about the meaning of the hadith (The Fire will not touch him except as the fulfillment of an oath).

The questioner : You mentioned the hadith

The Shaykh : A questioner here asks about the meaning of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in the previous hadith This hadith refers to the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, in the noble verse except those who enter it an oath from Allah The scholars, both past and present, have differed on the meaning of the "entering" intended in this hadith, with three opinions. The first is entering at the edge of the Fire, as one says, "I led the camels to the trough." The second meaning is passing over the Sirat above the Fire. The third meaning, which does not contradict the second, is entering the Fire, because passing over the Sirat is an entering into the Fire. So His saying, the Exalted, means entering it. There is no difference between a believer and a disbeliever; all of them, both humans and jinn, must undergo this entering. But after this divine oath of entering is realized, there is then a swift distinction between the righteous and the wicked. The righteous ... by entering Paradise, the wicked ... by entering the Fire. This explanation is clarified by a hadith I will mention for its detail and elaboration, but I must associate with it the fact that this hadith is not authentic in terms of its chain of narration. Because of its fame, we should mention it to point out its weakness, but its meaning is acceptable within the limits of what has come from the evidence. That hadith is narrated by some of the Tabi'un from the unknown, which is the defect, from Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah al-Ansari. He said, "I met him on my way. We were in a gathering where this verse was mentioned We differed and mentioned the three opinions. What Jabir did, as the narration states despite its weakness, was that he put his two fingers in his ears and said "Be silent, be silent, unless I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say

No righteous person or sinner will remain but he will enter it, then it will be coolness and peace for the believers, as it was for Ibrahim

لا يبقى بر ولا فاجر إلا ويدخلها ثم تكون بردا وسلاما على المؤمنين كما كانت على إبراهيم

" So this entering mentioned in this verse, and also explained in another hadith that Imam Muslim included in his Sahih from the hadith of Hafsa bint 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with her), she said, "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said She said, "How is this, O Messenger of Allah, when Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says

And there is none of you except he will come to it

وإن منكم إلا واردها

[Maryam 19:71]

" Here is an important observation in that it helps the student of knowledge to understand the sacred texts. We find here that Lady Hafsa (may Allah be pleased with her) seems to want to say that what you are saying, O Messenger of Allah, is contrary to what I understand from the verse. So how do you reconcile this verse, according to my understanding, i.e., Hafsa's, with what you are saying, O Messenger of Allah? He said to her with complete calm and gentleness, as was his (peace and blessings be upon him) custom and habit, "Read what comes after it." What is the benefit? The benefit is that when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) heard a statement and did not refute it, that was evidence of its correctness in his view. However, it is possible that a specification or restriction that occurs to the speaker's mind is included in it. That word which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) approved, but he included a restriction or specification in it. This is a very important benefit that some scholars may overlook. It is not a problem if I give you an example that occurred due to not paying attention to this precise jurisprudential point. Imam Abu Muhammad ibn Hazm, the author of the book "Al-Muhalla", the great book, and the book "Al-Ihkam fi Usul al-Ahkam", and other books, wrote a treatise on the permissibility of entertainments in general, from musical instruments and songs and the like. Among what he used as evidence for his position in that treatise was the authentic hadith that al-Bukhari and Muslim included in their Sahihs from the hadith of 'Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her). She said, "The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came to me on a day of 'Id, and I had two slave girls singing with the singing of Ba'ath and beating the duff. When Abu Bakr came in, he said, 'Is the flute of Satan in the house of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)?' - obviously a rhetorical question of disapproval -

every people have a festival and it is our festival

دعهما لكل قوم عيدا وهذا عيدنا

Sahih Muslim 892a

" The point is that Imam ibn Hazm used this hadith as evidence for the permissibility of beating the duff and singing with it, because the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) approved the two slave girls doing so. But he missed what I wanted to point out: that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) approved Abu Bakr al-Siddiq on his previously mentioned statement "Is the flute of Satan in the house of the Messenger of Allah" Abu Bakr called the beating of the duff and singing with it what? The flute of Satan. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not refute that against him, but approved it, just as he approved Hafsa on her statement about the verse. So, just as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) introduced a restriction into Hafsa's reasoning that she was unaware of, exactly the same thing the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did with his companion in the cave, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, also drew his attention, as if saying to him, "The matter is as you say, O Abu Bakr, but here is an exception that you missed." So if we combine the approval of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) of Abu Bakr on his statement with his saying to him , we arrive at the result that the flutes of Satan are not permissible, and the attribution to Satan is sufficient for the prohibition of them. But this ruling has an exception for beating the duff on the day of 'Id, and by whom? By the two slave girls. So we combined the approval of the Messenger of Allah for Abu Bakr with his saying to him, and we arrived at a result completely opposite to the result that Abu Muhammad ibn Hazm (may Allah have mercy on him) reached, where he took the saying of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and did not notice the approval of the Messenger of Allah for Abu Bakr's statement "Is the flute of Satan in the house of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)" Do you have anything?
Another questioner: How does the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) approve the flute of Satan in his house?

