Today's regular Q & A class was so interesting and beneficial. Because we had 2 hours, Oustaz Coulibaly took the time to explain part of the following hadith. We had a good discussion with a question and answer session immediately after. Our next class will be at 8:00 AM on Thursday, April 24th, 2014 in sha Allah.
May we benefit from this knowledge.
Hadith 7. Naseeha
On the authority of Abi Ruqayyah Tamim ibn Aws ad-Dariyy (ra) that verily the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “The religion is naseeha (good advice)”. The people said: “To whom?” The Prophet (peace be upon him) replied: “To Allah and to His book and to His Messenger and to the leaders of the Muslims and to the common folk of Muslims.
[Reported by Muslim]
Brief Commentary:
- Scholars say this hadith is comprehensive and encompasses the whole religion, just like the hadith of Jibreel (Hadith 2).
- Some scholars say that if we lost all the rulings of Islam, this hadith would suffice us for a quarter of them due to the many rulings that can be derived from it
- Ibn Al-Atheer said, “Naseeha is a word which is used to describe a sentence, and that sentence is, ‘Wanting good for the thing you are giving naseeha to’, so it is impossible to explain naseeha in one word”
- The linguistic meaning of Naseeha is:
- To purify
- To gather that which is dispersed
- We can summarize Naseeha to mean “Wanting good for someone with a sincere heart which is free from any defects/deficiencies and wanting all good for that particular person.
- Naseeha is one of the great and noble qualities of the prophets (peace be upon them)
- The companions asked “To whom?” which shows their eagerness to implement the knowledge they learn
- Naseeha to Allah involves:
- Purifying our hearts for Allah, which is done by fulfilling His rights to the best way possible, and with ihsan
- Striving hard in worship, and doing more Sunnah actions
- Cleaning our minds and thoughts from deviant ideologies
- Being sincere in our worship. We love for His sake and hate for His sake
- Glorifying Allah and His laws and recognizing His blessings over us
- Naseeha to His book involves:
- Believing in the entire Qur’an and acting upon it
- Having great love and glorification for it
- Striving hard to understand it, contemplate over its meanings, and adorn ourselves with the manners it teaches us
- Be pure when holding it
- Ensure we read our daily portion of the Qur’an
- Naseeha to His Messenger (peace be upon him) involves:
- Believing in him and putting his statement above any other human
- Having eagerness to know more about him, and study his seerah like we study the Qur’an (This is what the previous generations used to do)
- Follow his Sunnah
- Trying to learn more about his manners and emulating them
- Loving what he loves and hating what he hates
- Naseeha to the leaders of the Muslims involves:
- Wanting good for them and for Allah to guide them to the truth
- Making du’aa for them and wanting the ummah to be united under them
- Advising them personally and not publicly, and remembering the statement of the scholars, “However you are is however your rulers will be”
- Showing love and respect for the scholars and not searching for their mistakes and having trust in them. (The scholars are also incorporated in the category “leaders of the Muslims)
- Naseeha to the common folk of the Muslims involves:
- Loving for them what we love for ourselves and hating for them what we hate for ourselves
- Respecting their elders and showing mercy to their youngsters
- Being happy when they are happy and sad when they are sad
- Carrying no envy for them in our hearts and wishing good for them
from the blog: http://hadithcommentary.wordpress.com/nawawi/hadith7/
