mass-transmitted within it—such as the Quran and some hadiths—is liable to be rejected by him through reinterpretation—or, rather, negation. Whatever falls short of mass transmission is liable to be rejected by him through questioning whether its attribution to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is established.

It is thus clear that all believers in Islam endanger their faith if they do not rely on the methodology of the people of hadith in learning their religion. For they know better than anyone what transmission establishes as part of the religion and what it does not, and they best understand its meanings and purposes. They have received all this from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) through sound scholarly methods, which are the only means of knowing the religion. Without them, religion becomes a matter of following one’s desires. This is the intractable malady that has afflicted the Muslim world today. None have escaped it except the victorious group of whom the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) gave glad tidings in numerous mass-transmitted hadiths, including his saying (peace and blessings be upon him):

“A group of my community will continue to fight for the truth, prevailing over those who oppose them, until the last of them fight the false messiah, the Dajjāl” (1).

I say: Perhaps the approach of the doubters that we have described is why ʿUmar was so stern with those who denied the Dajjāl—and other matters established in the authentic Sunnah. Yūsuf ibn Mihrān narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: I heard ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb (may Allah be pleased with him) saying from the pulpit: