The Shaykh’s reminder regarding the Salafis’ leniency toward one another in the matter of standing for one another, with an explanation of the evidence for this.

The Shaykh : In reality, there are several matters I observe that require attention and reminder. The first matter is the leniency of our Salafi brothers toward one another. I do not mean their leniency toward others, for that is a separate discussion; rather, I mean the laxity or leniency of the Salafis toward one another in standing for one another. I do not advise this leniency, because it is based on a contradiction of the correct Sunnah. This Sunnah is established by several hadiths, some of which are explicit on the subject, and some from which an indication of the subject is derived. This type of explicit evidence is divided into two categories: one concerning the person sitting, and one concerning the person entering. As for the category concerning the person sitting, it is the hadith of Anas ibn Malik, which Imam al-Bukhari narrated in *Al-Adab al-Mufrad*, and Imam Ahmad in *Al-Musnad*, and others, with a valid chain, from Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: “No person was more beloved to them than the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) — in one narration: in terms of seeing him. No person was more beloved to them than the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in terms of seeing him, and they did not stand for him because they knew his dislike of it.”
It is self-evident that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is the most deserving of people of honor, as long as Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) has honored him and preferred him over all creation, and made him the master of the noble messengers. If this standing, which Muslims today habitually perform for their great men, leaders, and shaykhs, and others, were a prescribed means of honor, our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would have been the most deserving of it. Since the matter is not so, as evidenced by the aforementioned hadith of Anas: “They did not stand for him because they knew his dislike of it,” if standing were a means of honor prescribed by the Shari'ah, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would not have disliked it. Therefore, the dislike of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) for this kind of standing is to be understood, at the least, as a dislike that implies, at the very least, that it is not recommended. Thus, leaving off this standing — and I continue to draw attention to the fact that our mutual dealings fall under the general meaning of the saying of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He): .
We have spoken about the Messenger (peace be upon him) and that he is the most deserving of people of honor. Now we speak about his noble Companions. They are undoubtedly the people who know best the ranks of great men. How much more so when it is the greatest of men? When we see that they did not stand for him, that confirms that they understood from him (peace be upon him) his dislike of this standing. So, let us imagine the person entering, no matter how great he is, and the person sitting, no matter how much he respects the great one. The person entering will not be greater, nor will the person sitting today be more respectful of the great ones than the Companions were of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him).
This is what concerns the person sitting; he does not stand for the person entering. As for the person entering himself, he is one of two types: either he follows the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in his dislike of people standing for him, in which case his position when he enters is to urge people to remain seated without standing for him; or he is the other type, which is what afflicts the majority of those who enter today. In that case, the severe warning comes to them, namely his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . I cannot imagine a person who does not like standing complaining about someone who does not stand for him, except that there is a tendency of arrogance in his heart. This hadith with its severe warning applies to him. The other hadith says: . The hadith is long, and I do not know if it is useful to mention it in its entirety, though it may be more appropriate. When the Messenger (peace be upon him) said this hadith, they said: “O Messenger of Allah, one of us loves to be seen in good clothes; is that from arrogance?” He said: . Another said: “One of us loves to be seen in good sandals; is that from arrogance?” He said: . Another said: “One of us loves to be seen with a good whip in his hand — the whip is known; it is called the ‘karbaj’ among us in Syria — is that from arrogance?” He said: . They said: “What is arrogance, O Messenger of Allah?” He said:
“Arrogance is rejecting the truth and looking down on people.” In one narration: . Excuse me.
He (peace be upon him) said: . In one narration: ; meaning *ghumud* with a sad or a ta, two narrations, and the meaning is the same = -- And upon you be peace, the mercy of Allah, and His blessings -- =, so arrogance = -- Welcome -- = is rejecting the truth and looking down on people, or belittling people. And if we know that it is part of the truth that the person sitting does not stand for the person entering, then if the person entering from among the people hopes that the sitters will stand for him, while he knows that this is a disliked matter by the Shari'ah, it is feared that he will fall under his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): .
This second meaning, concerning the person entering who loves for people to stand for him, is confirmed by a hadith that indicates this meaning, but through deduction and sound reasoning. That is the hadith narrated by the Imam = -- And upon you be peace, the mercy of Allah, and His blessings, welcome, and upon you be peace... -- =. There is a hadith in *Sahih al-Imam Muslim* from the hadith of Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) rode his mount one day and it threw him to the ground, so he was injured in his shoulder. When the time for the midday prayer came, he was unable to lead the people in prayer while standing, so he sat down and the people stood behind him in prayer. He gestured to them during the prayer to sit down, so they sat. When the prayer ended, he said to them (peace and blessings be upon him): .
