| 14 April 2008

Explanation of the hadeeth “Ad-Deen An-Nasihah”

  

by Shaykh Abdullaah al-Ghudyaan

on Saturday, June 4th, 2005

The Shaykh hafidhahullaah, he began by thanking Allaah and praising Him and sending the peace and the prayer upon His Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa ‘ala aalihi wa sallam. And then he said the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa ‘ala aalihi wa sallam, said "Ad-Deenu naseehah" i.e. the Deen is sincere advice. Deen is sincere advice. Deen is sincere advice. So we said "To who yaa Rasoolullah?" He said "To Allaah and His Book, and His Messenger, and the heads of the ummah, (the leaders of the nation) and its masses." [1]

So he, ‘alaihis salaatu was salaam, he says to us that naseehah (advice) is to Allaah subhaanahu wa ta’aala, and that is that the advice to Allaah subhaanahu wa ta’aala is that you have eemaan in Allaah and that you worship Allaah subhaanahu wa ta’aala without taking any partners or equals to Him i.e. He has no equals. You worship Him alone, and in tawheed ar-Rooboobiyah (in His Lordship). There is none equal or similar to Him in His Lordship, His Names and Attributes or His worship.

And this is as Allaah subhaanahu wa ta’aala said:

And He subhaanahu wa ta’aala said:

  That is, that you worship Allaah subhaanahu wa ta’aala as He should be worshipped alone and none other than Him and that you believe in Him in these ways and in these three types of tawheed.

And the second thing is that you have naseehah to the Book of Allaah subhaanahu wa ta’aala. The advice to the Book of Allaah subhaanahu wa ta’aala is that you believe in it, that you believe what has come in it, and that it is the Word of Allaah brought down to us, revealed to us and it is not created.

And that he learns the Book of Allaah and that he understands the Book of Allaah, he acts upon the Book of Allaah, and he calls to the Book of Allaah. And the way in doing this (i.e. having naseehah and learning the Book of Allaah) is in 8 ways:

• That you bring together and you seclude the aayaat that are upon one single subject in each surah (or whatever you are learning). For instance in Suratul Baqaarah there are 40 duroos (lessons) i.e. 40 different duroos in that one surah. So you take from that surah one dars (lesson) and you learn it.
  And then you learn the meaning of each of the words in the aayaat.
• And then you look at why the aayaat were revealed i.e. the reason why the aayaat were revealed.
• You look into the legislation that is revealed in the ayah and whether the ayah has been abrogated or not.
• Then you look into the meaning of the complete sentence, and this is known by the various signs found in the verses of the Qur’aan. There are things called wuqoof where you have to stop and these have signs in them. And some of the signs that are put in the books are:
  • the (letter م) meem over the sentence and this means it is waajib for you to stop at that ayah. And this is one sentence.
  • Or you will find a "la" laam alif (لا) and this means it is muharram, you do not stop at that ayah. You keep going.
  • And then you have saad laam. And this is for the makrooh i.e. it is better to keep going, but it is permissible to stop, so since it is makrooh, it will be better to keep going.
  • And then you have mandoob and that's qaaf laam i.e. that you are able to do whatever you want but it is better to stop.
  • And than you have in some aayaat three dots in a triangle form, and this is, you'll find it, there's going to be two words, each word is going to have these three dots over it and you are able to stop at either one of those but not both. So you stop at one of those.
  • And then you have t.aa ( ط )[2] or jeem ( ج )and this means you can keep going if you would like.
• You find out what the general meaning of the ayah is.
• You find if there is a different meaning in it or if it can mean more than one thing or if the meaning is hidden to the people.
• You find out the rules of the whole ayah.

So number one again is that you bring together between the aayaat of the surah (or whatever it is you're learning), you bring together each dars in them. So in Suratul Baqaarah there are 40 duroos but you bring together only one of the duroos that are in there and you start to memorize and learn it.

And then you learn the wording. You start to learn the wording of each one (ayah).

