Continuation of the tape from the explanation of the Book of Kindness and Maintaining Family Ties from Bulugh al-Maram.

The questioner : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions. The author (may Allah have mercy on him) transmitted in the context of the hadiths in the chapter on kindness and maintaining family ties, from al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: It is agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim.

The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. We are now speaking about the remainder of the hadith of al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah (may Allah be pleased with him) regarding kindness and maintaining family ties and other matters. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: We have previously spoken about this, and regarding excessive questioning: meaning that Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, dislikes for us to ask too many questions. This can be understood as referring to asking for money, or it can be understood as referring to asking about knowledge, and both of these have details. As for asking for money: asking for money is forbidden except for need. So whoever asks people for their money excessively is only asking for embers, and refuge is sought in Allah. This means a person who is not in need of money but wants to accumulate wealth and increase it, so he keeps asking people. If this is the case, he is asking as if he is asking for embers; if he asks a lot, the embers increase, and if he asks a little, the embers decrease. This is a warning from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) against asking people for money. The second case is asking for a need, a need and dire necessity, like a poor person who cannot find his sustenance. He is allowed to ask to the extent that removes his dire necessity. And if he is scrupulous about asking, that is better. Even if he has to work hard in a way that does not befit him, as long as it does not harm him, that is preferable to asking people. Perhaps if he resorts to that, it will be a cause for his provision from where he does not expect, because he feared Allah, Mighty and Majestic. The third case is asking from someone whom he sees that his asking gives him a favor over them, like a person who knows his status with them and their love for him and their generosity toward him. For example, something comes to him and he goes to him and says: "Oh so-and-so, give us a gift from what came to you, give us a gift from your dates, for example, or from your food, or something similar." The point is that you know that if you ask him, you have a favor over him. This is also permissible, like a person asking his brother, his close friend, or something similar. This is asking for money.
As for asking about knowledge: asking about knowledge has categories. One category is obligatory, which is to ask about what is hidden from you regarding matters of your religion that you need, like a person who did something in prayer and does not know if it is permissible or not; he must ask. A person who has money must ask if there is zakah in it or not. A person who wants to perform Hajj must ask how to perform Hajj. The point is: asking about what you cannot know in religion is obligatory. The second is asking to increase knowledge and abundance of knowledge, and this is what happens with students. You find the student asking to increase his knowledge, so this is undoubtedly required, and a person should ask to increase his knowledge. And Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him and his brother) used to follow the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) and ask them about the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), to the extent that he would come to a man at the time of the midday nap, meaning at midday, and find him napping. Ibn Abbas would use his cloak as a pillow at his doorstep until he came out and he would ask him about the hadith. And he was Ibn Abbas, the cousin of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and he did not consider himself too great for knowledge, but rather he did this to obtain a single hadith from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). This is good and praiseworthy, and a person is thanked for it. The third is asking to follow dispensations, asking about knowledge to follow dispensations. For example, he comes to one of the scholars and asks him, saying: "What do you say about this?" The scholar says to him: "This is forbidden, it is not permissible." Then he says to himself: "This is severe, this is a strict person." He goes to another, and he says: "This is disliked." He says: "After the Prophet, the third level, this is not enough for me." He goes to another, and he says: "This is permissible." He says: "This is the correct one." This is forbidden for him. It is forbidden for a person to ask in order to follow dispensations. And the scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) mentioned: "Whoever follows dispensations commits open sinfulness", meaning he becomes an open sinner whose testimony is not accepted and whose authority is not followed, because he plays with the religion of Allah. How do you ask this man, assuming that what he says is the Shari'ah of Allah, and then if it does not suit your desire, you go to another? This means that you want the Shari'ah to be according to what? According to his desire and mood. This is not permissible. Some scholars even said: whoever follows dispensations becomes a Zindiq, becoming a Zindiq, and refuge is sought in Allah. So if you come to a scholar you trust in his knowledge and his honesty, and that what he says and rules for you is the Shari'ah of Allah, you do not go beyond him except in dire necessity. Sometimes a person is in a village and has only a small student of knowledge, but he is more knowledgeable than him, so he asks him, and his intention is that if he finds a scholar more knowledgeable than this student of knowledge, he will ask him. This is permissible. This is like eating carrion in what? In dire necessity. If a person is forced to eat, he eats, even if it is carrion, and then he eats the good. This is permissible. How many categories did we mention? Three categories. The fourth category is asking to be difficult and to embarrass the respondent and to cause him hardship, not intending knowledge, but intending to embarrass this scholar. This falls under the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): And if you know from the questioner that he wants this, wants to be difficult and cause hardship, you may withhold knowledge from him. You may say: "I have no fatwa for you." And this is not considered concealing knowledge, but rather this is a useful excuse. For this reason, Allah, the Exalted, said to his Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding those who came to him from the People of the Book seeking a ruling: Yes? So like these people who follow scholars to embarrass them, either in gatherings of knowledge and circles of knowledge, or individually, these are the most deserving of being considered foolish, boycotted, and not answered. When you know that this man, a man who wants to cause hardship to scholars and be difficult with them, he is not to be answered. As for his action, it is harmful and intended to cause damage, and whoever harms, Allah harms him. So this phrase from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him): requires this detail, whether asking about knowledge or asking for money. There remains another thing: asking about one's state. Some people come to you and ask you, embarrassing you: what do you do? When you get up from sleep, what do you do? When you have prayed Fajr, what do you do? When it becomes late morning, what do you do? They ask you about your state, or what is your relationship with your children? What is your relationship with your family? This is not permissible, except for a person who asks a student of knowledge how he organizes his time in order to follow his example. This is permissible, there is benefit in it, because some people like to know from the scholar how he spends his time in order to what? To do the same. And of that is the asking of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) of the wives of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) what he did in private, and what was his work in his house? So when they informed them, when the women informed these people, they said: "This is a little work," and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had been forgiven by Allah for what came before of his sin and what came after. Then each of them wanted to follow a path, and the famous well-known story does not allow space to mention it. If the question is how many? About asking for money and what? And knowledge and state. And Allah grants success.

