We continue reading what was made easy of some hadiths related to encouraging the fear of Allah - Blessed and Exalted is He - and the dread of Him, from our book "Al-Targhib"

The Shaykh : We continue reading what was made easy of some hadiths related to encouraging the fear of Allah - Blessed and Exalted is He - and the dread of Him, from our book "Al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib," according to the system and rule we have followed since we began this book; namely, selecting the authentic hadiths from the book "Al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib" based on the rules of the scholars of hadith.
Among this is his statement: And from Mutarrif from his father, who said: "I saw the Messenger of Allah - peace and blessings be upon him and his family - praying, and there was a sound from his chest like the sound of a millstone from weeping."
Mutarrif narrates this hadith from his father, who is Abdullah ibn al-Shikhkhir. This noble Companion says: "I saw the Messenger of Allah - peace and blessings be upon him and his family - praying, and there was a sound from his chest," meaning a noise. "Like the sound of the millstone," like the sound of the small grinding stone, which retains a moaning and humming sound. This Companion describes the moaning and weeping of the Messenger - peace be upon him - in prayer out of fear of Allah - Blessed and Exalted is He - with the sound of the millstone from weeping. In another wording, it comes: "Like the sound of the cauldron," and the meaning is the same.
He says in its tracing: Abu Dawud narrated it, and the wording is his, and al-Nasa'i, Ibn Khuzaymah, and Ibn Hibban in his "Sahih." And some of them - meaning some of these scholars who traced this hadith - said: "And in his belly there was a sound like the sound of the cauldron," meaning the pot when its water boils in it. His statement explains the strange words of the hadith, saying: "A sound like the sound of the millstone," meaning a sound like the sound of the millstone; it is said: "The millstone hummed" when it made a sound. And the cauldron is the pot, and its meaning is that in his belly there was a moaning like the sound of the boiling of the pot when it intensifies.
Similar to this hadith is his statement from Ali - may Allah be pleased with him - who said: "There was no horseman among us on the day of Badr except al-Muqaddad, and indeed, I saw us, and there was no one among us sleeping except the Messenger of Allah - peace and blessings be upon him and his family - under a tree, praying and weeping until morning." Ibn Khuzaymah narrated it in his "Sahih."
In these two hadiths, there is a clear indication that among the way of the Prophet - peace and blessings be upon him and his family - was to weep in his prayer out of fear of his Lord and hope for what is with Him - Blessed and Exalted is He - of eternal bliss. And in this, there is nothing new, in my belief, for most of those present here; for the weeping of the Messenger - peace and blessings be upon him and his family - in his prayer is very natural; for as he said in more than one hadith: .
And the meaning of this and that is that the Muslim, the more he increases in fear of Allah - Blessed and Exalted is He - and humility before Him, the more he increases in drawing near to Allah - Mighty and Majestic - and in knowledge of Him. And whenever the heart of a person hardens and the tear freezes in his eye and does not flow out of fear of his Lord, that is a sign of his distance from his Lord and the hardness of his heart. Therefore, it came in "Sahih al-Bukhari" and others that the Prophet - peace and blessings be upon him and his family - said: ; so, much weeping is among the characteristics of the sincere believers. And I almost said: the ones who know Allah, but this is a Sufi term that does not give the legal meaning, which is knowledge of Allah - Blessed and Exalted is He -; for the reason I detailed for you once, that knowledge is one thing and certain knowledge is another; for disbelief and knowledge may coincide; therefore, describing the Muslim as one of those who know Allah is a deficient description, regardless of the speaker's intention. So, the more the Muslim increases in fear of Allah - Blessed and Exalted is He - the more his weeping increases; therefore, he - peace be upon him - addressed his ummah saying: ; meaning: the Messenger - peace be upon him - weeps a lot; so why does he weep?
This is connected to a topic I touched upon in some occasions related to that phrase narrated from "Rabi'ah al-Adawiyyah," and it does not concern us whether the attribution of this phrase to her is correct or not; because I am discussing the idea and meaning contained in this phrase; and it is this meaning adopted by many of the extremists among the Sufis, who are those who constantly recite this phrase from "Rabi'ah al-Adawiyyah" ... and she claims that she used to say in her communion with her Lord - Blessed and Exalted is He -: "My Lord, I did not worship You hoping for Your Paradise or fearing Your Fire, but I worship You because You are worthy of worship." This person who says this speech, whoever the speaker is or who the speaker is, is a person who does not know what is with Allah - Mighty and Majestic - of eternal bliss or what is with Him of painful punishment. Rather, he does not know that the greatest blessing enjoyed by the people of Paradise when they enter it is their meeting with their Lord and their seeing His noble Face.
The seeing of Allah - Blessed and Exalted is He - has many texts from the Book and the Sunnah, known to the people of the Sunnah truly. But it concerns me to remind you of one verse which says: , so the "best" in the interpretation of the Messenger - peace be upon him - in "Sahih Muslim" is Paradise, and the "increase" is the seeing of Allah - Blessed and Exalted is He - in the Hereafter. So if the Messenger - peace and blessings be upon him and his family - is the most fearful of people of Allah - Blessed and Exalted is He -, and consequently he is the most weeping among them, as you heard; so why does the Messenger - peace be upon him - weep, while he is undoubtedly more knowledgeable of his Lord than "Rabi'ah"?
Therefore, because the Prophet knew Him truly, he knew Him with all His attributes, with the attribute that He is the Possessor of the Great Favor, and with the attribute that He is the Avenger, the Tyrant; so he knew Him as He is - Blessed and Exalted is He - with all His high attributes and His beautiful names; therefore, he - peace and blessings be upon him - cannot, and he is a servant of Allah, except to fear Him, except to dread Him, and except to weep before Him. As for the person who says, whoever the speaker is: "I did not worship You hoping for Your Paradise, nor desiring to avoid Your Fire"; he is a person who does not know the one addressed; because to the extent that he knows Him truly, he fears Him. And this is our Prophet - may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him - he is our model in everything, especially in this dangerous principle; which is the worship of Allah - Mighty and Majestic - accompanied by fear on one side and hope on the other side; as He - Mighty and Majestic - said: "" They worship Us "" .
This is the characteristic of the believer: the more he increases in knowledge of his Lord, the more he increases in fear of Him - Blessed and Exalted is He -; therefore, we should not be deceived by such words whose appearance is mercy and whose inner reality is punishment. The Messenger of Allah - peace and blessings be upon him and his family - when he would stand to pray, he would weep where no one saw him, and he was under the tree all night, weeping until morning. So, it is necessary for us to take him as a model and try to train ourselves to weep, as came in some reports: "Weep, and if you do not weep, then feign weeping"; meaning, engage in the causes that make your tears flow. And the greatest of the causes for that, without a doubt, is the recitation of the Book of Allah - Blessed and Exalted is He -; and that is what the Messenger - peace be upon him - used to hear when he would stand to pray and there was a sound from his chest like the sound of the millstone, or a sound like the sound of the cauldron; so let us follow him - peace and blessings be upon him - in this trait until our hearts become soft and do not harden and become like stones or harder in hardness, seeking refuge in Allah - Blessed and Exalted is He -; for that reason, the Messenger - peace and blessings be upon him and his family - advised his Companions, and consequently his ummah, to weep over their sins.