Explanation of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): “O My servants, all of you are hungry except the one I have fed; so ask Me for food and I will feed you.”

The Shaykh : Indeed, the best of speech is the speech of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), and the worst of matters are their innovations, and every innovation is a religious innovation, and every religious innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.
We read to you yesterday the hadith of Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him), which he narrated from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) narrated it from his Lord, and it is: to the end of the hadith. It is a noble hadith of great benefit and status. We read it to you yesterday, as we said, and then we returned and began to explain some of its phrases, and the explanation is not yet finished. So now we return to recite the hadith to you again from beginning to end, for there is benefit in the repetition for those who attended the lesson and heard it yesterday, and perhaps some people have attended now who have not heard this hadith at all, so they will hear it now. Then we will return to explain the phrases we have not previously discussed.
Abu Dharr said, regarding the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), in what he narrates from Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), that He said: . Sa'id ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz, one of the scholars of hadith from the Levant, said: “When Abu Dhris al-Khawlanī narrated this hadith, he would kneel on his knees,” which is an indication of his concern and his proper conduct in narrating this great hadith.
Muslim narrated it; that is, this hadith is among the hadiths that the Imam Muslim included in his *Sahih*.
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... from Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (may Allah have mercy on him), that he said: “There is no hadith for the people of the Levant more noble than this hadith.” This is an indication that the people of the Levant—meaning the scholars of hadith from the Levant—have a great many hadiths, some of which they narrated from one another from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family); that is, they are all from the Levant. So they have many hadiths, and this hadith in particular is among the noblest hadiths of the Levantine scholars because of the eloquent admonition that our Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He) directs to His servants.
We explained to you yesterday the hadith up to the saying of the Exalted: , and we commented on this phrase of this hadith with what Allah facilitated regarding the topic of divine decree and destiny, compulsion, and choice. We made clear to you that a human being, in terms of his guidance and in terms of his misguidance, is a chooser in that. And this hadith indicates to us the cause that a person should take to reach divine guidance. So He said, the Exalted: We explained this in the previous lesson.
So now the continuation of the hadith is: . This hadith is like the previous phrase: . So His saying, Blessed and Exalted is He, also in the following phrase: . This phrase is like the one before it; each of them indicates the principle of taking causes. Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has made a cause for every thing, and these causes are divided into two categories: religious causes for matters of worship, such as guidance. Allah has made for you a cause to reach it by asking Allah for it, and by seeking the Book and the Sunnah by which you derive knowledge of the path of guidance, so you follow it, and knowledge of the path of misguidance, so you avoid it. The second category of causes is what relates to worldly matters, or instinctive matters, such as food and drink. Does food and drink come to a person like this, descending from the sky, without a person engaging in the causes that lead to this food and to similar drink? This hadith alerts us that it is necessary to take the cause that leads to food. The first cause in that is to turn to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), for all provision is in His hand, so you must turn to Him with all your heart, and ask Him to feed you.
; that is, ask Me for food and I will feed you. And how is the seeking of food from Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He)?
It is done by taking two causes, one of which is religious: it is supplication and turning to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) by asking Him for provision, and asking for food and everything that sustains a person. The second cause by which you should turn to your Lord so that He may feed you is to take the cause or causes to which Allah has guided you in His revealed Shari'ah, as He said, the Exalted: . So He commanded us, Blessed and Exalted is He, to traverse the earth, and to strive in it, and to take hold of its extremities so that we strive for provision. ; that is, it is made easy and submissive for you. ; that is, traverse it by walking and running in pursuit of provision, and thereby you will obtain what you desire of provision. So this is the feeding that Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) promised you by providing it for you by your asking Him through your supplication, and by your asking for it by taking the cause of traversing the earth.
As for the one who is content to sit in a corner of his house or his shop, and says: “Provision is apportioned”; he is astray from the principle of taking causes. He is like that person we told you about yesterday on the occasion of . This one who sits in a corner of his house, and does not ask for provision from Allah, neither by turning to Allah nor by traversing the earth; this one and that person who says: “Since happiness and misery are apportioned, a group in Paradise and a group in the blazing Fire; two handfuls that Allah grasped, one in His right hand and the other in His left hand”; so some people say: “If I am happy, what harm is there in my evil deed? And if I am miserable, what benefit is there in my good deed?” This one and that one who sits in a corner of his house and does not take the causes of provision, both are equally in misguidance!
Because we explained to you that happiness, even though it is apportioned by Allah from eternity, and so is misery, but they were apportioned and decreed by Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) with the consideration of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) for the person who takes the causes of happiness, and for the person who takes the causes of misery. So He wrote this one who takes the causes of happiness as happy, and the one who will take the causes of misery as miserable. Likewise, the one who sits in a corner of his house and does not take the causes of provision, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) does not give him of provision except a very little until he reaches the last breath of his life. As for that one who strives and traverses the earth, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) gives him according to what he strives for and what he traverses in the earth, as He said, the Exalted: . So whoever seeks the Hereafter is given the Hereafter, and whoever seeks the world is given the world. And whoever seeks from the world the amount by which he lives in it, not needing people, not compelled to beg for their hands, this one is also given according to what he strives for in his world, but on the condition that it does not dominate his striving for his Hereafter.
So His saying, Blessed and Exalted is He, in this divine hadith: is associated with the previous phrase in that each of them obligates the Muslim to take the causes that lead to the effects. Happiness has causes that a person must take and knock on their doors, and the food and provision that our Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He) sends down from the sky to His servants has causes, so it is necessary to take them so that he reaches provision in a way that he sustains a happy life in the world.
For that reason; that is, to affirm that taking the causes of worldly life and obtaining sufficient provision, the wise Lawgiver considered traversing the earth in the path of provision to be from jihad in the path of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), as came in the hadith of Ka'b ibn 'Ujr (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: We were sitting with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family)
= -- Come, let's go, come, come to me, come... for the brother is there, what is our brother's name here? ... Come, it's okay if he sleeps, he doesn't encroach on others, he doesn't disturb... others, especially since we are recommending him for good now, if Allah wills -- =