Miscellaneous by Al-Albani-289

The Shaykh : And now we read to you the hadith with the number forty-five in my copy, which is a valid hadith, and it is his saying: "And from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: There were two men from Bili, a tribe of Quda'ah, who embraced Islam with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). One of them was martyred, and the other was delayed by a year. Talhah ibn 'Ubayd Allah said..."

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Talhah ibn 'Ubayd Allah said: "I saw that the one who was delayed was admitted to Paradise before the martyr." Here, a phrase is missing, either from the author or from the scribe or the printer, which is "I was shown Paradise". So the phrase becomes: Talhah ibn 'Ubayd Allah said: "I was shown Paradise, and I saw that the one who was delayed among them..." This means he saw in a dream that he entered Paradise; he saw Paradise and saw in it this man who was delayed in death compared to the martyr. He said: "He was admitted to Paradise before the martyr. I was amazed by this, so I went out in the morning and mentioned it to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)." Here too, the phrase is correct as in the source of the hadith: "I mentioned that to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)." The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Ahmad narrated it with a good chain, and Ibn Majah, Ibn Hibban in his Sahih, and al-Bayhaqi all narrated it from Talhah in a similar form, longer than this. Ibn Majah and Ibn Hibban added at the end: ... .
This hadith is, in reality, an honor and a historical reality for that valid hadith . These are two men who embraced Islam in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). One of them was martyred, dying in the path of Allah as a martyr, and the other lived a full year after him. Talhah ibn 'Ubayd Allah, who is one of the ten promised Paradise, as is well known, saw Paradise in a dream and saw in it that man who was delayed in death and did not die as a martyr. He saw that he had entered Paradise, meaning before the one who died as a martyr. In reality, as he said, he was amazed by this because it is supposed that the martyr is the first to enter. His amazement was at what he saw, contrary to what he had assumed, where he saw the one delayed in death without being martyred precede the one who died as a martyr in entering Paradise. His amazement led him to mention the matter to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who explained the issue to him, increasing his amazement with his saying: . That is, he lived a year and thereby acquired the virtue of fasting this blessed month. And did he not also pray six thousand rak'ahs that the one who died as a martyr did not pray? This is a great reward. And he, peace be upon him, in his saying: , refers to the number of rak'ahs of the five obligatory prayers that a Muslim must pray every day and night. And his saying, peace be upon him, in connection with his saying: , either means by this connection, which is his saying: , regarding the six thousand, that it is the multiplication of the number of the five prayers by the number of three hundred and sixty-five days, and multiplying this result by the number of rak'ahs, which is seventeen rak'ahs, makes the result six thousand and two hundred rak'ahs and more. So either he means by his saying: , this excess, or he means more than that, because a Muslim does not limit himself, or it is supposed that he does not limit himself, to praying only the five obligatory prayers, but he adds to that something of the Sunnah, especially what is of the rawatib. This is from the perspective of precaution, as indicated by the hadith of the Messenger, may Allah pray upon him and grant him peace, that the Muslim on the Day of Resurrection, when he is reckoned, the first thing he is reckoned for is his prayer. If his prayer is complete in quantity and quality, he has succeeded and prospered. But if it is deficient in quantity or quality, he has failed and lost. In this other case, our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, by His grace and mercy toward His servants, commands the angels to look into the record of this losing servant, because of a deficiency that occurred in the obligatory prayer, to see if he has any voluntary prayer to complete his obligatory prayer with this voluntary prayer. Therefore, a Muslim should not be content with the way of that Bedouin who, when he asked the Messenger, may Allah pray upon him and grant him peace, what Allah had obligated upon him every day and night, and when he answered that it was five prayers, said: "By Allah, O Messenger of Allah, I will not add to them or subtract from them." And although the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) had encouraged this man to remain steadfast by his saying: "By Allah, O Messenger of Allah, I will not add to them or subtract from them", he, peace be upon him, said: . This does not contradict that a person should be cautious with his prayer and his worship, doing as much voluntary prayer as he can, fearing that a deficiency might occur in his obligatory prayer, as mentioned earlier. So his saying, may Allah pray upon him and grant him peace, to the one who was delayed in death and preceded in entering Paradise: , either means the total of only the rak'ahs of the obligatory prayers, or it means an additional amount from voluntary and supererogatory prayers. And this is the best for every Muslim, especially in our time, where trials, harms, and destructive things of various kinds multiply upon a person, corrupting much of his worship and obedience. So he must have some reserve in his worship so that he may succeed on the Day of Resurrection, even if by replacing something with something else that he lost or was negligent about.
So, this hadith clarifies for the Muslim how the long life of a Muslim man, if he does good deeds, is better for him than his short life. And for that reason, hadiths will follow that forbid the Muslim to wish for death. And from this it becomes clear how Islam treats the psychological diseases in its followers, whose effects have become manifest in our time among people, despite the availability of all the causes of material life and luxury. And yet, you find them disturbed in their lives to the greatest extent, in accordance with the saying of Allah, Mighty and Majestic: . So, a life of hardship is not in the austerity of living, as many people of limited intellect and thought and deficient in religion imagine. Rather, hardship comes even if its owner is living in the most comfortable material life. Islam, with such hadiths, reassures the Muslim that his long life is better for him as long as he does good deeds, even if his life is material hardship. And this life will turn for him on the Day of Resurrection into a life of luxury, unlike the life of the disbelievers in these lands. They are living in luxury now, but they are in the Hereafter, as you heard in the previous verse: , to the end of the verse.