Salat al-Idayn fi al-Musalla Hiya al-Sunnah - Nasir al-Din al-Albani - (47)

Thus, the believer is not unnerved by the small number of those who walk the path of guidance, nor is he harmed by the multitude of those who oppose him.

Imām al-Shāṭibī said in al-Iʿtiṣām, 10/11–12:
“This is Allah’s established way with His creation: the people of truth are few beside the people of falsehood, for He, the Exalted, says: ‘But most people—even though you should ardently desire it—will not believe.’ 1 And He says: ‘And few of My servants are truly grateful.’ 2

Moreover, Allah will bring to pass what He promised His Prophet ﷺ—that the description of estrangement will return to his religion 3—for estrangement only exists when its adherents are absent or very few. That occurs when what is recognised as right is regarded as wrong, and what is wrong is acknowledged as right, when the Sunnah is deemed an innovation and an innovation is treated as Sunnah, whereupon…"

(1) Quran, Yusuf 12:103. (2) Quran, Saba 34:13. (3) Namely, Islam—an allusion to the Prophet’s saying: “Islam began as something strange and will return to being strange just as it began; so glad tidings to the strangers,” narrated by Muslim and others and authenticated in Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah, no. 1273.

فالمؤمن لا يستوحش من قلة السالكين على طريق الهدى ولا يضره كثرة المخالفين. قال الإمام الشاطبي في " الاعتصام " ٠١ / ١١ - ١٢": وهذه سنة الله في الخلق: أن أهل الحق في جنب أهل الباطل قليل لقوله تعالى: ﴿وَمَا أَكْثَرُ النَّاسِ وَلَوْ حَرَصْتَ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ﴾ ١.وقوله: ﴿وَقَلِيلٌ مِنْ عِبَادِيَ الشَّكُورُ﴾ ٢، ولينجز الله ما وعد به نبيه ﷺ من عود وصف الغربة إليه٣ فإن الغربة لا تكون إلا مع فقد الأهل أو قلتهم وذلك حين يصير المعروف منكرا والمنكر معروفا وتصير السنة بدعة والبدعة سنة فيقام على

١ [سورة يوسف: الآية ١٠٣] . ٢ [سورة سبأ: الآية ١٣] . ٣ يعني الإسلام يشير إلى قوله ﷺ: "بدأ الإسلام غريبا وسيعود غريبا كما بدأ غريبا فطوبى للغرباء" رواه مسلم وغيره وهو مخرج في "الصحيحة"، "١٢٧٣".