Explanation of a hadith in Sahih Muslim that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) informed the Companions of what was and what is to be until the Day of Resurrection.

The questioner : Shaykh, in a question, if you would be generous with us?

The Shaykh : Please, my brother.

The questioner : The report is that he (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed the Fajr prayer one day, then ascended the minbar and delivered a sermon to the people, informing them until the Zuhr prayer. Then he prayed, ascended again, and delivered a sermon, telling them what had been and what is to be until the Day of Judgment. The Companion says: “Whoever among us memorized it, he memorized it, and whoever forgot it, he forgot it. And indeed, when an event passes us by, I recall it just as a sleeper recalls something he saw in his dream.”

The Shaykh : You are correct.

The questioner : So when Imam al-Busiri said, “And among your sciences are the Tablet and the Pen,” he said, “He informed us of what was and what is to be until the Day of Judgment.” This matches what he said to him: “Write.” He said, “What should I write?” He said, “Write what is to be until the Day of Judgment.”

The Shaykh : Beautiful. First, and praise be to Allah, this hadith is authentic and is in Sahih Muslim. Second, the phrase “He informed us of what is to be until the Day of Judgment” may imply, my brother, that his (peace and blessings be upon him) informing was of important matters, not of detailed matters that no human being can comprehend or grasp, no matter how much knowledge and strength Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) grants them. In other words, I say, hypothetically and for the sake of argument, it is possible that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) chooses His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) with what He wills and preserves for him, in reality, what this authentic hadith indicates: what was and what will be until the Day of Judgment. But how is that, when he is informing people who are not prophets and not messengers, whose capacity is limited and who do not possess that attribute by which our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) chose our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)? Therefore, may Allah reward you, it is not permissible for us to understand the hadith by stopping at it alone. I say that perhaps the occasion just now, perhaps we were eating, it is not permissible, yes. And now I mention this example because the truth will help us understand this authentic hadith. It is not permissible for us to interpret a hadith of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) by stopping at it alone, but rather to expand the circle of observation and look at the other hadiths, and whether they help us to stand in our understanding of this authentic hadith in the broad, comprehensive, general meaning, as the Exalted said: Or is the meaning narrower than that? Just now we spoke about eating; a questioner asked about a hadith in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: We said this hadith is authentic, and with this hadith, another hadith is interpreted. And here is the point: he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: except for debt. Do we interpret this hadith such that the martyr dies with a debt and this sin is not forgiven from him, even if he intended to repay it? We say: No, because the first hadith interprets and specifies the second hadith. May Allah reward you.

The questioner:..

The Shaykh : I beg you. Your hadith resembles our second hadith. If we look at it alone, every sin is forgiven for the martyr except for debt. And this is a serious matter, very serious. He struggled in the path of Allah and died in the path of Allah, and his sin is not forgiven because he died owing some Muslims. No, this is not in its absolute and comprehensive sense, but rather it is specified to the case where he did not intend to fulfill the right of its owner. Here is its exact example, this hadith that you were generous with. No doubt we understand from it that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was taught by Allah every large and small matter, and as the Exalted said: But no, this is not correct. Rather, the meaning of the hadith is that He taught him essential, fundamental things, such as the major signs of the Hour and the like of the minor ones that it is important for Muslims to know, as the Exalted said in the Noble Qur'an: Here now, we say the word here, just like our previous hadith. Does our Lord reveal to the prophets all of His Unseen? No. The scholars of exegesis said, as our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) sees fit, He teaches whom He wills of the messengers some of the Unseen, not all of the Unseen. This is because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), every prophet, when Allah teaches him knowledge, it is obligatory upon him to convey it to the Muslims, exactly as the Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) said, and it is a hadith we are not currently addressing, she said in it: “Whoever tells you that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) concealed something he was commanded to convey She said: “Whoever tells you that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) concealed something he was commanded to convey has fabricated a great lie against Allah.” So if our Lord (Mighty and Majestic), as He said: meaning some of His Unseen, is an estimated omitted addition, because the Prophet, even if he was chosen as we said, cannot become a second god in his knowledge, in his encompassing everything. He would then become a partner. And here, may Allah reward you, bear with me a little, even if I expand a little. Here we remember something very important related to the knowledge of tawhid (the oneness of Allah). Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) is One in His Essence, so there is not what the disbelievers of the Christians said that Allah is the third of three. No, rather He is one god So Allah is One in His Essence, contrary to the saying of the Christians, and He is One in His worship, so He is one god, and not as the Arab polytheists say, and they say even now, the matter is not as they said: So Allah is also One in His worship. So whoever believes that Allah is One in His Essence but worships others with Him has not made Him One. And the final tawhid is that we say, after we said One in His Essence and One in His worship and One in His attributes, it is not permissible for a Muslim to believe that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) revealed to His Prophet all the knowledge of the Unseen; because he would become a partner with Him in the attribute of the Unseen, [for] He does not know the Unseen Is this the verse, if Allah wills?

The questioner : .

The Shaykh : Good. No, this verse does not suit us now; because these are keys, meaning the heads, the summaries. But we want the detail now, so we say: meaning all the Unseen except Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). Look, our brothers, and learn and know that knowledge is not that a person applies his intellect to a verse and says, here If the Messenger does not know anything of the Unseen, this is a mistake, why? Because Allah said in the previous verse: Also, do not stop at His saying: all the Unseen, no; because He is One in His attributes as He is One in His worship, as He is what? One in His Essence. So it is not permissible for a Muslim to believe that Allah taught His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) everything that is to be until the Day of Judgment; because this is an attribute of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). There remains another thing I referred to just now, but I want to circle around it a little, and I hope it will not be too much. It is if Allah chose His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) by teaching him all the Unseen, who is this person who encompasses the knowledge of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and claims that he memorized it? We say now, a master skilled in any art, and he has a student who is the smartest, the wisest, and the most memorizing of people. What should he memorize to memorize from his knowledge? The little thing. If this wise master goes to put all the knowledge in the chest of thisThe student : ? He is going to burden him heavily and burden him excessively, and Allah does not burden a soul except within its capacity. So from this aspect that contradicts human nature, it is not conceivable that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), if Allah taught him everything and made him a partner with Him in knowledge of the Unseen, it is not conceivable that he would inform people of what they cannot bear and cannot endure. So the summary of the word, may Allah reward you, is that such a hadith must be interpreted in light of the Muslim creed derived from the Book of Allah in its entirety and from the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and his entire hadith, and we do not stop at one hadith. And therefore I say to you now the concluding word in this matter: we claim that we are first of all all Muslims, and praise be to Allah, but in another thing we claim, which is that we respect our righteous predecessors from the Companions, the Tabi'un, and the imams of independent legal reasoning. We received from their path the Book, the Sunnah, jurisprudence, and creed. So from the Muslim scholars, one says that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) was taught by Allah everything, as said in the hadith of the Pen based on the hadith of Muslim. I do not know a learned Muslim who preceded us to such a thing. And therefore it is not permissible for a person to say contrary to what our scholars said before us, despite their differences in schools and inclinations.