Miscellaneous by Al-Albani-259
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The Shaykh : The following hadith is in the same sense as the previous one, with some of the clarification we mentioned earlier. It says: "And from 'Amir ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas that he was sitting with Ibn 'Umar when Khubab, the one in charge of the screened enclosure, came in and said: 'O 'Abd Allah ibn 'Umar, do you not hear what Abu Hurayrah is saying? He says that he heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say Sahih Muslim 945g So Ibn 'Umar sent Khubab to 'A'ishah to ask her about Abu Hurayrah's statement, and then to return to him and tell him what she said. And Ibn 'Umar took handful after handful of pebbles from the mosque and turned them over in his hand. Visualize this situation, because it is a situation... especially in its outcome. He said: And Ibn 'Umar took a handful of pebbles from the mosque and turned them over in his hand until he returned. Then she said, 'A'ishah said: Abu Hurayrah told the truth. So Ibn 'Umar struck the ground with the pebbles that were in his hand and then said: 'We have indeed neglected many qirats.'"
Ibn 'Umar neglected it because he had not heard this hadith; that is, he did not have this incentive, which is one of the means of the Shari'ah in educating the Muslim and encouraging and motivating him to perform some of the acts of worship, which is the explanation of the reward and recompense for these acts of worship. So Ibn 'Umar had not heard this hadith from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), nor had he heard it from some of the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), such as Abu Hurayrah, except in this incident when Khubab conveyed to him what Abu Hurayrah was saying, that he had heard from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) this hadith. So Ibn 'Umar's not accompanying the funeral was not due to his neglect of the Sunnah and the reward and virtue, but rather because he did not have knowledge of such a great reward, which might cause a person occupied with other prescribed virtues, such as knowledge, for example, or prayer, or the like, to free himself for this accompanying from the hour the funeral leaves its house until it is placed in its final resting place. Ibn 'Umar did not have knowledge of this virtue, so he struck the ground with the pebbles that were in his hand, regretfully, and said: "We have indeed neglected many qirats." As for us today, both matters may coincide: ignorance, for most people do not know; these hadiths have, unfortunately, become forgotten by the scholars of knowledge, let alone others, because the scholars of knowledge, unfortunately, once again, when they read the hadith, they say they do it for the blessing only, and not to understand it and work with what came in it. And I do not know what this blessing is when the Qur'an is read or the Sunnah is read, not for acting upon it. That is not the blessing; rather, it is the opposite of the blessing, because the Qur'an at that time and the Sunnah, each of them becomes a proof against its holder, because it is the knowledge of the truth, and then he deviated from it and did not act upon it. Even if he made an excuse that we are not scholars, we are not jurists, but Allah the Exalted only revealed the Qur'an for people to read it and reflect upon it, and He warned them by His saying, the Exalted:[Muhammad 47:24]
I say that these hadiths, if they are recited today, are recited as we said, we said... earlier, for the blessing and not for acting upon them. And with that, few are those who study the Sunnah today. And if they study it to understand it and act upon it, another defect occurs, which is that they study the Sunnah from the totality of what is in it, both what is authentic and what is not authentic. So either they proceed to knowledge of this totality, both what is authentic and what is not authentic, or they are deterred from acting upon the whole when it becomes clear to them after a time that there are things they acted upon for a long time, and then they are not authentic.
If some people become aware of this, they turn away from the whole; otherwise, they hold fast to the whole, and in that case, they are falling into lying about the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in narration and practice. And in this is great evil, as is known in the hadiths of the Messenger (peace be upon him) regarding the warning against narrating the hadith from him except after verifying its authenticity.
Our problem today is two problems. The first is ignorance of the Sunnah, even though it is made accessible through the books of hadith. And the other problem is that we have turned our Shari'ah life into an innovative, pre-Islamic age of ignorance life, the pre-Islamic age of ignorance of the twentieth century. So one of the benefits of the Sunnah, especially in our method of restricting the teaching to what is authentic from it, is reviving these Shari'ah landmarks and planting them in the hearts of the young Muslim, so that they proceed to act upon them and remove, as much as they can, the obstacles that stand in their way and prevent them from obtaining such a great reward.
