The Religion is Nasihah - Shaikh Rabee'

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All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and the misdeeds of our actions. Whoever Allah guides, none can misguide, and whoever He leaves astray, none can guide. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah, alone without partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, his family, and his companions, abundantly until the Day of Judgment. To proceed:

Tonight, in sha’ Allah, we are with a tremendous hadith, which is narrated by Muslim from Tamim ad-Dari (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The religion is sincerity (naseehah),” three times. We said, “To whom, O Messenger of Allah?” He said, “To Allah, His Book, His Messenger, the leaders of the Muslims, and their common folk.”

This is a tremendous hadith. It has been said that the religion revolves around it and three other hadiths, with some saying it constitutes a quarter of the religion. Al-Nawawi said, “Islam revolves around it.” Abu Dawud said: “Fiqh revolves around four hadiths: the hadith ‘Actions are but by intentions,’ the hadith ‘The lawful is clear, and the unlawful is clear’ (from Nu‘man ibn Bashir), this hadith ‘The religion is sincerity,’ and the fourth, ‘Leave what makes you doubt for what does not make you doubt.’”

It is one of the great hadith that must be given attention and understood deeply.

Nasihah has been explained as a comprehensive term encompassing the desire for good for the one advised, in word and deed. It is indeed a great, comprehensive term, derived from the phrase “I purified the honey” (nasahatu al-‘asal), meaning I cleared it of impurities. Thus, nasihah means purifying and clarifying the good one sees for the advised, free of deceit, for sincerity is the opposite of deceit, devoid of deception or confusion.

Sincerity to Allah: This is to affirm His Oneness in all forms of tawhid: Tawhid al-Rububiyyah - believing He is the Creator, Lord, Originator, and Sustainer of this universe, possessing Attributes of perfection, majesty, and grandeur, with the most beautiful Names, the true object of worship whose greatness humbles all faces. We submit and humble ourselves only to His might, obeying Him and His Messengers (peace be upon them), believing in His Books, for He is the Just, the Most Just of judges, the Most Merciful of those who show mercy. He does not wrong even an atom’s weight in the heavens or the earth. The heavens are folded in His Right Hand, Glorified and Exalted is He, and He holds them lest they cease to exist: “Indeed, Allah holds the heavens and the earth, lest they cease. And if they should cease, no one could hold them after Him. Indeed, He is Forbearing and Forgiving” [Fatir: 41]. He holds the Throne (Arsh), which is exponentially greater than this universe we see, and the Footstool (Kursi), exponentially greater still, holding the heavens and the earth lest they cease, Glorified and Exalted is He. We must realise Allah’s greatness, Glorified and Exalted, as the Lord, Master, Creator, and Sustainer of this universe, who created jinn and mankind for His worship. They must submit, humble themselves, fear, and revere Him, believe His reports, fear His promises and warnings, Glorified and Exalted is He. This is part of what He deserves - though not all - Glorified and Exalted is He.

Sincerity to His Book: This is the great Qur’an, the eternal miracle, which the jinn and mankind failed to match, or produce ten surahs like it, or even one surah. This inability of the two weighty beings - jinn and mankind - to produce a surah like it is among the clearest proofs that it is truly the word of Allah and that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is His Messenger, with great miracles, the greatest being this Qur’an. It encompasses creed, legislations, eloquence, and rhetoric, such that if all jinn and mankind, from first to last, gathered to produce a surah like it, they could not. Many attempts were made, and the attempters were exposed! The Arabs in the Prophet’s time (peace and blessings be upon him) respected themselves despite challenging him, knowing they could not produce even the shortest surah like Al-Kawthar or Al-‘Asr. Only the foolish Musaylimah - may Allah curse him - claimed otherwise, and Allah exposed him. Some heretics tried to follow his path but failed, unable to produce even the shortest surah. We believe in this Qur’an as the Speech of Allah [uncreated], we revere it, sanctify it, preserve it, reflect on it, act upon it, declare its permissible as lawful, its prohibited as forbidden, believe its reports, fear its texts of warning with utmost fear, aspire to its texts of encouragement, and seek the great reward Allah has prepared for those who fear and revere Him. We study its parables, understood only by the knowledgeable, dedicating ourselves to it in knowledge and action. This is part of sincerity to Allah’s Book. Sincerity to Allah’s Book requires giving it this care, knowing its specific and general, abrogating and abrogated, clear and ambiguous verses, reconciling the ambiguous with the clear, as the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and his noble Companions did. Allah, Blessed and Exalted, honoured Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) with this message and Book, and honoured the Ummah with this Book: “You are the best nation produced for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong” [Al ‘Imran: 110]. Why were they the best nation? Because they believed in and acted upon this Book, enjoining right and forbidding wrong, which requires understanding this Book and the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him).