And then you learn the reason that they have been revealed.

And then you learn what has been abrogated from what hasn't been abrogated.

And then you learn, this is all within one dars, and then you learn the meaning of all the sentences, and the sentences again are known by the signs of wuqoof (the signs where you have to stop). And some signs are waajib, makrooh, muharram, mandoob, and you have the option to stop or not in others. And the Shaykh hafidhahullaah gave the signs previously.

And six is that you learn the general meaning of the ayah.

And seven is that you learn if there is any hidden meaning in the ayah or a meaning that is not apparent to the people i.e. the mushkil, where there might be some controversy in it.

And then you learn the rulings of the complete ayah, the rulings that are in it.

And then you begin with the memorization of these aayaat. And you repeat it to yourself no less than 50 times. Some of the books concerning the duroos that you can go back to are Ibn Katheer and the likes of him because they have brought the duroos together in their books.

And you will find in some of the masaahif that have been printed (in such places as Turkey and other than it) they print on the side of the mushaf ‘ayn ( ع ). They have the letter ‘ayn. This means this is the beginning of one dars and the end of another dars.

And not all of the books I picked up ..........[3] Then you have an-naasikh wal-mansookh and if you want to learn an-naasikh wal-mansookh then there's a book called an-Naasikh wal-Mansookh.

And then you have books concerning the meaning of the whole ayah or the general meaning of the ayah. And this is a book such as Tafseer as-Sa’dee, rahimahullaah. You could go back to his tafseer.

You can also go back to the general meanings or the general rulings of each ayah in Ibn Sa’dee’s book (of Tafseer) rahimahullah; if you want to expand your horizon in that area you can go back to Ibn Katheer and al-Qurtubi rahimahumallaah. And in ahkaam al-Qur’aan, there is a book called Ahkaamul Qur’aan by Ibn al-‘Arabi. And this is the way you can learn the Qur’aan and these are certain books that he hafidhahullaah mentioned in those particular sciences of the Qur’aan.

The Shaykh hafidhahullaah, he continued and he said the third affair is that you have the naseehah to the Messenger of Allaah, sallaahu alayhi wa sallam. He said it is to believe in the Messenger and that you trust everything that he came with and everything that was revealed to him and everything that he said sallaahu alayhi wa sallam. As Allaah subhaanahu wa ta’aala testified to him in the Qur’aan that he does not speak from whims or desires:

 

And the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wa ‘ala aalihi wa sallam said in a hadith that "I have been given the Qur’aan and that which is like him, the sunnah." [4] And he said: “upon you is my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the khulafaa that are guided after me. Bite on it with your molar teeth, and be aware of the newly invented affairs for verily every newly invented affair is a misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Hellfire.” [5]

And then the Shaykh hafidhahullaah went on to speak about the ahadith and how to learn the ahadith. You must learn the ahadith of al-Ahkaam i.e. the ahadith that the rulings have come in, or the ahadith concerning the rulings of Islaam. And there is a book from Shaykhul Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah called Al-Muntaqaa, and in it are five thousand (5,000) ahadith concerning the rulings that have come in his sayings, alaihis salaatu was salaam.

And Ibnul 'Arabi has said that the ahadith of al-Ahkaam do not exceed five thousand (5,000). And it is upon the individual that he learns them and that he understands them, and that he does them and acts upon them, and that he calls to them.

And there are certain books concerning the ahadith. The reason for the ahadith being revealed, for instance there is a book called at-Ta’reef fi Bayaani Wurood al-Hadeeth the reason that the ahadith has come. And there are other books concerning the abrogated parts of the hadith and what it was abrogated by, a book called al-I'tibaar. And then there are books concerning the mushkil of the hadith that is the uncertainty or things that are not clear in the hadith and this is a book called Mushkil al-Athaar of Tahaawi and one called Ta’weel Mukhtalifil Hadith and this is from Ibn Qutayba. And then you would like to learn the mustalah of the hadith. And the reason for learning the mustalah is that you may differentiate between that which is acceptable from the hadith, from that which is rejected. And then there are the books concerning his guidance alayhi salaatu wa sallam, in his affairs of the dunya, and the best of that is the book Zaad al-Ma’aad fi Hadi Khairil ‘Ibaad by Shaikhul Islaam Ibnul Qayyim.

