4 March 2012
Khaibar (part 4) and Safiyyah and Hadith 38: Drawing Nearer to Allah
Seerah of Muhammed*
*: May the Peace, Blessings and Mercy of Allah be upon him
TMQ: Translation to the nearest meaning of the Qur’an
*: May the Peace, Blessings and Mercy of Allah be upon him
TMQ: Translation to the nearest meaning of the Qur’an
Umm ul-Muhminin Safiyyah:
The Jewish Wife of Muhammad
Among
the captives taken as a result of Kinanah's hiding the treasure was his widow
Safiyyah, the daughter of that Huyayy who had persuaded the Bani Qurayzah to
break their treaty with the Prophet, and who had been put to death with them
after the Battle of the Trench. She was seventeen years old and had only
married Kinanah a month or two before the Prophet*set out from Medina. Safiyyah
was of a deeply pious nature. From her earliest years she had heard her people
talk of the Prophet*who was soon to come, and this had filled her imagination.
Then they had spoken of an Arab in Mecca, a man of Quraysh, who claimed to be
that Prophet; and then came the news that he had arrived at Quba'. Safiyyah was
the daughter of Huyay ibn Akhtab,
the undisputed leader of the Banu al-Nadir as well as a Jewish rabbi. Saffiyah
says, "I was my father's and my uncle's favourite child. When the
Messenger of Allah came to Medina and stayed at Quba, my parents went to him at
night and when they looked disconcerted and worn out. I received them
cheerfully but to my surprise no one of them turned to me. They were so grieved
that they did not feel my presence. I heard my uncle, Abu Yasir, saying to my
father, 'Is it really him?' He said, 'Yes, by Allah'. My uncle said: 'Can you
recognize him and confirm this?' He said, 'Yes'. My uncle said, 'How do you
feel towards him?' He said, 'By Allah I
shall be his enemy as long as I live.'" That was when she was a child
of ten. It was clear from what they said that they believed the newcomer to be
the promised Prophet, but that they intended to oppose him; and her young mind
was puzzled.
Soon
after her marriage, and not long before the Prophet*arrived in front of
Khaibar, she had had a dream. She saw a brilliant moon hanging in the sky, and
she knew that beneath it lay the city of Medina. Then the moon began to move
towards Khaibar, where it fell into her lap. When she woke she told Kinanah
what she had seen in her sleep, whereupon he struck her a blow in the face and
said: "This can only mean that thou desirest the King of the Hijaz,
Muhammad." The mark of the blow was still visible when she was brought as
captive to the Prophet. He asked her what had caused it, and she told him of
her dream. Now Dihyah 1 of the Bani Kalb, who had entered Islam shortly after
Badr, had asked that Safiyyah should be given him as his share of the booty of
Khaibar, or as part of his share, and the Prophet*had agreed; but on hearing
her dream he sent to Dihyah and told him he must take her cousin instead. He
then told Safiyyah that he was prepared to set her free, and he offered her the
choice between remaining a Jewess and returning to her people or entering Islam
and becoming his wife. "I choose God and His Messenger," she said;
and they were married at the first halt on the homeward march.
This
significant act of marrying Safiyyah was indeed a great honour for her, for
this not only preserved her dignity, it also prevented her from becoming a
slave. The marriage to Safiyyah has a political significance as well, as it
helps to reduce hostilities and cement alliances. Safiyyah, relates those
moments when she hated the Prophet*for killing her father and her ex-husband.
The Prophet*apologized to her saying, "Your father charged the Arabs
against me and committed heinous act," he apologized to the extent that
made Safiyyah get rid of her bitterness against the Prophet.
The
Prophet's Attitude Towards Safiyyah: The Prophet*used to treat Safiyyah with
courteousness, gentleness and affection. Safiyyah said, "The Messenger of
Allah went to Hajj with his wives. On the way my camel knelt down for it was
the weakest among all the other camels and so I wept. The Prophet*came to me
and wiped away my tears with his dress and hands. The more he asked me not to
weep the more I went on weeping.
