From the chapter on warning against a person's aversion to death.

The Shaykh : Our hadith today is a singular hadith, and it is the last of the authentic hadiths in the chapter on warning against a person's aversion to death.
Al-Hafiz al-Mundhiri (may Allah have mercy on him) said: And from Fudalah ibn 'Ubayd (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: It was narrated by Ibn Abi al-Dunya, al-Tabarani, and Ibn Hibban in his "Sahih," and it was narrated by Ibn Majah from the hadith of 'Amr ibn Ghaylan al-Thaqafi, who is one of those about whose status as a Companion there is disagreement, and its wording is: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: .
The hadith with the first wording is authentic, and the other wording would also be authentic if the Companionship of the one he named, 'Amr ibn Ghaylan al-Thaqafi, were established. Therefore, we limit our commentary to the first wording; which is the one narrated by Ibn Abi al-Dunya, al-Tabarani, and Ibn Hibban in his "Sahih."
In this hadith, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) invokes good for the one who truly believes in Allah and His Messenger, and invokes evil for the disbeliever who did not believe in Allah or His Messenger. As for that good which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) invoked for the one who believed in Allah and testified to the prophethood of His Prophet, it is his saying: In this hadith, there is a reference to some of the hadiths that preceded us in the previous lesson; and in it is that , and you have understood from the complete hadiths that the intended meeting in this context is when death approaches a person; that is: when the inevitable death comes to him. There, as we mentioned to you, the reality that the believer will meet before him of abiding bliss is revealed, and conversely, the reality that the disbeliever will also meet of the Hellfire is revealed. This first meeting is the one for which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) invoked for the one who believed in Allah and testified that he (peace be upon him) is the Messenger of Allah.
He said, addressing his Lord: The easing of the decree can be interpreted here in two meanings; one of them is: that the impact of the decree is easy for him, meaning it is possible that the decreed fate is a severe suspended decree, so when such a supplication of the Messenger (peace be upon him) comes, this decree becomes an easy, bearable decree. And it can be in another meaning; which is that this decree, however heavy and however difficult it is for the human soul; the Messenger (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) supplicates to his Lord and asks Him to make this decree, whatever its nature, easy for the believer. And whether the intended meaning is this or that; this supplication is in reality a direction from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to the believer, through supplication to his Lord, to what he directed his believing followers with a specific hadith, which we have mentioned more than once; namely his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): So the believer who has this description receives the decree from his Lord in both types; if it is good or if it is evil, he receives it with satisfaction and submission, and that evil becomes good for him, and this is part of the easing for which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) supplicated to his Lord to ease for the one who believed in Allah and believed in the prophethood of his Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to ease his decree.
Then he continued and also invoked for this believer in Allah and His Messenger, saying to his Lord: I do not think that any one of you finds difficulty with such a supplication from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding the believer; where he supplicated to his Lord to reduce for him from his worldly life. I do not think that anyone finds difficulty with this; because the worldly life is undoubtedly first a distraction, and then a trial. If the believer immerses himself in it, that is a calamity for him, and few are those who escape the trial of the worldly life and its beauty and adornment. So it was very obvious that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would supplicate for the general people, like the believers, with such a supplication to reduce for them from the worldly life. And this does not negate that he (peace be upon him) supplicates for individuals of the people contrary to what appears from this hadith. It is known in the authentic hadiths in al-Bukhari and others that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) supplicated for his servant Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) that he be blessed in his wealth and his children, and Allah (Mighty and Majestic) accepted the supplication of His Prophet regarding him; until he died and many people were born from him. And I remember that he said once about himself, he said: My daughter so-and-so told me, yes?

The questioner: Ummaymah.

The Shaykh : Ummaymah, that he had seventy children, possibly.

The questioner : He died from his lineage, the head of the pilgrims of Basra, one hundred and twenty-five children.

The Shaykh : Allah is the Greatest, one hundred and fifty died from his lineage, twenty-five?

The questioner : One hundred and twenty-five or twenty children, the head of the pilgrims of Basra.

