Aug 14, 2014

MUHAMMADAN COVENANT - 6


IMAM AL-SHA'RANI'S LAWAQIH AL-ANWAR AL-QUDSIYYAH FI BAYAN AL-'UHUD AL-MUHAMMADIYYAH
COMMANDMENT NO.6
MUHAMMADAN COVENANT
pp. 26-28

LISTENING TO HADITH AND COMMUNICATING IT

We have taken the oath of allegiance from the Messenger of Allah, on whom be the regard and salutation of Allah, (that) we will hear the hadith from people and at every little opportunity we (get) will communicate it to places where no hadith (has reached), and that is why we wrote our book on hadith and send it to the Islamic countries. I have by the grace of Allah written a book which collates the evidences of the madhahib and sent it with one of the student to bilad al-Takrur[1] when they informed me that books of hadith are hardly available with them, in fact they have nothing other than some works on Malikites. And I sent another copy to bilad al-Maghrib (meaning Morocco). All that in love for the Messenger of Allah, on whom be the regard and salutation of Allah, and to act according his pleasure.
Sufyan al-Thawri, Ibn 'Uyaynah and 'Abd Allah b Sinan used to say: "if one of us had been a qadi we would have certainly beaten with the jarid[2] a faqih who does not study hadith and a muhaddith who does not study fiqh. In writing and making people listen to the hadith there are great benefits, such as:

عدم  اندراس  أدلة الشريعة 
[a] Curbing the careless study of the shara'i evidences.
For people if they are ignorant of the evidences in totality, may Allah prevent such occurrence, they may certainly become incapable of defending their shari'ah when they are attacked, and their saying "we found our fathers holding on to that" will not suffice. So what impairs the faqih becoming a muhaddith knowing the evidences of every fiqhi chapters.

تجديد الصلاة و السلام على رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم في كل حديث 
 [b] renewing the regard and salutation on the Messenger of Allah, on whom be the regard and salutation of Allah, in every hadith.

Likewise the renewal of seeking divine pleasure and mercy on the Prophetic companions and their followers among the narrators till this time of ours.

الفوز بدعائه صلى الله عليه وسلم لمن بلغ كلامه إلى أمته    
[c] receiving (blessings of) the supplication of he (the Prophet), on whom be the regard and the salutation of Allah, to one who conveyed his speech to his ummah (without any defect), he has indicated in his saying:

نضر الله  إمرأ سمع  مقالتي فوعاها فأداها كما سمعها 
Allah beautifies a person who hears my talk and preserves it (in his heart) and communicate it (to others) as he heard it.

The supplication of the Prophet is accepted without doubt except what he excluded like the non-acceptance of the Prophet's (plea) in respect of the fact is (أن الله تعالى لا يجعل بأس أمته فيما بينهم) that Allah does not cause the detriment of his ummah among them.

Here the phrase فأداها كما سمعها should be understood as that the du'a' was specific to one who conveyed the Prophet's words as he heard him word for word (verbatim) as opposed to one who conveyed contextually thus he may not get any reward from that du'a'. Due to this some of them despised the transmission of hadith contextually and some even prohibited it.

Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Hibban in his Sahih narrate the hadith traced to the Prophet (marfu') as having said: نضر الله  إمرأ  whereas in the narration of Ibn Hibban  رحم الله امرأ سمع منا شيئا فبلغه كما سمعه ، فرب مبلغ أوعى من سامع . Here the meaning of نضر الله is: الدعاء بالنضارة (supplicate with gracefulness) which means favor (النعمة), splendor (البهجة) and beauty (الحسن), as Allah has beautified and bedecked him with beautiful or good manners and pleasing acts.

In the narration of al-Tabarani reaching the Prophet as having said: فربما حامل فقه ليس بفقيه ، فرب حامل فقه إلى من هو أفقه منه [perhaps the bearer of fiqh may not be a faqih, thus perchance the bearer of fiqh may carry it to one who is more learned then him]. Yet in another similar hadith, the Prophet is reported to have said: [اللهم ارفع خلفائي "O, Allah elevate my successors", and they enquired him as to who were his successors and he said  الذين يأتون من بعدي يروون أحاديثي ويعلمونها الناس "those who come after me narrating my hadith and teaching them to people"]. According to Hafiz 'Abd al-'Azim: the copyist of beneficial knowledge will have its reward, and the reward of one who reads it, or copied it, or act according to it after him of what remained of his writing while act according to it as per the marfu' hadith of Muslim:  : إذا مات ابن آدم انقطع عمله إلا من ثلاث  صدقة جارية أو علم ينتفع به "when the son of Adam dies all his actions will come to end except for three: a recurring charity or a knowledge benefited from him [or a pious child supplicating for him]". He said as for the copyist of non-beneficial knowledge which necessitates sin over it then he will get the blame of it and the blame of one who read it or copied it or acted according to it after him of what remained of his writing while acting according to it, just as it is vouched in the hadith: ومن سن سنة سيئة فعليه وزرها ووزر من عمل بها "one who sets a bad act then he will get the blame of it and the blame of one who acts according to it" and that is like the science of geomancy, occultism, exorticism, and their like which will harm its possessor both in this world and in the hereafter.

Al-Tabrani and other narrated a marfu' hadith: من صلى علي في كتاب لم تزل الملائكة تستغفر له ما دام إسمي في ذلك الكتاب "whosoever recites salawat (pays regard) on me in a book the angels will continue to seek forgiveness for him as long as my name is in that book". Allah knows best.

Post Script
There is no doubt in this covenant the author has exhorted the need to record and promulgate the ahadith of the Prophet as one has read and heard without making any attempt to find any mundane justification for seemingly contradictory statements from the Prophet. It is here we need to be careful not to rush to assign one hadith as acceptable and the hadith that contradict our understanding of the spirit of the Qur'an and the sunnah of the Prophet as condemnable, for the blessed Prophet has reported to have said: نحن معاشر الأنبياء أمرنا أن نكلم الناس على قدر عقولهم  "We the Prophetic community has been commanded to address the people according to their level of understanding". Thus it is clear that regardless of our understanding of the import of the Prophetic statements we must stay away from passing judgement on the veracity or otherwise of his ahadith.




[1]  Takrur (Tekrur) refers to a state that existed in the ninth through 15th centuries in West Africa. Situated in the basin of the Senegal River, the Tekrur state had its capital in the vicinity of the city of Podor. In the second quarter of the 11th century, the ruler of the state embraced Islam. Beginning in the second half of the 13th century, Tekrur was in vassalage to the medieval Mali state. Between the 12th and 14th centuries its coastal regions constituted the Wolof (Jolof) state. In the late 15th century the eastern regions became part of the Songhai state. The word “Tekrur” survives as the name of the Tukulor (also Toucouleur) people. Arabic writers of the seventh to 14th centuries used the name “al-Takrur” to designate the coastal regions of the western Sudan. Sudanese chroniclers of the 16th and 17th centuries often referred to all islamized regions of the western Sudan as “Tekrur.” For details read: Al-Nagar, Umar. “Takrur: The History of a Name.” The Journal of African History, 1969, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 365–7
[2] Palm branch stripped of its leaves.

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