‘Adab Shar’eeyah [Lesson 002]
Reading time: 18 - 30 minutes
I begin with the Name of Allaah, the most Merciful, the One Who bestows Mercy
‘Adab Shar’eeyah [Lesson 002]
Imaam Abuz-Zubair Saleem [LKIC]
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Read Lesson 001 notes/transcript here.
Loading ...[After praising Allaah and invoking the blessings and peace of Allaah upon His messenger]
This poem is (obviously) very humbly called Mandhumat al-’Adab. ‘Mandhumah’ is a poem and the meaning of ‘Adab has been explained in the last circle.
Mandhumat al-’Adab was written by a Hanbali scholar known as Ibn ‘Abdul Qawi (may Allaah have mercy on him). His full name is Muhammad ibn ’Abd al-Qawi ibn al-Badran ibn Sa’ad-Allaah al-Maqdisi al-Mardawi as-Saalihi al-Hanbali. His kunya was Abu ‘Abdullaah and his title at that time was Shams ad-Deen. He was born in the year 630 H, which is around about year 1232 CE, in a town called Marda, near the city of Nablus in Palestine. He studied hadeeth under the Hanbali khateeb of Marda of that time, Ibn Khaleel (may Allaah have mercy on him). He studied fiqh under Shams ad-Deen al-Maqdisi (may Allaah have mercy on him), the nephew of the great Ibn Qudaamah al-Maqdisi (may Allaah have mercy on him) who wrote al-Mughni.
He was particularly excellent as an Arabic grammarian and a Mufti. He was a teacher of some of the famous scholars including Imaam adh-Dhahabi (may Allaah have mercy on him), a very famous scholar - what has he not written on!? He is famous for his work “Siyaar A’lam an-Nubalaa’”.
Ibn ‘Abd al-Qawi was also the teacher of Shaikh al-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allaah have mercy on him). Adh-Dhahabi mentions that he recieved an Ijaazah from Ibn ‘Abd al-Qawi.
Ibn ‘Abd al-Qawi died in the year 699 H, which is approximately 1299 CE.
He has many works. Being a grammarian and a linguist, one of the things which he produced was a poetry on Hanbali Fiqh. The reason why the scholars would codify law in rhyming poetry is that it would make it easy and simple for us to memorize all the legal issues. How easy is it to remember songs compared to memorizing a paragraph? If you read a paragraph in a book, it would be very difficult for you to memorize, even if you read it ten times over. But if you listen to a song, ten time sor twenty times, the lyrics will stick to your head and it will be difficult for you to forget, because of the way the lyrics are arranged, in a very timely fashion, with the right notes and so and so forth. And this is the way the human mind works and this is what the early scholars used to do. Take a science and put it in an artistic fashion in a poetry form to make it easy for the people to memorize and retain that knowledge. So when the time comes to recall the knowledge, they can always refer back to this “organized library” of poems inside their heads.
He wrote a whole poem on fiqh and after that poem he wrote this (book).
‘Adab is just a collection of issues of Fiqh, but because these are not the main components of Fiqh, they are just left out, like breadcrumbs and what he did is that he just put them all together and compiled them all into an ‘Adab poetry.
This mandhuma has many commentary. One of the commentaries we will be studying is that of Shaikh as-Saffarini al-Hanbali. Many other scholars have commented on this poetry. One of the most recent one is by Shaikh Saalih al-Fawzan and it has been printed as well.
The commentary we will be studying is by Shaikh Muhammad as-Saffarini al-Hanbali (may Allaah have mercy on him). As-Saffarini was again one of the great scholars of the Hanbali madh-hab. The whole thing is based on the Hanbali madh-hab; it does not mean that we will restrict ourselves to the Hanbali madh-hab. The scholars were nurturning the rulings as parthis particular school. Every now and then, the author goes beyond the madh-hab and refers to jurist of various schools, Shaafi’ees, Maalikis to prove a point for example and we will be doing exactly the same inshaa’Allaah.
As-Saffarini was born in Nablus, Palestine (part of West Bank). He was born in a village called Safarine. Then he left Safarine to travel to Damascus to seek knowledge. Damascus at its time was the capital of Islamic learning. As we have for example Oxford and Cambridge, because that’s what these two cities are known for. At that time Damascus, in the Muslim world, had that sort of repute. So people would travel from far away to Damascus to learn under various scholars. So he himself went and learnt under various scholars of that time and from them are ‘Abd al-Ghani ibn Isma’eel an-Nabulisi and Muhammad ibn ‘Abd ar-Rahmaan al-Ghazzi and many Hanbali and non-Hanbali scholars.