Factors helping the Prophet*win
in Khaibar
The
gates of the forts of Khaibar were opened and the Jewish tribes surrendered
before the army of Islam under certain special conditions. However, it should
be seen as to what were the factors responsible for this victory and they are
of course the distinguished points of this episode. This remarkable victory of
Muslims was the consequence of military planning (encamping, use of weaponry,
structured attack on the forts one by one) and getting usable intelligence
(sending scouts to Khaibar beforehand, interrogating the arrested people and
finding out about the water stores and hidden weapons).
Arrival of Jafar from
Abyssinia
Before
proceeding to Khaibar the Prophet*sent 'Amr bin Umayyah to the court of the
Negus. The purpose of sending his envoy to the Ethiopian court was that he
should convey a message of the Prophet*to the King of Ethiopia and ask him to
provide facilities for the departure of all the Muslims residing in Ethiopia.
The Negus arranged two boats for them. The boats of the Muhajirs cast the
anchor on the coast near Medina. The Muslims came to know that the Prophet*had
proceeded to Khaibar and they also arrived in Khaibar without any delay. The
travellers of Ethiopia arrived at the time when all the forts had been
conquered. The Prophet*took sixteen steps forward to receive Ja'far bin Abu
Talib, kissed his forehead and said: "I don't know for which thing I
should be more happy-whether for that I have met you after so many years or for
that Allah has opened the forts of the Jews for us through your brother Ali"
.
Abu Hurairah becomes a
Muslim
His
is the foremost name in the roll of hadith transmitters. Next to him comes the
names of such companions as Abdullah the son of Umar, Anas the son of Malik,
Umm al-Mumininin Aishah, Jabir ibn Abdullah and Abu Said al-Khudri all of whom
transmitted over a thousand sayings of the Prophet*. It is after Khaibar that
he became a Muslim. Afterwards, much of
Abu Hurayrah's time would be spent in spiritual exercises and devotion to God.
Qiyam al-Layl staying up for the night in prayer and devotion - was a regular
practice of his family including his wife and his daughter. He would stay up
for a third of the night, his wife for another third and his daughter for a
third. In this way, in the house of Abu Hurayrah no hour of the night would
pass without ibadah, dhikr and Salat.
Forgiving the vanquished
When
great and pious persons are victorious they show love and kindness to their
vanquished and helpless enemies. As soon as the enemy surrenders they show
indulgence to him and refrain from taking revenge and from nursing a grudge
against him. After the conquest of Khaibar the great leader of the Muslims
showed kind sentiments to the people of that place (notwithstanding the fact
that they had spent large sums of money to instigate the idolatrous Arabs to
rise against him and had subjected Medina to attack and possible fall) and
conceded their demand that they might stay on in Khaibar and continue to
possess the lands and trees of that area subject to the condition that they
would pay half of the produce to the Muslims.
The
Prophet*could put all of them to sword or expel them from Khaibar or compel
them to embrace Islam. The Prophet*did not do any such thing, but granted them
complete asylum, and allowed them to follow the principles, rules, regulations
and ceremonies of their religion. If the Prophet*waged war against the Jews of
Khaibar it was on account of the fact that Khaibar and its residents were the
centre of danger for Islam and always collaborated with the idolaters to topple
down the newly established Government / State of the Muslims. The Prophet* took
jizyah from them it was for the reason that they enjoyed security under the
Islamic State and it was obligatory upon the Muslims to protect their lives and
property. And according to minute calculations the taxes which every Muslim was
obliged to pay the Islamic Government, exceeded the jizyah which the Jews and
the Christians were required to pay. The Muslims had to pay zakat and khums and
at times they had also to make payments out of their net property to meet the
needs of the Islamic Government. As compared with this the Jews and the
Christians, who lived under the banner of Islam and enjoyed collective and
individual rights, had to make payments, like the Muslims, by way of jizyah, for the security of this
banner. The imposition of Islamic jizyah is something different from taking
tribute.
The Jews are expelled from
Khaibar
The
excesses of the Jews were not confined to these incidents and they harassed the
Muslims every now and then with their different schemes. Eventually, during the Khilafah of Umer, his son Abdullah, who had gone to Khaibar along with some
other persons to conclude an agreement was tortured by the Jews. The Caliph
came to know about the incident and thought of solving the problem. Then,
relying on a tradition of the Prophet*which had been quoted by some persons, he
said to the companions of the Prophet: "Whoever has to realize a debt from
the people of Khaibar should realize it, for I am going to give orders that
they should leave this place". Soon afterwards the Jews of Khaibar were
banished from there on account of repeated excesses committed by them and they
left the Peninsula. Their Jewish descendants tried to forge documents later
showing that they were exempt from Jizyah – but these were proven to be forged.
