I debated with one of the students in the college, and he denies that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was subjected to sorcery, citing the saying of Allah the Exalted:
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The questioner : Shaykh, regarding the matter, this is outside the scope of the topic on hijab and niqab. One of the young men in our college, I mean, I debated with him regarding the issue of the sorcery of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).
The Shaykh : Regarding what?
The questioner : Regarding the incident of the sorcery of the Prophet, he denied the incident on the grounds that it is mentioned in the Noble Qur'an that "the sorcerer will not succeed wherever he goes." He cited some Qur'anic evidence, of course, and relied on the fact that the hadith reported on this is an ahad hadith.
The Shaykh : What Allah willed.
The questioner : So he considered it to be based on conjecture.
The Shaykh : May Allah guide him. Now, my brother, do not hold it against me if I ask you: Is this man a scholar? You will say no, because you said he is a student.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : Now, why do we pay attention to every barker? Every time someone has a doubt in his head and throws it at people, we sit there... with it. Throw this doubt to the ground. For example, it is your right to know the hadith that he weakened and claimed is an ahad hadith. It is your right to know whether it is a weak hadith or an authentic hadith. It is not with him, nor with the doctors you are afflicted with, who know nothing of the knowledge of the Mighty One, but rather with the people of knowledge of hadith, from whom we inherited the knowledge of hadith, the rules of hadith knowledge, the terminology of hadith, the chains of hadith, and the texts of hadith. If you have prior knowledge that this hadith is authentic according to the people of hadith, then dismiss the words of thisThe student : person as if they were a wall, and remind him of the explicit text of His saying, the Exalted:[An-Nahl 16:43], and there is no doubt that thisThe student : is not one of the scholars of hadith, obviously. So his duty, by the explicit text of the Noble Qur'an, is [An-Nahl 16:43]. So now, if you ask, "Is this hadith authentic or not?" That is your duty to seek the truth and the right. As for "So-and-so said this, and so-and-so said that," many opinions do not concern you. Do you know whether this hadith is authentic or not? So why do you raise such a doubt from thisThe student : person? It appears that this doubt has done its work.
The questioner : No, but Shaykh, I mean, there is a large category of people who deny ahad hadiths.
The Shaykh : No, do not expand the topic now. Let us stay with the hadith of sorcery for now. You, may Allah bless you, mentioned in your speech that he cited some verses, then moved to the hadith and claimed it is an ahad hadith. In my opinion, the well-known saying of the scholars applies to him: "He knows by what he does not know." First of all, this is an ahad hadith. Now, even if it is an ahad hadith, do you think he prays or not? May Allah know best. We assume the best of him; does he pray well?
The student: Yes.
The Shaykh : Most of his prayer is based on ahad hadiths. So what does he do? He rejects these hadiths that he claims are ahad hadiths, but he rambles about what he does not know. This is first. Second: There are those who use this term, or who used it in the past, and they divided hadiths into two categories: mutawatir hadiths and ahad hadiths. Then some of them derived a jurisprudential branch from this division and said: "Ahad hadiths must be acted upon in rulings, but it is not obligatory, indeed it is not permissible, to act upon them in matters of creed." And I think you distinguish and know what they mean by creed and what they mean by rulings? They mean by creed the unseen matters that do not enter into the realm of reality and practice, and by rulings what relates to transactions. So now, history, history in general, and then the biography of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) in particular, does it fall into the first category, i.e., what relates to creed and unseen matters, or the second category, what relates to human reality, transactions, and rulings? Which category do you see it in?
The questioner : ... In the first category.
The Shaykh : So if it is said that the Messenger (peace be upon him) was wounded, struck, or cut, or that his front tooth was broken, does it have a relation to the knowledge of the unseen?
The questioner: No.
The Shaykh : Now, what is the difference between these examples I have placed before you just now and the fact that he was subjected to sorcery and fell ill from the sorcery? What is its relation to the unseen matters?
The questioner : It has no relation.
The Shaykh : So how... and you said it falls into the first category? That the hadith of sorcery has no relation to creed? Correct?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : But I hope you do not say "correct" when you are not reassured. So lay out before you, as they say in our region in Syria, a carpet of Ahmad, and throw what you have completely, so that we may uproot the doubt from its root and its place, okay?
The questioner : Shaykh, suppose a person denies sorcery.
