Note: The following transcript was generated using AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Brothers and sisters, viewers and listeners, welcome to another Q&A special on the Hot Seat podcast. This time we're going to be answering your questions about episode 2 of the Hot Seat. And that was deconstructing Salafism in the 21st century.
It was a very interesting episode. We had a lot of feedback. We had a lot of questions come through to our email address.
That's questions at thehotseatpodcast.com And we'll be tackling some of those questions today with the speaker himself, Ustadh Abdul Rahman Hassan. And just a reminder for you guys out there, if you do want to ask any questions, please do email us on questions at thehotseatpodcast.com Alternatively, visit the website www.thehotseatpodcast.com where you can fill out an online form and you can ask your questions through there. But for now, let's start with your questions on deconstructing Salafism in the 21st century.
Okay Ustadh Abdul Rahman, I've got the questions in front of me from the website. The first question is, we mentioned that we're only allowed to take religious issues from the early three generations. What about traumatic childhood experiences that someone might have experienced? Is it permissible to seek psychological help from modern day articles or modern day professionals? In response to that question, these sciences, psychology, and the problems that people have, these disorders, mental health issues, what not, la shaka you go to specialists.
Allah commanded us in the Qur'an when He said subhanahu wa ta'ala, Fas'alu ahla dhikri in kuntum la ta'alamun. Ask those who know, if you don't know. And this is anybody who knows a matter, you go to them and you ask them.
We were instructed by the Qur'an to do so. So you ask the khabir, ar-Rahmanu fas'al bihi khabira, ask the one who knows, the expertise, ask them about their knowledge. You see, our religion, it gave us comprehensive principles.
And under those comprehensive principles, rulings come from it. But it doesn't talk about everything individually. So you go to these expertise, these professionals, you ask them for their view on an issue or their knowledge of it.
And if it goes against the Qur'an and the Sunnah, you consult the scholars. If it goes against the Qur'an and the Sunnah? If they tell you to do things that are not permissible in the religion, then you convey that to the scholars and you tell them about it. And whatever they tell you insha'Allah wa ta'ala based on the evidences from the Qur'an and the Sunnah, you follow insha'Allah wa ta'ala.
Okay, so the next question I have for you has come into our email address. I'm a housewife and mom of three kids. I want to teach my children some fundamental and important books.
What are the most important fundamental books that I can teach my children in Islam? So number one, without a doubt, it has to be the Qur'an. The first thing that the child should be taught is the Qur'an. He should memorize the Qur'an before he reaches the age of 10.
Once the child finishes the Qur'an, then he goes for the speech of the Messenger ﷺ. So he memorizes the 40 hadith of Al-Imam Al-Nawwi. Once he's done that, he goes for Tuhfatul Atfal, which is basically, he's learned the Qur'an in a practical way. His pronunciation, his articulation is correct.
Now he's going to go to the theoretical side, where he's going to learn the Qur'an in a theoretical way, where this is how it's read and this is why you said this. It's explained to him. And then after that, he goes for the Aqidah series written by Muhammad Abdul Wahab, Talatatul Usul, Kashf al-Shubuhat, Kitab al-Tawheed.
All of this, the kid memorizes, sponge, he takes it all in. Once the child does that, then the parent either provides a teacher for that child, who knows the Arabic and is willing to give money. Historically, even if you look at it, the early scholars, like Al-Imam Al-Shafi'i, I mentioned this before.
Al-Imam Al-Shafi'i's mother didn't know anything about the religion. She had no knowledge of the Deen. And the scholars mentioned that she learnt the religion through her son.
But look at that, all she did was she paved the path for her son. She facilitated for her. The mother doesn't have to be a scholar or a person of great knowledge.
If she just sets a guideline for her son, you don't know the Arabic language, then somebody else can teach him. Maybe my son cannot learn in the UK, let's travel and go somewhere else. The religion is a very valuable thing.
I realized one statement one Shaykh said, it really stuck with me. He said it becomes sad that the person who fails in the dunya, we say, Akhi, go seek knowledge of the religion. And it becomes like a second alternative.
And so it happens that the people who go for the religion, have become the dim-witted ones, the ones who failed in life. And the ones who go for the academic sciences are the smart ones, the clever ones. They're always told, Akhi, you're smart, go for medicine.
You're smart, go for this. No, if you failed in life, Akhi, maybe seeking Islamic knowledge is not for you really. That's exactly how the Shaykh put it, and it really touched me, it's true.
So you're saying if the mother sees a spark in her child, that maybe he's picking up concepts quickly, she should push him towards an Islamic education? Number one, that doesn't mean later the child just doesn't learn the academic sciences. Of course he does, learn, study after that. But any and every child, the path that needs to be paved for that child is the deen.
He learns the deen. The parents should give utmost responsibility on it. Great responsibility.