The Shaykh : I have answered you on this matter; may Allah bless you. We say that the original ruling on musical instruments is that they are among the flutes of Satan. However, the Wise Lawgiver made an exception for them to not be considered flutes of Satan at this specific time. The original ruling is that they are flutes of Satan on any day other than the festival day. But on the festival day, they are not flutes of Satan, so there is no contradiction here, and praise be to Allah. This is also, perhaps, a useful point to mention with another very important example regarding the intellectual life that the majority of the Muslim world lives today, who believe that the dead hear, and they argue for this with many tricks. We are not currently in a position to discuss this except insofar as it relates to drawing attention to the fact that if the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) approves of something, it is the truth. To benefit from this, I mention the Battle of Badr. When Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) destroyed the leaders of Quraysh and they were thrown into the well of Badr, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came after the war had ended, stood by the well, and called out to those dead disbelievers by their names: "O so-and-so, son of so-and-so" . 'Umar said here, and this is the point of interest, he said: "O Messenger of Allah, you are calling out to bodies in which there are no souls". What do we understand from 'Umar's statement here? We understand what we understood from Abu Bakr's word there and from Hafsa's word there: we understand that 'Umar ibn al-Khattab held the view that the dead do not hear. Therefore, he was surprised and astonished by the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) calling out to these dead people: "O so-and-so, O so-and-so," and so on, by their names. This calling out contradicts, as I understand it—and it is the truth, if Allah wills—what 'Umar ibn al-Khattab had received as teaching from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), namely that the dead do not hear. The Noble Qur'an is sufficient for this: . Likewise, His saying (Mighty and Majestic): . Naturally, there is discussion in the interpretation of these two verses, but the summary of the matter is that it does not contradict at all this established legal reality, which is that the dead do not hear. This is the reality that 'Umar ibn al-Khattab had received previously and learned from his Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). Therefore, he had a difficulty: how is it that he taught us this knowledge and then calls out to them? What was the position of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him)? His position toward him was the same as his position toward Abu Bakr and Hafsa: he approved of all of them in what they said, but he introduced a qualification that they did not know, because they are not revealed to as he is revealed to. So the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) approved of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab in this statement of his, and the meaning of this is as if he was saying to him: "You have spoken the truth; the dead do not hear. But these people hear me." Therefore, he answered him in clear Arabic: , meaning that these people hear me. So you, O 'Umar, what you received from me is truth and correctness, but know that here is a special miracle and karamah for his Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), whereby He made them hear his voice, although their nature is that they do not hear. Why? Because they are dead. And this confirms the meaning that Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) narrated this story with his authentic chain in "al-Musnad", that 'Umar said: "And the dead do not hear". The answer also came, as you heard, not that he told him, "You are wrong; the dead hear." If he had been wrong, he would have corrected him, but he approved of this correct expression, but he introduced a qualification in it, which is that the dead do not hear except these people. Therefore, it came in "Sahih al-Bukhari" in this story, through the route of Qatadah from Anas ibn Malik. This story that we have narrated, except for the narration of Imam Ahmad, is narrated in the two Sahihs. And through the route of Qatadah, Qatadah said: "Allah gave them life for him and made them hear his voice, to humiliate and belittle them and to cause them pain". So this attention to the approval of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) of the Companion's statement means that the Companion's statement is the truth, but one must look to see if the Messenger added anything to it by way of specification or restriction, which is then added to it, so that we arrive at a sound result, one hundred percent. So the dead do not hear except these people, who heard. And musical instruments are not permissible, especially the hand drum, except on the festival day. And all people must enter the Fire, as Hafsa understood from the verse, but they differ: the righteous pass through it as a transit, as they say today, to Paradise, while the disbelievers remain in it for ages. Yes.
Another questioner: Are musical instruments permissible on the festival day? Is it permissible to teach them?

The Shaykh : Does teaching them mean making it a profession?
Another questioner: Making it a profession...

The Shaykh : Because, may Allah bless you, the one who wants to teach has made that a profession, like a teacher who teaches people any knowledge. So the answer is no. The matter is simpler—and I do not want to say lower—than it needs to be learned, because it is a natural matter. People dance and beat the hand drum and so on without needing to be taught. So the matter is simpler than that. It is one of the exceptions mentioned in the authentic Sunnah from the flutes of Satan: beating the hand drum at the wedding, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . And they did so in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). I have explained this matter in some detail in my booklet "The Etiquettes of the Wedding in the Pure Sunnah", so whoever wishes to expand on that should refer to it, if Allah wills.