The Shaykh : I asked you a question and you did not answer me.
The questioner : No, praise be to Allah, I am reassured.
The Shaykh : Good, yes, but it seems to me that you are going to open a new issue for us, and this is better for me, but it is better, the latter, that we complete the first research.
The questioner : If Allah wills.
The Shaykh : And I advise you to memorize this question you were about to ask. So I say first: The hadith of sorcery has no relation to creed, but rather it has a relation to the life and biography of the Messenger. I gave you real examples from the biography, and no one will say that I do not believe that the Messenger, for example, while in Makkah and prostrating before Allah (Mighty and Majestic), one of the polytheists came and humiliated him and placed on his back what he placed? The stomach, the stomach with... these filth. This is the ultimate humiliation for the Master of Mankind (peace be upon him). And I, emotionally, do not accept this narration. This is an ahad narration, and that is the end of it. This is not knowledge, this is ignorance. This is submission to boundless emotions that throw their owner into perdition while he does not know or feel. So the important thing: What is the hadith of the Messenger (peace be upon him) in which he was subjected to sorcery? First, the hadith is in the two Sahihs, in al-Bukhari and Muslim. So from thisThe student : knowledge, who dares to challenge al-Bukhari while he is ignorant, ignorant of the science of hadith terminology, ignorant of the ranks of the narrators of hadith, the trustworthy and the precise, and so on, a blatant ignorant person to the end, that this hadith, from its narrators, is it strange, meaning singular? Is it widespread? Is it mutawatir? Where does this poor man get to know all these details, while it is sufficient for him to memorize the lessons he is taught in the university, and in the end, after a few years, he takes his certificate and gets a job... and Allah is sufficient for the believers in fighting. The summary: This hadith was narratedThe Shaykh : in their two Sahihs with a chain, so any person who advances to reject the hadith must either attack the Lady Aisha or those below her, and there is no way to find a defect in any of these narrators, because they are all trustworthy and known to the people of knowledge, as for the people of ignorance, do not pay attention to them. Then the Lady Aisha did not narrate this hadith alone; the hadith came from some of the Companions. In my opinion, because I am far from the time, in my opinion this Companion is Abu Sa'id al-Khudri. But when I say the hadith came from other than Aisha, this is certain, because I extracted the hadith on some occasions in some of my books. So the hadith is not ahad in the linguistic sense, meaning narrated by a single person, but it is ahad in the technical sense, because every hadith that is not mutawatir according to the people of knowledge of hadith is ahad in meaning, and this is very important to know.
The Shaykh : Regarding what?
The questioner : Regarding the incident of the sorcery of the Prophet, he denied the incident on the grounds that it is mentioned in the Noble Qur'an that "the sorcerer will not succeed wherever he goes." He cited some Qur'anic evidence, of course, and relied on the fact that the hadith reported on this is an ahad hadith.
The Shaykh : What Allah willed.
The questioner : So he considered it to be based on conjecture.
The Shaykh : May Allah guide him. Now, my brother, do not hold it against me if I ask you: Is this man a scholar? You will say no, because you said he is a student.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : Now, why do we pay attention to every barker? Every time someone has a doubt in his head and throws it at people, we sit there... with it. Throw this doubt to the ground. For example, it is your right to know the hadith that he weakened and claimed is an ahad hadith. It is your right to know whether it is a weak hadith or an authentic hadith. It is not with him, nor with the doctors you are afflicted with, who know nothing of the knowledge of the Mighty One, but rather with the people of knowledge of hadith, from whom we inherited the knowledge of hadith, the rules of hadith knowledge, the terminology of hadith, the chains of hadith, and the texts of hadith. If you have prior knowledge that this hadith is authentic according to the people of hadith, then dismiss the words of thisThe student : person as if they were a wall, and remind him of the explicit text of His saying, the Exalted:
So ask the people of the message if you do not know.
فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَSo ask the people of the message if you do not know.
فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَThe questioner : No, but Shaykh, I mean, there is a large category of people who deny ahad hadiths.
The Shaykh : No, do not expand the topic now. Let us stay with the hadith of sorcery for now. You, may Allah bless you, mentioned in your speech that he cited some verses, then moved to the hadith and claimed it is an ahad hadith. In my opinion, the well-known saying of the scholars applies to him: "He knows by what he does not know." First of all, this is an ahad hadith. Now, even if it is an ahad hadith, do you think he prays or not? May Allah know best. We assume the best of him; does he pray well?