And so this is the naseehah. This is the advice to the Messenger of Allaah sallalahu alayhi wa ‘ala alihi wa sallam: that you learn his sunnah, you act upon his sunnah, you call to his sunnah. And as the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wa ‘ala alihi wa sallam said concerning the d’awah: "spread whatever you hear from me even if it is one ayah”. [6] “for many a time one to whom the message is transmitted will be more conscious of it than one who is hearing it now.” [7]

And the naseehah to the ummah i.e. the leaders of the Muslimeen; they are from the people of knowledge (the ‘ulemaa) as well as the people that direct the affairs of the Muslimeen concerning the political affairs and running of the state. And the naseehah to them, the advice to them is that you make clear to them that which is true. The haqq (truth) that should be followed. So if one of them is incorrect, then make clear to him that he is incorrect and show him the truth and help him with following that truth.

And the naseehah, the advice to the general folk, the masses of the Muslimeen, is that you try and put forth the effort to bring to them everything that is good in any way possible – in their dunya and in their Deen.

So if a person is upon sinfulness then you show him that he is upon sin, and you bring to him (evidence) from the texts that have come in the Qur’aan and sunnah to (show) him that he is doing something incorrect. And there is no difference between a person that is leaving off a waajib and the one that is doing something haraam. Both need to be told. And that is from the saying of the Prophet, sallalahu alayhi wa sallam, "None of you will believe until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself."[8]

And the Shaykh hafidhahullaah ended here.

 

Question and Answer Session

1. Question: Our first question is about health insurance. The brother wrote that medical expenses are very high and he cannot afford to pay medical expenses and he is indirectly compelled to take medical insurance. So in this situation, is there an exception of it being haraam? 

Answer: The Shaykh hafidhahullaah, said health insurance is such that a person takes a certain part of his money and he puts it aside or he gives it to whoever and they put it aside for him so that if he becomes sick at a certain time he is taken to the doctor and this money he has put away is used. Concerning the money he is going to use to pay for his illness, it is of three levels:
1. That it is less than that which he has put aside. And this is not permissible.
2. That it is more than that which he put to the side. And this is not permissible.
3. That it is the same amount as that which he has put to the side. And there is no problem with this.
For the first one, he has put away money, and the money that was spent in healing him was less, then this means that the company that he pays the money to gets the benefit of this treatment. They ended up paying less for his illness. This is not permissible.
If they end up paying more, then he gets the benefit, and this is not permissible as well. And he said this is from the door of al-gharar that is a type of deceit, that's why it is not permissible.

2. Question: A wife and husband divorced and the ex-wife after remarrying went to the kaafir court, petitioning and receiving custody of the young child, male, against the wishes of the father. The father is granted by this kaafir court visitation for three weekends a month and one month in the summer while the child is out of school. Is it permissible now for the child’s mother and her new husband to move far away almost 2500 miles and thus eliminate the possibility of continued visitation? The travel to the proposed destination is 6 hours by air each way and the cost could exceed about USD600. Upon whom is the obligation of the cost of visitation if relocating the son is permissible?

