๐๐๐๐ฎ๐ญ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐จ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ฌ๐ ๐ฐ๐ก๐จ ๐ช๐ฎ๐จ๐ญ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐จ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐ซโ๐๐ง ๐ญ๐จ ๐ซ๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ง๐ง๐๐ก ๐๐ง๐ ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐๐ฒ ๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐จ๐ง ๐ข๐ญ
Mohamad Mostafa Nassar
Twitter:@NassarMohamadMR
Question
There are some people claiming that in the Quran it is written that Prophet Mohammed once told something to his wife, and she told that to someone and Prophet Muhammed was not happy because he did not want people to know his sayings but just to follow the Quran. Please help Because without Sahih Hadith no one can define the character of the messenger of Allah.
Answer
Praise be to Allah.
Firstly:
Islam is based on two main foundations: the Holy Qurโan and the Prophetic Sunnah.
Allah, may He be exalted, has enjoined us to follow His Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) in more than eighty places in the Holy Qurโan, such as the verses in which He, may He be exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning):
โO you who believe! Obey Allah and obey the Messenger (Muhammad (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him))โ
[an-Nisaโ 4:59]
โAnd whatsoever the Messenger (Muhammad (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)) gives you, take it, and whatsoever he forbids you, abstain (from it)โ
[al-Hashr 59:7].
And He warns against disobeying him (interpretation of the meaning):
โAnd let those who oppose the Messenger’s (Muhammad (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)) commandment (i.e. his Sunnahโ legal ways, orders, acts of worship, statements) (among the sects) beware, lest some Fitnah (disbelief, trials, afflictions, earthquakes, killing, overpowered by a tyrant) should befall them or a painful torment be inflicted on themโ
[an-Noor 24:63].
If anyone claims that he is following what is in the Qurโan, but at the same time he is not following the Sunnah, then he is contradicting himself, because the Qurโan enjoins us to follow the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) and not to go against him.
No one can worship Allah, may He be exalted, as Allah wants except by following the Sunnah. If someone claims that he is following the Qurโan only โ if that is possible โ then how does he pray, fast, give zakah=almsgiving on his wealth and perform Hajj and โumrah?
The details of the rulings on these acts of worship are not mentioned in the Holy Qurโan; rather they are narrated in the prophetic Sunnah.
Secondly:
Regarding the verse in which Allah, may He be exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning):
โAnd (remember) when the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) disclosed a matter in confidence to one of his wives (Hafsah), then she told it (to another i.e. โAโishah), and Allah made it known to him, he informed part thereof and left a part. Then when he told her (Hafsah) thereof, she said: โWho told you this?โ He said: โThe All-Knower, the All-Aware (Allah) has told meโโ
[at-Tahreem 66:3],
There is nothing in this verse to indicate that the Sunnah should not be followed, because the verse is in fact speaking of something that happened to the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) and it is not a ruling that is applicable to all of the ummah.
The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) disclosed something in confidence to one of his wives, and he did not want anyone else to know about it, but she went against the instructions of the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) to keep it secret, so the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) rebuked her gently, then she repented from that and Allah accepted her repentance.
As-Saโdi (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
Many of the commentators said that she was Hafsah, the mother of the Believers (may Allah be pleased with her). The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) told her something in confidence and instructed her not to tell anyone about it, but she told โAโishah about it (may Allah be pleased with them both).
Allah informed him of what she had disclosed, and the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) told her of some of what she had said, but he refrained from mentioning some of it, out of generosity and forbearance on his part. So, she said to him: โwho told you of this matter which no one knows but us? He said:
The All-Knower, the All-Aware (Allah) has told me, from Whom nothing is concealed, and He knows all that is secret and yet more hidden.
End quote.
Tafseer as-Saโdi (p. 872)
The matter that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) disclosed to Hafsah in secret was that he had forbidden himself to drink honey, or to be intimate with Maariyah.
Al-Bukhari (5267) and Muslim (1474) narrated from โAaโishah that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) used to stay with Zaynab bint Jahsh and drink honey in her house. She said: So Hafsah and I agreed that whichever of us the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) entered upon first would say:
I can smell maghaafeer [a type of gum that had an unpleasant odor] on you; have you eaten maghaafeer?
He entered upon one of them and she said that to him. He said: โNo, I drank honey at the house of Zaynab bint Jahsh, but I will never do it again.โ
Then the following verses were revealed (interpretation of the meaning):
โWhy do you forbid (for yourself) that which Allah has allowed to youโ up to the words, โIf you two (โAaโishah and Hafsah) turn in repentance to Allahโ [al-Taheem 66:1-4]. The phrase โAnd (remember) when the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) disclosed a matter in confidence to one of his wivesโ [in verse 3] refers to him saying, โNo, I drank honey.โ.
This version was narrated by Muslim. In one of the reports narrated by al-Bukhaari it says: [The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said]: โNo, I drank honey, but I will never do it again; I have sworn an oath, so do not tell anyone about that.โ
An-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
This is one of the views concerning what was meant by the matter that was disclosed in confidence. According to another view, it had to do with the story of Maariyah. And there were other views. End quote.
Ash-Shawkaani (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
It is possible to reconcile the two stories, namely the story of the honey and the story of Maariyah, by noting that the Qur’an was revealed concerning both, and that in each case he disclosed something in confidence to one of his wives. End quote.
Fath al-Qadeer (5/300)
Thus, it is clear that the verse is speaking specifically of something that happened to the Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him). As for general Islamic rulings that apply to everyone, the Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) conveyed them openly to the people and spoke of them on the minbar=pulpit and issued instructions that some of them be written down.
Al-Bukhari (2434) and Muslim (1355) narrated that the Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) delivered a speech on the Day of the conquest of Makkah, and Abu Shah, a man from Yemen, stood up and said: Write it for me, O Messenger of Allah.
The Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said:
โWrite it for Abu Shah.โ Al-Waleed said: I said to al-Awzaaโi: What did he mean, Write it for me, O Messenger of Allah? He said: This speech that he heard from the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)..
The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) approved of some of the แนขahฤbah=Companions of the Prophet writing down hadiths. โAbdullah ibn โAmr ibn al-โAas used to write down hadiths during the lifetime of the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), and โAli ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) also wrote down some hadiths.
The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) urged us to pay attention to his Sunnah, memorise it and convey it to people, as the Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: โMay Allah cause his face to shine a man who hears a hadith from us and memories it so that he can convey it to others.โ Narrated by at-Tirmidhi (3656); classed as sahih by al-Albani.
After all of this, how can it be said that the Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) did not want the people to know his Sunnah?
The Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) told us that there would be among the ummah those who reject the Sunnah and claim to follow the Qurโan only, and that this claim is false and is to be rejected, because Allah, may He be exalted, gave the Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) two revelations together, namely the Holy Qurโan and the Prophetic Sunnah.
Abu Dawood (4604) narrated from al-Miqdaam ibn Maโdi Karib from the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) that he said: โVerily, I have been given the Book and something like it with it, but soon a man will be lying replete on his couch and he will say: You should adhere to this Qurโan.
Whatever you find is permitted in it, take it as permissible, and whatever you find forbidden in it, take it as forbidden.โ Classed as sahih by al-Albani.
For more Reading:
Justification for following the Sunnah
Allah knows Best
Almighty Allah is the highest and most knowledgeable, and the attribution of knowledge to him is the safest.
Right from Almighty Allah and wrong from me and Satan
Prepared by Mohamad Mostafa Nassar
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Arrogance is not only a sign of insecurity, but also a sign of immaturity. Mature and fully realised persons can get their points across, even emphatically without demeaning or intimidating others.