The student: Yes.
The Shaykh : Most of his prayer is based on ahad hadiths. So what does he do? He rejects these hadiths that he claims are ahad hadiths, but he rambles about what he does not know. This is first. Second: There are those who use this term, or who used it in the past, and they divided hadiths into two categories: mutawatir hadiths and ahad hadiths. Then some of them derived a jurisprudential branch from this division and said: "Ahad hadiths must be acted upon in rulings, but it is not obligatory, indeed it is not permissible, to act upon them in matters of creed." And I think you distinguish and know what they mean by creed and what they mean by rulings? They mean by creed the unseen matters that do not enter into the realm of reality and practice, and by rulings what relates to transactions. So now, history, history in general, and then the biography of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) in particular, does it fall into the first category, i.e., what relates to creed and unseen matters, or the second category, what relates to human reality, transactions, and rulings? Which category do you see it in?
The questioner : ... In the first category.
The Shaykh : So if it is said that the Messenger (peace be upon him) was wounded, struck, or cut, or that his front tooth was broken, does it have a relation to the knowledge of the unseen?
The questioner: No.
The Shaykh : Now, what is the difference between these examples I have placed before you just now and the fact that he was subjected to sorcery and fell ill from the sorcery? What is its relation to the unseen matters?
The questioner : It has no relation.
The Shaykh : So how... and you said it falls into the first category? That the hadith of sorcery has no relation to creed? Correct?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : But I hope you do not say "correct" when you are not reassured. So lay out before you, as they say in our region in Syria, a carpet of Ahmad, and throw what you have completely, so that we may uproot the doubt from its root and its place, okay?
The questioner : Shaykh, suppose a person denies sorcery.
The Shaykh : I asked you a question and you did not answer me.
The questioner : No, praise be to Allah, I am reassured.
The Shaykh : Good, yes, but it seems to me that you are going to open a new issue for us, and this is better for me, but it is better, the latter, that we complete the first research.
The questioner : If Allah wills.
The Shaykh : And I advise you to memorize this question you were about to ask. So I say first: The hadith of sorcery has no relation to creed, but rather it has a relation to the life and biography of the Messenger. I gave you real examples from the biography, and no one will say that I do not believe that the Messenger, for example, while in Makkah and prostrating before Allah (Mighty and Majestic), one of the polytheists came and humiliated him and placed on his back what he placed? The stomach, the stomach with... these filth. This is the ultimate humiliation for the Master of Mankind (peace be upon him). And I, emotionally, do not accept this narration. This is an ahad narration, and that is the end of it. This is not knowledge, this is ignorance. This is submission to boundless emotions that throw their owner into perdition while he does not know or feel. So the important thing: What is the hadith of the Messenger (peace be upon him) in which he was subjected to sorcery? First, the hadith is in the two Sahihs, in al-Bukhari and Muslim. So from thisThe student : knowledge, who dares to challenge al-Bukhari while he is ignorant, ignorant of the science of hadith terminology, ignorant of the ranks of the narrators of hadith, the trustworthy and the precise, and so on, a blatant ignorant person to the end, that this hadith, from its narrators, is it strange, meaning singular? Is it widespread? Is it mutawatir? Where does this poor man get to know all these details, while it is sufficient for him to memorize the lessons he is taught in the university, and in the end, after a few years, he takes his certificate and gets a job... and Allah is sufficient for the believers in fighting. The summary: This hadith was narratedThe Shaykh : in their two Sahihs with a chain, so any person who advances to reject the hadith must either attack the Lady Aisha or those below her, and there is no way to find a defect in any of these narrators, because they are all trustworthy and known to the people of knowledge, as for the people of ignorance, do not pay attention to them. Then the Lady Aisha did not narrate this hadith alone; the hadith came from some of the Companions. In my opinion, because I am far from the time, in my opinion this Companion is Abu Sa'id al-Khudri. But when I say the hadith came from other than Aisha, this is certain, because I extracted the hadith on some occasions in some of my books. So the hadith is not ahad in the linguistic sense, meaning narrated by a single person, but it is ahad in the technical sense, because every hadith that is not mutawatir according to the people of knowledge of hadith is ahad in meaning, and this is very important to know.
Source
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