Miscellaneous by Al-Albani-264

The Shaykh : And from Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: A man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: O Messenger of Allah, advise me. He said This hadith contains many rulings. In its takhrij, it is stated that al-Hakim and al-Bayhaqi narrated it in al-Zuhd, and al-Hakim said, and the wording is his, that it has a sound chain. This man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) seeking his advice, asking for a piece of advice that would remain in his mind for the rest of his life. In some narrations, he said to him, "And be brief with me in your advice." This man was intelligent, so the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was brief with him in the advice, and he said to him This means that it is obligatory for the Muslim to have his attachment always to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), and to be content with the good that is with him, and to cut off his hope from people that they will... or that they will suffice him, for Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is the only One who is the Rich, the Praiseworthy. This, of course, does not mean that a person should not take the means, but it means something that people today have neglected due to the dominance of invasive European materialism among Muslims in their own lands, which is that they pay more attention to the means than to their reliance on the Lord of Lords (Glorified and Exalted is He). So the person today, except for whom Allah wills, and they are few, pays attention to the means as if he is the whole of everything, and he never thinks in his mind that these means may not benefit him at all, and even more so, he never thinks in his mind that when he takes the means, he takes them because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) commanded them, and not just because they are a means. We must distinguish between the two matters; there is a clear difference between one who takes the means that usually leads to the result because it is a means, and one who takes the means as a means because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) commanded him to take that means. There is a very big difference. The first matter is usually the way of materialist disbelievers or their like among the misguided and deviant Muslims. The other matter is the nature of the Muslim: he takes the means if Allah (Mighty and Majestic) commanded it, or at least permitted it, not just because it is a means. And what is the outcome of this report? That is that the means, in their capacity as means for results, are divided by the Shari'ah into two categories: prescribed means and non-prescribed means. When the Muslim finds a means... but he knows that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has forbidden it, he does not take it as a means, even if it is in reality a natural means, but it is not a Shari'ah means. This report, although the matter is clear from the scientific and Shari'ah perspective, is unfortunately a matter that is almost...