SO MANY GROUPS?!
From the book: Al-Qutubiyyah: Hiyal-Fitnah Fa’rifoohaa by Abu Ibraaheem ibn Sultan al-Udnaanee
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
All Praise is to Allah who says in his book:
“This day have I completed (perfected) your religion for you and have completed My favour upon you and have chosen for you Islaam as your religion” (al-Qur’an 5:3) and Who also says:
“And no, by your Lord, they cannot be real believers until they make you as a judge in all disputes between them and then do not find any resistance against what you have decided in their souls but accept (it) with the fullest submission” (al-Qur’an 4:65) and Who also said:
“And the first to embrace Islaam of the Muhajirun (those who migrated from Makkah to Madinah) and the Ansar (the citizens of Madinah who helped and gave aid to the Muhajirun) and also those who followed them exactly (in faith). Allah is well pleased with them as they are well pleased with Him. He has prepared for them Gardens under which rivers flow (Paradise), to dwell therein forever. That is the supreme success.” (al-Qur’an 9:100)
And may prayers and peace be upon His friend and chosen one, Muhammad bin Abdullah (pbuh), who said: “I have left you upon clear proof. Its night is like its day. No one deviates from it except one who is destroyed” (Musnad Ahmed), and who also said: “Whoever does an action which we have not commanded will have it rejected.” (Bukhari: vol 3 hadeeth no 861)
And (prayers and peace) be upon his family and Companions to whom the Messenger (saw) said: “I advise you to fear Allah (have taqwaa of Him) and to listen and obey (to the leader) even if it is a black Abyssinian slave. He amongst you lives for long will see many controversies/differences. Therefore, you must stick to my sunnah and the sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs. Stick to it (the sunnah) with your molar teeth and beware of the newly invented matters (bidah) as every newly invented matter is an innovation and every innovation is misguidance” (Abu Dawood hadeeth no 2186), and who also said: “And my ummah will split into 73 groups all of them in the Hellfire except for one,” then it was said: “And what is this one group?” He said: “It is that which I am upon this day and my companions.” (Tirmidhi hadeeth no 56)
Know my brother and sister- may Allah make me and you receive every goodness- that the true dawah is the dawah that stands by and sticks to the Book (Qur’an) and the Sunnah upon the understanding of the Salaf us-Saalih (the Righteous Predecessors) and that any dawah that leaves anything from what has just been mentioned has deviated and swerved from the path of truth and correctness to the extent of its abandonment of what has been mentioned above.
Know also that every group claims to be sticking to the Book and the Sunnah so what do you see is the difference between these groups and the call of the group upon the truth?
Firstly: That the truthful call is the one that clings to the Book and the Sunnah upon the understanding of the Salaf us-Saalih and all the other calls cling to the Book and the Sunnah upon the understanding of the one who initiated and founded it. The Jahmiyyah cling to the Book and the Sunnah upon the understanding of Ja’d bin Dirham and Jahm bin Safwaan. The Ash’ariyyah cling to the Book and the Sunnah upon the understanding of their scholars who attribute themselves to Abu al-Hasan al-Ash’arriyy. The Tableeghiyyah cling to the Book and the Sunnah upon the understanding of its founder Muhammad Ilyaas, and the Ikhwaaniyyah with all its types and offshoots and amongst them are the Qutubiyyahcling to the Book and the Sunnah upon the understanding of its founder(s) Hasan al-Bannaa, Saeed Qutub, Hudaibee and others. Hizbut Tahreer cling to the Book and the Sunnah with the understanding of its founder Taqi’uddin Nabahaani and its leaders.
Secondly: That the call of truth is the one whose adherents take their knowledge from the leaders of the dawah of the Salafiyyah in every age and era, who study under and learn from the living amongst them and read the books of those who are dead amongst them, from every generation in opposition to the calls of falsehood since they are the enemies of the scholars of the Salaf, the living amongst them and the dead In fact they are behind every opposition to them even if they claim openly that they are the followers of them.
Thirdly: That the adherents to the call of truth concern themselves with the books of the Salafiyyah, by reading, memorising, understanding, authenticating, publishing and defending them in opposition to the calls of falsehood since they are the haters of those books. Rather, they fight against them, against their publication and they strive to get their followers to stick to the books of the founders of their groups.
To proceed, someone will say: “Who are the Salaf and what are the written works of the Salafiyyah?” The answer is: The Salaf are the companions of the Prophet (saw), their successors and their successors. They are our predecessors and anyone who travels upon their way and methodology is a Salafi.
As for the works of the Salafiyyah, then they are many; we shall mention some of them:
Musnad of Imaam Ahmed
Saheeh Bukhaaree
Saheeh Muslim
The four Sunans (Abu Dawood, Tirmidhee, Nasaa’ee and Ibn Maajah)
The tafseer of Ibn Jareer at-Tabaree
The tafseer of al-Baghawee
The tafseer of Ibn Katheer
The Refutation of Imaam Daarimee against Bishr al-Mareesee
The Refutation of Imaam Ahmed against the Jahmiyyah
Creation of the Actions of the Servants by Imaam Bukhaaree
Ash-Sharee’ah by al-Aajuree
Al-Eemaan by Ibn Mandah, at-Tawheed by Ibn Mandah
At-Tawheed by Ibn Khuzaimah
As-Sunnah by Ahmed bin Hanbal
As-Sunnah by al-Khilaal
As-Sunnah by Abdullaah ibn Ahmed bin Hanbal
Al-Ibaanah by Ibn Battah
As-Sunnah by al-Barbahaaree
Sharh Usool I’tiqaad Ahl is-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah by al-Laalikaa’ee
The books of sheikh ul-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah- may Allah have mercy upon him and all of them, without exception, and likewise the books of his student, Ibn al-Qayyim- may Allah have mercy upon him
Every Muslim desiring to return to Islaam in its true sense, must grasp what the Prophet (saw) and his Companions were upon, in all aspects of life. Only then can we move toward establishing Islaam as our way of life.