Is following the Salaf the Correct way

Mabsoot
Administrator

Wa alaykum Salam wa Rahmatullah,

As Muslims we strive to go upon Islam as it was revealed in the Quran and taught by the Prophet . And we need explanation and understanding from the Salaf or early generation of Muslims who were closest to the time of the Prophet. - So in this manner elhamdulilah, Islam is easy to follow.

After the Prophet died, his companions spread out far and wide across many distant lands to teach people Islam. And after some time and in various places their appeared different applications of fiqh (ISlamic rulings derived from the Quran and Sunnah).

This happened for several reasons, maybe the evidence for a certain situation was not apparent for the person making his Islamic opinion, the scholar may have overruled a decision by following a hadith which he deemed was more accurate, he might have forgot a hadith, the scholar may have used a weak hadith to base his opinion as he did not have access to other hadith .etc

You must remember that this was a time when people who were seeking knowledge would travel great distances to aquire just a single hadith.

There were four principle schools of thought which are based upon the Four great Islamic scholars, Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Malik, Imam Ahmad, Imam Shafi'i.. Its allowed for some people to follow one of these schools of thought, but, we dont say that it is obligatory for them to choose one. The obligation upon us is to do what was prescibed earlier, i.e. follow the Quran and authentic sunnah.

These four Imams who were great scholars, derived their rulings from the Quran and Sunnah. They were Mujtahideen, people who could do that. They had difference on various issues from the way we do our prayers to what nullifies someone's wudhu etc. However, they did not tell people to join them or their way of thinking. They did what they thought was the most accurate thing and closest to the Quran and Sunnah. - and as the Prophet mentioned,

When a judge gives a decision, having tried his best to decide correctly and is right, there are two rewards for him; and if he gave a judgment after having tried his best (to arrive at a correct decision) but erred, there is one reward for him. (Bukhari)

With the authentic hadith having been collected into books such as Bukhari and Muslim, we have greater access to hadith and Islamic knowledge.

What is obligatory on Muslims is to accept the evidence when provided from Quran and authentic Sunnah on various Islamic issues and not to blindly carry on following something which is an incorrect view.

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ibnAbdullah87 said:

Sorry for the confusion I was asking so that people could then refer to the PDF that I posted I should have made it more clear by typing please click the following PDF and read it.

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ibnAbdullah87 said:

Yeah I know I forgot to do so sorry

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