And he came to his home town and wrote many beneficial works. From them is Sharh Thulathiat li-Imaam Ahmad. Thulathiat are narrations of Imaam Ahmad where there are only three people between Imaam Ahmad and the prophet (blessings and peace of Allaah be upon him). For example narrations where between the narrator and the prophet (blessings and peace of Allaah be upon him) are four people are known as Rubaa’iyaat and five people are known as Khumas’iyaat.
The significance of this is that the less the people, the stronger the chain, in that sense. Imaam Maalik has two people between himself and the messenger of Allaah (blessings and peace of Allaah be upon him) [known as the "Golden Chain"].
So as-Saffarini collected all of those ahadeeth from the Musnaad of Imaam Ahmad and commented on them. These are available in two volumes today.
There are several things that make a hadeeth more authentic than the others. For example if you have two hadeeth, one of them has two people between the prophet and the narrator and the other one has five people, then from the point of view of the number of narrators, the one that has the lesser number of narrators in stronger, in that sense. It doesn’t mean that you have five people between the narrator and the messenger of Allaah (blessings and peace of Allaah be upon him), and the narration is authentic; it also depends on the narrator himself.
Ghidha al-Albaab (Food for Thought/Nourishment for the Intellect) is one of the books we will be studying. He wrote this commentary on Mandhumat al-’Adab. He also wrote a Sharh of Umdat al-Ahkam. Umdat al-Ahkam is a collection of hadeeth on rulings.
If you look in the fiqh books, the way they are arranged, they are like texts starting off with Tahaarah, then Salaah, then Siyaam and so on and so forth. Most of it is written by jurists, codifying law - issue number 1, issue number 2 etc. Another approach to Fiqh is the Fiqh of hadeeth itself, so instead of having stating the ruling, you just state the hadeeth and then you study that hadeeth. Umdaat al-Ahkaam is that book where the compiler compiled ahadeeth and he arranged them in order of legal issues. As-Saffarini came along and wrote a very good commentary on that.
As-Saffarini also wrote a work on ‘Aqeedah, again in poem form, known as ad-Durrat al-Mudiyyah fee ‘Aqeedat-il-Firqaat-il-Mardiyyah and this was representing the ‘Aqeedah of Imaam Ahmad, the ‘Aqeedahof people of Athar, the Ath’aari ‘Aqeedah, the ‘Aqeedahof Ahl as-Sunnahwa’l-Jamaa’ah, as opposed to the ‘Aqeedah of the Mu’tazilah (the rationalists) for instance or the Ash’arees (also rationalists).
He also did a commentary on his own poem (on ‘Aqeedah) and if you put both his poem and his commentary together, you will find it very beneficial, very detailed and like in all of his works, he is always quoting Shaikh al-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah and al-Muhaqqiq Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allaah have mercy on him). This shows that even here as we study, he will mention the number of books he is using, you can tell where was this person was influenced from, who was he influenced by and you can tell that a person when they rely on such and such person’s book, that they are of the correct ‘Aqeedah.
Many soofees today, they claim as-Saffarini for themselves. They say that he said you have to blindly follow a madh-hab, so he is “our champion” and he believed that we do not believe in the Names and Attributes of Allaah literally for instance. So they accuse him of all of these sort of things. Really and truly if you study his work, he quotes Ibn Taymiyyah from the beginning of the book right to the end (as we shall see in this book inshaa’Allaah).
As it happens he says that one of the books I am relying on is al-’Adab al-Kubra by Ibn Muflih al-Hanbali for instance. Another sharh of this Mandhumat by al-Hajjawi, another Hanbali scholar. He will be relying on Seerat ibn Hisham; Ibn Hisham was one of the earliest authors of Seerah. He will be relying on Zaad al-Ma’ad, whose author is Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allaah have mercy on him). Miftah Daar as-Sa’adah by Ibn al-Qayyim. [A long list of books by Ibn al-Qayyim are then listed as well as books by Ibn al-Jawzee, Ibn Rajab and Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allaah have mercy on him)]
This generally shows what he is leaned towards, the sort of thinking he leans towards. He is not as the soofees claim he was, this is that he was anti-Ibn Taymiyyah, anti-Salaafee and so and so forth, who was trying to refine the Hanbali madh-hab from the tamperings of In Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim and of course that was not at all the case.
