BENEFIT 477: A very important principle that every student of knowledge should be aware of

Sheikh Albani raḥimahullāh states: "...I must mention a very important principle that every student of knowledge should be aware of in order to gain proper understanding of religion. That principle is: general textual evidences in the Sunnah should be implemented in the same manner in which they were applied during the time of the Prophet ﷺ. It is not appropriate to extract a new meaning from a hadith that was not acted upon by the Salaf. Let me give you an example, which I often mention to my brothers on such occasions. All the worshippers whom Allāh has blessed to perform their obligatory prayers in masjids—when they enter the masjid, each one of them prays the sunnah (non-obligatory) prayer individually. You’ll see the masjid filled with dozens of worshippers: one in a corner, another somewhere else, one bowing, another rising, etc.—they are all praying individually, not in congregation. Now, if someone were to say, “Let’s pray these sunnah prayers in congregation—it’s better than praying separately,” and he supports this with the hadith, “The hand of Allāh is with the congregation” (an authentic hadith), or even with a clearer statement from the Prophet ﷺ: “The prayer of a man with another man is more virtuous than his prayer alone, and the prayer of three is more virtuous than that of two,” and so on—the more people, the greater the reward. Suppose someone uses this as proof for what he wants, claiming that this is what the Messenger ﷺ intended. The answer would be: no, this is not permissible. This is where the principle applies. It includes hundreds of cases. Any general text that contains multiple aspects—if some of those aspects were never practiced by the Salaf, then it is impermissible to act upon them. Doing so constitutes innovation in religion. Due to the neglect of this vital principle by the masses of Muslims in later centuries, many innovations were introduced into the religion, leading to the loss of numerous Sunnahs. This is confirmed by the saying of some of the early scholars: “No innovation is introduced except that a Sunnah is thereby extinguished.” So anyone among you—whether they believe that the Prophet's statement “Every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire” is general and without exception, or whether they believe it to be a general statement with specific exceptions—could, nonetheless, come up with some practice he sees as a “good innovation” and justify it with a general proof. Every existing innovation today, except in rare cases, has a general textual proof that might appear to support it. So why do we reject such innovations? Because the Salaf did not act upon them. This means that the Salaf did not understand these individual details—though seemingly included in general texts—to actually fall under those texts. Hence, they did not implement them. An example of this is praying non-obligatory prayers in congregation. Another example is young men offering salām to young women. As long as this practice was not done by the Salaf, we are not permitted to do it. That is why the scholars have said: It is not permissible to offer salām to a young woman. However, if the woman is elderly—preferably very old—then it is permissible to greet her..." Source: https://t.me/womensbenefits/909