Examples from the Prophetic tradition of using the whole to indicate the importance of a part.

The Shaykh : Among the well-known examples in the language from the words of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and others is, for instance, the aforementioned hadith in which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Does this mean that Hajj is actually standing at 'Arafah? In other words, if a man stood at 'Arafah only and did nothing of the tawaf or sa'y, nor stayed overnight in Mina or Muzdalifah, would he have performed the Hajj? The answer is: No, Hajj has pillars, conditions, and obligatory acts. So what is the meaning of the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): ? Here appears the interpretation of righteousness (birr) as good character, based on the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): Hajj includes standing at 'Arafah. Hajj is tawaf, and it is sa'y between al-Safa and al-Marwah, and it is staying overnight in Muzdalifah and standing at 'Arafah. When the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: , it means that this is a very important matter. Standing at 'Arafah is a very important matter, as if it were the entire Hajj. This is an exaggeration to draw the listener's attention to the importance of standing at 'Arafah, as if standing at 'Arafah is the whole Hajj. But the truth is that it is known in the Shari'ah that standing at 'Arafah is a pillar of the Hajj, not the entire Hajj. However, the Arabic expression came this way: to indicate the importance of standing at 'Arafah, not to restrict the Hajj to 'Arafah only. Similarly, when the Arab man says, "There is no young man but 'Ali, and no sword but Dhu al-Fiqar," is it true that there are no young men other than 'Ali? There are many young, brave, heroic men among the Companions, such as Khalid ibn al-Walid and Usamah ibn Zayd, and so on. So when the speaker says, "There is no young man but 'Ali," he does not mean in reality that there are no young men among the Companions other than 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), but he means that he is the most important, bravest, and most heroic young man, whereas there are many other young men. If we know these examples from the language of the ancient Arabs, it becomes easy for us to understand here how he (peace and blessings be upon him) interpreted righteousness (birr) as good character, even though righteousness is defined by the text of the Qur'an: and . So how did the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) say to the one who asked him about righteousness: ? This means that this is one of the most important things that came in Islam, namely good character, as if good character is the entire righteousness. But righteousness is a broader concept than good character, just as Hajj is broader in actions than standing at 'Arafah, but standing at 'Arafah is one of the most important of those actions. So good character is one of the most important traits and meanings of righteousness known in Islam. Therefore, let no one find it difficult how the answer to the question about righteousness came in the form of: , which means, where is the prayer, where is the fasting, where is the Hajj, where is the obedience, and so on? The answer is: The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) interpreted good character to indicate the importance of good character among all the traits of righteousness.