Hajjaj gets his money from
Mecca
A
merchant named Hajjaj bin 'Ilat was present in Khaibar. He had trade dealings
with the people of Mecca. The grandeur of Islam and the affection and kindness
shown by the Prophet*to this obstinate nation (i.e. the Jews) enlightened his
heart and he came to the Prophet*and embraced Islam. Then he drew up a plan to
realize his dues from the people of Mecca. He entered the city of Mecca through
a gate and saw that the chiefs of Quraysh were awaiting news and were very much
anxious about the developments at Khaibar. All of them encircled his camel and
enquired impatiently about the condition of Muhammad. He replied:
"Muhammad has suffered an unparalleled defeat and his companions have been
killed or captured. He himself has been captured and the chiefs of the Jews
have decided to bring him to Mecca and to execute him before the very eyes of
Quraysh". This false report pleased them immensely. Then he turned to the
people and said: "In view of this good news I request you to pay me my
dues as early as possible so that I may go to Khaibar earlier than other
merchants and may purchase the slaves". The duped people paid him his dues
in a very short time.
The
circulation of this news extremely upset
Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet, and he desired to meet Hajjaj. He,
however, winked at Abbas which meant that he would let him know the real facts
later. A short time before his departure he met the Prophet's uncle secretly
and said: "I have embraced Islam and I chalked out this plan only to realize
my dues. The correct news is that on the day on which I left Khaibar all the
forts had been conquered by the Muslims and the daughter of their leader named
Huyyay bin Akhtab (Safiyyah) had been captured and had become a wife of the
Prophet. Please make these facts known to the people after three days of my
departure".
After
three days Abbas put on his best dress, scented himself with the costliest
perfume and entered the mosque with a staff in his hand and began to go round
the Ka'bah. Quraysh were surprised to see the dress of Abbas which displayed
his joy and happiness, because they thought that, in view of the calamity which
had befallen his nephew, he should have worn a dress of mourning. He, however,
relieved them of their surprise by saying: "The report which Hajjaj
furnished you was a clever device to realize his dues. He has embraced Islam
and he had left Khaibar when Muhammad had gained the greatest victory, and the
Jews had been disarmed and some of them had been killed and others had been made
captives". The chiefs of Quraysh became very sad on hearing this news and
soon afterwards they heard the same thing (from other sources as well).
Nawawi's Forty Hadith
Hadith 38: Drawing Nearer to Allah Through Obligatory Duties
Hadith 38: Drawing Nearer to Allah Through Obligatory Duties
Abu Hurairah reported that the Messenger of Allah*, said: "Allah the Almighty has said: 'Whosoever acts with enmity towards a closer servant of Mine (wali), I will indeed declare war against him. Nothing endears My servant to Me than doing of what I have made obligatory upon him to do. And My servant continues to draw nearer to Me with supererogatory (nawafil) prayers so that I shall love him. When I love him, I shall be his hearing with which he shall hear, his sight with which he shall see, his hands with which he shall hold, and his feet with which he shall walk. And if he asks (something) of Me, I shall surely give it to him, and if he takes refuge in Me, I shall certainly grant him it.'" [Al-Bukhari]
“Whoever has mutual
animosity with a friend (wali) of Mine, I declare war upon him.“
This hadith begins with a
very stern warning: Allah declares war upon the one who opposes His devoted
servants or auliyaa. In order to understand this statement properly, we need to
understand the correct meaning of a wali or friend, of Allah, all praises and
glory be to Him, as it is established from the Qur’an and Sunnah.