This is the biography of Imaam as-Saffarini.
Imaam as-Saffarini says (firstly) about the Basmalah. He (may Allaah have mercy on him) says, “Bismillaah is not to be found (in this poetry)”. As he writes this poetry, he reads in the beginning of the poetry and says that hold on can’t see Bismillaah. Why?
And then he says that “Perhaps what we are making a Sharh (explanation) of, is part of a bigger poetry.” Remember that Ibn ’Abd al-Qawi wrote a whole poem on Fiqh, and thereafter subsequentyl that was followed by this poem on ‘Adab. So becuase this is not an independant poem and was a part of a bigger poem and not the beiginning of that poem, there was no need to mention the Basmalah. So maybe that’s why he did not mention Bismillaahir Rahmaanir Raheem.
And he (may Allaah have mercy on him) says, “Or, the author himself, he mentioned it as he was authoring the poetry, but he did not write it down; or he wrote it but the people who write manuscripts (at that time they did not have publishers and people were hired to copy out works by hand and sell them or giving it away) forgot (to include the Basmalah).”
This is a very suttle point. Why did I mention it? I mentioned it becuase many times we see ourselves, one brother or another brother for instance, we see their shortcomings, we see them falling down, doing something they are not expected to do and we think of those brothers in the worst light possible [such as, "Imaam Saleem shook hands with that woman today astaghfirullaah! He sold out!!"]. For example you see another brother in a compromising situation, where he does something, or where he is eating when he should be fasting, and you do not know whether he has a valid excuse or not. As soon as you see something, you think “Astaghfirullaah! That is bad. Now I know about this brother, what many people don’t know.” And yet the lesson we learn from this is how to go and make excuse, not only for the average brother on the street, but especially for scholars. If he is writing a poem on ‘Adab, obviously he could have turned around and said, “He is writing a poem on ‘Adab and he couldn’t even start with Bismillaah! What kind of scholar is this? He is teaching us ‘Adab and he doesn’t even say Bismillaah.” What as-Saffarini is doing for Ibn ‘Abd al-Qawi is that he is making excuses for him.
May be he didn’t write it because it is part of another poem or maybe he didn’t write it because he said it and that’s something else. If you say the Basmalah and then you continue your work, then you don’t have to have it written. Just as many scholars say in hadeeth, that if you say “SallAllaahu ‘alayhi wa sallaam” (blessings and peace be upon him), you don’t have to actually write it. So if you are writing a hadeeth, you can say “SallAllaahu ‘alayhi wa sallaam” but you don’t actually have to write it and you won’t be amongst the people who the messenger of Allaah mentioned that they do not send Salaah and Salaam upon him, becuase you will be from those who do send Salaah and Salaam upon the messenger of Allaah, but you are just not writing it down. Or that the manuscript write forgot to write it down.
al-Khateeb al-Baghdaadi (may Allaah have mercy on him) said the following:
“I saw the handwriting of Aboo ‘Abdillaah Ahmad bin Hanbal of many ahadeeth in which the Prophet was mentioned, and he would not write ’sall Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam’ after his name. I was informed that he used to invoke peace and blessings upon the Prophet by his tongue, and not in writing.”
['al-Jami' li-Akhlaq ar-Rawi wa Adab as-Sami''; 1/271]
Al-Bayhaqi reported that Ja’far Ibn Ahmad (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: ‘If you hear anything you do not like about your brother, then seek one excuse for him to seventy excuses, if you find any then all perfect praise be to Allaah, otherwise say ‘It might be that he has an excuse which I do not know about.’
Ibn ‘Asaakir (may Allaah have mercy on him) reported this from Muhammad Ibn Sireen (may Allaah have mercy on him) whose wording [Ibn Sireen’s] is: ‘If you hear anything about your brother, then seek an excuse for him, if you do not find any then say ‘It might be that he has an excuse.’
[Not mentioned in the 'Adab Shar'eeyah class. This hadeeth is sometimes mistaken to be the saying of the messenger of Allaah, which it is not and rather the saying of Ja'far ibn Ahmad]
So as-Saffarini then says, “Regardless of what the reasons may be, we will start by saying Bismillaah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem.”
