Shaykh Abu Abdir Rahmaan Yahyaa bin Alee Al-Hajooree was asked:

Question:

The Prophet said:

“the best of you are those who learn the Qur’an and teach it to others”.

Is it [the case that] if an innovator memorizes the Qur’an, then he is better than the Salafi who did not memorize the Qur’an?

Answer:

The Qur’an is either proof for you or proof against you. And [as for] the people of desires, the Qur’an is proof against them because the Qur’an commands with adherence and with guidance and they [the people of desires] are not guided. So, if he memorized the Qur’an and the 6 books of Hadeeth, all of it with proficiency while he is an innovator, then he is not except an innovator, disobedient and wicked. And it may be that a man from the Orientalist memorizes the Qur’an stronger than some of those who are righteous, not [with the purpose] of acting in accordance with it, [but] rather to challenge in regards to it [i.e. challenge it].

Ash-Shaykh Hassan Ibn Qaasim Ar-Raymee mentioned in Irshaadul Bariyah Ila Shareyatul Intisaab Ila Salafiyyah Page 154: “It has been established in Al-Bukhari from the hadeeth of Jaabir ibn Abdillah in the story of the angels that came to the Messenger Sallallahu alaihi wassallam and he was sleeping and in it is the statement of some of them: “Muhammad split between the people”

…..-the shaykh mentioned later on-…

Indeed those who attack Ahlus Sunnah with that [wherein] they split between the Muslims and they break the rows from the inside, we say to them “Yes! If you intended what is mentioned from splitting between the truth and falsehood, and guidance and misguidance, then they are with their call upon the book and the Sunnah, distinguishing with that between the Sunni and the innovator, and it makes apparent the companion of the correct beliefs from the corrupt and what is this from them except application of Allah statement (translation of the meaning):

You [true believers in Islâmic Monotheism, and real followers of Prophet Muhammad and his Sunnah] are the best of peoples ever raised up for mankind; you enjoin Al-Ma’rûf (i.e. Islâmic Monotheism and all that Islâm has ordained) and forbid Al-Munkar (polytheism, disbelief and all that Islâm has forbidden), and you believe in Allâh

[Surah Ali Imraan 110]

Ibn Taymiyyah said: “Commanding with the Sunnah and forbidding from the innovation is commanding with the good and forbidding from the evil and it is from the most virtous of the righteous actions”

– end of shaykh hassans speech

Translated by

Majid Jawed Al-Afghanee
Abu Layl