The Shaykh’s continuation of his explanation of the book al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib, explaining the sixteenth hadith (from Anas that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) delivered a sermon to us, a sermon we had never heard the like of before, and he said, “If you only knew what I know, you would laugh little and weep much…”)

The Shaykh : Our last lesson from al-Hafiz al-Mundhiri’s (may Allah have mercy on him) book al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib reached the sixteenth hadith in my copies. He (may Allah have mercy on him) said, from Anas (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) delivered a sermon to us, a sermon we had never heard the like of before, and he said:

If you knew what I know, then you would laugh little and you would cry much.

لو تعلمون ما أعلم لضحكتم قليلا ولبكيتم كثيرا

Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2313Hasan (Darussalam)

So the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) covered their faces, and there was a sound of weeping from them”. It was narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim. And in a narration: “Something reached the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) regarding his Companions, so he delivered a sermon and said:

Paradise and Hell were presented to me and I have never seen the good and evil as (I did) today. And if you were to know you would have wept more and laughed less.

عرضت علي الجنّة و النار فلم أر كاليوم في الخير و الشّرّ و لو تعلمون ما أعلم لضحكتم قليلا و لبكيتم كثيرا

Sahih Muslim 2359a

No day came upon the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) more severe than that day, so they covered their heads, and there was a sound of weeping from them”. He said that al-khannin, with the khah opened and followed by a noon, is weeping with a nasal tone due to the spreading of the voice from the nose. This is how the author (may Allah have mercy on him) explained the word al-khannin. In the books of language and hadith commentaries, there is a slightly more detailed explanation, stating that al-khannin and al-hannin mean the same thing. This is one opinion. The other opinion, which is perhaps clearer and more evident, is that al-khannin, as defined by the author, is the sound that comes out during weeping, containing some nasal tone because it comes from the nose, whereas al-hannin comes from the chest. This is the difference between al-khannin with the khah and al-hannin with the hah. This hadith is a part of the long hadith that we read to you in the last lesson, so there is nothing in it that we need to comment on except for brief remarks. Anas’s statement: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) delivered a sermon, a sermon I had never heard the like of before”. He did not specify this sermon, but if we look at the routes of this hadith and its narrators from among the Companions, we find among them the Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her). And we find this phrase from this hadith: etc. It is the last phrase in her hadith that Imam al-Bukhari included in his Sahih through her route. She mentions that the sun was eclipsed during the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). We also mentioned to you something of the story of this eclipse. She recalls that the Messenger (peace be upon him) saw Paradise and Hell, and we also explained some of that to you. And he delivered a sermon to them, and among the first things he said was: etc. Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned in this sermon that he saw 'Amr ibn Luhay, and he saw the woman who was being tormented for the cat, and he saw the owner of the pick who used his pick to steal the belongings of pilgrims. All of this was mentioned by the Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) in this hadith of hers. And she said that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said in this sermon: So we can identify the sermon that Anas referred to in this hadith as the sermon of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) in the prayer of the eclipse. And what confirms this is the other narration mentioned by the author when he said: The first narration was narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim, and in a narration: “Something reached the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) regarding his Companions, so he delivered a sermon and said: This other narration mentioned by the author confirms that this sermon is his (peace be upon him) sermon in the prayer of the eclipse, because there he saw Paradise and Hell. So this sermon that Anas ibn Malik refers to is his (peace and blessings be upon him) sermon in the prayer of the eclipse. Then, his statement in the narration “Something reached the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) regarding his Companions” — this “something” is indefinite, like the sermon in the previous hadith. It could be something of the disputes or conflicts that sometimes occurred between some of the Companions, which is not uncommon for humans, no matter how noble and elevated they are. And it is possible, and this is what my heart leans toward, that it refers to what happened on the occasion of the Messenger’s (peace and blessings be upon him) prayer for the eclipse. We mentioned to you in the previous lesson that when the sun was eclipsed during the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), it happened that this eclipse was on the day of the death of his son Ibrahim (peace and blessings be upon them both). So they said: “The sun was eclipsed because of the death of a great person”, meaning Ibrahim, the son of the Prophet. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) delivered this sermon to them, the beginning of which was: So it was the custom of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance that when they saw the sun eclipsed, they predicted that a great person of status in society had died. So this was a custom of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. And something of that reached the Messenger (peace be upon him) from his Companions. And naturally, this is a matter of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, and the only thing for him (peace and blessings be upon him) to do was to abolish it and invalidate it. Therefore, he said: to the end of the hadith. So the indefinite “something” here is the statement of some of the Companions, based on their custom in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, before the guidance from Allah (Mighty and Majestic) came to them on the tongue of his Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), namely their statement that the sun was eclipsed because of the death of Ibrahim (peace be upon him).
So Anas here is narrating part of that great sermon, which he described as one he had never heard the like of from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), let alone from anyone else. He narrated part of it, and others detailed it, such as the Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her). And I had compiled the benefits of the Companions’ hadiths regarding the story of this prayer of the eclipse in a treatise, and in reality, it contains many benefits, because tracing the routes gives us obscure benefits that were in some narrations, like this example we mention regarding Anas’s use of the word “sermon” and his use of the word “something.” This is what can be commented on from Anas’s hadith.