Your child, before he reaches the age of 20, teach him the deen of Allah as well. Let him learn this properly. Then you say to your child, look, 15, 14, he's finished the Qur'an, he's finished all these books.
Dad, what do you want to do? Do you want to embark on this path and become a scholar? Or do you want to become a doctor? No, dad, I want to be a doctor. Okay, Jamil, I'll help you with that now. That's how it should be.
Beautiful. Just a follow-up question on that. You mentioned obviously at the start that the focus should be on memorization because they're young, their brains are like sponges.
The answer to this might be that it depends on the child. But is there a kind of guideline for the kind of age where they should kind of start shifting from memorization to more of understanding? Yeah, once the child finishes the Qur'an and he finishes those mutawwun, those books, I'd say basically at the age of 12, 12, 13, the parents should start now pushing a lot of explanation. But before that, the child should memorize it.
Before the age of 13, even 14, the child, he should just be left to memorize everything. Just take it in, take it in, take it in, take it in. Okay, no problem.
Next question I have for you is you mentioned in the podcast that it's important to restrict our understanding of the religion to the first three generations and you gave ample evidences for that. But the question I have here is that what about the latest scholars like Ibn al-Qayyim, like Ibn Taymiyyah, they come up with their own works, their own thoughts, their own understandings, their own benefits, and we take that from them. So isn't this contradictory? When we said in our podcast that we go back to the three noble generation, we were talking about masā'il which are clay cut, masā'il which are ʻusūl, fundamental issues of ʻaqīdah and i'tiqād.
That doesn't evolve over time. ʻaqīdah doesn't evolve over time. Like in issues of sub-branches, they require mujtahid to come and apply this on this issue.
So the ayah has evidence that a technology comes out or something happens and the Muslims need a ruling for it. Somebody takes the ayah and he places it on this issue. I mean the Salaf are not here to apply that because this is not a fundamental issue.
It's a branch, sub-branch. So when we say that we follow the early three generations, we're not saying that the door of i'tiqād is locked and there's no i'tiqād anymore. We're saying of course there is i'tiqād.
That's furū'u al-masā'il. That's fiqh-related issues. Like we're saying that we go back to the three noble generations when it comes to what? When it comes to matters of i'tiqād and matters of belief.
Also the issues of fiqh, the framework that they set is what's used. We don't go outside that framework. The boundaries that they went in and how they did the extraction and the deriving of rulings from the ayah.
That's the same that Ibn al-Qayyim and Ibn Taymiyyah and other great scholars are doing it. They're just applying on the evolving of the people and how these issues relate to them. Okay, final question I have for you.
Again, we did mention that we obviously refer back to the early scholars and the early generations, but it appears that many of the Salafis actually take a lot of their knowledge from the likes of Shaykh Ibn Taymiyyah, Shaykh al-Albani, Shaykh Ibn Baz, Shaykh Salih al-Fawzān. These are people you've mentioned throughout your lectures, throughout your podcasts. Isn't, again, this contradictory that you're actually referring to the later scholars and you're actually blind-following the later scholars, the modern-day scholars, yet theoretically you're saying we should go back to the early scholars? This is very important to be understood.
When we say we follow the Salaf, the scholars, they mention the Salaf in terms of time, virtue and i'tiqād, belief. So we follow the three noble generations in terms of their knowledge, their understanding and everything. And anyone who follows them in their knowledge and follows them in their righteous actions and their belief was also followed, whichever time he came from, because he's in line of what they were doing.
So Shaykh Abu al-Islam ibn Taymiyyah didn't come with anything new. Neither did Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, nor Shaykh ibn Baz, nor Shaykh al-Albani nor Ibn Taymiyyah. And if they did say a statement here or there that doesn't go in line with what the early generation said, it was rejected and it wasn't taken from them.
Do you see my point? Any statements that they said, any views that they came with, which wasn't in line with the early generation, we reject it. So Shaykh ibn Baz, Shaykh ibn Uthaymeen, Shaykh al-Albani and Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Shaykh al-Islam Taymiyyah, ibn al-Qayyim, ibn al-Rajab, ibn al-Zahabi and others, we take their statements as long as it's in line with the three noble generation and it's in line with the early righteous, pious predecessors. Once it is, then we take it and we quote it because it's easier for us to grab it.
Okay, I see now. Okay, Salaam alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Jazakallahu khairan for joining me once again on a special episode of the Q&A.
Until next time, fi amani Allahi wa s-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. I hope you found the answers to those questions beneficial. Just a reminder once again, as I mentioned at the start, if you have any questions on any of the episodes we record on the Hot Seat Podcast, then head over to www.thehotseatpodcast.com where you can fill out an online form and ask us your questions.
Alternatively, feel free to email us straight at questions at thehotseatpodcast.com. That's questions at thehotseatpodcast.com. Until next time, fi amani Allahi wa s-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
