Yaser M. Haddara

A couple of weeks ago I was blessed with the opportunity to be a speaker along sheikh Talal, one of the teachers that has had a great influence on me al-hamdulillah. The session was titled “Know Your Prophet” and was at the Halton Islamic Association (now on the blogroll ). I spoke on the miracles of the prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, and sheikh Talal spoke about his character, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, and his role in our lives. In the Q&A the first question was about people that reject hadeeth, or that consider that only Bukhari and Muslim should be taken as authoritative, or other arguments. I started out with my attempt at an answer – I basically said the usual surface-level stuff about the science of hadeeth and its rigor, as well as the clear arguments in the Quran about the sunnah. You might call it a simple, direct answer. Then sheikh Talal took the mic. The question and both our answers are in this 15 minute audio clip. I suggest you listen to the question then skip ahead to sheikh Talal’s answer at 7:19. There are a couple of spots where he stops to gather his thoughts and decide whether more needs to be said before continuing. If you’ll take my advice you’ll hear this answer through to the end. I would say that his answer revolved around “the questions not asked.” I think if you really understand what he said it would affect your entire outlook on life as a Muslim in the West. (p.s. for some reason the voices are quite a bit distorted – it doesn’t sound like this when I play the original clip on my PC – but at any rate the answer is still clear and that’s what matters, I hope ). QuestionsNotAsked

Things have been hectic, hence the last two week hiatus. I am still working on that loooong article on humor in classic texts, but in the meantime the buffer has filled up with things I’ve been meaning to post. So a few entries to follow. The long post will most likely come next week inshaa Allah. In the meantime I’ll try to keep you busy with things that have backed up in the queue

Abdul asked about the hadeeth “that Allah says that I am to my servant as he /she thinks of me” and he says “does it mean that we should always think ‘merciful’ and that way we’ll be more prone to mercy?”. The short answer is that yes that is what it means and we should always strengthen our hope in God’s mercy. To shed a little more light on this I looked it up in ibn Hajar’s commentary on Bukhari and Imam al-Nawawy’s commentary on Muslim. They make a number of significant points:

1. Imam al-Nawawy is explicit in stating the simple meaning mentioned above, that the hadeeth motivates us to have hope in God’s pardon (الرجاء وتأميل العفو).
2. True hope is what is joined with action. So if you call upon God in the manner that He prescribed and while fulfilling the conditions that He has set then you should be in no doubt that He will respond. Similarly if you sincerely seek to come closer to Him you should be in doubt that He will guide you. “Hope” that is used as an “excuse” or justification of the abandonment of effort is pure delusion.
3. The opposite of hope is despair (not fear, true fear complements true hope). When one’s awareness of his/her own shortcomings, failings, sins, error, etc., is so acute and so destructive as to leave one in no doubt of being lost, then one is indeed lost – another hadeeth says that for such a person “God will consign him to what he expected of God.”
4. During a person’s life the emotions of love of God, hope of His mercy, and fear of His displeasure should all work together. Scholars differed in the matter of hope and fear as to which, if either, should be more prevalent in the servant’s mind. The debate arises from the simple fact that there is still room for action and so the question becomes how to spur oneself on to better action. At the time of death, however, scholars used this hadeeth as well as other texts and knowledge to emphasize that one should categorically be hopeful at the moment of death. This is because the time for action is ended and all that is left is God’s mercy.
5. There are two beautiful quotes included in the commentaries on this hadeeth. Imam al-Nawawy quotes al-Qady (I believe he means Abu Bakr ibn al-Araby) to say that the “thinking” or “expectation” referred to here is “forgiveness when he asks for forgiveness, acceptance when he repents, a positive answer when he supplicates, and sufficiency when he asks for sufficiency.” Ibn Hajar quotes Imam al-Qurtuby to say that the “thinking” or “expectation” is “to expect a positive answer when he supplicates, to expect acceptance when he repents, to expect forgiveness when he asks for forgiveness, and to expect reward when he worships God fulfilling the conditions of that worship, and to expect these because of his holding firm the truth of God’s promise.”

On a separate note, just before I took this latest hiatus I had posted “The Best and the Worst” — two sayings of the prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, that describe for us the best and the worst. From your comments it seems to have resonated and for that we say al-hamdulillah. Nonetheless some of the reaction was unexpected, at least to me. We can sometimes be our own worst critics – and that in a destructive not constructive manner. Of course it is important to worry about oneself and to challenge oneself to identify and work against shortcomings. But two very important things need to be noted.

The first issue is quite general and not specific to this particular case. The prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, said, “If your doing good feels good to you, and doing bad feels bad to you, then you are a believer.” There is also a saying (not sure if it is a hadeeth) that Shaytan does not come into a ruined house. In short, if you are questioning yourself, challenging yourself, worrying about your faith and your goodness and your spirituality, then inshaa Allah that itself is the indication that you are traveling the right road. Inshaa Allah you’ll get there. Just keep the faith, and keep going.

The second issue is specific to this case. The prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, is filling us with hope and joy. He is telling us if we are simply kind, then God will be kind to us. Indeed it is important to fulfill our legal obligations, to study to deepen our faith, to struggle to excel in spirituality, to persevere in the obedience of God, to feel and manifest gratitude to God, and all the other ways of thinking about coming closer to God, an ambition that should have no end short of the meeting with God, and a desire that should not be sated until God by His grace enters us into paradise and favors us with the sight of Him. And in seeking this ambition and struggling on this path we should always be setting the bar higher and be critical and all the rest of it. But what these two sayings are telling us is that sometimes we need to step back from the struggle and put in perspective the central importance of human relations: the bottom line is that if God has graced us with the genuine desire to be good to others, then He is telling us that He will be good to us! And there is nothing in all the universe that is more merciful, or more beautiful, or more conducive of hope than the knowledge that simple human kindness may save us.

