Explanation of the hadith of Ibn 'Umar that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Tell me about a tree that is like a Muslim; it yields its fruit at all times by the permission of its Lord."

The Shaykh : The hadith mentioned under this chapter has a sound chain of narration. It is narrated from Ibn 'Umar, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "When I went out with my father, I said, 'O my father, the date palm came to my mind.' He said, 'What prevented you from saying it? If you had said it, it would have been more pleasing to me than so-and-so.' He said, 'What prevented me was that I did not see you or Abu Bakr speak, so I disliked [to speak]'". The hadith ends here.
We return to some of the commentary on the hadith. In a gathering, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) wished to test his Companions and examine their understanding, so he directed the following question to them: What does it mean to be like a Muslim? It means that it always benefits people. That is the nature of the Muslim man: that he is always and forever beneficial to people. And the Messenger (peace be upon him) described the tree he likened to the Muslim by saying (peace be upon him): "It yields its fruit at all times by the permission of its Lord." This portion is from the Noble Qur'an: . In the language of the Arabs, this term is used to refer to varying times, ranging from a moment to long years. Here, in this phrase that the Messenger (peace be upon him) quoted in this hadith from the aforementioned verse, the "time" here is intended to mean the year, in contrast to, for example, where the intended time is a long period, said to be forty years. The point is that among the characteristics of this tree, which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) likened to the Muslim, is that he described it as , meaning every year. It is among its characteristics that its leaves do not fall; that is, they do not drop, but remain fixed on its branches and limbs, not falling like most trees, but remaining as they are, green. This was the question: the Messenger (peace be upon him) was asking the Companions to tell him about a tree that is like a Muslim, for it always and forever benefits people. Because the date palm tree, while it bears fruit only once a year, this fruit remains stored food for its owners until the coming year, when the tree has borne fruit anew. And so it benefits people and yields its fruit at all times by the permission of its Lord. This characteristic is prominent in the date palm tree, so the Messenger (peace be upon him) added to this characteristic another one equally prominent, which is... and the persistence of the tree on the mother and the root... He said (peace be upon him): . When the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) asked this question of his noble Companions, it came to the mind of 'Abd Allah ibn 'Umar ibn al-Khattab that it was the date palm. 'Abd Allah ibn 'Umar ibn al-Khattab: 'Umar al-Khattab was among the senior Companions who embraced Islam early, and his son was young in age. Naturally, he was present in the gathering when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) directed this question. He possessed the wisdom of 'Abd Allah ibn 'Umar; he had wisdom, he had shrewdness, he had knowledge, and finally, he had the etiquette of knowledge and the etiquette of scholars in the gatherings of scholars. It came to his mind that it was the tree whose characteristic is that it yields its fruit at all times by the permission of its Lord, and whose characteristic is that its leaves do not fall. Who is this? But the date palm. However, he controlled his nerves, and as I pointed out in the previous lesson, unlike the young Muslim today who hardly hears a question directed to a man of knowledge without intruding and rushing to answer before the question is directed to him. Ibn 'Umar was not like that, for he was raised and graduated from the school of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), this school that teaches etiquette along with knowledge. So it came to the mind of 'Abd Allah ibn 'Umar that it was the date palm, but he kept it to himself and did not reveal it to them out of etiquette. He said, "It came to my mind that it was the date palm, but I disliked to speak." Why? He says: "And there were Abu Bakr and 'Umar ibn al-Khattab". There in the gathering was Abu Bakr, the best of the Companions of the Messenger (peace be upon him) in that regard, and there was his father, who was greater than him in knowledge and age. So how could he speak? Ibn 'Umar said: When they did not speak, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) answered the question he had posed to the Companions by saying: . Ibn 'Umar said: "When I went out with my father, I said, 'O my father, the date palm came to my mind'". After the gathering dispersed, 'Abd Allah ibn 'Umar revealed what had come to his mind, that it was the date palm. Here, his father was affected by some sadness and grief and... that is what is expressed by the saying of 'Umar: "What prevented you from saying it? If you had said it, it would have been more pleasing to me than so-and-so", meaning than what people love of wealth and status, etc., because in this situation, Ibn 'Umar, the young man, would appear before the Companions as one of great intellect. If he had explicitly stated that it was the date palm. But Ibn 'Umar affirmed the reason that prevented him from speaking of this blessing that Allah bestowed upon him, where he understood the words of the Messenger (peace be upon him) which the Companions had not yet understood. So he said, with both etiquette and apology to his father: "What prevented me was that I did not see you or Abu Bakr speak, so I disliked [to speak]". When I saw that you and Abu Bakr al-Siddiq were silent and did not speak, I did not speak, for if they are silent, I am even less inclined to speak.
The author used this entire hadith as the heading for this chapter: "Chapter: If the senior does not speak, is it permissible for the junior to speak?" Thus is the fiqh of al-Bukhari; he titles the hadith with a chapter that asks: Is it permissible for him to speak? He does not give you the answer, for he wants the student of knowledge to take the answer himself from his study and understanding of the hadith he cited under the chapter. So now, what do we understand from this question? Is it permissible for the junior to speak if the senior does not speak, and the author cited this sound hadith under this chapter? It may occur to the minds of some people reading this hadith that the answer is no, because Ibn 'Umar did not speak. But the correct answer is that it is permissible for him to speak. This is because when the Messenger (peace be upon him) directed the address by saying, "Tell me about a tree that is like so-and-so," he did not restrict it to Abu Bakr, 'Umar, or any of the senior Companions... rather, he directed a general address. So when the senior Companions did not rush to answer this question, then it is the turn of the juniors, such as 'Abd Allah ibn 'Umar. There is no objection here, after that, to rushing to answer this question. This is exactly like a teacher or professor or shaykh of a lesson or the like who directs a question to all those present: What do you say about so-and-so, is it permissible or not? The question is directed to everyone. If it had been directed to the seniors of the group, then there would be the etiquette that 'Abd Allah ibn 'Umar adhered to. It is not a problem that 'Abd Allah ibn 'Umar adhered to it, but for how long? As long as he found Abu Bakr and 'Umar silent, he had to reveal what Allah had bestowed upon him of understanding of the words of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and say, "It is the date palm, O Messenger of Allah." We take from al-Bukhari's question in this chapter—whether the junior may speak if the senior is silent—the answer from this hadith in the affirmative, not the negative, from two aspects. The first aspect is what we explained just now: that the question was directed to everyone, so when the senior did not speak, the junior should speak. The other aspect is that one of the seniors, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, the father of 'Abd Allah, himself said, "If you had spoken, it would have been more pleasing to me than so-and-so." If it had been the etiquette of the gathering for the junior to speak when the senior is silent, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab would not have wished for his son the opposite of the etiquette.
Thus, we summarize from this lesson and the previous one two points of etiquette. The first point of etiquette is that if there is a gathering, especially one of significance, and there are elders in knowledge and age, it is the etiquette of the younger ones not to speak before the elders. The other point of etiquette is that if the elder is unable to speak in a manner befitting the topic, then the younger one should assert himself, his personality, and his knowledge, because the matter is not solely a matter of age; often the case is the opposite. However, the rule is to respect the elder. If the elder does not speak, the younger one should speak, as suggested by the statement of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) to his son: "If you had said it, it would have been more pleasing to me than so-and-so"