Some people asked about the authenticity of the story of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) regarding the ruqyah (healing by Qur'anic recitation) of that man whom Abu Sa'id al-Khudri treated, and he rose as if he had been untied from a bond.

The questioner : ... one finds it strange in some established reports from the Companions on the subject of ... the story of this Companion, the hadith of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri ... it is authentic in its meaning, but I do not know if it was he or another narrator who recited al-Fatihah over this bitten man. I mean, if you were to answer with all the medicine in the world ... for example, if one person ... this is a person who was bitten by a snake, and one person recited al-Fatihah over him, and he rose, and he says this is ... a scientific resistance in the blood and red blood cells, and he tells you a long scientific story and says to you, this! Your recitation does not advance or delay anything if you did not give him ... what is necessary to resist the poison, meaning you are afraid he will die if you recite the Qur'an over him ... I mean, if we recited the Qur'an and brought the most pious person on the face of the earth to recite, my brother, it would not be consistent with him! ... as if he had been untied from a bond ... !

The Shaykh : You need faith in Allah, ... you need faith that we are truly believers, that we are truly believers. The doctor you are talking about is undoubtedly not a believer, and I do not mean not a believer in Allah, if he understands, but this concept does not meet this explicit statement in which I stated that I am not a believer in Allah? You are a believer in Allah, this doctor you cite as an example ... this doctor who carries this medicine is not a believer, and I do not mean he is not a believer in Allah, because the polytheists were believers in Allah, but Allah said about them: , I intended that he is not a believer in Allah and His Messenger, and I mean that he is not a believer in Allah and His Messenger, not that Allah did not send down the Book, no, Allah sent down the Book and His Messenger, meaning He did not speak words above the minds of humans, this is not a believer because Allah sent down a Book upon the heart of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and that Muhammad spoke of a medicine that they do not understand and will never understand it for as long as time lasts, those doctors you are pointing to, now you are doubting the incident of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri because it is related to a person, namely Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, and there is no doubt, and it is not excluded for a Muslim who believes in Allah and His Messenger to doubt a story attributed to a Companion, or the authenticity of the story, but he will go on to criticize this Companion, why? Because this one who criticizes this Companion has predecessors who criticize the masses of the Companions, and you have known them recently, and they ended as you wished, if you want to disparage them, I have done so, but this logic will lead its holder to deny many hadiths reported from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) that have absolutely no relation to the material medicine you want to make a proof for the invalidity of the story of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, ... they will reach the point of doubting his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): , what is its relation to material medicine? This will lead its holder, it is not necessary that it be you, you are talking about others, so do not let your chest narrow, we are talking about others, it will be easier for you, it will lead him to the point of doubting such as his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): , this has no relation to Abu Sa'id or anyone else, but to our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in whom belief is obligatory, and now please speak so that your chest does not narrow, but do not go east and west around what you have heard.

The questioner : Brother Abu Yahya, I mean, pay attention to what I say ... I naturally, if the one who did this was the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), it would not have occurred to me to ask this question.

The Shaykh : You will speak around what I spoke about, and you will not remind us of the saying of the one who said "I traveled east and you traveled west *** How great is the difference between east and west" I say, if Allah wills.

The questioner : ... I say, regarding the incident of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, in order for you to know my opinion truly, that we have a scientific fact and we have here a report, meaning there is no room for the mind to deny this report because it is authentic, so the interpretation of this narration is that we say: something like this is a karamah (a miracle granted to a righteous person) for Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, this is one of the aspects that I understand, and not everyone who recites al-Fatihah lives and the poison comes out and so on and his case is resolved, this is my understanding, I tell you.

The Shaykh : "I traveled east and you traveled west *** How great is the difference between east and west," now you said this before you threw your handkerchief, this demolishes the previous speech from its roots.

The questioner : ... if our master 'Umar ... has a karamah with Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), this karamah with the Lord of the Worlds ... is a tremendous power, other than his ordinary power, so Allah knows best that there is something specific, in my personal belief.

The questioner : ... will your chest expand if I express the understanding of this issue, allow me to speak to the meaning?

