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April 2025

Allah’s Revelation To Bee

[16. Surah Nahl: Ayah 68-69] “And your Lord revealed to the bee saying: Make hives in the mountains and in the trees and in what they build. Then eat of all the fruits and walk in the ways of your Lord submissively. There comes forth from within it a beverage of many colors, in which there is healing for men; most surely there is a sign in this for a person who reflects.”

[Sahih Bukhari: Volume 7, Book 71, Number 582] Narrated Abu Huraira (Radi Allah Anhu): The Prophet Muhammad (sal-allahu-alleihi-wasallam) said, “There is no disease that Allah has sent down, except that He also has sent down its treatment.”

[Sahih Bukhari: Volume 7, Book 71, Number 584] Narrated Ibn Abbas (Radi Allah Anhu): The Prophet Muhammad (sal-allahu-alleihi-wasallam) said, “Healing is in three things: cupping, a gulp of honey or cauterization (branding with fire) but I forbid my followers to use cauterization (branding with fire).”

[Sahih Bukhari: Volume 7, Book 71, Number 588] Narrated Abu Said Al-Khudri (Radi Allah Anhu): A man came to Prophet Muhammad (sal-allahu-alleihi-wasallam) and said, ” My brother has abdominal trouble.” The Prophet Muhammad (sal-allahu-alleihi-wasallam) said to him “Let him drink honey.” He returned again and said that I had done that but nothing changed. The Prophet Muhammad (sal-allahu-alleihi-wasallam) said, “Allah has said the truth, but your abdomen has told a lie. Let him drink honey.” So he made him drink honey and he was cured.

In Search Of The Prophet

I found my source of adoration for you in the love and respect that the Almighty has proclaimed for you; in the honor that He bestowed upon you; in His confirmation of you as “the ultimate exemplar”; “seal of Prophets” and “mercy unto all existence”.

O Prophet of Allah, where shall I find the source of my adoration for you? I have memorized hundreds of your sayings since my youth, taught your seerah (example) to numerous students, grown a beard, used the miswaak, sang, and proudly taught others odes (qasidahs) in praise of you. But I did not find you in these rituals nor did any of these make me anymore like you; rather they merely flung me into the fray of insignificant debates in the arena of so many of the sunnahless Muslims who see your Sunnah only as an endless array of harsh laws and practices or as some justification for their cultural tendencies. O Allah, save me from being of those who consider the Sunnah of Thy beloved as being expressed only through aimless imitations and who know Thy Prophet only as a conveyor of commands and warnings. O Prophet of Allah, I did not truly find you in the books of fatawa (religious edicts), nor in grand seminars and conferences throughout the world, and certainly not in the harsh arguments between groups proclaiming mutually exclusive rights over you. I found my source of adoration for you in the love and respect that the Almighty has proclaimed for you; in the honor that He bestowed upon you; in His confirmation of you as “the ultimate exemplar”; “seal of Prophets” and “mercy unto all existence”. Allah has elevated the very memory of you and has made His boundless love accessible through obedience to you. I catch but a dimension of you through the instances of compassion you extended to others; how you played with the poor orphaned boy when other children refused to play with him, how you prolonged your prostration out of consideration that your change in posture may inconvenience or hurt your beloved grandson who had climbed on your back; how you blessed with Paradise the sinful woman for saving the life of a cat by making the water of the well accessible with her shoes; how you intervened and prevented a man from abusing his wife by teaching him that “the best of men are those who treat their wives the best”; how you patched your clothes, mended your shoes and did your daily household chores; how you wrestled with your nephew and raced with your wife; how you joked with the kids and carried the baggage of the elderly; how you hosted the Christians of Najran in your mosque and stood up to honor the bier of a Jew. O Prophet of Allah, why is it that so many of us who claim to be of you refuse to be like you. We sing for you and dress like you, but do not come near fulfilling the expression of love, care, and beauty that is generated from yourself. Why is it that we see in you that which suits our cultural, organizational, and chauvinistic interests, yet ignore the essence of what is essential to your being. Others who are not of you proclaim the multidimensional and multi-faceted nature of your personality. “The personality of Muhammad is most difficult to get the whole truth of it. Only a glimpse of him I can catch. What dramatic succession of picturesque scenes? There is Muhammad (PBUH) the Prophet; there is Muhammad (PBUH) the General; Muhammad (PBUH) the King; Muhammad (PBUH) the Warrior; Muhammad (PBUH) the Businessman; Muhammad (PBUH) the Preacher; Muhammad (PBUH) the Philosopher; Muhammad (PBUH) the Statesman; Muhammad (PBUH) the Orator; Muhammad (PBUH) the Reformer; Muhammad (PBUH) the Refuge of Orphans; Muhammad (PBUH) the Protector of Slaves; Muhammad (PBUH) the Emancipator of Women; Muhammad (PBUH) the Judge; Muhammad (PBUH) the Saint… In all these magnificent roles and all these departments of human activities, he is equally a hero.” (Professor Ramakrishna Rao). O Prophet! Your life example is an integrated biography, history, and law; it is above all a model of excellence. O Prophet of Allah, you have certainly been adored by many much more worthy than I. Yet, neither the inability to capture my appreciation of you with the eloquence of poets nor my weakness as a believer debars me from qualifying as one who adores you; for in the commemoration of your being do I find the dignity and honor of my existence.

