Hadeeth Two (explanation continued) - part 2 *UPDATED*


When Imam Nawawi رضي الله عنه selected his 42 ahadeeth he had a criteria in mind. These narrations formed the foundations of Islam.


This hadeeth deals with belief, prayer, giving alms, fasting, the pilgrimage all being the basic issues of Islam. This hadeeth is termed, according to muhadditheen, Hadeeth e Jibraeel, reason being, the man who came to our Prophet صلي الله عليه و سلم asking the questions was the angel Jibraeel. This hadeeth is also called 'Hadeethul Ihsaan'.


Shaykh Usamah Rufa'ee, a shafie'e scholar, use to have his jumu'ah khutbah for fourty-five minutes every Friday discussing this hadeeth. It was seventy jumu'ah's before the hadeeth was completed. This is how much meaning ths hadeeth encompasses. This Shaykh would cover the most amazing points discussing this hadeeth. Many 'Ulema have written books dedicated to this one hadeeth.


'Umar رضي الله عنه narrates this hadeeth and it is an extremely rigorously authenticated hadeeth.


In this hadeeth that Hadhrat Umar رضي الله عنه is narrating, he is trying to indicate that when a person would come to the gathering, or masjid where our Prophet was present there were only ever two possibilities:

1 - The person was an outsider, who had travelled to meet the Prophet, and signs of travel would be visible and apparent upon such a person. The reason this would be known in the time of the Prophet , was because the community was very close knit. They knew the residents of their locality very well.

2- The person was well known from among the community, he was a local.

Hence, if a person were to attend a gathering of the Prophet صلي الله عليه و سلم there were two possibilities, a)the person had travelled from a distant place and signs of travel would be visible or b) the person was a local.

When this man mentioned in the hadeeth entered the Sahaba's found it very strange and were unaware of where he had come from. Nobody recognised the man and no signs of travel were visible or apparent.

Another thing that this man did was when he was seated he rested his hands on his own knees or the Prophet (p.b.u.h)'s knees (different narrations quote different situations). From this many 'Ulema derive the posture that a student should sit in whilst studying. A student (tilmeedh) should sit as he sits whilst performing tashahhud in salah. This is a highly recommended act. to sit in this manner is a form of submission in front of your teacher. Knowledge is truly in books, but the keys to those books lye at the hands of our teachers, the 'Ulema. Hence, it is important to sit and act with utmost respect in front of ones teacher. One could posses all the treasures possible, but what use and benefit would that be if one is not able to access it?

DEEN

When one studies all the teachings of the Qur'an and Sunnah, they find that the rulings are divided into three categories. However, in earlier generations (quroonul oola), no such distinction was made. Instead one comprehensive term "DEEN" was used. This term encompasses very form of Islamic guidance or "Fiqh". Nower days ther term fiqh is used in a complete different form to what it was used as in the time of Rasoolullah.

Many a times when one sees the term fiqh in the Qur'and and sunnah, they are mistaken with the term fiqh that we use now. In a hadeeth it has come:

من يرد الله به خير يفقه في الدين

Whomsoever Allah desires good for He bestows upon him understanding in the deen.

Here the term Fiqh means all of Islam.

'AQEEDAH, FIQH, TASAWWUF

As time passed and more people embrassed Islam after the demise of the Messenger of Allah صلي الله عليه و سلم, new issues arose and Islam spread to distant lands. As more and more new issues were introduced and brought to the forefront, scholars said and felt the need to divide rulings within the Qur'an and Sunnah. This was all for the sake of convenience. As Islam spread different types of people starting bringing new ideas and topics. Groups such as the Mu'tazilah and Jabariyyah were formed. So 'Ulema felt the need to structure and codify the science of 'Aqeedah. They used the Qur'an and Sunnah and searched for all things dealing with the belief and they dedicated their lives towards that field. They defended the 'Aqeedah of the Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jama'ah, they began with the beliefs dealing with Allah and the Messengers and covered all other issues and structured it and books were written in this science. Within these books many issues were dealt with regarding 'aqeedah like the do's and don'ts, unlawfulness of shirk (polotheism) the sifaat (attributes) of Allah etc.

