I return to our regular lesson, and in the previous lesson we had reached Chapter 131, which is the author’s (may Allah have mercy on him) saying:

The Shaykh : I return to our regular lesson, and in the previous lesson we had reached Chapter 131, which is the author’s (may Allah have mercy on him) saying: “The Chapter on Mutual Love Among People.” He narrates with a hasan chain from Abu Hurayrah from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: . In this hadith are noble bequests from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and instruction in a considerable amount of Islamic etiquette. First among these is the command of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) to spread the greeting of peace. He (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded the Muslims to spread the greeting of peace among themselves and made it a cause for realizing love among the Muslims. Indeed, he said in this hadith, while swearing by the One by whom one does not swear except Him: . In this is etiquette, and how often the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) swore by his Lord in authentic hadiths. In that is practical instruction from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) to the Muslims that if they wish to swear by something, they should not swear except by their Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He), because He is the greatest and most exalted thing for the Muslim. So he said: . Thus, it is obligatory for the Muslim not to swear except by his Lord, and the Messenger (peace be upon him) affirmed this in many hadiths, when he said, for example: . Do not swear by your fathers. They used to do so in the first age of ignorance, and many of those who live today in the other age of ignorance have returned to that ignorance. You will find many Muslims today swearing by their fathers, swearing by their sons, swearing by their honor, and so on, of false oaths that are not permissible in Islam, because the Messenger (peace be upon him) did not swear except by Allah, and because... So whoever is swearing, let him swear by Allah or let him remain silent. Many people, when they are forbidden from swearing by other than Allah (Mighty and Majestic), say to you: “My brother, the best thing is that we swear by Allah and make it subject to our oaths; we swear by other than Him (Blessed and Exalted is He).” Naturally, this is the speech of a person who has absolutely no knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence; he speaks out of ignorance to justify his error by swearing by other than his Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He). If this person had understood, he would have remembered the saying of Abdullah ibn Mas’ud (may Allah be pleased with him), which was narrated as marfu’ (traced to the Prophet) to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), but its elevation is not authentic. Ibn Mas’ud said: “It is more beloved to me to swear by other than Allah truthfully than to swear by other than Allah falsely.” So it is not permissible for a person to swear by other than Allah absolutely. Swearing has only these two paths: either you swear by Allah, or you remain silent. As for swearing by other than Allah (Mighty and Majestic) on the pretext that the matter is not worthy of the attention that necessitates swearing by Allah, this is not permissible. And it is replied to this that swearing by Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is an act of worship, so there is no harm in worshipping Allah and mentioning Him on the slightest occasion. But the important thing is not to swear by Allah except truthfully. If a person swears and says: “By Allah, I ate an apple yesterday. What is this great matter?!” Eating an apple. He imagines that swearing in this case is not permissible Islamically; this is a mistake. So you either swear by Allah, even in a matter of no value like this example, or you remain silent, as he (peace be upon him) said: . So it is not permissible to justify swearing by other than Allah because the matter is not worthy of swearing by Allah, because the Messenger gives you the choice: either you swear by Allah if you are swearing, or you remain silent and do not swear by Allah, let alone by other than Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). Also, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . So swearing by Allah is not a trivial or small phrase as many people imagine, but it is a type of shirk (associating partners with Allah) with Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). For all of this, we find that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) proceeded in many hadiths to swear in them with such sayings as: , , and so on. He swore in this hadith by his Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He), whose soul is in His hand, and said: . In this hadith, in the narration of Imam Muslim, he said: . Here he said: . He said: or . Here he said in this hadith, as if it is abbreviated: . In the hadith narrated by Muslim, which is more complete than this: . In this hadith is a very eloquent indication that Paradise cannot be entered legally except by taking the cause that leads to it. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) swears truthfully in this hadith that the Muslims, or that people, do not enter Paradise except if they submit to Islam. So Islam is thus a condition for entering Paradise. And this is what our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) indicated in the Qur’an when He addressed the people of Paradise on the day of their entry into it: . So the entry into Paradise necessitates engaging in its cause, and the first cause in that is Islam and sincere faith, then the righteous deeds by which people differ in Paradise in their degrees therein. As for the original entry into Paradise, faith and Islam are necessary. Therefore, it was among what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded Abu Bakr al-Siddiq to do when he sent him for Hajj in the eighth year, which was before the Farewell Pilgrimage. He commanded him to call out to the tribes and in Mina during the days of Hajj that: . Therefore, Paradise is forbidden except for the righteous, as it came in the Noble Qur’an.