Sadullah Khan

 

Keep Away From Ill Thinking Suspicions

Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “Keep away from ill-thinking/suspicions because ill-thinking is the greatest falsehood.” (Sahih Bukhari)

Commentary: During the Abbasid period, one of the scholars in Baghdad was greeted by an acquaintance who said “Do you know what I just heard about your friend?” Scholar: “Hold a minute, before telling me anything I’d like you to pass a little test. It’s called the Triple Filter Test.” The Man: “Triple Filter Test ?” Scholar: “That’s right, before you talk to me about my friend it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you’re going to say. That’s why I call it the triple filter test.

The first filter is Truth.
“Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true? “The Man: “No, actually, I just heard about it and, “Scholar: “All right, so you don’t know if it’s true or not. Now let’s try the second filter.

The filter of Goodness.
“Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good? ”
The Man: “No, on the contrary, “Scholar: “So, you want to tell me something bad about him, but you’re not certain it’s true. You may still pass the test, though, because there’s one filter left:

The filter of Usefulness.
“Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me? The Man: “No, not really.” Scholar: “Well, if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?”

Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) says: “O you who believe, avoid much suspicion, indeed some suspicions are sins. And spy not, neither backbite one another. Would one of you like to eat the flesh (meat) of his dead brother? You would hate it (so hate backbiting). And fear Allah. Verily, Allah is the One Who accepts repentance, the Most Merciful.” (Quran Surah Al Hujurat 49 A # 12)

A Believer Exhausts His Devil

ALLAH the Exalted says: ‘For over my servants no authority shalt thou have, except such as put themselves in the wrong and follow thee.’ (‘Quran’ Surah Al-Hijr (The Rocky Tract) 15 A # 42-43)

‘Indeed, Satan is an enemy to you; so take him as an enemy, he only invites his party to be among the companions of the Blaze’. (‘Quran’ Surah Fatir 35: A # 6)

‘Verily the believer exhausts his devil just like one of you exhausts his camel during travel.’ meaning, the believer wears out his devil, so he debilitates him and makes him lose weight from his grief and sadness. Because he is not able to tempt him. Just like the person wears out his riding camel during travel and makes it lose weight due to the length of the travel and its hardships. And this is the condition of the believer with his devil in the constant struggle with him.

He resists his plots and plans and whispers by always being firm upon the obedience of ALLAH the Exalted and Mighty. Ibn Abi Dunya {Allah be pleased with him} narrates in his book “The Plots of the Devil” Verily a devil meets another devil, so he says to him ‘why is it that I see you looking so sickly’? (Meaning the change is weight)” The (other) devil replies: Verily I am with a man that, if he eats, remembers the name of ALLAH! So I can not eat with him. And if he drinks he remembers the name of ALLAH so I can not drink with him. And if he enters into his home he remembers the name of ALLAH, so I am rejected outside the house.

The other devil says, but as for me then I am with a man if he eats he does not remember ALLAH so he and I eat together, and if he drinks he does not remember ALLAH, so I drink with him, and when he enters his home he does not remember ALLAH, so I enter with him.
Note: Exhaust: weaken; meaning they exhaust him, making him lose weight. Thus making him a ‘Nidwan’ {the ‘Nidwu’ is an animal that has become lean (skinny) through traveling, thus its meat has left its body!}

Zakah To Off-spring Of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH)

Question:
I have heard that a Syed [Off-Spring of Prophet Mohammad] cannot take Zakah. How should a Syed be financially assisted if Zakah is not permitted for him to take?

Answer:
It is not permissible to discharge one’s Zakah by distributing it to a Syed. [Shami]

As with regard to the concern that How should a Syed be financially assisted if Zakah is not permitted him to take? Hadhrat Mufti Mahmood Hasan Gangohi Rahmatullahi alaihi (the former Grand Mufti of Darul Uloom Deoband) states: That wealthy person should financially assist them with donations since Zakah is considered the filth of one’s wealth. The status of the Syeds is far above that they should make use of the filth of people’s wealth. It is stated in Hidaayah,

Zakah should not be given to the Bani Haashim because Rasoolullah Sallallahu alaihi wasallam said “O Bani Haashim! Indeed Allah has prohibited for you the filth and squalor of people”.

It is not permissible to give zakat to the progeny of Hadrat Fatimah Radi Allahu anha, the progeny of Hadrat Ali Radi Allahu anhu, Hadrat Abbas Radi Allahu anhu, Hadrat Ja’far Radi Allahu anhu, Hadrat Aqeel Radi Allahu anhu, Hadrat Haarith bin Abdul Muttalib Radi Allahu anhu. Similarly, the charities that have been made wajib by the Shariah cannot be given to the progeny of the above Sahabah. Such charities are, nazr, kaffarah, ushr, sadaqatul fitr. Apart from these, all other charities can be given to them.

As for the family of the Prophet, upon whom be peace, the vast majority of the Hanafiyyah, the Shaf’iyyah, the Hanbaliyyah, and the majority of the Zaidiyyah hold that nonobligatory sadaqah is permissible for them but not the obligatory one, since to them the obligatory sadaqah is nothing but filth that comes out from people’s holdings. This is understood to mean that the (prescribed) zakah and not the nonobligatory sadaqat, are forbidden to them. It is said in alBahr that nonobligatory sadaqah is restricted by being confined to a donation, gift, or endowment.

In Al Bahrur Raaiq it is stated that the generality of this Hadeeth disqualifies the notion that a Bani Haashim is permitted to give Zakaah to a fellow Bani Haashim (which also includes the Syeds).

[Fataawa Mahmoodiyyah Vol. 7 Pg. 254/5, also see Vol. 11 Pg. 123/4, Vol. 3 Pg. 32]

And Allah knows the Best

Author: Darul Iftaa
Organization: Jamiatul Ulama – Council of Muslim Theologians, Johannesburg – South Africa