Correct Understanding of Who is a Wali of Allah
Wali (plural auliyaa),
according to the Islamic understanding, means support, love, honour, respect
and being beloved in both a spiritual and material sense. In Allah’s
description, He points out two essential characteristics for anyone to be among
the auliyaa of Allah. The first condition is imaan (faith) and the second
condition is to have taqwa (God-consciousness). Allah, all praises and glory be
to Him, says in the Qur’an: “Lo, verily the friends of Allah are those on
whom fear comes not, nor do they grieve. Those who believe and keep their duty
to Allah.” (Surah Yunus:62-63)
We can see from this that
the auliyaa of Allah are those who believe and continually obey Him, and have
the highest levels of imaan and taqwa. This shows us that the auliyaa of Allah
are not all of the same rank. In fact some scholars have said they fall into
three categories, due to the ayah: “Then those who We chose of Our servants
inherited the Book. But of them are some who wrong themselves and of them are
some who are intermediate, and of them are some who outstrip others through
their good deeds, by Allah’s leave.” (Surah Faatir:32)
Ibn Katheer explains in
his book of Qur’anic commentary that those ‘who wrong themselves’ are believers
who are negligent of obligatory some duties and perform some forbidden acts.
Those who are ‘intermediate’ are those who perform obligatory duties and
abstain from forbidden acts but may not perform all of the recommended acts and
may perform some makrooh or disliked acts. Those who ‘outstrip others through
good deeds’ are those who perform the obligatory and recommended acts and
abstain from both forbidden and reprehensible deeds. This shows us that, by the
mercy of Allah, perfection is not is prerequisite to be an auliyaa of Allah.
Even those of us who commit some sins may still gain entry to this category.
Since imaan and taqwa are not something that can be seen by others, it is not
possible to know who is definitely in fact a wali or friend of Allah, unless we
have been informed of this in the Qur’an and sunnah. From these we know that
the greatest auliyaa of Allah are the angels and messengers and then the
prophets. After that come the Companions of the Prophet, may Allah be pleased
with them all, and the true and sincere scholars of Islam, all of whom act on
their knowledge and as such are the ‘heirs of the Prophet’, may Allah’s peace
and blessings be upon him.
Incorrect Understanding of Who is a Wali of
Allah
Unfortunately, some
Muslims have taken this concept of Wali of Allah and used it to give their
Sheikh’s a kind of demi-god status, considering them higher than the Prophets,
and assuming that no faults can be attributed to them. They believe them to be
so near to Allah that they should ask the Wali for help instead of Allah. May
Allah protect us from this type of shirk, or associating partners with Allah,
all praises and glory be to Him.
Mutual Animosity
The words ‘whoever
opposes…‘ are in the reciprocal form, meaning that the enmity if from both
sides. We may ask why a wali would have animosity towards others when they
should be forgiving and patient? We should remember that an auliyaa of Allah
loves and hates for the sake of Allah not from their own desires. This animosity
may be between the auliyaa who are the people of the sunnah, and the
innovators, or between the auliyaa and those are sinning. There there will be a
mutual dislike for the actions of the other in each of these cases. What is
referred to in this hadith is a warning to those who dislike the auliyaa of
Allah or oppose them simply because they implement and follow the law of Allah,
all praises and glory be to Him. The enmity referred to does not apply to
worldly disputes or disagreements. This hadith tells us that if someone opposes
a wali of Allah simply for obeying Allah, then Allah, all praises and glory be
to Him, has declared war on them, and we seek refuge with Allah from that.
“My servant does not
draw near to Me with anything more beloved to Me than the religious duties that
I have imposed upon him.”
After describing how no
one should oppose His devoted servants, Allah, all praises and glory be to Him,
goes on to describe the characteristics of a devoted servant. They are those
who strive to get closer to Allah through performing deeds that are pleasing to
Him, with pure sincerity. In this part of the hadith, Allah, all praises and
glory be to Him, describes how His servant draws near to Him through their
performance of the obligatory duties, namely the five pillars of Islam. A
person in this category would also avoid what is forbidden as this is also a
type of obligation from Allah. These people are known as the ‘companions of the
right hand’ that Allah speaks about in the Qur’an (see Surah al Waaqiah:38). It
is part of Allah’s immense mercy that the deeds that are obligatory upon us are
also those that draw us closer to Him, the Praised, the Glorious.
