Continuation of the discussion on instructing the dying (Cassette 78)

Abu Layla : I would like to draw the attention of the listening brothers to the fact thatThe Shaykh : he speaks Albanian in this session with Albanian and Yugoslav students in the Prophet’s City.

The Shaykh : But it is absurd, meaning unreasonable in terms of intellect and logic; why? When a Muslim dies, everything of good and evil is cut off from him when his soul departs. If he was righteous, he will be treated as the righteous are treated, and if he was wicked and a transgressor, he will be treated as the wicked and transgressors are treated. So what benefit does this dead person get when he is placed in his grave and it is said, "If he comes to you and asks you, 'Who is your Lord? What is your religion? Who is your Prophet?'"—this instruction? I say that it is roughly like instructing a student during an exam in class. A person comes and instructs the examinee; perhaps his instruction will be the cause of his failure because the examinee was not prepared for the correct answer, so he does not know how to answer. This instruction does not benefit him. So it is with the dead person who is placed in his grave: his answer will correspond exactly to his life in this world. If he was righteous, he will be able to give the answer, like a student in this world who studied day and night and so on; he will give the answer with great ease. As for the one who wasted his time before the exam with amusements and pleasures and so on, it is far from him being able to give the answer; he cannot give the answer. So it is with the dead person when he is placed in his grave: he is one of two men. Either he prepared for the answer to this question in his grave, in which case how easy this answer is for him; or he did not prepare for it. So let the whole world gather and instruct him in all good and correctness, it will not benefit him at all. Therefore, this instruction is neither prescribed nor reasonable, but rather it is customs and traditions that prevail in some countries where ignorance rules. We may know that the cause of most of these religious innovations is weak and fabricated hadiths. And so, among the first books I wrote is this book that you must have seen, "The Series of Weak and Fabricated Hadiths and Their Bad Effect on the Ummah." Many of these religious innovations are caused by weak and fabricated hadiths. And the truth, the truth, I say, is that our lands, the lands of the non-Arabs, all of them, from Turkey to Albania to Yugoslavia, have no knowledge of hadith at all. And this is one of the wonders of the decrees of Allah the Mighty and Majestic that there exists a servant of His like me, from Albania, whom He guided by His grace and mercy to the knowledge of hadith without receiving this knowledge from a teacher, because there are no teachers left in the knowledge of hadith. If we wanted to receive the knowledge, we would find no way to do so. So all the lands of the non-Arabs, without exception, except India, only India, where the teaching of hadith was revived about two hundred years ago. As for before that, it was like all the non-Arab lands, with no mention of hadith at all, except saying "The Messenger of Allah said." As for hadith being authentic, good, weak, very weak, or fabricated, this is written in the books, but no one reads it first. And even if someone reads it, he does not understand it; he cannot distinguish the authentic from the weak. The point of this speech is that there is a hadith in al-Tabarani’s al-Mu'jam al-Kabir that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)—the hadith is from the hadith of Abu Umamah—that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . Meaning, instruct them. This hadith is weak. It exists and they act upon it as if it is a hadith. And acting upon a hadith is undoubtedly obligatory for the Muslim in general. But before acting upon a hadith, it must be known—peace be upon you, welcome.