What is your view of those who put people off from reading the books of contemporary daa’iyahs and think that we should limit ourselves to the books of the righteous salaf and take our methods from them? What is the correct view of the books of the salaf (may Allaah have mercy on them) as compared with the books of the modern daa’iyahs and thinkers?
Praise
be to Allaah.
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih al-‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah
have mercy on him and raise his status among the guided) was asked this
question and he answered as follows:
I think that basing da’wah on the Book of Allaah and
the Sunnah of His Messenger
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) comes above all else. This
is the view of all of us, beyond a doubt. After that comes that which
has been narrated from the Rightly-Guided khaleefahs, the Sahaabah and
the imams of Islam among the earlier generations (the salaf).
With regard to what the later and contemporary scholars
speak about, it deals with things that have happened more recently,
which they know better about. If a person takes from their books that
which will benefit him in that respect, then he will have gained a great
deal. We know that the contemporary scholars have taken the knowledge
that they have from those who came before them, so let us also take
from the same source as they did. But there are some matters which emerged
later, that they understand better, because these issues did not arise
at the time of the salaf in the same manner. Hence I think that one
should combine the two good things, relying primarily on the Book of
Allaah and the Sunnah of His Messenger
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and secondly on the words
of the Rightly-Guided khaleefahs and the Sahaabah and the imams of the
Muslims, then on what has been written by the contemporary scholars
who write about things that did not happen in previous times and were
not specifically known to the salaf.
