August 1972 CE.

In this lecture the author set out the proper Muslim stance toward the Sunnah, its rank, and its probative force, arranging his discussion in four chapters. In the first chapter he spoke about the standing of the Sunnah in Islam, the obligation upon Muslims to refer back to it, and the warning against contravening it.

The second chapter refutes the later attempts to oppose the Sunnah and exposes the unsound arguments advanced in their support—analogy (qiyās) and a number of legal-theory principles they themselves invented—on account of which they cast the Sunnah aside.

The third chapter the author—may Allah preserve him—devoted to demonstrating the falsity of a rule coined by certain scholastic theologians of old and recently promoted by some scholars and preachers: their claim that a solitary ḥadīth cannot establish creed. He showed the error of those who framed this rule, pointing out that they drew an arbitrary line between ḥadīths dealing with belief and those dealing with practical rulings without any clear, sound proof, relying instead on mere conjecture and imagination.

It is worth noting here that our teacher treated this topic only briefly, having already examined it in a separate, expansive study in which he collected the most important proofs invalidating that view. That study appears as a dedicated treatise entitled “The Solitary Ḥadīth and Creed,” which reproduces a lecture he delivered to a gathering of perceptive Muslim youth.