Explanation of the Hadith of al-Hakam ibn Furukh: Abu al-Mulayh prayed with us over a funeral, and we thought he had said the takbir, so he turned his face toward us

The Shaykh : The fourth hadith. He said: And from al-Hakam ibn Furukh — this is a good chain of narration — Abu al-Mulayh prayed with us over a funeral, and we thought he had said the takbir, so he turned his face toward us and said: "Straighten your rows, and let your intercession be good." Abu al-Mulayh said: "Abdullah told me, from one of the Mothers of the Believers, and she was Maymunah, the wife of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). She said: 'The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) informed me, saying: .' So I asked Abu al-Mulayh about the community? He said: Forty." Al-Nasa'i narrated it.
We spoke about intercession in the first hadith of the hadiths of this chapter in the previous lesson, and that the number forty is less than the number one hundred, and that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) bestowed a favor upon His servants, so whereas before He had tied the forgiveness of Allah for the deceased to the intercession and supplication of one hundred people, He increased in His favor and said: If these were forty and they supplicated for him and interceded for him with sincerity to Him, then Allah (Mighty and Majestic) forgives him. However, here in this hadith, attention is drawn to something that should be pointed out due to the negligence of mosque imams in pointing it out. So he says here: Abu al-Mulayh — who is a Tabi'i, the son of a Companion — prayed with us over a funeral, and we thought he had said the takbir, so he turned his face toward us and said: "Straighten your rows, and let your intercession be good." So he pointed out two things here:
The first: which people have neglected today, as if they look at the funeral prayer as having no value; and therefore, when the rows are formed behind the funeral, you find them in the greatest disorder, not straightened at least as they straighten the rows for the five daily prayers, even though they also neglect straightening the rows in the five daily prayers, but they improve them, especially when they bound themselves with the thread that is stretched from east to west. Some people may think that this thread is from the unrestricted public interests, but the truth is that it is from the misguided innovations. This is one of the fine points of the issues that only one who knows the harms of innovations in the religion and their effects, near or far, pays attention to. So here you are now facing a real example: those who pray the five daily prayers on the thread are unable to straighten the rows without the thread, and this is its example: when they establish the funeral prayer, you find the row in the greatest disorder. Despite this, you find the imam praying and not speaking, not even a word, or in the manner of some imams in the Saudi lands, who do not do well except to say: "Straighten, straighten."
As for the Sunnah, it has died, it has died in all the lands of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) except in some places where there are some foreigners; for we read in the Sunnah in the authentic hadiths that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not say the takbir for the prayer as an imam for the people except after he would say: , and he would sometimes say: , and he would say to this one "move back" and to that one "move forward," and so on. All these matters have become dead, even in the Holy City of Madinah, where the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was spreading this light to his Companions, and they in turn transmitted it to those after them until it reached us, and it encompassed those who desired the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and clung to it with their teeth. Therefore, a person is called short-sighted and short-visioned when he finds the thread stretched in the mosque, for the people are tied to the thread; and therefore they do not agree to move forward or backward. But if the thread slips or is lost, the row slips and the row becomes disordered. Should this be how the Muslim is? Never. The Muslim's restraint comes from his heart, not that he is tied to a simple thread. This thread may sometimes also be like some of the walls of the qiblah in mosques that are deviated from the direction of the qiblah, so the general people pray toward this wall, facing the qiblah or deviating from it. All of this is from the ill omens of intellectual and ideological stagnation due to traditional methodological rigidity.
So it is obligatory that we do not differentiate in straightening the rows between the five daily prayers and the funeral prayer, for it is a prayer; and therefore this noble Tabi'i, Abu al-Mulayh, pointed out to the people, while the narrator of the hadith thought he had said the takbir, and behold, he turned to them and said: "Straighten your rows, straighten your rows." This is the first matter.
The second matter: He pointed out to what I mentioned to you in the previous lesson regarding the obligation of sincerity in supplication for the deceased, so that the deceased benefits, and so that our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) accepts the supplication and intercession of those who intercede for him, who pray over him and supplicate for him. This supplication, as we detailed in the previous lesson, has sincerity as one of its conditions. So he says here: "And let your intercession be good." It is not to be words that come out of your mouths and do not reach your hearts and come out through your mouths. This is a benefit in this hadith, and praise be to Allah.