Many people do not seem
to realise that the obligatory duties are for a believers own benefit. Allah
tells us: “Verily the prayers restrain one from evil and lewdity” (Surah
al-Ankaboot:45) “But prostrate yourself and draw near (unto Allah)”
(Surah al-Alaq:19) “O you who believe, fasting has been prescribed for you
as it was prescribed for those before you in order that you may attain
God-consciousness (taqwa)” (Surah al-Baqarah:183) “Take alms from their
wealth in order to purify them and sanctify them by that” (Surah
al-Taubah:103)
All of the obligatory
deeds serve to purify us and draw us closer to Allah, all praises and glory be
to Him. They are like the root of a tree
and voluntary deeds are like its branches. If the believer first fulfils the
foundations, they are demonstrating their willingness to submit to Allah, and
this in turn earns His approval. This commitment grows and spreads to the
performance of voluntary deeds as a way of further pleasing Allah. Obligatory deeds are also deeds of the
heart. The heart must have a pure, sincere intention, free of envy and pride
and other ills, in order for the action to be acceptable to Allah, all praises
and glory be to Him. The servant of Allah therefore draws nearer to his Lord
though purifying both their intention and action, and performing the obligatory
duties for the sake of Allah alone.
“My servant continues to
draw near to Me with supererogatory works so that I love him.”
Allah’s servants draw
near to Him by performing the duties that He, all praises and glory be to Him,
has obligated us to perform. Those who strive even harder, and voluntarily
perform extra good deeds, and protect themselves from acts that will earn
Allah’s wrath, continue to draw nearer to Allah until He loves them. We can see
in the example of human beings, that a person becomes beloved to another by
doing more than is required to assist them. If a person, for example, returns
something that he borrowed from another, but also gives a gift as thanks, that
will make him beloved in the eyes of the one that lent to him. This hadith
shows us that this works in the same way in the case of Allah, all praises and
glory be to Him, His love for us grows as we strive harder to please Him.
There is ample evidence
to indicate that a servant of Allah must also strive to stay away from what is
forbidden (haraam) as well as what is disliked (makrooh). The Prophet* said: “Leave
that which makes you doubt for that which does not make you doubt”
(Ahmad) “Place between you and the
forbidden acts a covering [or barrier] of permissible acts.” (Recorded in
ibn Habbaan) ‘That which is lawful is
clear, and that which is unlawful is clear, and between the two of them are
doubtful [or ambiguous] matters about which not many people are knowledgeable.
Thus, he who avoids these doubtful matters certainly clears himself in regard
to his religion and honour. But he who falls into the doubtful matters falls
into that which is unlawful, like a shepherd who pastures around a sanctuary,
all but grazing therein. Verily every king has a sanctuary and Allah’s
sanctuary is His prohibitions. In the body there is a morsel of flesh which, if
it be sound, all of the body is sound and which, if it be diseased, all of the
body is diseased. This part of the body is the heart.” (Recorded in Bukhari
and Muslim)
Unfortunately, many
Muslims consider the ‘legal’ definition of makrooh (a disliked act) which
states that it is an act that the person will be rewarded for avoiding and will
not be punished for committing, and therefore consider it ‘permissible’ to
engage in such acts. But those who strive to be nearer to Allah, look beyond
this definition and consider the act from the point of view of the value of the
act in the sight of Allah, all praises and glory be to Him. When we consider
that Allah, ‘dislikes’ the act, would we want to be one of those who perform
it? Rather we should strive to stay away from such acts, even though they are
not strictly forbidden. As we can see from the hadith cited above, when a
person strays into performing dislikes acts, they come nearer to committing
forbidden acts. If they should then slip into what in unlawful, they will fall
into performing deeds that are hated by Allah.
An important aspect of
performing voluntary deeds that many people neglect, is that they also make up
for shortcomings in the obligatory deeds. If we ask ourselves about the quality
of performance of our obligatory prayers, how many of us could say that we have
no shortcomings that need to be made up? The Prophet* said: “The first deeds
for which the slave of Allah will be held accountable for on the Day of
Judgement will be his prayers. If they are in order, he will have prospered and
been successful. But if they are wanting, he will have failed and been a loser.
If there is some shortcoming in his obligatory, the Lord will say, ‘See if My
slave has any voluntary prayers with which may be completed that which was
wanting from the obligatory prayers’. Then the rest of his deeds will be judged
in like fashion.” (Tirmidhi)
From this we can see why
it is that those who perform the voluntary deeds receive the love of Allah,
both in this life and the Hereafter. These are the people that Allah is
describing in this part of the hadith. The Prophet* said: “If Allah loves a
slave, He announces to Gabriel, ‘Verily Allah loves so and so, so love him.’