The Shaykh : This person is still in the grip of life, this huge number died from him. This is due to the supplication of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) for him that he be blessed in his wealth, and in some narrations in al-Adab al-Mufrad of al-Bukhari that he (peace be upon him) also supplicated for him that his life be prolonged, and indeed he lived for a long time until he aged and grew old.
I say: This supplication from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) for his servant Anas, as you have heard, does not contradict this supplication which is in our lesson now. That is because there are rules, and for every rule there are exceptions. Does the supplication for the general people with what the Messenger (peace be upon him) supplicated here for the general people benefit the general people, or does the general people benefit from what he supplicated for his servant Anas ibn Malik? There is no doubt that the answer is the first matter; that is: those who escape the trial of the worldly life and its adornment are few, rather fewer than few. The one who is given from this wealth, which is the adornment of the worldly life, and from the children who are by the text of the Qur'an a trial like wealth , those who are tested with this wealth and many children, few escape from them unharmed. And the opposite is correct; that is: those who are given sustenance just enough; these are mostly not tried with the trial of those who were given wealth and children. So it was very obvious, as I said first, that the Messenger (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) would supplicate for the one who believed in Allah and His Messenger to also reduce for him from the worldly life.
And the effect of this beneficial supplication for the believers appears in the supplication with which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) invoked against the disbelievers, contrary to all of that; where he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: , and as if this supplication from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is the supplications that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) accepted his (peace be upon him) supplication... because it is not necessary that every supplication with which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) supplicates is that this supplication is accepted; contrary to what is in the minds of some people who deal with legal rulings with their desires, or at least with their emotions; not every supplication with which the Messenger (peace be upon him) supplicates is it necessary that Allah accepts it for him, even if the majority of the matter is so. And therefore he (peace and blessings be upon him) said - and this is from His favor and mercy and compassion for His Ummah - he said: ; so this supplication is certainly accepted, and therefore the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) knew how to use it well, and knew where to place it in the place befitting it; so he said: , as for the other supplications, they may be accepted and may not be accepted. And of the famous supplications that our Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He) did not accept for His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) for a wisdom He knows, is that he supplicated that the harm of his Ummah not be severe among them; so that was not accepted from him (peace be upon him).
I say: It appears that this supplication, which is the subject of our study tonight, is one that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) accepted for His Prophet; because its meaning in both paragraphs—the first paragraph concerning the believer, and the other paragraph concerning the disbeliever—is manifest in the believer and in the disbeliever. And as we said regarding the first paragraph, this is a general rule. As for what concerns the disbeliever, our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) has mentioned in His Book what can be considered a confirmation or explanation of a phrase in this hadith; namely His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): This is the distress in which the disbeliever lives. The clearest manifestation of this distress is in the present age, where it was supposed that the disbeliever would enjoy his share of pleasure and comfort due to the means, inventions, and innovations provided for him to facilitate that. But all of that turned against him because of his disbelief. Therefore, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "And whoever does not believe in him and does not affirm him (peace and blessings be upon him), do not make his affairs easy for him." He is not satisfied with the divine decree, no matter how little its difficulty may be. He takes, curses, and is agitated, and his entire life becomes distorted. This is very clear. He is a verification of the aforementioned verse first, and of this authentic hadith second.
As He (the Exalted) said: ; unlike the believer, as is known from the biography of the righteous predecessors, ; so he is always in a narrow state, And is there anything greater than this worldly life that you see today among the disbelievers?
In this hadith, there is a reference to a fundamental Islamic belief that I believe some of the youth who have deviated from their religion need to hear such a hadith; because it is common today that there are philosophers in Europe and America who believe that this universe has a Creator. I do not say, as some people say, that they believe that this universe has a God; because the concept of divinity (ilahiyah) is not known even today by many Muslims, let alone by those polytheists who disbelieve in Allah and His Messenger. So I want to say:
