It therefore stands as a refutation of al-Ghumari’s clamorous evasions—had he retained any fairness or readiness to acknowledge the truth. What we have just presented also reveals to the reader another instance of Shaykh al-Ghumari’s misrepresentation. Al-Nawawi’s remark is wholly unrelated to the issue at hand, for al-Nawawi—despite the slip in his phrasing—was not preferring the wording al-salam ’alayka (peace be upon you) in the tashahhud to al-salam ’ala al-nabiyy (peace be upon the Prophet), as al-Ghumari insinuates; rather, he was weighing the tashahhud of Ibn ’Abbas against that of Ibn Mas’ud. In my view the matter is broad: whichever of the soundly transmitted formulas the worshiper recites in the tashahhud, he has conformed to the sunnah. Nevertheless, the tashahhud of Ibn Mas’ud is, by consensus of the scholars, the most rigorously authenticated, because all its transmitters agree on a single wording without the addition or omission of a letter. One of its merits is that it distinguishes—by the Prophet’s own instruction—between what the Companions said during his lifetime, addressing him directly, and what they said after his death, referring to him in the third person. For this reason Lady ’Aishah used to teach the tashahhud in the third-person form, as noted above. Issues of this sort can only be resolved by returning to the practice of the salaf salih (the righteous predecessors), especially the Companions. In our lessons and lectures we always insist that, when we invite people to follow the Book and the sunnah, it is not enough merely to mention those two sources; we must add the qualifier “according to the methodology of the salaf salih” or the like. The legal proofs for this requirement are set out elsewhere. This qualification is indispensable in our own age, when the slogan “back to the Book and the sunnah” has become the fashion of the day and the rallying cry of every Islamic group and preacher—despite their major and minor differences. Some of them are, in practice, enemies of the sunnah, or even allege that calling to it divides the ranks. May Allah protect us from them. I ask Allah Most High to let us live and die upon the sunnah, following those whom He praised: “The vanguard—the first of the Muhajirun and the Ansar and those who follow them with excellence—Allah is pleased with them and they are pleased with Him. He has prepared for them gardens beneath which rivers flow, to dwell therein forever; that is the supreme triumph” (Q 9:100). And I ask Him to make us among those He described: “And those who came after them say: Our Lord, forgive us and our brothers who preceded us in faith, and do not place in our hearts any rancor toward those who believe; Our Lord, You are All-Kind, All-Merciful” (Q 59:10).