The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. The last phrase in the hadith of al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah (may Allah be pleased with him) is that Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) disliked for us the squandering of wealth. Allah (Mighty and Majestic) made wealth a means of sustenance for people in their religious and worldly affairs. The evidence for this is His saying, the Exalted: meaning that your religious and worldly interests are sustained by it. Thus, alms are sustained by wealth, obligatory expenses are sustained by wealth, jihad is sustained by wealth, clothing for the naked is sustained by wealth, and seeking knowledge is sustained by wealth. All interests in religion and the world are sustained by wealth. Therefore, it is a means of sustenance for people for their religious and worldly interests. A person will be questioned about the management of his wealth on the Day of Resurrection, because he will be asked where he acquired his wealth and what he spent it on. Then, a person either spends his wealth seeking the Face of Allah in the paths of good, such as charity for the poor and needy, spending in jihad in the path of Allah, in books of knowledge, assisting students of knowledge, building mosques, and other types of righteousness. This is the true owner of wealth, and he is the one who truly benefited from his wealth, because he placed it before himself to find it when he is most in need of it on the Day of Resurrection. The second category is the opposite: spending wealth in what angers Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and in what He does not approve of, whether through instruments of amusement, smoking, drinking wine, intoxicants, narcotics, or otherwise. This becomes a loss for him in this world and the Hereafter, refuge with Allah. Among this is His saying, the Exalted: And among this are the nations of Christians who lose great amounts of wealth in order to spread Christianity, that false religion, the religion built on illusions and myths, not on a creed or a sound belief. You find them spending vast, enormous sums of wealth in the path of misleading Muslims and converting Muslims. These people spend their wealth to turn people away from the path of Allah. So they will spend it, then it will become a regret for them, then they will be defeated. The third category is one who spends his wealth neither in this way nor that, but in vain and play. This is foolishness, and it is squandering of wealth. It is not permissible for a person to spend his wealth except in what has religious or worldly benefit. For this reason, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) prohibited us from giving our wealth to the foolish, because the foolish do not manage it well; they spend it on useless things. We have indicated that spending wealth on smoking is squandering of wealth, and indeed it is so, without doubt. This is because smoking has no benefit for the body, no strengthening of the intellect, and no ordering of thought; rather, it is pure harm. For this reason, the precise scholars went to the ruling that it is forbidden. This was before modern medicine, where medical scholars have unanimously agreed that smoking is harmful, and no two of them differed. If medicine testifies to its harm and it involves squandering of wealth, then it is forbidden. The sensible person is the one who protects himself from this vile act. And if he has been afflicted with it, let him try to quit it, even gradually. That is, a person may not have strong determination to leave it completely, so we say: leave it little by little. Keep away from those who smoke it; do not sit with them; distance yourself from them, with the help of Allah and sincere intention. And if you do that, then Allah (Mighty and Majestic) will help you with this.
I ask Allah to protect us and you from what angers Him, and to guide us and you to what pleases Him.