The Gabriel loves him and he announces to the inhabitants of the heavens
‘Verily Allah loves so and so, so love him’ Then the inhabitants of the heavens
love him. And then he is granted the acceptance of the people of the earth.”
(Bukhari and Muslim)
“And when I love him, I
am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand
with which he strikes, and his leg with which he walks. “
When we read this part of
the hadith, the first question that comes to mind is, ‘What does it mean that
Allah would become a person’s hearing etc?’. The scholars have differed in
their interpretation of this phrase. The majority agree that this is an
allegorical reference to Allah’s support for His wali. When the wali sincerely
strives to get closer to Allah by performing obligatory and voluntary deeds, they
will be raised in rank from imaan (faith) to ihsaan (goodness). Then they will
able to worship Allah as if they see Him, and look at the world knowing that He
sees them, turning to Him in their hearts and fearing Him such that they dare
not disobey Him. Their hearts are filled with the greatness of Allah and there
is no room for anything else. Their own desires are abandoned in favour of
Allah’s. They look for Allah’s sake, see for His sake, hear for His sake, speak
for Hi sake, and act for His sake.
Allah, all praises and
glory be to Him, has described the people for whom He becomes their eyes, ears
and so on, in the Qur’an. They are the type of people who do not even turn to
the evil that they see. They are numb to the effects of other’s sins. This does
not mean that they do not fulfill their duty of enjoining the good and
forbidding the evil, but it means they would not be tempted by the evil around
them. Allah says about them in the Qur’an: “And when they hear vanity, they
withdraw from it and say: Unto us our works and unto you your works. Peace be
unto you. We desire not the ignorant.” (al-Qasas:55) “The faithful slaves of the Beneficent are
those who walk on the earth modestly and when the foolish ones address them
answer: Peace” (al-Furqaan:63) This
is the real essence of pure tawhid, the meaning of la ilaaha illa-llaah, when a
person devotes all of their love, hope, fear and obedience to Allah alone. We
love what Allah loves and hate what He hates, all praises and glory be to Him.
Sins only occur when our own desires love something that Allah hates or dislike
something that Allah loves, even if only for a short period of time. If a
person gives into their own desires then this is actually a type of deficiency
in their tawhid.
Purification of the Soul According to the
Qur’an and Sunnah
This hadith describes how
a person becomes beloved to Allah, all praises and glory be to Him, by
purifying ourselves and our souls. It is through purifying ourselves that we
draw closer to Allah, all praises and glory be to Him. As Allah tells us in the
Qur’an: “The Day [of Judgement] whereon neither wealth nor sons will avail,
except him who comes to Allah with a clean, sound heart.”
(al-Shuaraa:88-89) The purification of the soul is one of the main reasons why
the Prophet* was sent. Allah tells us: “He it is who sent among the
unlettered ones a messenger from among themselves, reciting to them His verses,
purifying them, and teaching them the Book and the Sunnah. And, verily, they
had been in manifest error.” (Al-Jummuah:2)
Since the Prophet* was
sent to purify the souls of the people, there can be no question that his
method of purification of the soul is the method that is approved by Allah and
is pleasing to Him, all praises and glory be to Him. This path is clear and
easy to follow:
1) We must first purify our beliefs and cleanse
ourselves of any shirk or associating partners with Allah.
2) We must strive to become beloved to Allah by
performing deeds that are obligatory upon us.
3) We should strive to perform extra voluntary good
deeds which will make us even more beloved to Allah.
This is the correct path
for purification as outlined in the Qur’an and Sunnah. It is a path that does
not necessarily take a long amount of time or involve any passing through
levels or stages. A person could become an auliyaa of Allah very quickly if
they have sincerity and devotion to Allah. Anyone who claims that one can draw
closer to Allah by means other than this, such as through other practices or
the assistance of a pious person, is no different to the idol worshippers who
claimed they were getting closer to Allah by worshipping their idols. The
evidence clearly contradicts them.
