THE DWINDLING OF AHLUL-SUNNAH
Awza’i said in explanation to this hadith, ‘Islam will not disappear, it is Ahlu’l-Sunnah that will disappear to the point that there only remain one of them in any one country.’
It is based on this understanding that one frequently finds the Salaf praising the Sunnah, describing it as being strange, and describing its followers as few in number. al-Hasan (radiyAllahu ( anhu) would say to his colleagues, ‘Ahlus-Sunnah! Be gentle with each other,mayAllah have mercy upon you,for you are from the fewest of people!’ (Lalikal #19)
Yunus ibn (Ubayd said, ‘There is nothing stranger than the Sunnah and stranger still is one who knows it.’ It is also reported that he said, ‘It has come to the point that one who knows the Sunnah will think it something strange, and stranger than this person is one who finds the Sunnah something familiar.’ (Lalikal #21, ibn Batta #20)
Sufyan al-Thawn said, ‘Treat Ahlul-Sunnah well for they are strangers.’ (Lalika’I #49)
By the term Sunnah, all of these Imams meant the path trodden by the Prophet (pbuh) which he and his Companions were upon, secure from doubts and desires. It is for this reason that Fudayl ibn `Iyad said, ‘Ahlul-Sunnah are those who know that what enters their stomach is lawful’; (Lalika’I #51, Abu Nu’aym, vol. 8, pg. 104 with a hasan isnad) this is because one of the greatest features of the Sunnah followed by the Prophet(pbuh) and his Companions was that they would eat only that which was lawful.
In the taxonomy of the later scholars from the Ahlul-Hadith and others, the word Sunnah was used to refer to that which was secure from doubts in belief, specifically in issues dealing with belief in Allah, His Angels, His Books, His Messengers, the Last Day, the issues of decree, and the virtues of the Companions. They authored works in these fields which they named books of ‘Sunnah’; they called this field ‘Sunnah’ because it is a serious issue and the one who stands in opposition to it stands on the brink of destruction.
As for the meaning of Sunnah in its complete sense, it refers to the path which is secure from doubts and desires as stated by alHasan, Yunus ibn ‘Ubayd, Sufyan, Fudayl and others. It is for this reason that those who follow the Sunnah in the latter times have been described as being strange because of their small number and rarity. It is for this reason that in some of the previous ahadith they have been described as, “A small number of righteous people amongst a large number of evil people, those who disobey them are more than those who obey them.” This statement points to the paucity of their number, the handful of those who respond to them and accept their call, and the many that oppose and disobey them.
There are a number of ahadith that praise a person who sticks firmly to his religion in the last days, describing him as one who is holding onto red hot coals and that his reward would be equivalent to the reward of fifty of those who came before him. This is because he would find no one to aid him in performing well.
By Ibn Rajab Al-Hanbali & Imam Al-Ajurri
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