Already Worshipping Allah Alone

Abū Dharr says that his brother Unays went to do some business in Makkah, and he met a man who claimed to be a prophet. He met the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). So Unays came back and he said, "I found a man who is preaching a new religion, worshipping Allah alone." Abū Dharr said, "And at that time, I had already worshipped Allah for three years, and revoked all of the worshipping of idols. I renounced it." SubḥānAllāh — these people's fiṭrah guides them, telling them that this is wrong, this is false.

Abū Dharr says, "I've been praying to Allah for three years." So Abū Dharr was asked, "How are you praying to Allah?" He said, "I would pray to whichever direction Allah would point me to, and I would pray in whatever way Allah would guide me to, and I would pray at night until I fall asleep, and only the sun would wake me up in the morning." So he would pray — he doesn't know how to pray, but he would pray to Allah (swt) for three years.

Abū Dharr asked his brother Unays, "What does he teach?" So Unays mentioned some of the teachings of Islam that he learned from the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and then he asked him, "What are the people saying about him?" Unays said, "They're claiming that he's a sorcerer, a magician, a liar" — and he went down the list. Abū Dharr said, "You haven't satisfied my hunger. I want to go and investigate the matter myself. What the people say might not necessarily be right." The media of Makkah — the CNN of the day, or the ABC, or whatever it might be called — had all of these labels that they would brand the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) with, but Abū Dharr didn't have trust in what the people were saying. He would have to go and meet the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and hear it from the Messenger himself, and that is what a Muslim is required to do: tabayyun.

Allah (swt) says, "When you receive some information, verify it" — tabayyanū. And that's where our scholars learned the science of hadith. They would verify. It's not just enough to hear a hadith narrated from someone. The scholars used to say, "Mention the names of your men." Whenever they would hear a hadith, they would say: where did you hear this from? Tell us the names. We want to know who you got this information from. We just don't follow any hearsay.