The existence of such disbelievers who have reached, through their intellect, the belief that this universe has a Creator—we say: this is not sufficient for its holder to be saved by Allah on the Day of Resurrection. And this is for reasons, one of which I hinted at earlier; which is that faith in Allah (Mighty and Majestic) does not benefit if it is limited to believing that He is the Creator of this universe; because this faith is, in reality, like a compulsory matter that a person feels by his fitrah (innate natural disposition). But the implications of this faith are the belief in this specific Creatorship belonging to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), which includes submission to Him, deifying Him, and worshipping Him alone, other than any of the created beings, however great and mighty they may be. This divinity that befits Allah (Mighty and Majestic) must be added to the belief in His Creatorship (Blessed and Exalted is He). And when the polytheists disbelieved in it, they became disbelievers and were fought and killed. Therefore, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Rather, they are to testify that there is no god but Allah. I do not want to delve into this testimony and its meaning and its implications of faith in the oneness of worship (tawhid al-uluhiyyah), the oneness of the attributes, and the oneness of the names; for we have repeated the discussion on this many and many times. I only wanted to remind the youth not to be deceived by these philosophers and their like, who believe that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is unique in the attribute of creation, and that is all. This does not benefit them in any way; especially since if their belief in the Creatorship of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) were joined with belief in His divinity as well, and in all the names and attributes, that also would not suffice them or benefit them in any way until they believe in him (peace and blessings be upon him) as a Prophet and Messenger.
This is the meaning of the testimony . Therefore, it came in the hadith in the authentic collections of Muslim and others, where he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . For this reason, there is a very great obligation upon the Muslims, but unfortunately, the Muslims are preoccupied with themselves. They have an obligation to convey this call, the call of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), to those people, the Christians and the Jews and their like of polytheists, so that they may believe in Allah and His Messenger. And this is out of compassion and mercy for them; because the one who strives to have all of humanity enter Paradise is compassionate and merciful, unlike the one who does not care whether people enter Paradise or plunge into the Fire.
And we must know another reality that some Muslims, especially in the present age, have also neglected. The meaning of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family): is not that they heard his name; because we know with certainty that the disbelievers, especially in the present age, due to the facilitated scientific means of transporting people from the farthest place to the farthest place—these means are known to you all—have facilitated for all people, or for the majority of people, to the point that we do not include among the people those who are in the North Pole and the South Pole, for example, who still live the primitive life of the first era. The majority of people today, without doubt, have heard of him (peace and blessings be upon him), but they have heard of his name. As for his name and his description in his true reality, the majority of disbelievers have not yet heard of him.
So we can say they heard and they did not hear; they heard of his name and they did not hear of his name in its true reality. How so, when they have lived these long centuries being taught by their priests and monks the opposite of what these priests and monks know of the reality of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him)? So if they exaggerate in fabrication and slander, they say about him (peace and blessings be upon him) all sorts of evil. And if they fall short and do not exaggerate, they say: "A sane man, a tribal chief, who came to the Arabs with a law, a system, and so on, and he has no connection to calling humanity and the whole world to worship in his religion, and so on." And this is what the Jews themselves used to say in his time (peace and blessings be upon him). They said that he was sent to the Arabs and not sent to the Jews. The illiterate Arabs are in need of him (peace and blessings be upon him), they claimed. As for the Jews, they have the Torah; so they are not in need of him (peace and blessings be upon him).
So the Christians and their like, the Jews today, are misled to the greatest extent of misguidance; for they do not know the reality of the call of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). Therefore, the obligation I referred to earlier becomes confirmed upon the Muslims; which is that they should convey the call of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) in its true reality to those peoples and nations who are misled by their leaders and monks.
Some people claim that there are no people of the period of ignorance (ahl al-fatrah) today with the same call I referred to earlier, that the name of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) has reached them. So we say: the majority of the people of the earth—unfortunately—today are from the people of the period of ignorance; because the people of the period of ignorance are not, as some students of knowledge imagine, and may be mistakenly taught by some scholars, those to whom no Prophet or Messenger was sent. Rather, they are those to whom the call of a Prophet or Messenger has not reached, as is the case today. And there is no call after the call of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and there is no other religion after his religion. But this religion must be conveyed to all people, in verification or realization of such as His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): . But the conveying of the religion should be done with its correct concept. And here is manifested for you a very great tragedy that the Muslims live, other than the tragedies that have befallen us in our present age. Those tragedies we have inherited from father to grandfather, and they are the root of all the tragedies that afflict Muslims in this world; which is their misunderstanding of their Islam. So if we want to convey Islam to those people, what is the image of this Islam that we will convey to them?
