Continuation of the discussion on the types of standing for others (a discussion on permissible standing and forbidden standing).

The questioner : ... the exaltation as they used to do in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. By analogy, consider clothing. In the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, they would make a long garment that they dragged behind them, like a bride's dress today. This was, of course, for exaltation, and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade it. And this, of course... today, some Muslims buy a dishdasha and shorten it. This is the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). So I believe that these things existed in the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). Also, the long, wide cloak for pride, and standing for exaltation, and the Messenger (peace be upon him) forbade this. Because worship is for Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He), not for individuals...

The Shaykh : It appears that your speech has ended because you are repeating yourself. Do you allow me to explain my viewpoint on the matter?

The questioner: Go ahead.

The Shaykh : You have addressed two issues under the umbrella of exaltation and pride. The first issue: from your words, I understand that there are two types of standing: standing that is not permissible, and standing that is permissible. Standing is not permissible if it is accompanied by exaltation, and standing is permissible if it is accompanied by respect without exaltation. Is my understanding of your position correct?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Good. If we set aside the first type of standing, standing for exaltation, and we agree that this standing is forbidden, and we return to standing for honor, is it merely permissible or is it recommended? In your opinion, because all your research just now was that your opinion is thus. So what is your opinion?

The questioner : It is permissible and recommended at the same time.

The Shaykh : So what do you think when the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade the Companions from this standing? And you attribute this standing to exaltation. Of course, they did not stand for him, but why did they not stand for the second type, the recommended one? This is from one angle.
From another angle: who distinguishes more between the forbidden standing and the recommended standing, and avoids the first and performs the second? The Companions of the Messenger, who were raised under his eye and graduated, as it is said today, from his school, or we, the later generations? Which of the two groups is more knowledgeable about distinguishing between the two matters?

The questioner : May I repeat my words one more time?

The Shaykh : But with one condition: do not lose my words. (laughter)The Shaykh : (may Allah have mercy on him), if you do not want to lose my words, you need to give me the answer.

The questioner : Do you want me to give an example?

The Shaykh : We set a condition. How could we have gone east and west? It would not have happened.

The questioner : ...

The Shaykh : No problem, the matter is up to you, but tell me: which group is able to distinguish between the forbidden standing and the recommended standing, us or them?

The questioner : Our Shaykh, I said that this thing happened for the exaltation of the lords of Quraysh, meaning.

The Shaykh : Meaning you are insistent that you do not accept my condition.

The questioner : Meaning the Messenger (peace be upon him) forbade standing for this thing.

The Shaykh : You have repeated your words three times, what do you think? Three times you are repeating it to my ears and the ears of everyone. Three times you are repeating your words, and yet I was patient with you the first time and the second time, and you forced me to be patient with you a third time. Why do you not be patient with me even once? (laughter)The Shaykh : And the students.

The questioner : I am patient.

The Shaykh : Where is your patience? Where is the answer to my question? Which group? Here I am repeating. Look at the difference between you and me, without offense. You impose on me that you repeat your words the first time, the second time, and the third time. By military standards, you are in place, meaning there is movement but what? There is no progress. Whereas I asked you a one-word question and covered it. Are these people more understanding or are we? You could have said what you wanted to say: "We," God forbid, or "They," God forbid. So why do you make it difficult for me and not answer me, and force me, on top of the fact that I heard your words repeated three times, to make me repeat my question three times, and you do not answer me even once? Why? Yes. How?

The questioner : What is the answer you want from me?

The Shaykh : No — I seek refuge in Allah — do I impose the answer on you? I want you to answer the question. Now, if I asked you whether the light bulb is on or off? Do I want you to tell me if it is working or off?

The questioner : No, of course not.

The Shaykh : This is what you are. I am asking you: you have decided that there are two types of standing: forbidden standing and permissible standing, indeed recommended standing. So the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade the Companions from the forbidden standing. The recommended standing remains. Do you think they performed it or did they not perform it? I am asking you: this distinction that you made between the forbidden standing and the recommended standing, are they more knowledgeable about it than we are, or are we more knowledgeable about it than they are?

The questioner : They are more knowledgeable.

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, may Allah forgive you. After four times of asking until you told me "they," and I am telling you, may Allah reward you with good.
The student : Good, and the dishdasha that they shorten.
onAl-Halabi : Our Shaykh, you mentioned the issue, meaning I gave it its due, may Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : I did not narrate it to you. Perhaps the mistake is mine, because if I had narrated the hadith to you, you would not have thought this thought that took us a distance in the research. Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) said: . Now, if there are two types of standing, these noble Companions did not know this knowledge that you know — do not hold me to this — what is the father of the boys?

The questioner : Abu 'Abdullah.

The Shaykh : Abu 'Abdullah, they did not know this knowledge that you know, O Abu 'Abdullah, that there is forbidden standing that they leave, and there is recommended standing that they perform. The hadith is telling you: when the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) appeared, he entered upon them. No person in the world — and this is very natural — was more beloved to them than the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Nevertheless, with the intensity of their love and longing for him, they did not stand for him. Why? Because they knew his dislike of it. So I admit my mistake that I did not support my previous statement with this subsequent hadith, which is clear that the Companions did not know this division that emerged with the thought of Abu 'Abdullah that there is forbidden standing and there is recommended standing. Because they are more knowledgeable than everyone who came after them by his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): .
I fear that your mind is occupied with the second issue. If your mind is not occupied and you are ready to hear the continuation of the topic so that I can proceed in it, otherwise I will return to researching the second issue?