Purification of the Soul According to the
Sufis
Historically and
contemporarily speaking, it has been the Sufis who claim to follow the path of
purification. This hadith provides one of the main sources by which their
claims can be evaluated in that it shows us the path for how one can become
beloved to Allah. For the Sufis, the path to become a wali of Allah is a long
and arduous journey. One must do spiritual exercises and through many stages to
get to this level. As detailed in Zarabozo’s commentary on this hadith, the
Sufi’s begin their path with fulfilling obligatory deeds, but when they move to
the ‘second level’, it is recommended that the person only perform obligatory
deeds and spend the rest of the time on other exercises. The path also contains
practices that are not contained in the Qur’an and Sunnah such as zuhd
(renunciation of the world), special types of rhyming dhikr, listening to music
and dancing. After all of these, one finally ‘witnesses’ Allah, which is for
them the essence of being a wali. In reality, this is a heretical path that has
no basis in the Qur’an and Sunnah. It has as its goal the ‘witnessing of
Allah’, whereas the purification according to the Qur’an and Sunnah seeks only
to make a servant the best servant that they can be, nothing more or different
to that.
Some Sufis use this
hadith to try and prove their belief in fanaa (annihilation and loss of
oneself in God), hulool (incarnation in God) and ittihaad (union
with Allah). They argue that this hadith states that Allah is becoming one’s
vision, hearing and so forth, so the person must be becoming one with Allah. In
reality though, this hadith is an argument against that concept, because it
makes the distinction between the Creator Allah and the created wali. Allah
makes it clear that he opposes those who oppose His auliyaa, hence they are
clearly separate from Him and He Protects them. The remainder of the hadith
also shows us that the wali comes to Allah to ask of Him – Why would they need
to do that if they had become one with Him? We can see from this that no matter
how pious the wali of Allah becomes, they are still only human beings and
dependent on Him, the Sublime the Glorious.
“Were he to ask of Me, I
would surely give him; and were he to ask Me for refuge, I would surely grant
him it.”
Allah, all praises and
glory be to Him, is able to grant His servant anything that He wishes, without
any need of him having to ask for it. But it is through being asked, and
granting the request, that Allah becomes more beloved to the slave and the
slave becomes even more beloved to Allah. This hadith shows us that if a person
performs the obligatory deeds and further voluntary good deeds, and stays away
from what is forbidden (haraam) and disliked (makrooh), this person will be
honoured with a special place with respect to Allah. Allah’s love will cover
them, such that if they ask Him, He will grant their request, and if they were
to seek refuge in Him, He would grant them refuge and respite. The Prophet,
peace and blessings be upon him said: “There are from the slaves of Allah
people who, if they were to make an oath upon Allah, He would certainly fulfill
it.” (Bukhari)
It is interesting to note
that many early Muslims often preferred
to patiently bear the afflictions of this world, in the hope that they would
receive the reward of Allah in the Hereafter. One of the Companions of the Prophet*
who was promised Paradise, Saad ibn Abu Waqaas, lost his sight later in his
life. He was told by his friends that he should ask Allah to return it. His
reply was, “The decree of Allah is more beloved to me than my eyesight.” As
some of the early scholars have noted, Allah knows what is best for His slaves.
Sometimes a believer will ask for something while Allah knows that what they
ask for is not what is best for them. As a result, Allah may not answer the
supplication directly, but rather He may give the believer something that is
better for them in both this life and the Hereafter. The Prophet* told us: “There
is no Muslim who supplicates Allah with a supplication that does not contain
anything sinful or ask for the ties of kinship to be broken, save that Allah
gives him one of three things: either he will give him what he asks for soon,
or He will delay it for him for the Hereafter or he will keep a similar evil
away from him.” (Ahmad)
The Benefits of Asking Allah
One might ask,
‘What is the benefit of asking Allah when He already knows what is in our
hearts and what is best for us?’ When Allah gives the person what they have
asked for, and the person realises that Allah has responded to their
supplication, this brings them joy and a deeper faith, which encourages them to
do more good deeds in order to draw closer to Allah. In addition, supplication
is one of the greatest forms of worship, and all its benefits would be lost to
the person if they were not to make dua. Finally, the wali of Allah is freeing
themselves from the illusion of self-sufficiency. Everything is in Allah’s
hands, we are completely dependent on Him for everything and we need to remind
ourselves of this. No matter what level of closeness to Allah one reaches, we
will always be reliant on Him.
Children's Feedback
Place of parents in Islam and our lives