The first category that some 'Ulema chose do dedicate their lives to was 'Aqeedah. This science has many names and la mashaahata fil istilaah. It is also known as:

  • 'Ilmut tawheed
  • 'Ilmul Kalaam
  • 'Fiqhul akbar

Other 'Ulema looks at a field called Awaamir and Nawaahi in another category. The Awamir and Nawaahi (do's and don'ts) that dealt with the extrenal and physical body. The Awaamir were things like: Salah, Zakah and Hajj and the nawaahi like: Adultery, backbiting, stealing etc. Again like in the field of 'aqeedah the 'Ulema extracted all the rulings from the Qu'ran and Sunnah pertaining to this field, they codified it and dedicated their lives towards it. Some 'Ulema write books in this field, and this is how the four schools of thought (madhaahibs) came into existance.

All the ruling regarding the external body is called Fiqh as we know of the term today. However, as explained earlier in earlier times fiqh was a mere synonym of the word deen. However, now it has it's own exclusive meaning when used by 'Ulema.

The Awaamir and Nawaahi (do's and don'ts) that deal with the internal body, the inner self, the prohibitions of the heart like from amongst the awaamir of the heart would be to have sincerty (ikhlas - discussed in hadeeth one) and amongst the nawaahi would be hatred. Now this field also was given a branch of it's own. The name of this science is irrelavant it could be called:

  • Ihasaan
  • Tadhkiyatul qalb
  • 'Ilmul Akhlaq
  • Tasawwuf

The aim of this field is just to purify and rectify the inner self, hence whether it is called Ihasaan as this hadeeth calls it, or whether it is called tasawwuf makes no difference whatsoever. Some say tasawwuf originates from the word

  1. "suwf" meaning the people would do mujahahdah (spiritually struggle) they would wear wollen clothes and meditate.
  2. "saff" - meaning the first row in Salah
  3. "siffah" - meaning the good quality these people have.

The Qur'an and Sunnah deals with all three of these fields collectively. A great example is Suratul 'Asr:

سُوۡرَةُ العَصر

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ


وَٱلۡعَصۡرِ (١ إِنَّ ٱلۡإِنسَـٰنَ لَفِى خُسۡرٍ (٢ إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ وَعَمِلُواْ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ وَتَوَاصَوۡاْ بِٱلۡحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوۡاْ بِٱلصَّبۡرِ (٣

1.(I swear) by the Time,

2.man is in a state of loss indeed,

3.except those who believed and did righteous deeds, and exhorted each other to follow truth, and exhorted each other to observe patience.

In this Surah Allah says "except those who believe" this is regarding the first branch - 'aqeedah. Then Allah says "did righteous deeds" this the second branch - fiqh. And Finally Allah speaks of Sabr - this is the third branch - tasawwuf.

The Qur'an and Sunnah have not divided these branches not titled them, nevertheless they ae still covered and we do not refute them. When the three fields are discussed, we should never refute them just because of their titles. Just because some people may have given a bad name to these fields does not mean we associate that with Islam.

This hadeeth is another prime example of all three branches being covered collectively.

More to follow soon insha'Allah.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 23, 2008 at Monday, June 23, 2008 and is filed under , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

5 comments

Anonymous  

what's the best way to contact Mufti Muhammad via phone? Can you provide me with a Mobile number plz

17 April 2008 at 21:16
Anonymous  

cn i av mre info on Shaykh Usamah and where i can listn 2 hs khutbas.

17 April 2008 at 22:40
Anonymous  

Our local imaam lectured on this for a month. Beautiful words of our mesenger and jibreel.

this will give me the courage now to memorise this just like the intentions one.

is there cds for this? i want to purchase it

22 April 2008 at 13:40

Assalamu Alaykum,

To contact mufti saheb one can call Darul Iftaa, Monday to Friday. Full details can be found here:

http://www.daruliftaa.com/contactus.asp

14 June 2008 at 12:47
Anonymous  

keep em cumin - i cme 2 part1 and these notes are sorta like word 4 word bringn it al bk!

nxt part i wil tk bta ntes so myb i can hlp in typin up notz

whn is d part 2 btw?

23 June 2008 at 16:07

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