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Hadeeth Two (الحديث الثاني) : Explanation continued - part 4 - final part

Islaam, Imaan and Ihsaan

Islam relates to doing things with the external body parts - "a'amaal jawaarih". It concerns the actions of the physical body. Our mouth is the organ which bear witnesses and testifies our belief in order for us to be called Muslims. It is externally and verbally proclaiming the shahadah (an laa ilaaha illallah).

External actions can be divided into two categories:

1. Badnee- physical, like salah and siyaam. These are physical acts that require actions from our body parts.
2. Malee - monetary like zakah. This has an acspect of physical and montery acts. Likewise hajj also.

All these things are included under the category of Islaam, malee and badnee acts. In a hadeeth it has also come that the Messenger of Allah صلي الله عليه وسلم said:

المسلم من سلم المسلمون من لسانه و يده

A complete Muslim is he whose mouth and tongue other Muslims are saved from.

This category of Islam even includes saying salaam to one another regardless of if you know a person or not.

Imaan relates to the internal actions, "a'amaal baatiyaan", even 'aqeedah. Islam is the most inclusive religion. As our 'aqeedah informs us to bring faith on not just Musa عليه السلام, or Easa عليه السلام, or Muhammad. However, it tells us to bring imaan on all the Prophets.

Under the category of Imaan falls qadr. We must believe in fate good or bad. This is a fundamental part of our 'aqeedah which comprises of two levels. The first that Allah has all knowledge of what an individual will do in his life from the good and the bad, whether he will be an inhabitant of the heaven of the hellfire. The second being that with the above being true we must strive to work hard in this world as we as not aware of what lies within our fate.

The question may arise that is there any difference between Islaam and Iman. There have been lengthy discussions on this amongst the 'ulema. There is this analysis that when Islaam and Iman are referred to an once and togethor, they are regarding different things. Imaan will mean tasawwuf and Islaam would refer to fiqh. However, if Islaam is mentioned alone or Iman is mentioned alone it will include both things.

The last thing here is Ihsaan. Ihsaan is from the word husn meaning excellency. Our whole deen is based on Ihsaan. It is a very important element and quality for one to be a muhsin. he Christians and Jews would say only they will enter Paradise, but where was their proof? Even some Muslims now think they will definately enter paradise. However, Allah warns us not to be like the Jews and Christians. As Muslims we must realise that to enter Jannah you have to work hard to get into it. A muhsin is one who has Islam and submits his whole self to Allah and is the doer of good internally and externally.

One must be good and undertake excellency with whatever take ho or she does. Even to the extent of when one slaughters an animal there should be excellency. One should not kill one animal in front of another and many other things. With talaq (divorce) also, come "tasreeh bil ihsaan", that if you want to maintain your relationship with your spouse maintain it properly. However, after much effort and compromise if you are not able to uphold the relationship then you may divorce as a final resort. But when divorce is given it should be done with ihsaan, in a good manner, not in a way that two individuals are now enemies. Being a muhsin and doer of good applies even more when relating to the rights of the servants of Allah. Bearing this in mind we should aim to become muhsin in all parts of life, not just on the masjid or in front of certain people.

Ihsaan is also to worship Allah is such a way as though you see him or vice versa that he sees you. Putting this and the above together is true excellency. Those who are excellent and ahsan, are the doers of good they will have husnaa good and the pleasure of seeing Allah Most High in the akhirah. Thinking that we will have the (ma'iyyat) nearness of Allah in the hereafter should be enough to make us want to become a muhsin and doer of good throughout our life.

In the second part of the explanation of this hadeeth it was stated that the sahabah found it very strange that this man who posed the question did not have any apparent signs of being a traveller nor was he a local. The reason why this incident occurred was to catch the attention of all those present on the gathering at that time. If something is normal people tend not to pay so much attention to it, whereas when somethings seems odd and strange people are more likely to pay attention. This man was Jibra'eel عليه السلام who had come to pose these questions so the sahabas could listen and learn the matters relating to deen which they themselves may have wanted to ask but for some reason or another had not.

Alhamdulillah the second hadeeth has now been completed. Next post shall be hadeeth three.

Hadeeth Two (الحديث الثاني) : Explanation continued - part 3

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

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?

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.

Hadeeth Two: