Nasīhatu Ahli Az-Zamān authored by Shaykh Mujaddid `Uthmān Dan Fodio rahimahullāh 18

🕌 SHARH SESSION

🕌”Nasīhatu Ahli Az-Zamān” (018)

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
الحمد لله رب العالمين
والصلاة والسلام على من بعث رحمة للعالمين
وعلى آله وصحبه ومن تبعهم بخير إلى يوم الدين

Assalāmu Alaykum Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh

Honored brothers and sisters in Islām

We shall continue from where we stopped in the excellent writing of the Shaykh and Imām Uthmān Dan Fodio – rahimahullāh

We were discussing the details of Wara’a and where he mentioned that choosing the matter upon which the Ummah agreed upon is a part of Wara’a and avoiding the matters in which there is difference.

To expand further, it is important to note that the ‘Ulamā explained that Wara’a entails three things:

1. Avoidance of matters that are shady and doubtful, about which one has no knowledge.

2. Holding unto the more strict fatwah if the positions upheld by different ‘Ulamā about a particular matter differ.

3. Avoiding matters about which the ‘Ulamā differed, and practicing that which they agreed on.

Imām Taqiyuddīn As-Subkī – rahimahullāh – said in Al-Ash’bāh Wa An-Nadhā’ir

“It has become trite in the statements of many of the Imāms, and a Faqīh may assume it agreed upon, that to avoid matters upon whose rulings there is difference is safer and better.”

Of the ‘Ulamā that spoke lenghtily on this Precept in Fiqh is the Mujtahid Imām and Stalwart of the Mālikis in Andalusia Imām Abū Is’hāq Ash-Shātibī – rahimahullāh
He expounded on it in his ‘I’tisām and the Al-Muwāfaqāt

May Allāh grant us Tawfīq in our Knowledge-Seeking, Āmīn.

Then Shaykh ‘Uthmān – rahimahullāh – said;

وقال أبو مصعب كان مالك يطيل الركوع والسجود في ورده، وإذا وقف في الصلاة كأنه خشبة يابسة لا يتحرك منه شيء

“And Abū Mus’ab said indeed Mālik used to prolong his Rukū’u and Sujūd in his private daily prayers. So, whenever he stands up for Salāt, he would be like dry wood that does not move

فلما أصابه ما أصابه قيل له لو خففت من هذا، قال ما ينبغي لأحد أن يعمل عملا لله إلا حسنه، قال تعالى (ليبلوكم أيكم أحسن عملا).
ثم قال الموّاق انظر هذا الذي كان عليه مالك من الأخذ بالجد في الدين، وما أجمع عليه العلماء من اتقاء مواضع الخلاف ومراعاة الأنفاس مع الله، وإيثار الأثقل على النفس والأفضل الذي لو فاجأه الموت وهو عليه ما وجد أفضل منه ولا يود أن يلقى الله إلا عليه، كما قاله سحنون وغيره وهو الحق الذي لا شك فيه

“So when what afflicted him afflicted him, it was said to him Why don’t you reduce that? He responded it is not right for anyone to do a Deed for Allāh except that he beautifies and makes it good. Allāh ta’ālā said ‘that He may test you, which of you is most excellent in deeds.’

Then Al-Mawwāq said: so look at that upon which Mālik was of taking the Dīn very seriously. And that which the Ulamā have formed a consensus on of avoiding matters about which there is difference , and been conscious of the breathes that lead Allāh, and preferring to carry the most weighty (Ibādah)upon the soul, and the best that in case one was surprisingly seized by death while he is upon it, he wouldnt have found anything better upon which he would have wanted to meet Allāh. This is just as Suhnūn and other than him said and it is the Truth that has no doubts.”

The trial of Imām Mālik to which Al-Mawwāq refers is what transpired between Imām Mālik and the Khalīfah Abū Ja’afar Al-Mansūr when he ordered his Wālī in Madīnah Ja’afar Ibn Sulayman to exert the Imām to severe torture, beatings and pains.

It is said that Imām Mālik was stripped, flogged, severely beaten and disgraced around the streets of Madīnah
The severity of the beatings led to a serious dislocation where his upper arm came out of its socket to the shoulders
Imām Ibn Kathīr narrated this in _Al-Bidāyah Wa An-Nihāyah_
His students advised the Imām in that severe situation where he could not carry his arm except with the support of the other, to reduce the intensity and length of his ‘Ibādah.

Mālik -rahimahullâh- refused and referred them to the Verse where Allāh commanded us to not only do good deeds, but to perfect and beautify them
This is it. Some of us are in the stage of struggling to do the things that are Wājib upon us, whereas the Imāms of guidance the likes of Imām Mālik are in the other phase of beautifying their deeds and perfecting them for Allāh.
May Allāh make us of them, āmīn.
Al-Mawwāq’s reference here is that it is a part of Wara’a to practice the Dīn and do the ‘Ibādāt as if to say they were the last that one would have an opportunity to do
May Allāh make us among the People of Wara’a

Āmīn
Bārakallāhu fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran
We shall stop here for the week
والحمد لله أولا وآخرا

Assalāmu alaykum Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh.

30th Al- Muharram 1439H
(21/10/2017)

📚 IslamNode
🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