The hadith “At the beginning of every century Allah will send to this ummah someone who will renew its religious understanding”

This hadith is one of the well-known, saheeh hadiths; it was
narrated by the great Sahaabi Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him)
from the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), that
he said:

“At the beginning of every
century Allah will send to this ummah someone who will renew its religious
understanding.”

Narrated by Abu Dawood (4291); classed as saheeh by as-Sakhkhaawi
in al-Maqaasid al-Hasanah (149) and by al-Albaani in as-Silsilah
as-Saheehah (no. 599).

What the Muslim is required to do is to believe in the saheeh
hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)
and accept them, with no hesitation about what is said in them. This is one
of the requirements of belief in the Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah
be upon him). Allah, may He be exalted, says (interpretation of the
meaning):

“O you who believe! Obey Allah
and obey the Messenger (Muhammad (blessings and peace of Allah be upon
him)), and those of you (Muslims) who are in authority. (And) if you differ
in anything amongst yourselves, refer it to Allah and His Messenger
(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), if you believe in Allah and in
the Last Day. That is better and more suitable for final determination”

[an-Nisaa’ 4:59].

Mujaahid and others of the earlier generations said:

“refer it to Allah and His
Messenger” means: referring to
the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger. This is a command from
Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, stating that regarding every matter
concerning which the people may dispute, having to do with both fundamental
matters and minor issues of religion, the dispute concerning that must be
referred to the Qur’an and Sunnah, as Allah, may He be exalted, says
(interpretation of the meaning):

“And in whatsoever you differ,
the decision thereof is with Allah (He is the ruling Judge)”

[ash-Shoora 42:10].

Whatever ruling is given and testified to by the Book of
Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger is the truth, and what can there be
beyond the truth except misguidance?

End quote from Tafseer al-Qur’an al-‘Azeem (2/345).

The scholars have interpreted this hadith soundly. They said:
The word “man” (translated here as “someone who”) is a relative pronoun that
in general in application. It may be that the renewer (mujaddid) is an
individual or it may be a group of people. Based on that, it is not
necessary to seek out the names of individual scholars at the beginning of
every century and determine who among them is the best in order to decide
which of them is the renewer (mujaddid), for they may all play a part in
renewing religious understanding and spreading it among the ummah.

Al-Haafiz adh-Dhahabi (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

What I believe concerning this hadith is that the phrase “someone
who will renew its religious understanding”
should be understood as plural, not singular. End quote from Taareekh
al-Islam (23/180).

Ibn Katheer (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

A number of scholars said that the correct view is that this
hadith includes every individual scholar in any given age who takes on the
communal obligation of conveying knowledge from those whom he met of earlier
scholars to those whom he meets of the coming generation, as it says in the
hadith narrated via mursal isnaads and others: “Among successive
generations, this knowledge will be transmitted by the trustworthy and
honest, who will defend it against the distortions of the extremists and the
fabrications of the promulgators of falsehood.” This has continued, praise
be to Allah, until the current time, and we are in the eighth century.

End quote from al-Bidaayah wan Nihaayah (6/256)

Al-Haafiz Ibn Hajar (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

This does not mean that at the turn of every century there
will be only one; rather it may refer to a group, and this is something that
makes sense, for the fields in which renewal is needed are not limited to
one type, and it is not necessarily the case that all the good qualities
required (to bring about this renewal) will all be found in a single
individual. However that may be the case with regard to ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azeez,
for he was in charge of the ummah at the end of the first century and the
beginning of the second century, as he combines all the good attributes and
virtues, and was ahead of others in that regard. Therefore Ahmad stated that
they used to interpret the hadith as referring to him. As for those who came
after him, for example ash-Shaafa‘i – even though he had many beautiful
virtues and attributes – he was not in charge of jihad and establishing
justice. Therefore, anyone who had some of these attributes and virtues at
the beginning of a century may be among those referred to in the hadith,
whether there are several such people or not.

End quote from Fath al-Baari (13/295).

Moreover, it is not necessarily the case that if a person
meets the description of the renewer (mujaddid), Islam will prevail in his
time, or that the Muslim state will have the upper hand. The renewer may be
in the field of knowledge, not in the field of leadership and politics;
indeed renewal may be in the field of da‘wah, education and the like. This
is how we may understand the words of the Prophet (blessings and peace of
Allah be upon him) “someone who will renew its
religious understanding”, as being
general in meaning (and not specific).

On the basis of this understanding, we do not think that
there should be any confusion in the questioner’s mind concerning the
meaning of the hadith.

The Standing Committee said:

What is meant by the words of the Prophet (blessings and
peace of Allah be upon him, “someone who will
renew its religious understanding”,
is that every time many people deviate from the path of the religion which
He perfected for His slaves, completed His favour upon them and chose for
them as their religion, He sends to them scholars or a scholar who has deep
knowledge of Islam, and a wise caller who helps the people to develop a
proper understanding of the Book of Allah and the proven Sunnah of His
Messenger, and protects them from innovation and warns them against
newly-invented matters, and brings them back from deviation to the straight
path of the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (blessings and
peace of Allah be upon him). This is called renewal of the ummah (tajdeed
al-ummah), not renewal of the religion that Allah prescribed and perfected.
Changes, weakness and deviation happen time after time to the ummah; as for
Islam itself, it is protected by means of the protection of the Book of
Allah, may He be exalted, and the Sunnah of His Messenger (blessings and
peace of Allah be upon him), which explains the Book of Allah. Allah, may He
be exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning):

“Verily We: It is We Who have
sent down the Dhikr (i.e. the Qur’an) and surely, We will guard it (from
corruption)”

[al-Hijr 15:9].

End quote.

‘Abd al-‘Azeez ibn Baaz, ‘Abd ar-Razzaaq ‘Afeefi, ‘Abdullah
ibn Ghadyaan, ‘Abdullah ibn Qa‘ood.

Fataawa al-Lajnah ad-Daa’imah
(2/247-248).

Al-‘Allaamah Hammood at-Tuwaijri (may Allah have mercy on
him) said:

As for interpreting the hadith as referring to a few specific
individuals at the beginning of every century, or one of them, that is very
unlikely and the hadith does not indicate that, because the word “man”
(translated here as “someone who”) may refer to the singular or the plural.
Based on that, interpreting the hadith as referring to a group of scholars
who take it upon themselves to spread knowledge and renew religious
understanding is more appropriate than interpreting it as referring to a
single individual, after whom there will come another single individual.

This is supported by the report that was narrated by at-Tirmidhi,
who classed it as hasan, from ‘Amr ibn ‘Awf (may Allah be pleased with him),
according to which the Messenger of Allah (sa) (blessings and peace of Allah
be upon him) said: “Islam began as something strange and will go back to
being something strange, so glad tidings to the strangers, those who will
correct what the people corrupt of my Sunnah after I am gone.”

It is also supported by the report which was narrated by Ibn
Waddaah from ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab (may Allah be pleased with him),
according to which he said: Praise be to Allah Who has blessed people by
sending after the Messengers people of knowledge who call those who have
gone astray from guidance, bear with patience their harm and bring people
back to their senses by means of the Book of Allah…

This indicates that the renewal of religious understanding
may be done by a group of scholars, and is not limited to one at a time. End
quote.

Ithaaf al-Jamaa‘ah bima jaa’a fi’l-Fitan wa’l-Malaahim wa
Ashraat as-Saa‘ah
(1/336)

And Allah knows best.