The Shaykh : But I mean, you would have been at ease instead of bringing that criticism to this incident, you would say that this is a matter that does not fall within the scope of material medical science, and this is a special matter related, as I said last, to the karamah of this Companion!

The questioner : I believe this is one of the convincing aspects, but when it raised a question in my mind, the brother Abu Ahmad said to you, it is a scientific fact, we are now, when we say, and I discovered what the understanding I understood, of course you understood this understanding from yourself, concepts that are countless, when you were asked once, I remember, I said how do you claim, Professor, that one who divorced ... as I think, how do you claim that it is not from the Sunnah to place palm branches on the grave, palm branches on the grave, and you told me at that time, yes, it is a bid'ah (religious innovation), or something like that, so he raised how, and the Messenger placed it and so on, and he said, he said this is specific to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and that it is mentioned in the wording with my intercession in some narrations, meaning not everyone who brought this palm and placed it on the grave, the owner of the grave cools his sins or his mistakes!

The Shaykh : What is the relation of placing palm branches to the matter of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri?

The questioner : The relation is that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned when ... and he said to him: how do you claim in the book "Funerals" that it is not from the Sunnah to place them, and he said that the Messenger placed them, so you deduced from him, you said, it is true that the Messenger placed them, but there is an addition in the hadith with my intercession, you forgot that this is specific to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), you told him, it is not with the palm, frankly, the secret is not in the palm, but in the one who places the palm, this is my intention.

The Shaykh : You gave us a lecture about the palm and what the palm is, what do you build on this ...?

The questioner : We say, I mean, a special karamah for Abu Sa'id al-Khudri in the healing of this man ... .

The Shaykh : So you understood the matter.

The questioner : I mean, we say karamah, meaning?

The Shaykh : This is not a karamah (a miracle granted to a righteous person); this is faith in the Qur'an and that it is a healing for what is in the chests. And this is what I want to remind you of at the end: this karamah can extend to others. That is why I told you about the hadith , which is one of the forms of generality and comprehensiveness among the scholars. Every — the meaning of the hadith — . Likewise, the second hadith , three times, and so on. There are many, many hadiths in this meaning. So this is not a matter of a karamah that transcends the norm; rather, this is a karamah that falls within a divine, legislative cosmic system. The nature of a karamah is to break the cosmic system, but this is not only not transcending the cosmic system; it is within a legislative system because the Shari'ah is what legislated this thing for us. What confirms this meaning for you is the thing that Abu Muhammad wanted, which I wanted to draw your attention to, from the completion of the story of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri. When he returned with some of those sheep, he narrated it to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). The Messenger was amazed by it and said to him: . From here, some of the Shafi'is got entangled and interpreted this hadith, which came on the occasion of ruqyah (healing by Qur'anic recitation), as applying to reciting over the dead and so on for a fee, whereas it is presented, as you see, as ruqyah for others with verses from the Noble Qur'an. If there is a karamah here in inspiration for Abu Sa'id al-Khudri... specifically reciting al-Fatihah (Surat al-Fatihah), because the Messenger said to him: , he had no prior knowledge. This is like what is said about the agreements of 'Umar with the Qur'an. So, this hadith, my brother, is authentic and does not enter into the system of experimental medicine or this material science at all. And it is not permissible for a Muslim—I advise you, for religion is sincere advice—to expose people to this dry, tedious material scientific doubt and say that this contradicts science. My brother, let science go its way, in its path and its experiments, and Islam goes its way with its legislations. This type does not contradict that type at all. And if you had heard, and recently you were speaking with Abu 'Abdullah on the occasion of a person who was quoted as saying something similar to this matter, I would have said to him: If this man had heard the story of Khalid ibn al-Walid when he went out to conquer Iraq and reached a fortress and its affair was difficult for them, the fortress was opened based on the group seeing with their own eyes that he drank poison from his palm, a drop of which kills a camel, after he had mentioned the name of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and it was as if he was drinking coffee, for example, and nothing happened to him. What is this? This is the strength of faith in Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and there are many examples of this. What do you think?

The questioner : Why did he swallow this poison?

The Shaykh : In order to frighten the disbelievers, and they submitted at that time.