There is no doubt that you all agree with me that many concepts will be presented to them, many concepts for a single Islam. This is what deters people from the remembrance of Allah, from the Book of Allah, and from the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him); because it is impossible for the mind of a sane person, in terms of creation and innate disposition, to accept that two contradictory matters issue from a single, pure source. It is as if one spring yields sweet, clear water and another yields bitter water; they never meet. So how can a person come and say—for example—to the disbelievers, to introduce them to faith, that by the texts of the Book and the Sunnah, faith increases and decreases? Then another comes, calling to his Islam and explaining some of its aspects, that faith neither increases nor decreases. How can we call those people to such an Islam that contains such a glaring, clear, and evident contradiction? Therefore, I say it plainly: We are not in need today of calling others to our religion; rather, we are in need of learning our own religion and distinguishing what is correctly attributed to it from what is not. How long do you think this massive audience of Muslims, whose number is said to be eight hundred million on the face of the earth, needs to understand Islam with the correct, original, Salafi, and clear concept that the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) were upon?
From this, we say constantly and forever, as we were taught by our predecessors: "Stick to the ancient way." In the time of the Companions, there was no one who said that faith does not increase or decrease; because this contradicts the Book and the Sunnah. But about a hundred years or more after them, a learned and virtuous man held an opinion and erred. He believed that it is impossible for faith to accept increase and decrease, and that what increases is its effects, which are the righteous deeds. And Allah (Mighty and Majestic) says constantly and forever that faith increases, and consequently, righteous deeds increase. Then this opinion, which came from some scholars, was adopted as a religion, and this is one of the calamities of the Muslims! How was it adopted as a religion when the religion is Islam, Islam is the Qur'an, and the Qur'an explicitly says that faith increases and decreases, , and how many, how many verses in the Qur'an have this meaning! This opinion became a religion because something else preceded it—also made into a religion—which is taqlid (following a scholar without knowing his evidence). And still, some people, even the educated and those who view themselves with approval from an academic standpoint, barely understand a hadith. They do not know to this day why we constantly and forever fight against taqlid; because it became a religion, it became a creed, and whatever any imam says, no matter how far it is from the Book and the Sunnah, is considered religion—taqlid! And for this truth, we fight taqlid; that is, that it be adopted as a religion that deters its adherent from faith in Allah and His Messenger as it came in the Book and the Sunnah. The simplest phrase you hear, or at least some of you hear, is: "My brother, isn't so-and-so ignorant?" No, he is a scholar; but is so-and-so infallible? Here he falls silent due to his ignorance. He was not taught the basic principles of Islam. He was taught that this man is a learned and virtuous scholar, that he does not speak out of desire, and that he does not speak out of purpose. And all of this is correct; but he was not taught, and if he was taught, it was not emphasized in the teaching that: beware, this learned and virtuous man who does not speak out of desire, tribalism, or personal interest, or anything else, can still make a mistake; therefore, you must adhere to his words only within the limits of them not contradicting the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Prophet. This guidance was lost by Muslims for about ten centuries because of taqlid.
Therefore, we say that while we explain that faith is only beneficial if it combines faith in Allah as Allah has legislated, with the oneness of lordship, the oneness of worship, and the oneness of the names and attributes, and faith in the Prophet (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him) as well—these two realities are still unknown to the masses of the earth's inhabitants, so they are in need of being informed; but we are in greater need of that than they are, because we still live in the lands of Islam and we disbelieve practically and intellectually as well, in the meaning of "There is no god but Allah." How can one who calls upon Allah— I wanted to say—how can one who calls upon other than Allah... my tongue got ahead of me! But I will patch up my words and say: How can one who calls upon Allah and associates with Him a wali (close friend of Allah) (Mighty and Majestic) believe? And you hear, for example, as you are traveling on the road, one person's foot slips or the foot of his beast slips, and quickly he shouts from his mouth: "O Allah, O Baz?!" Is Allah alone not enough?! And our Lord says: , This is a partner! He said: "O Allah, O Baz!" This is the partner, Baz; what does Baz do, especially when you have associated it with Allah?! This is shirk (associating partners with Allah) itself, which never meets with faith in Allah (Mighty and Majestic). This is the faith that the Messenger (peace be upon him) intended in this hadith, and with this we conclude the lesson, and we turn to answering the questions, or whatever of them is feasible.
He (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him) said: .
We ask Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to gather us in the company of those who believed in Him and testified to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding his message.