The hadith that follows is also from the authentic hadiths and in the previous sense, but it is from another Companion.
He who goes out with the bier when taken out from its residence and offers prayer for it and he then follows it till it is buried, he would have two qirats of reward, each qirat being equivalent to Uhud; and he who, after having offered prayer, (directly) came back would have his reward (as great) as Uhud
من خرج مع جنازة من بيتها وصلى عليها واتبعها حتى تدفن كان له قيراطان من أجر كل قيراط مثل أحد ومن صلى عليها ثم رجع كان له من الأجر مثل أحدIbn 'Umar neglected it because he had not heard this hadith; that is, he did not have this incentive, which is one of the means of the Shari'ah in educating the Muslim and encouraging and motivating him to perform some of the acts of worship, which is the explanation of the reward and recompense for these acts of worship. So Ibn 'Umar had not heard this hadith from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), nor had he heard it from some of the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), such as Abu Hurayrah, except in this incident when Khubab conveyed to him what Abu Hurayrah was saying, that he had heard from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) this hadith. So Ibn 'Umar's not accompanying the funeral was not due to his neglect of the Sunnah and the reward and virtue, but rather because he did not have knowledge of such a great reward, which might cause a person occupied with other prescribed virtues, such as knowledge, for example, or prayer, or the like, to free himself for this accompanying from the hour the funeral leaves its house until it is placed in its final resting place. Ibn 'Umar did not have knowledge of this virtue, so he struck the ground with the pebbles that were in his hand, regretfully, and said: "We have indeed neglected many qirats." As for us today, both matters may coincide: ignorance, for most people do not know; these hadiths have, unfortunately, become forgotten by the scholars of knowledge, let alone others, because the scholars of knowledge, unfortunately, once again, when they read the hadith, they say they do it for the blessing only, and not to understand it and work with what came in it. And I do not know what this blessing is when the Qur'an is read or the Sunnah is read, not for acting upon it. That is not the blessing; rather, it is the opposite of the blessing, because the Qur'an at that time and the Sunnah, each of them becomes a proof against its holder, because it is the knowledge of the truth, and then he deviated from it and did not act upon it. Even if he made an excuse that we are not scholars, we are not jurists, but Allah the Exalted only revealed the Qur'an for people to read it and reflect upon it, and He warned them by His saying, the Exalted:
Then do they not reflect upon the Qur'an, or are there locks upon [their] hearts?
أفلا يتدبرون القرآن أم على قلوب أقفالهاI say that these hadiths, if they are recited today, are recited as we said, we said... earlier, for the blessing and not for acting upon them. And with that, few are those who study the Sunnah today. And if they study it to understand it and act upon it, another defect occurs, which is that they study the Sunnah from the totality of what is in it, both what is authentic and what is not authentic. So either they proceed to knowledge of this totality, both what is authentic and what is not authentic, or they are deterred from acting upon the whole when it becomes clear to them after a time that there are things they acted upon for a long time, and then they are not authentic.
If some people become aware of this, they turn away from the whole; otherwise, they hold fast to the whole, and in that case, they are falling into lying about the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in narration and practice. And in this is great evil, as is known in the hadiths of the Messenger (peace be upon him) regarding the warning against narrating the hadith from him except after verifying its authenticity.
Our problem today is two problems. The first is ignorance of the Sunnah, even though it is made accessible through the books of hadith. And the other problem is that we have turned our Shari'ah life into an innovative, pre-Islamic age of ignorance life, the pre-Islamic age of ignorance of the twentieth century. So one of the benefits of the Sunnah, especially in our method of restricting the teaching to what is authentic from it, is reviving these Shari'ah landmarks and planting them in the hearts of the young Muslim, so that they proceed to act upon them and remove, as much as they can, the obstacles that stand in their way and prevent them from obtaining such a great reward.
The hadith that follows is also from the authentic hadiths and in the previous sense, but it is from another Companion.