Why is it so important to start something off with Bismillaah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem?
There is a report attributed to the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allaah be upon him) that he said, “Any important matter, if it does not begin with Bismillaah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem, it is cut-off (from blessings)”.
The hadeeth itself is weak, but the scholars have accepted it wholeheartedly that in a sense that they used it and relied on this hadeeth to say that whatever good you do, start it off with Bismillaahir Rahmaanir Raheem. The Qur’aan does not explicitly say that whatever you do, start it off with Bismillaahir Rahmaanir Raheem, but it starts off with the Basmalah; every Soorah except one. Not only that you will see a common trait, starting off with the Qur’aan - al-Faatihah, then the letters of the messenger of Allaah (blessings and peace of Allaah be upon him) to the kings, then the words of many of the prophets (as) in the Qur’aan. For example, Sulaymaan (as) when he sent a letter to the Queen, he said,
“Verily! It is from Sulaimân (Solomon), and verily! It (reads): In the Name of Allâh, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful;”
[Al-Qur'aan - Soorat an-Naml (027:030)]
And that was the practice of Prophet Sulayman. Nooh (as), when he embarked on the Ark, he said:
“And he [Nooh (Noah)] said: “Embark therein, in the Name of Allâh will be its moving course and its resting anchorage. Surely, my Lord is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”"
[Al-Qur'aan - Soorat an-Hood (011:041)]
So this is the Sunnah of all of the prophets and the last and final messenger of Allaah.
Bismillaah itself, means (possibly) two things, in Arabic anyway.
-
I begin with the Name of Allaah…
-
I begin by seeking Allaah’s aid…
These are two possible meanings of Bismillaah in Arabic. Notice the difference between the two.
The oft-repeated translation in English, “In the Name of Allaah…” is an incomplete sentence and does not reflect the two aforementioned meanings.
Like when people say, “not in my name” about the Iraq war, meaning that “don’t do it for us” not that “don’t begin the war mentioning our name”. So when we say in English “In the Name of Allaah”, it does not accurately reflect the true meaning of Bismillaah. So we can say that the accurate translation Bismillaah are the two aforementioned meanings.
What does “‘Ism” mean? A name. ‘Ism comes from the Arabic word Sumoo’, which means “excellency”. The word Samaa’a also comes from Sumoo’. What is Samaa’a? Something really high and elevated. The reason why it is called ‘Ism is because when you name something it makes that thing stand out amongst others and if it does not have a name, it is irrelavant and it does not have a value to it.
That’s the beauty of the Arabic language. Words have names and there is a reason why they are called that particular name.
Another example is “Safar”, which is used to mean “travelling”. Safar means “to uncover”. Why is travelling called uncover? Because when a person travels it uncovers his true character. This is why when a person came to ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab (may Allaah be pleased with him) and said about another that “I know him”. ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab asked him, “Have you travelled with him?” Because once you travel with the person, you understand how he reacts to eventualities and you understand the person’s personality. Is he panicky or is he calm? Is he level-headed or does he get angry very quickly or does he get frustrated very quickly? So unless you have travelled with the person, you have not discovered that person.
Alongside travelling ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab mentioned living with the person and dealing with him in money, to be other ways of finding out about him.
This is what is understood about “Bism…”
Allaah is the Arabic for what we know in English as God.
Allaah is not what Muslims call God; Allaah is what the Arabs call God. There are many other nations that refer to God in their own native languages. The misconception that many people have is that the Muslims have their own God, Who they call Allaah. This is from gross ignorance. We all worship One God, but that God is referred to in different languages. Others may call Him Jehova for instance (if that is God’s Name). The Arabs, Christians, Jews and Muslims, they all refer to God as Allaah. If one reads the Chrisitan Bible in Arabic, Jesus is referred to as ‘Eesa ibnullaah, (i.e. Jesus son of Allaah).
Allaah is an Arabic Name. It takes its root in the word “al-Ilaah”. “Ilaah” means anything that is worshipped. “Al-Ilaah” is when you are talking about someone in particular, because you have made it definite by adding “al”. Ilaah is any god; al-Ilaah is the One Who is deserving of worship, the God. Ilaah is the one you adore, the one you submit to, the one you worship, the one you turn to, the one you have all hopes in, the one you completely rely on when there is no one to turn to. That is ‘Uloohiyyah itself (to single out Allaah in right to be worshipped alon). Allaah simply denotes His ‘Uloohiyyah.