It is narrated that the prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, said:

ألا أخبركم بأحبكم إلي وأقربكم مني مجالس يوم القيامة أحاسنكم أخلاقاً؟ الموطأون أكنافاً، الذين يألفون ويؤلفون. ألا أخبركم بأبغضكم إلي وأبعدكم مني مجالس يوم القيامة؟ الثرثارون المتفيهقون.

“Shall I tell you of those of you that are most beloved to me and will be seated closest to me on the Day of Judgment? Those that are the best of you in manner, whose company may be gained in comfort and without harm, those that find it easy to like and are easily liked. Shall I tell you of those of you that are most hated by me and will be seated farthest from me on the Day of Judgment? Those that speak to much, and that are overflowing (with ill will, ill talk, or ill deeds).”

It is also narrated that the prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, said:

ألا أخبركم بشراركم؟ من أكل وحده، ومنع رفده، وضرب عبده. ألا أخبركم بشر بين ذلكم؟ من لا يقيل عثرة، ولا يقبل معذرة، ولا يغفر ذنبا.ً ألا أخبركم بشر من ذلكم من يبغض الناس ويبغضونه.

“Shall I tell you of the worst of you? He that eats alone, holds back his help and support, and beats his slave. Shall I tell you of worse than that? He that neither overlooks error, nor accepts an apology, nor forgives a sin. Shall I tell you of worse than that? He that hates people and people hate him.”

Apologies for staying away for so long. I’ve been trying to write my 3rd episode in the discussion on humor, and it’s taking a long time. The primary reason for that is that when I decided to do just a little bit of research I found many more sources, and so many more examples, than I thought I would find! I do not claim that I am going to produce something comprehensive or scholarly but I do want to include a lot of diverse things.

One quick example – I came across a book specifically in the condemnation of unlikable people (dhamm ath-thuqalaa). By unlikable we mean people whose company does not bring pleasure to the people around them, who seem incapable of choosing the right words for the occasion, and who tend to overstay their welcome. The theme of the book is that such people have been criticized (or condemned or put down) by the Quran, the sunnah of the prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, and by scholars and sages in every age! One example is given of a man that came to Bashar ibn Burd, a well-known poet who was blind, and told him, “Whenever God takes away the gift of sight from someone, He tends to give him an alternate blessing to make up for it. What do you count as your alternate blessing?” Bashar’s answer was, “That I won’t be depressed to death by seeing you!”

In any case, it’s going to take at least another week before I can put that installment up here. In the meantime, I have a backlog of things I wanted to post, and responses to your wonderful comments that I wanted to make. I will be doing this over the next few days inshaa Allah.

Here’s a quick start.

Dr. Ahmed al-Kadi was invited to give a talk about Islam in Stanford’s Memorial Church. He started out by giving a traditional introduction discussing Islam, Iman, and Ihsan. Then he offered an insight that has stayed with me since. He mentioned five things, each of which is the only answer to a particular question according to the Quran and the hadeeth of the prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him.

• What is the only thing that God does not forgive?
  • Associating a partner with God in worship.
• What is the only reason that humanity was created?
  • To worship God.
• What is the only reason that the prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, was given messengerhood?
  • To be a mercy for all the Worlds.
• What is the only thing that is forbidden upon God?
  • Injustice.
• What is the only reason that something is made permissible or forbidden?
  • al-Tayyibaat, meaning things that are pure, wholesome, and of benefit, are made permissible. al-Khabaa’ith, meaning things that are impure, unwholesome, or of harm, are made forbidden.

He then spoke about the implications of each of these for the mindset of a Muslim, the relationship between a Muslim and others, and the behavior of a Muslim in this life. Thinking about these implications is left as an exercise for the reader .

The quotes that are provided on a daily basis (see Today’s Quote in the sidebar on the right) are quite the food for thought sometimes. Today’s was by Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin). She says, “When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” Now that’s an amazing quote; it’s only problem being that it is way too wordy.

he Quran says, “(Things get harder)until the point when the messengers struggle with despair and begin to believe that they have been rejected, then our victory comes to them and those are saved that We wish to be saved” (Yusuf 110). The Arabic is packed and concise. The “punch” that it packs is difficult (for me) to put into words:

حتى إذا استيئس الرسل وظنوا أنهم قد كذبوا جاءهم نصرنا فنجي من نشاء

In a similar vein, the prophet peace be upon him says in the hadeeth of ibn Abbas in one narration by Imam Tirmidhi, “Know that victory comes with patience and perseverence, that release comes with overwhelming difficulty and overbearing feelings of siege, and that after difficulty comes ease.”

Finally, an Arab poet simply stated:

ضاقت فلما استحكمت حلقاتها فرجت وكنت أظنها لا تفرج

It kept getting tighter until when all its encirclements became firm and interlocked then it opened up and the circle was borken, and I had thought that it would never be broken.

My god, You have created me by Your command, and caused me to stand the tests of this dunya by Your wish, then you told me, “Hold on.” Then how may I hold on if You do not hold me in Your gentle care, You the One with strength, the Firm.

My god, verily You know that had I this dunya with all that is in it, and had it then been sought of me in Your pleasure, I would surely give it to its seeker. Then give to me my self, You the most merciful of all that show mercy.

My god, indeed I have come to love you a love that makes easy for me every affliction, and leaves me content with every decree, so that I care not with my love of You what I wake up to or in what state I reach my evening.