The consideration of this hadith involves two points. The first is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) considered the standing of the Companions in prayer behind him while he was sitting in prayer out of necessity as a form similar to the standing of the court of Kisra and the ministers of Kisra above his head in honor of him while he was sitting on his throne. This is with the observation of the very, very, very great difference between the Messenger (peace be upon him) and his Companions on one hand, and Kisra and his court on the other. That is what I referred to: the Messenger (peace be upon him) sat out of necessity, and his sitting in prayer is not outside of prayer; that is, before Allah (Mighty and Majestic). The Companions, too, only stood in prayer, and they stood to fulfill a pillar of prayer that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) commanded in the Noble Qur'an by His saying: .
As for Kisra, he sits in arrogance and pride on his throne, and the people stand around him in standing to honor him. How vast is the difference between these people in action and intention, and those people in action and intention! Nevertheless, he said to them: ; meaning you have come close to doing what the Persians do with their great ones; they stand above their kings. There is no doubt that his (peace be upon him) speech was just, balanced, and precise. He did not say: “You did what the great ones of Kisra or Persia do with their great ones,” because there is a great difference. But nevertheless, there is a very soft and gentle indication that this image, even in prayer, is something you should distance yourselves from, so that there is no apparent similarity, despite the difference in intentions between the two groups. Therefore, he said to them: . This is the first perspective.
The other point in this hadith is that he omitted a pillar of the prayer, which is standing, for the people praying behind the imam who is sitting due to an excuse, so that the formal, personal resemblance between the imam sitting in worship of Allah and the congregation standing behind this imam in worship of Allah does not appear, so that the formal resemblance between these people and the men of Persia in their exalting of their great ones does not appear. Once this and that are clear, it becomes evident that what the majority of Muslims today, like many of the shaykhs, are upon is that if the shaykh—let us say the prince, and not the minister, because these people have another ruling, as I said at the beginning of my talk, that the Salafis, at least among themselves, must uphold the Sunnah always and forever, at least among themselves; after that, there is another rank of those from among others whom they perceive as having soundness and readiness to accept the Sunnah. But if, for example, a prince or a minister enters, and there is no room for you to establish the Sunnah—even if they display the Sunnah, they may not care about it at all—then in that case, we stand, and our inner state says: There is no power and no strength except with Allah! But among ourselves, this is what should never happen; because this is a polytheistic phenomenon, and the previous hadith indicated that: .
However, there is a hadith in whose chain there is weakness, although I found what corroborates it; and it is his saying (peace be upon him): . Some people say regarding this hadith that he said: , and the non-Arabs stand as it came in the hadith of Jabir: they stand like this for a long, long time, and the king is sitting. We say: This is what the non-Arabs do, and what is less than that is also done by the non-Arabs; meaning: this which the Messenger (peace be upon him) mentioned in the hadith of Jabir, of the standing of the king’s retinue around him like this while he is sitting; this is what the great ones do with their greatest one. But the other standing, which we will also discuss, is also done by the non-Arabs, as is observed to this day; and therefore, imitation is present in both of the two forms. This is what concerns standing for the one who enters.
The second issue: standing from one’s seat for the one who enters so that he may sit in it. This is another issue, and there is a hadith in al-Bukhari and Muslim: . So now, the one who enters comes in, and the gathering—may Allah will it—is spacious, so, for example, Abu Khalid stands for him so that he may sit in his seat; this is contrary to the hadith, . If the gathering is naturally spacious, as we see in your lands, may Allah will it, the gathering consists of many rooms compared to our lands, then there is no need for expansion; because it is spacious. And if it is assumed that there is pressure and crowding, we must expand. Here, there is a place for him to sit, and the man does not stand from his seat for the one who enters so that he may sit in it.
The narrator of this hadith from the Companions is Abdullah ibn Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), and he used to narrate this hadith when someone entered and a man stood up for him from his seat, so he would say: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . And he would refuse to sit in the place of the man who had vacated that place for him. This is also an issue that we must be aware of. There is no doubt that in the first issue or in the other issue, the intention is clear, and it is honoring the one who enters. But we should honor the one who enters with what has been prescribed, not with what has been innovated. The one who said, for example: is the one who said: , and he was the one who disliked that people stand for him in exaltation and honor.
So we should note this first and second issue, and there is a third issue, and how many issues there are!