One who does not gain understanding cannot enjoin right or forbid wrong. How can one who does not know what is right enjoin it, or one who does not know what is wrong forbid it, except in obvious matters even non-Muslims recognise? Innovations, deviant ideologies, sayings of atheists, heretics, Rafidah (shia), and people of falsehood are only known and refuted by those who understand Allah’s Book and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). This is part of the sincerity owed to the Qur’an: Studying, understanding, reflecting, contemplating, and applying it. Muslims have fallen short in caring for this Book, either in submitting to it or in understanding what Allah intends - His reports, commands, prohibitions, and what requires true belief, such as His Names and Attributes. Deviations like negation (ta‘til), making comparison (tashbih), and likening (tamthil) have occurred, as have shortcomings in believing in paradise, hell, the bridge, and other reports. Some sects claiming Islam share some deviations, while others have unique ones. Thus, understanding Allah’s Book and fulfilling its demands is essential, as it is untouched by falsehood from before or behind, a revelation from the Wise, Praiseworthy.

Sincerity to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him): This is to believe in him, revere, respect, honour, and venerate him (peace and blessings be upon him), as well as those connected to him - his noble Companions, family, relatives, and in-laws. This is part of sincerity to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). It includes believing in his Sunnah, recognizing its status as an explanation of the Qur’an, specifying its general, qualifying its absolute, and clarifying its ambiguities - if any exist. Allah tasked His Messenger with clarification: “And We revealed to you the Reminder that you may make clear to the people what was sent down to them” [An-Nahl: 44]. He fulfilled this perfectly through his sayings, actions, and approvals, leaving us on a clear path, its night as bright as its day, strayed from only by the doomed (peace and blessings be upon him). We must care for his Sunnah by preserving, understanding, and firmly linking it to Allah’s Book, as they never part until the Day of Judgment. The Sunnah, entirely or mostly, is revelation. Allah, Blessed and Exalted, said in praise of His Messenger: “Nor does he speak from [his own] inclination. It is not but a revelation revealed” [An-Najm: 3–4]. ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘As would write everything he heard from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), but Quraysh forbade him, saying, “Do you write everything you hear, when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is a human who speaks in anger and pleasure?” He refrained, then mentioned it to the Prophet, who pointed to his mouth and said, “Write, for by the One in whose Hand is my soul, nothing comes out of it but truth” [Abu Dawud].The verse, as you heard, “Nor does he speak from [his own] inclination. It is not but a revelation revealed,” aligns with the hadith. Even if not all the Sunnah is revelation, most is divinely inspired, including the hadith qudsi. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) does not declare lawful or unlawful on his own: “I do not make lawful what is unlawful, nor make unlawful what is lawful” [Ibn Majah]. He is a conveyor: “You are only a warner” [Fatir: 23], “Upon you is only the [duty of] notification” [Ash-Shura: 48]. The Sunnah is part of what he conveys, clarifying the Qur’an, prayer, zakat, fasting, and hajj, mentioned generally in the Qur’an, with the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) explaining what Allah intends through his sayings, actions, and approvals. Without his clarification, we would not know how to pray, the times, numbers, or components of prayer like bowing, prostrating, or supplications. He detailed zakat on gold, silver, livestock, crops, and fruits, their amounts, thresholds, and more. He clarified fasting, what validates or invalidates it, and so on. He explained jihad, enjoining good, forbidding evil - all found in his Sunnah for those who seek it. We must know, understand, and study it, benefiting from the Salaf’s understanding - Companions and Successors - using their methods of deduction, reconciliation of texts, distinguishing abrogating from abrogated, specific from general, absolute from qualified. Their recorded methodology, fiqh, ethics, and creed guide us to understand Allah’s and His Messenger’s intent. Those who deviate, inventing new fiqh, follow the path of the Khawarij, who disregarded the Companions’ understanding, interpreting religion by whims, or like the Qadianis, who claimed to rely on Arabic alone, ignoring the Sunnah and Salaf, falling into disbelief, as the Ummah agreed on their apostasy. Thus, the Book and Sunnah are essential, but we must rely on the Salaf’s principles, fiqh, and application. We understand the Book and Sunnah through their lens, not becoming sincere to them unless we follow the Salaf’s way, as Allah warned: “Whoever opposes the Messenger after guidance has become clear to him and follows other than the way of the believers - We will give him what he has taken and drive him into Hell, an evil destination” [An-Nisa: 115]. We study how the Salaf understood the Qur’an, derived creeds, deduced rulings, and applied evidence, as their methodology is recorded, praise be to Allah. The mujtahid scholar, when encountering differences, strives to weigh opinions: “If you differ in anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger” [An-Nisa: 59]. Ijtihad remains open within the Salaf’s framework. Disagreements in subsidiary matters are resolved by referring to Allah and His Messenger, not by rigidly adhering to one school, which may lead to disbelief if texts are rejected for a scholar’s opinion. All imams are our guides, their errors excused: “If a judge strives and is correct, he gets two rewards; if he strives and errs, he gets one” [Bukhari/Muslim]. Blind fanaticism, rejecting clear texts for an imam’s error, may lead to disbelief. The Muslim must strive for truth, using scholars’ opinions to weigh and discern it, excusing errors while not clinging to them, as neither Allah, His Messenger, nor the imams approve this. The imams fiercely opposed blind following (taqlid) driven by whims, though necessity may require it, even for great scholars, when texts are unclear or consensus exists. Generally, we derive fiqh from the clear Book and Sunnah. This is the correct path: believing in the Sunnah, understanding the Prophet’s clarifications of the Qur’an’s generalities, and learning from the Salaf’s application, transmitted purely to us from authentic sources, not all sources claiming Islam. Some sources are pure, upheld by Sunni imams, while others, like those of deviant sects, contain falsehood, such as Sufi or Mu‘tazili influences infiltrating the four schools, as noted by Ibn Taymiyyah.

