Superiority of knowledge

May Allaah have mercy upon you.

Know that the Religion is what came from Allaah, the Blessed and Most High. It is not something left to the intellect and opinions of men. Knowledge it is what comes from Allaah and His Messenger, so do not follow anything based upon your desires and so deviate away from the Religion and leave Islaam. There will be no excuse for you since Allaah's Messenger صلّى اللَّهُ عليه وسلّم explained the Sunnah to his Ummah and made it clear to his Companions and they are the Jamaa'ah, and they are the Main Body (as-Sawaad ul-A'dham), and the Main Body is the truth and its followers.

Taking Knowledge in Stages

It is reported that Al-Zuhrī رحمه الله تعالى said to Yūnus b. Yazīd:

"O Yūnus! Do not try to overcome knowledge, for verily knowledge is [like vast] valleys: whichever of them you take will stop you before you traverse it. Instead, take it over the days and nights. And do not take knowledge all at once, for whoever tries to take it all at once will lose it all at once. Rather take it bit by bit over the days and nights."

{Ibn ʿAbd Al-Barr, Jāmiʿ Bayān Al-ʿIlm article 652}

Listening to backbiting is a sin !!

By Sheikh bin Baaz رحمه الله

Question: I am a young woman who hates backbiting and tale-carrying. And sometimes I will be in a group where they are speaking about the conditions of the people and they will begin to backbite and carry tales. I hate this in myself and I loathe it, but I am extremely shy so I am not able to prevent them from that. And likewise I am not able to find a place to distance myself from them. And Allaah knows I wish they would involve themselves in speech other than this. Is there a sin upon me for sitting with them? And what is incumbent upon me to do.

Sheikh bin Baaz رحمه الله: You are sinning by doing this (sitting with them), unless you disapprove of the evil. If they accept it from you, then all praises belong to Allaah; and if not then it is obligatory upon you to separate from them and to not sit with them. This is based on the statement of Allaah سُبحانه وتعالى:

The woman admonishes the student of knowledge

Ibn Al Mubarak رحمه الله said:

“There was a wealthy man, and every time he heard of a scholar he would go to acquire knowledge from him. So he heard there was a scholar in a such and such place so he boarded a ship to go to him.” 

 
On the ship was a woman who asked him: “What is your pursuit?” 

 
He replied: “I am possessed with the love of knowledge, so I heard there is a scholar in such and such place, thus I am going to him.” 

She said to him: “Each time your knowledge increases do your actions increase, or does your knowledge increase while your actions are at a standstill?” 

Two ways to Deal with Mental Illness

By Sheikh Saleh al-Fawzaan (حفظها الله)

Question: The questioner asks: What is the treatment for a person afflicted with anxiety, sorrow, grief, and physical diseases and a cure for restlessness, whispers, the evil eye and magic? May Allaah preserve you.

Sheikh Saleh al-Fawzan: This will fall into one of two categories. This can be caused by mental illness and in this case the person should consult a psychiatrist. Perhaps they can find a treatment for him. Or his illness can be the result of whispers, stress, and sadness caused by Shaitân. The treatment for this is by the remembrance of Allaah سُبحانه وتعالى and the authentic supplications, taken from the Qur'aan and Sunnah, likewise the {adkhaar} supplications of the morning and evening. And before all of this, the person should preserve and maintain the five daily prayers for surely they assist the person in all of his affairs.

The Zuhd of Abu Ubaydah & the Tears of Umar

 

It is reported from ʿAbdullāh b. ʿUmar:

When ʿUmar b. Al-Khaṭṭāb arrived in Al-Shām, he said to Abū ʿUbaydah – Allāh be pleased with them: “Take us to your home.” Abū ʿUbaydah said, “And what will you do with my home?” ʿUmar replied, “Just take us there.” Abū ʿUbaydah said, “You only want to cry your eyes out over me.” So he entered his house and saw nothing [by way of furnishings] in it. ʿUmar asked, “Where are your things? I see nothing but rags, a water-skin and a dish (tray), and you are a governor! Do you have food?” So Abū ʿUbaydah went over to an old pail (bucket) and took out some scraps, and ʿUmar began to weep. Abu ʿUbaydah said to him, “I told you you would cry your eyes out over me. O Commander of the Believers, sufficient for you from the dunyā is what delivers you to your place of rest.” ʿUmar said, “The dunyā changed us all except you Abū ʿUbaydah.”

Abū Dāwūd, Kitāb Al-Zuhd article 123, and others.

The Link Between Blessings & Gratitude

 

It is reported that ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib رضي اللّه عنـه said:

"Blessings arrive with gratitude [to Allāh], and gratitude is connected with more [blessings], and the two are tied together: more blessings from Allāh will never stop unless gratitude from the servant stops."

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Al-Shukr article 18

People Change & Allaah Forgives

 

It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Masʿūd رضي الله عنه said:

"Do not be hasty in praising people or blaming them, for perhaps what pleases you from a person today will displease you tomorrow, and perhaps what displeases you today, will please you tomorrow. Indeed, people change. It is Allāh who forgives the sins. And Allāh is more merciful to his servant the day he meets him than a mother who lays out a bed for her child in an empty patch of land and feels [the ground]: if there is a risk of being stung, it will be her instead of him (her child), and if there is a risk of being pricked by a thorn, it will be her instead of him."

Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab Al-Īmān article 6177, and others.

The dangers of bid’ah

An example of the fiqh of the Sahabah with regards to the dangers of bid’ah is illustrated by the narration of Hudhayfah Ibn Al- Yamaan (رضي الله عنه) and what he said to his companions and students when he took two rocks and placed one on top of the other and asked them,

“Do you see any light between these two rocks?

They replied, “No, Oh Aba ‘Abdullah, we do not see any light between them except for a very small amount.”

He told them, “I swear by Him whose Hand my soul is in, bid’ah will appear until you do not see from the truth except that which is equivalent to the amount of light you see between these two rocks. I swear by Allaah, that bid’ah will spread so much so that if a person leaves it, it will be said about him that he left the Sunnah.”

[Narrated by Ibn Waddaah in al-Bid’ah (pg. 21)]

Dying while Adhering to the Sunnah.

From Mu’tamar bin Sulayman رحمه الله who said:

‘I visited my father while I was heartbroken and he said: ‘What is wrong?’

I said: ‘My friend has died.’

He asked: ‘Did he die upon the Sunnah?’

I answered: ‘Yes.’

He said: ‘Then do not worry about him.’

[Al-Laalkaa'iee 1/67/61]

Imam Malik ibn Anas رحمه الله (d. 179 A.H.)  said:

‘If a person meets Allaah with the equivalent of the earth in sins, but meets[1] Allaah while upon the Sunnah, then he will be in Paradise with the Prophets, the truthful, the martyrs, the righteous and how excellent are these companions.’

[Dhum al-Kalam wa Ahlihi 5/76-77]

Imam Ahmad رحمه الله (d. 241 A.H.) said:

‘Whoever died upon Islaam and the Sunnah then he has died upon all goodness.’

[Seer Alaam an-Nubala (11/296)]

Yahya bin Jafar رحمه الله said:

‘If I had the capability to increase the age of Muhammad bin Ismaeel -i.e. al-Bukhari- taken from my age I would have done so, since indeed my death is the death of one man, but his death was the going away of knowledge.’

[Tareekh al-Baghdad 2/24]

Hasan Basri رحمه الله who said:

‘O Ahl-ul- Sunnah be gentle may, Allaah have mercy on you since indeed you are from the fewest in number.’

[Al-Laalkaa'iee 1/57/19]