Path of Righteousness- Imam Junayd al Baghdadi

This is part of Imam Junayd al Baghdadi's letter where he describes the path to Allah swt in a beautiful way:

Who are True scholars? Imam Junayd

Some people ask "how do I know a real scholar of Islam, and distinguish him/her from the fake scholars? How do I know a guided scholar?" Well Imam Junayd al-Baghdadi was asked similar, and in his Risala, he gave this amazing answer (apologies for the differing sizes, but insha'Allah it's readable):

The Caliph and true brotherhood

This is true unity, selflessness care and brotherhood/sisterhood/friendship, where are the real Muslims of today?:

“When Ghulam al-Khalil slandered the Sufis [of Baghdad] before the caliph, he ordered them to be beheaded. Al-Junayd [avoided this trial] by presenting himself as a jurist (faqih), for he indeed issued legal rulings according to the juridical school [named after] Abu Thawr, while others, including al-Shahham, al-Raqqam, and al-Nuri, were arrested. When leather mats were spread for their beheading, al-Nuri stepped forward.

The executioner asked him: ‘Do you know what you are stepping forward for?’ Al-Nuri responded that he did. The executioner then asked him: ‘Then what makes you hurry?’ Al-Nuri answered: ‘I’d rather my companions live another moment.’ The executioner was perplexed and reported the matter to the caliph, who sent the Sufis over to the judge to investigate their affair. The judge posed several legal questions to Abu 'l-Husayn al-Nuri, who answered them all. He then proceeded to say [the following]: ‘God has servants who, when they stand, they stand for the sake of God; when they speak, they speak for the sake of God.’

He said other things as well that made the judge weep. He then sent the following note to the caliph: ‘If these folk are heretics, then there’s not a single [faithful] Muslim on the face of the earth.’ (From the Risala of al-Qushayri) 

Islam is preserved every generation

The following Hadith serves to prove that the true Islam is taught (obviously by scholars especially) in every generation and century, and that no generation will be free of the true Islam.

 From the Companion Ibrahim b. `Abd al-Rahman al-`Adhari from the Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) who said: "From every succeeding generation its upright folk shall carry this knowledge in turn. They shall repeal from it the distortions of the extremists (tahrif al-ghalin), the (mis)interpretations of the ignorant (ta'wil al-jahilin), and the pretenses of the liars (intihal al-mubtilin)."

It is a Sahih Hadith according to Imam Ahmad (as narrated by al-Khallal in his `Ilal per al-Khatib in Sharaf As-hab al-Hadith p. 29) and is narrated by a number of people with various chains. The Arabic text is given below

The Hadith proves the feminists, modernists, "salafis",  and liberal Muslim sects wrong since their teachings are often teachings that only arose in the 19th century and were never held before in the history of Islam and are thus bad innovations. If even 1 generation of Islam didn't have those teachings, then we know that sect is wrong.