We take pure fiqh from original sources like Al-Mughni by Ibn Qudamah, Al-Majmu‘ by an-Nawawi, Al-Muhalla by Ibn Hazm, Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn al-Qayyim, and Ahmad’s and ash-Shafi‘i’s works (Al-Umm), with caution for errors. These are among the best sources, predominantly sound, though none are infallible. Even major hadith collections after the Sahihayn (Bukhari and Muslim), like Ahmad’s Musnad, contain authentic and weak narrations, distinguished by the Salaf’s principles. A mujtahid does not blindly accept all narrations from Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, or Ibn Majah but distinguishes authentic from weak, unlike the layman, who is excused. The hadith of the ta’ifah mansurah (victorious group) indicates ijtihad persists in every era: “A group from my Ummah will remain steadfast on the truth, unharmed by those who abandon them, until Allah’s command comes” [Bukhari/Muslim]. This includes mujtahids distinguishing truth from falsehood. This, brothers, is part of sincerity to the Messenger’s Sunnah: striving to know its specific and general, absolute and qualified, authentic and weak, abrogating and abrogated. Evaluating narrators - trustworthy, weak, liars, or mudallis - is also part of sincerity to Allah, His Messenger, His Book, and His Prophet’s Sunnah. Sincerity is a vast, great matter, encompassing all good, negating all evil. Al-Nawawi rightly said in his explanation of this hadith (The religion is sincerity): “This is a hadith of great significance, around which Islam revolves, as we will detail. Some scholars said it is one of four hadiths encompassing Islam, but it alone is the pivot.” You have seen some of its detailed implications.

Sincerity to the leaders of the Muslims: The leaders are their scholars and rulers adhering to Allah’s Book and the Sunnah. Those who err within the bounds of faith, without clear disbelief, must be obeyed and supported in good, gently advised about errors with wisdom and goodwill, aiding them in serving Islam and Muslims. We cooperate in righteousness, not inciting against them as the Khawarij and their followers do, as rebellion leads to the Ummah’s destruction, loss of religion and worldly affairs, and humiliation. The Ummah’s division into twenty states results from rebellion against leaders, from the Umayyads to the Abbasids, fragmenting into statelets, and now further rebellion worsens the affliction. We recognize each state, hoping Allah unites them under one leader as in the time of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, for unity brings honour: “Do not dispute and [thus] lose courage and [let] your strength depart” [Al-Anfal: 46].

Disputing leaders led to failure: “Those who have divided their religion and become sects - you are not of them in anything” [Al-An‘am: 159]. In this reality, we advise each leader gently, without rebellion or incitement, as this adds affliction. Destruction comes from rebellion, as seen in so-called Islamic parties inciting chaos, contrary to sincerity to Allah, His Book, His Messenger, and the leaders and common folk.

Sincerity to the common Muslims: This is with gentleness, mercy, disliking for them what you dislike for yourself, loving for them what you love for yourself, enjoining good, forbidding evil, and teaching the ignorant with wisdom and kindness: “Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction, and argue with them in a way that is best” [An-Nahl: 125]. Rejoice in their victory, honour when Allah honours them, and grieve for their humiliation and calamities. This is sincerity to the Muslims. We ask Allah, Blessed and Exalted, to make us and you among those who understand His religion and act upon this obligatory sincerity to Allah, His Book, His Messenger, the leaders of the Muslims, and their common folk. Indeed, our Lord hears supplications. Peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and companions.