'Umar learned Surat al-Baqarah in twelve years; when he finished it, he slaughtered a she-camel
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The questioner : A she-camel when he finished Surat al-Baqarah, ... Surat al-Baqarah, 'Umar, not Ibn 'Amr.
The Shaykh : When he finished.
The questioner : Surat al-Baqarah.
The Shaykh : Do you have its chain of narration?
The questioner : I am asking about its chain of narration.
The Shaykh : I answered you: I do not know.
The questioner : The question now is: the premise that follows from the important question, which is what is the ruling on acting upon what this report indicates? That is, if a person finishes the Book of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) by memorization and gathers people and holds a feast for this occasion, what is its ruling?
The Shaykh: In my capacity, I claim—if I do not say I assert—that I am a Salafi; so I always repeat that the meaning of a person being a Salafi is that he is upon the methodology of the righteous Salaf. And of the methodology of the righteous Salaf is that when they were asked or consulted about a matter, the one who was asked would ask the one who asked: Did this thing actually happen? He would say: No, but let us assume it happened. He would say: Wait until it happens and then ask, and at that time you will find someone to give you a ruling on this matter. That is: the methodology of the righteous Salaf does not answer questions about matters that have not occurred. And I see that this question resembles this thing that our righteous Salaf used to disapprove of; which is that we say: Let us assume this report is established from 'Umar; so what is the ruling? It is not befitting for us to occupy ourselves with hypotheticals. I say this because I have experienced people and known how they should be dealt with according to the methodology of the righteous Salaf. If you are satisfied with my saying that you must be patient until you clarify the establishment of this report from 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, and if you are not satisfied; then as long as you have assumed a hypothesis and said let us assume this report is authentic from 'Umar; my answer on the same weight is: I assume the answer is such and such; does that benefit?
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : So why do we occupy ourselves with hypotheticals?
The questioner : We are asking about a reality, O Shaykh, that we have in Riyadh.
The Shaykh : I know—may Allah bless you—but if you had asked without bringing this report about which I answered you: I do not know; because al-Khatib al-Baghdadi narrates in his "History" whatever hadiths traced to the Prophet and reports stopping at a Companion, in addition to reports stopping at a Companion on the occasion of a biography of one of the narrators, who may be trustworthy, and may be a memorizer; so he narrates from him some denounced narrations that some of them narrated from him, and he is not the one accused of it; and therefore, for us to come to any narration like this or others and say, on the assumption of the authenticity of this narration, what is the answer? We do not strain ourselves with hypotheticals. If you said that such and such happens in some countries, what is the answer?
I told you just now that if you insist that you want the answer; then I say, hypothetically: the answer is such and such; based on the hypothesis that you stated, let us assume this report is authentic from 'Umar, and the answer based on this hypothesis: it is permissible for one who finishes the Qur'an to host a feast, not on a she-camel, but on a cow, and not on a cow, but on a sheep, and not on a sheep, but on less than that; because there is no regular recommended practice that obligates us to do a specific thing on the occasion of finishing the Noble Qur'an. It is permissible for the Muslim to do this occasionally on this occasion, but it is not permissible to do it as if it were a regular recommended practice; like when a person gets married, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to 'Abd al-Rahman ibn 'Awf:, or like when a child is born, if it is a male then two sheep, and if it is a female then one sheep. It is not permissible for us to equate a permissible act whose origin is not a recommended practice in its origin, but we proceed according to the rule, which is the answer. So if a person finishes the Qur'an and it occurs to him to invite some of his brothers ... provided that he does not make it a custom and a recommended practice, this is the answer.
The Shaykh : When he finished.
The questioner : Surat al-Baqarah.
The Shaykh : Do you have its chain of narration?
The questioner : I am asking about its chain of narration.
The Shaykh : I answered you: I do not know.
The questioner : The question now is: the premise that follows from the important question, which is what is the ruling on acting upon what this report indicates? That is, if a person finishes the Book of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) by memorization and gathers people and holds a feast for this occasion, what is its ruling?
The Shaykh: In my capacity, I claim—if I do not say I assert—that I am a Salafi; so I always repeat that the meaning of a person being a Salafi is that he is upon the methodology of the righteous Salaf. And of the methodology of the righteous Salaf is that when they were asked or consulted about a matter, the one who was asked would ask the one who asked: Did this thing actually happen? He would say: No, but let us assume it happened. He would say: Wait until it happens and then ask, and at that time you will find someone to give you a ruling on this matter. That is: the methodology of the righteous Salaf does not answer questions about matters that have not occurred. And I see that this question resembles this thing that our righteous Salaf used to disapprove of; which is that we say: Let us assume this report is established from 'Umar; so what is the ruling? It is not befitting for us to occupy ourselves with hypotheticals. I say this because I have experienced people and known how they should be dealt with according to the methodology of the righteous Salaf. If you are satisfied with my saying that you must be patient until you clarify the establishment of this report from 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, and if you are not satisfied; then as long as you have assumed a hypothesis and said let us assume this report is authentic from 'Umar; my answer on the same weight is: I assume the answer is such and such; does that benefit?
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : So why do we occupy ourselves with hypotheticals?
The questioner : We are asking about a reality, O Shaykh, that we have in Riyadh.
The Shaykh : I know—may Allah bless you—but if you had asked without bringing this report about which I answered you: I do not know; because al-Khatib al-Baghdadi narrates in his "History" whatever hadiths traced to the Prophet and reports stopping at a Companion, in addition to reports stopping at a Companion on the occasion of a biography of one of the narrators, who may be trustworthy, and may be a memorizer; so he narrates from him some denounced narrations that some of them narrated from him, and he is not the one accused of it; and therefore, for us to come to any narration like this or others and say, on the assumption of the authenticity of this narration, what is the answer? We do not strain ourselves with hypotheticals. If you said that such and such happens in some countries, what is the answer?
I told you just now that if you insist that you want the answer; then I say, hypothetically: the answer is such and such; based on the hypothesis that you stated, let us assume this report is authentic from 'Umar, and the answer based on this hypothesis: it is permissible for one who finishes the Qur'an to host a feast, not on a she-camel, but on a cow, and not on a cow, but on a sheep, and not on a sheep, but on less than that; because there is no regular recommended practice that obligates us to do a specific thing on the occasion of finishing the Noble Qur'an. It is permissible for the Muslim to do this occasionally on this occasion, but it is not permissible to do it as if it were a regular recommended practice; like when a person gets married, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to 'Abd al-Rahman ibn 'Awf:
Hold a feast, even if it is only with a sheep
أولم ولو بشاة
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.