of making takfeer (declaring Muslims disbelievers) or the Surooree misconceptions of partisanship (hizbiyyah)! So the image displayed is Salafiyyah, but the taste and the smell derived from it is something else!

Therefore, their call turns into a Salafiyyah, which consists of particular standards that can have their roots traced back to the misconceptions they had propr to their repentance, which still accompany them and which they have not yet corrected.

So you find this person calling to leadership in Da’wah (i.e. that there should be one leader for organizing all the Da’wah in a land).

And that one rejects some of the principles of the Salafee Da’wah, claiming that they cause the hearts to be hardened! Or that they cause the brotherly ties to be broken!

And this one agrees with the Qutubee ideologies!

And that one calls to Hizbiyyah (partisanship)!

And this one carries ideas of instigation and provocation (of the masses)!

And that one pitches the tent for gathering the people together (regardless of differences)!

All of this is done using the name of Salafiyyah, so to Allaah we turn for help! Verily to Allaah we belong and to Him we will return.

Second: Or perhaps you are carried away by the strong current of a misconception, such that your path and road towards repenting to Salafiyyah has changed course. So now you have become confused on this road or you begin calling to it, thinking that it is the truth when it is in fact misguidance!

How many games do these individuals who claim to have knowledge and stand for Salafiyyah play with the youth who seek to repent to Allaah?

And this is due to nothing else except for their lack of seeking knowledge and their lack of asking questions from the people of knowledge from Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah.

So, O repentant brother, may Allaah grant you success, you must seek beneficial knowledge, because it is that which will correct your repentance and set your path straight. With knowledge, you will free yourself from the misconceptions and the dangers, and you will save yourself from the hunting nets and snares, by the Will and Permission of Allaah.

As for the evidences that indicate the virtue of knowledge and those who possess it, then they are many and well known. I will mention from them, for the purpose of reminding:

Allaah’s saying:

“Allaah bears witness that there is none that has the right to be worshipped but He. And so do the angels, and those having knowledge. (He is always) maintaining His creation with Justice. None has the right to be worshipped but He, the All-Mighty, the All-Wise.” [Surah Aali ‘Imraan: 18]


And His saying:

“It is only those who have knowledge amongst His slaves that fear Allaah.” [Surah Faatir: 28]


And His saying:

“Allaah will raise in degree those of you who believe, and those who have been given knowledge.” [Surah Al-Mujaadilah: 11]


And Allaah’s saying, reminding of the blessing He bestowed on His Prophet (صلى الله علیه وسلم) due to what He sent down to him from the Book (Qur’aan) and the Hikmah (Sunnah) and protecting him from people misleading him:

“Had not the Grace of Allaah and His Mercy been upon you (O Muhammad), a party of them would certainly have made a decision to mislead you, but (in fact) they mislead none except their own selves, and no harm can they do to you in the least. Allaah has sent down to you the Book (Qur'aan) and the Hikmah (Sunnah), and taught you that which you knew not. And Ever Great is the Grace of Allaah unto you.” [Surah An-Nisaa: 113]


So, O repentant brother, when you come to know the importance and virtue of knowledge, and the danger of neglecting it, then know that the first thing you should start with from the various branches of knowledge is:


 

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