Answer: The Shaykh hafidhahullaah went on to say concerning the woman that wants to take the child and leave, he said first of all, the guardianship of the child should be with the mother until the age of 7. After the age of 7 the child is able to pick between one of the two parents if they are both upon the same level of being able to take care of him. In the event that one of them is less able, for instance, if the mother has certain traits or deficiencies that would lead to the child’s upbringing being corrupt. As well as the father, these traits might be in the father as well. And these are one of the things that may take away from them being equal in raising the child. And if they are equal in this then it is what is best for the child. So whatever is best for him, whether with the father or the mother, then he is put into that situation whether with the father or the mother and this is the ruling ash-Sharh (the legal ruling) in Islaam.
As for the specific question you asked about in this situation, then the courts have given the mother the custody, so it is upon her that she takes care of the child in all of the affairs that he needs to be taken care of; that is that she spends on him. And this is because she has literally taken away the use of the father. There is no use for him. So it is upon her that she takes upon herself all of the spending upon this child. And the Shaykh said something about taking them farther but I wasn’t able to make out exactly what the Shaykh hafidhahullaah said but it’s something about going farther in the court system, maybe to the point that the father doesn’t have any rights seeing the child.

3. Question: The Shaykh hafidhahullaah was asked, if the child wanted to go and see his father or the father wanted the child to come and see him and this amount is around USD 600, who has to pay for this?

Answer: The Shaykh hafidhahullaah said the usl i.e. the way it normally should be, is that the father takes care of the child and pays for him. But in this situation, it’s on the mother. She spends on him while he is in iqaamah i.e. while he’s with her in the place that she’s at. But if the other parent wants him to come to where he is, then that parent is the one that pays. So it would be the father in this case.

4. Question: At what age is a father allowed to see the ‘awrah of his daughter and the mother of her son?

Answer: The Shaykh hafidhullaah went on to say that the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa alaa alihi wasalaam said: “order your children to pray at seven and hit them at ten. [9] And as for the women (the translator mentioned that he was not sure if this is a hadeeth or not) in the sharh (legislation), the girl is considered a woman after nine so looking at the private parts of the children after seven is not permissible for the man to look at his daughter or for the mother to look at her son.

5. Question: What is the ruling from the salaf concerning wiping over the socks?

Answer: The Shaykh hafidhahullaah, he said regarding the answer to this question concerning the wiping over the socks, certain affairs have to be taken into account.

The first is the time. For the person that is in his normal state and not travelling, he’s in his home, for him (the period of wiping) is one day and one night. That is 24 hours from the time of the hadath i.e. the time that his wudu’ was abrogated or nullified. As for the one that is travelling, three days and three nights, 72 hours.
The second affair is that the socks cover what they’re supposed to cover i.e. that they go above the ankles.
The third thing is that he is on tahaarah (ritual purification) before he wipes over his socks. He has tahaarah i.e. he has complete tahaarah of wudu’ and everything.

The fourth is that the socks are mubaah that they’re permissible to wear in the first place.
The fifth is that you can’t see the skin through the socks. Because some people they wipe over their socks that you can literally see the skin through it, and others have a lot of holes in them. And some people may even wipe over the shoe that does not go above the ankle and that is not permissible because it has to be over the ankle for you to be able to wipe over it. And you should be wiping over the socks because as soon as you take off your shoes then your wudu’ is nullified from the wudu’ (wiping) over the shoe. And these are the 5 conditions of wiping over the socks.

6. Question: The next question is about exhumation i.e. to get the dead body and to conduct tests for establishing the cause of death or crime or DNA identification. Is it permissible in Islaam, if yes, under what circumstances, and can it be done by a female expert?

Answer: The Shaykh hafidhahullaah, he said this question concerning the autopsy of the person, inshaa Allaah we can leave it until a later time because the kibaar ‘ulemaa over there are studying the subject at this point and maybe with our next meeting we can have our answer inshaa Allaah.

