{"id":1824,"date":"2013-12-25T11:30:52","date_gmt":"2013-12-25T15:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/?p=1824"},"modified":"2013-12-25T11:30:52","modified_gmt":"2013-12-25T15:30:52","slug":"strangeness-sunnah-adherents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/?p=1824","title":{"rendered":"THE STRANGENESS OF THE SUNNAH AND ITS ADHERENTS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>THE STRANGENESS OF THE SUNNAH AND ITS ADHERENTS<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/images-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1825 alignright\" alt=\"images (2)\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/images-2.jpg\" width=\"272\" height=\"185\" \/><\/a><\/b><br \/>\n<b>\u00a0<\/b><br \/>\nConcerning the statement of the Prophet: <b>\u201cIslaam began as something strange and will return to being strange, as it began\u201d<\/b>, Imaam Al-Awzaa\u2019ee (<i>rahimahullaah<\/i>) said:<b><\/b><br \/>\n\u201cAs for this, then it does not mean that Islaam will go away, but rather it means that the <i>Ahl-us-Sunnah \u00a0<\/i>will go away, up to the point that there will not remain in a land, any from them except one person.\u201d<br \/>\nBased on this understanding, there can be found in the statements of the <i>Salaf <\/i>much praise for the Sunnah and their describing it as being strange, and describing its adherents and followers as being few.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nAl-Hasan Al-Basree (<i>rahimahullaah<\/i>) used to say to his companions: \u201cOh <i>Ahl-us-Sunnah<\/i>! Be gentle with one another and may Allaah have mercy on you. For indeed, you are from amongst the fewest of people.\u201d<br \/>\nYoonus Ibn \u2018Ubayd (<i>rahimahullaah<\/i>) said: \u201cThere is not a thing more stranger than the Sunnah. And what is more stranger than it, is the one who knows it.\u201d<br \/>\nSufyaan Ath-Thawree (<i>rahimahullaah<\/i>) said: \u201cTreat the <i>Ahl-us-Sunnah <\/i>kindly, for verily, they are\u00a0strangers.\u201d<br \/>\nThe understanding of the term \u201cSunnah\u201d to these scholars, was the way of the Prophet \u2013 that which he and his companions were upon \u2013 free from <b>Doubts <\/b>(<i>Ash-Shubuhaat<\/i>) and <b>Desires <\/b>(<i>Ash-Shahawaat<\/i>). Due to this, Al-Fudayl Ibn \u2018Iyaad (<i>rahimahullaah<\/i>) used to say: \u201c<i>Ahl-us-Sunnah <\/i>is he who knows what is entering his stomach from the <i>halaal<\/i>.\u201d<br \/>\nThat is because the consumption of <i>halaal <\/i>is from the greatest aspects of the Sunnah, which the Prophet and his companions were upon.<br \/>\nThen it remained the custom of the majority of the later scholars, from the scholars of hadeeth and other fields, that the Sunnah consisted of what was free from <b>Doubts <\/b>in regards to Creed. This was especially the case with issues such as the belief in Allaah, His angels, His books, His messengers, the Last Day, and other issues such as Al-Qadar (Divine Pre-Ordainment) and the merits of the Sahaabah. They compiled literary works concerning this knowledge and named them books of \u201cSunnah\u201d. This knowledge was only labeled with the name \u201cSunnah\u201d, because its significance was tremendous and all those who opposed it were on the brink of destruction.<br \/>\nAnd as for the complete Sunnah, then it is the path that is free and safe from <b>Doubts <\/b>and <b>Desires<\/b>, as has been stated by Al-Hasan, Yoonus Ibn \u2018Ubayd, Sufyaan, Al-Fudayl and others besides them. Due to this, its adherents are described as strange because of their small number and rarity in the Last Days.<br \/>\nThis is why it has been mentioned in some of the previously stated reports that they are: <b>&#8220;A righteous people surrounded by people abounding in much evil. Those who disobey them are greater in number than those who obey them.&#8221; <\/b><br \/>\nIn this is an indication of the smallness of their amount in number and in the amount of those who answer and accept their call. We also are made aware of the greatness in number of those who oppose them and disobey them.<br \/>\nThat is why it is reported in numerous <i>ahaadeeth<\/i>, praise for the one who sticks firmly to his Religion during the Last Days. And that he who does so will be like one who holds tightly onto hot pieces of coal.<br \/>\nAnd that the one who acts upon it, will receive fifty times the reward more than those before him.<br \/>\nThis is because he will not find any supporters in doing good deeds.<br \/>\nThese strangers are of two categories: The first of them are those who rectify themselves when the people have become corrupt. The second category contains those who rectify what the people have corrupted of the Sunnah. And this (latter one) is the most highest and virtuous of the two categories.<br \/>\n{extracted from <b>Alleviating Grievances in Describing the Condition of the Strangers by Hafiz ibn Rajab Al-Hambali}<\/b><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE STRANGENESS OF THE SUNNAH AND ITS ADHERENTS \u00a0 Concerning the statement of the Prophet: \u201cIslaam began as something strange and will return to being&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,57,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-motivators","category-tazkiyah","wpcat-33-id","wpcat-57-id","wpcat-24-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}