Miscellaneous by Al-Albani-257

The Shaykh : The fourth hadith. It was narrated from al-Hakam ibn Furukh; this has a good chain of narration. Abu al-Mulih led us in the funeral prayer, and we thought he had said the takbir, but he turned his face toward us and said, "Straighten your rows and make your intercession good." Abu al-Mulih said: Abdullah narrated to me from one of the Mothers of the Believers, and she was Maymunah, the wife of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). She said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) informed me, saying: So I asked Abu al-Mulih about the community, and he said: Forty. It was narrated by al-Nasa'i. We spoke about intercession in the first hadith of the hadiths in this chapter in the previous lesson, and that the number forty is less than the number one hundred, and that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) bestowed a favor upon His servants. Whereas before, the forgiveness of Allah for the deceased was tied to one hundred people interceding and making supplication for him, He increased in His grace and said: If it were forty people who make supplication for him and intercede for him with sincerity to Him, then Allah (Mighty and Majestic) will forgive him. However, here in this hadith, attention is drawn to something that should be pointed out, due to the negligence of the imams of mosques in pointing it out. He says here that Abu al-Mulih led us in the funeral prayer, and he is a Tabi'i, the son of a Companion. We thought he had said the takbir, but he turned his face toward us and said, "Straighten your rows and make your intercession good." So he pointed out two things here. The first is what people today neglect, as if they look at the funeral prayer and think it has no value. Therefore, when the rows are formed behind the funeral, you find them extremely disordered, not straightened at least as they straighten the rows for the five daily prayers, even though they also neglect straightening the rows in the five daily prayers. But they do straighten them, especially when they have bound themselves with the string that is stretched from east to west. Some people may think that this string is from the unrestricted public interests, but the truth is that it is from the misguided innovations. This is one of the fine points of the issues that only one who knows the harms of innovations in the religion and their effects, near or far, notices. Here you are now facing a real example: those who pray the five daily prayers on the string cannot straighten the rows without the string. This is an example. And when they establish the prayer for the funeral, you find the row extremely disordered. Despite this, you find the imam praying and not speaking, not even a word, or in the manner of some imams in the Saudi countries, who do nothing but say, "Straighten, straighten." As for the Sunnah, it has died. It has died in all the lands of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), except in some places where there are some foreigners. We read in the Sunnah, in the authentic hadiths, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not say the takbir to lead the people in prayer except after he would say: And sometimes he would say: And he would say to this one, "Move back," and to that one, "Move forward," and so on. All these matters have become dead, even in the Holy City of Madinah, where the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was, spreading this light to his Companions, and they in turn transmitted it to those after them, until it reached us and spread to whoever desired the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and clung to it with their teeth. Therefore, a person with short-sightedness and limited vision, when he finds the string stretched in the mosque, sees that the people are tied to the string. And therefore, they do not... move forward or move back. But if... the string is removed or lost, the row loosens and the row becomes disordered. Is this how the Muslim should be? Absolutely not. The Muslim's restraint comes from his heart; he is not tied to a simple string. This string may sometimes be like some walls and qiblas of mosques that are deviated from the direction of the qiblah, so the general public pray facing this wall, toward the qiblah or deviating from it. All of this is from the ill omens of intellectual and ideological stagnation due to traditional methodological rigidity.
Therefore, it is obligatory that we do not differentiate in straightening the rows between the five daily prayers and the funeral prayer, for it is a prayer. And so this noble Tabi'i, Abu al-Mulih, pointed out to the people, while the narrator of the hadith thought he had said the takbir, and behold, he turned to them and said, "Straighten your rows, straighten your rows." This is the first matter. The second matter, he pointed out to what I mentioned to you in the previous lesson regarding the obligation of sincerity in supplication for the deceased, so that the deceased benefits, and so that our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) accepts the supplication and intercession of those who intercede for him, who pray over him and make supplication for him. This supplication, as we detailed in the previous lesson, has sincerity as one of its conditions. So he says here, "Make your intercession good." It is not to be words that come out of your mouths without this word reaching your hearts and coming out through your mouths. This is a benefit in this hadith, and praise be to Allah.