7. Question: Is it permissible to take shahaadah (testimory of faith) in English without saying it in Arabic?

Answer: The Shaykh hafidhahullaah, he went on to say there is a rule in Islaam that hardship brings forth making things easy. That is, Allaah subhaanahu wa ta’aala has said in the Qur’aan:

 

مَا يُرِيدُ اللّهُ لِيَجْعَلَ عَلَيْكُم مِّنْ حَرَجٍ

 

{Allâh does not want to place you in difficulty.}[Al-maa-idah (05): 06]

Allaah subhaanahu wa ta’aala does not intend hardship upon us. So if the person is unable to pronounce it in Arabic, he finds it too hard for him, then he can say it in his own language whatever that language may be. This is from the saying of Allaah: 

 

فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُمْ

{Fear Allaah as much as you can.}[At-taghaabun (64): 16]

And Allaah subhaanahu wa ta’aala said in an ayah that:

 

لاَ يُكَلِّفُ اللّهُ نَفْساً إِلاَّ وُسْعَهَا

{We have not put upon a soul that which it cannot bear.} Al-baqara (02): 286]

And there is more than one ayah similar to this.

Footnotes:

[1] Reported Abû Daawud 4/286 in Kitaab al-Adab (#4944), An-Nasaa-i 7/157 in Kitaab al-Bay’ah) (#4199), At-Tirmidhee 4/324 in Kitaab al-Birr was-Silah (#1926), by Muslim in Kitaab al-Eemaan (#55)

إن الدين النصيحة إن الدين النصيحة إن الدين النصيحة قالوا لمن يا رسول الله قال لله وكتابه ورسوله وأئمة المؤمنين وعامتهم وأئمة المسلمين وعامتهم

[2] The translator mentioned laam (ل) at approx. 18:28 mins. in the audio but the Shaykh mentioned t.aa (ط) at approx. 8:00 in the audio file.

[3] Books mentioned by the Shaykh:

• Mufradaat (terminology, vocabulary) – Mufradaat ar-Raaghib of al- Asfahaani (مفردات الراغب الاصفهانى)
• Asbaab an-Nuzool (Reason for revelation) – Lubaabin Nuqool (لباب النقول)
• Naskh (Abbrogated) – Kitaabu Naasikh wal-Mansookh of ibn Nahaas ( كتاب الناسخ و المنسوخ لابن النحاس)
• Understanding the meaning – Tafseer as-Sa’dee, Tafseer Ibn Katheer, Tafseer al-Qurtubi
• Mushkil – Durratit Tanzeel wa Ghurratit Ta’weel fi Muttashaabih at-Tanzeel of al-Iskaafi (درة التنزيل وغرة التأويل للإسكافي) and Milakut-Ta’weel fi Muttashaabih Tanzeel (ملاك التأويل)
• Daf’ Ihaam al-udtiraaf ‘an Aayaatil Kitaab of ash-Shanqeetee (دفع إيهام الاضطراب عن آيات الكتاب للشيخ محمد الأمين الشنقيطي)
• Ahkaam (Legislated Meanings) – Ahkaam al-Qur’aan of Ibn al-‘Arabi

[4] Reported by l’Imaam Ahmed in his Musnad (#17213) Abû Daawud 4/200 in Kitaab as-Sunnah (#4604) authenticated by Shaykh Al-Albaanee (rahimahullaah) in Mishkaatu l-masaabeeh (#163)
 
[5] Reported by Ibn Maajah 1/51 in the Muqadimah (#42) authenticated by Shaykh al-Albaanee in Mishkaatul-Masaabeeh (#165) and As-Silsilah As-Saheehah 6/526 (#2735)
 
[6] Reported by At-Tirmidhee 5/40 in Kitaab al-‘Ilm (#2669), authenticated by Shaykh Al-Albaanee (rahimahullaah) in Mishkaatul-Masaabeeh (#198) and in Saheeh al-Jaami’ (#2837)
[7] Part of the hadith reported by at-Tirmidhee 5/34 (#2657) who says Hassan Saheeh, authenticated by Shaykh Al-Albaanee (rahimahullaah) in Saheeh al-Jaami’ (#6764)

[8] Reported by Muslim in Kitaab al-Eemaan (#45) and al-Bukhaaree in Kitaab al-Eemaan (#13)

[9] Reported by Abû Daawud in Kitaab as-Salaat (#495) authenticated by Shaykh Al-Albaanee rahimahullaah in Irwaa-ul-Ghaleel (#298)