Allaah as we know has more than 99 Names and “Allaah” in particular is referred to as al-’Ism al-Adham - the Greatest Name. So if someone were to ask, “what is the greatest Name for your God?” You say, Allaah!
This is beacuse a man once he said in the presence of the messenger of Allaah (blessings and peace of Allaah be upon him): Allaahumma inni as’aluka annee ash-hadu anna-ka anta’ Allaah laa ilaaha illa ‘ant, al-Ahaad as-Samaad allaadhee lam yaaleed wa lam yulad wa lam ya kullahu kufu’an ahad. So when the prophet heard this du’aa’, he said, “You have asked Allaah using His Name, with Which if He is asked, He gives and when He is called by this Name, he answers.”
Now, people may say, if that is al-’Ism al-Adham, then how comes, when many people ask by this Name, Allaah doesn’t respond to their call?
There are many factors as to why a du’aa’ may not be accepted in this world and also not accepted for the Hereafter and no calamity is averted by it either. It is completely void and completely useless, because when the person made the du’aa’, his heart was completely empty and there was no Ikhlaas (sincerity) - the number one condition, his sins were blocking his du’aa’ or when he made the du’aa’ his food is haraam, his drink is haraam and he is nourished by what is haraam etc. So when he made the du’aa’ by calling “Allaah, Allaah”, why would Allaah respond to his du’aa’? So just because Allaah doesn’t respond to a person’s du’aa’ when he calls Allaah by this Name, it does not mean that Allaah is not ‘Ism al-Adham. Rather Allaah is al-’Ism al-Adham as is reported by many authentic ahadeeth of the prophet (blessings and peace of Allaah be upon him).
Ar-Rahmaan and ar-Raheem.
Ar-Rahmaan firstly is a name specifically for Allaah, just like Allaah. So you cannot share that name with anyone at all. So the way you cannot call someone Allaah, you cannot call someone ar-Rahmaan or al-Hayy or al-Qayyum or al-Jabbar or al-Mutakabbir etc. These sort of Names are for Allaah alone. There are other names that are shared by Allaah and the creation, such as Hakeem, Maalik, ‘Alee, Raheem etc.
Ar-Rahmaan means a numbe rof things. Of them is that He is generally merciful to absoultely anyone in the creation. The fact that this country for instance is coming out of the recession is from the Mercy of Allaah. He gives food and drink to everyone, regardless of their faith.
Ar-Raheem is more specific. It denotes the act of being merciful.
If you have lots of money. You either throw it and let people fight over it and take from it or you give that money specifically to someone. That is (kind of) the differnece between ar-Rahmaan and ar-Raheem.
So the Rahmah of Allaah that is available to the entire creation, regardless of peoples faith, from that angle He is known as ar-Rahmaan. He is ar-Raheem in a sense that He is merciful to the believers. That mercy refers to in particular the mercy of the Herefather, becuase in the Hereafter Allaah will not forgive the disbelievers and He will not forgive the mushrikeen. Allaah will forgive anything but He will not forgive shirk. So the mushrikeen on that Day will not be forgiven. There will be no Rahmah for them at all. Rahmah at that time will only be for the believers.
The two most beloved names to Allaah are ‘Abd-Allaah and ‘Abd ar-Rahmaan (as reported authentically in ahadeeth). This is why the Arabs name all their kids ‘Abd-Allaah or ‘Abd ar-Rahmaan, and thus they end up naming them ‘Abd ar-Rahmaan the first, ‘Abd ar-Rahmaan the second and so on. In the end, the kids end up being known simply as the first and the second and the third!
[Jokes in the class: "You all know since I'm Salaafee, and the Imaam of the Salaafees today, King 'Abdullaah, shakes all women's hands, so why can't I do the same?"]
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If you want to listen to the audio clip then you can find it on the LKIC site inshaaAllaah. I don’t think you can download it though… yet.
http://www.lewishamislamiccentre.com/media/adab
myt i say … the course on the “methodology of Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-Jamaa’ah” is also added to the website… under the “theology” section … i think the mp3’s named as as-sirat … too lazy to click that button and find out !
[...] Read Lesson 002 notes/transcript here. [...]