The questioner : I do not consider the topic understood and finished. (laughter)The Shaykh : (may Allah have mercy on him).
Abu Layla : Please, come to the food.

The Shaykh : We are in food better than that food. But if you please me, and even if the topic is finished, I will narrate to you just one hadith from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), because I consider this hadith like putting the dots on the letters for this first research. A hadith in Sahih Muslim, and you must have heard of Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. From the hadith of Jabir ibn 'Abdullah al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him), he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed the midday prayer one day while sitting, because his mount had thrown him to the ground and he was injured in his wrist and his arm. From the severity of the impact, he was unable to pray standing as is obligatory. So he prayed sitting, and the people prayed behind him standing, his Companions. And this is a natural matter because standing is obligatory for Allah, Lord of the worlds.

The questioner : But standing in the Sunnah, one can pray while sitting.

The Shaykh : Keep your question, keep it, I am not repeating, hold your question, keep your question until I complete the Prophetic hadith for you. Of course, the point of the evidence has not come yet. So the Companions prayed behind him standing. Then the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) gestured to them to sit. After the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) finished his prayer and said the closing salam, they all prayed sitting, there was no standing.

The questioner : In the obligatory prayer.

The Shaykh : In the obligatory prayer, the midday prayer, we said. Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) said, and here is the point of the evidence: They stand on their heads while they are sitting. Their sitting is out of arrogance and pride, and their standing is out of exaltation. The end of the hadith: . To the end of the hadith; then he said: .
Now, here you see that when the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) sat in prayer, he sat out of arrogance and pride, and the congregation who stood behind him stood out of reverence for him? It does not cross anyone's mind; but there is a formal resemblance, a formal resemblance; and the resemblance is very distant if we leave aside the apparent. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sat out of necessity, and the Companions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) stood out of necessity, because they knew in advance the saying of the Lord of the Worlds in the Noble Qur'an: . So they stood behind the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in execution of the command, so neither party intended reverence at all. And here is the point: what did He say to them? "Sit down, we do not want this reverence." And even if it was not intended as reverence but rather as respect, the distinction we heard from you just now; and therefore this distinction, may Allah reward you, is not indicated by the Shari'ah but is rather denied by it. And it is sufficient for you to know that the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) did not stand for the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) at all. So if they had stood for the sake of respect and not for the sake of reverence, we would say this distinction is valid; but it has no basis at all in the Shari'ah. And if Allah wills, if our time and life are prolonged, we will look into the matter of the dishdasha.

The Shaykh : ... written in the Albanian language, for the Albanians who live there, perhaps they will alleviate their ignorance and their fanaticism for their school of jurisprudence. That is, hardly did he command them with a sunnah (recommended practice) but you would find them fighting him over it. No, we see the Arabs fighting the sunan (recommended practices), so what can be said about the Albanians? The point is, I believe there is a great difference between the Yugoslavs and the Albanians. There is a great difference between the Albanians and the Arna'ut who live in Yugoslavia, for example in Kosovo. Do you hear Kosovo?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : So in Damascus and other parts of Syria, there were many emigrants who had fled from the injustice of the Yugoslavs. They spoke words that we did not know before. We are Albanian Arna'ut, but the name Arna'ut is like the name Arab, a generic name, under which fall the Egyptian, the Saudi, the Yemeni, the Hijazi, and so on. Likewise, the word Arna'ut includes many peoples, among them the Serbs, the Arna'ut, and the Albanians. So we would gather together in Damascus, Arna'ut, Yugoslavs, and Albanians, and there were many words we did not understand from them. So how can you say that the Yugoslav language is close to Albanian, when you are now under test? I brought you four or five examples and you did not understand anything of them at all.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : No, he said a sentence to me and I said to him, why don't we exchange positions? How was I speaking to you and you did not understand me, now you are speaking to me and I do not understand you.
Al-Halabi : This is evidence against it as well, our Shaykh.

The Shaykh : It is this.

The questioner : It is because there is no Yugoslav language at all, because every republic speaks according to ...; because there are lands that are originally Albanian, the origin of most of the Muslims who are holding on now, meaning a while ago one of the Muslims killed four ... what is most feared is the tightening on the Albanian Muslims, meaning most of the Muslims in the south, the south of Yugoslavia, who are: Peshkopi and Nish ... and these modern republics in the cities of the south, because most of them are Albanian. I used to attend the Islamic Center on occasions, for example on the occasion of the festival.

The Shaykh : The Mawlid, like that.

The questioner : Yes, the young men from the youth of the south would attend when they spoke. We had classmates who studied there; they spoke in the street in Albanian, but most of the words, generally, you understand their words. But for example, a man, Shqiptar, meaning changing some of the dialect in some of the words, because there are three languages. So we used to use some of the days when the da'wah (calling others to Islam) was praised, we would say: You are our Shaykh and the Albanian is from you, and this is what we try to ...