What is the ruling on calling the adhan in the ear of a newborn?

The questioner : Shaykh, the question is: Is there a hadith established regarding the adhan for a newborn? I heard that it is weak, so is it acted upon?

The Shaykh: No.

The questioner : So what do you advise, meaning, what should be said to the brothers who perhaps do not know that you have graded the hadith as weak?

The Shaykh : My advice is this: We used to state the legitimacy of the adhan in the ear of the newborn, based on the knowledge that the adhan in the ear of the newborn is a recommended practice (sunnah). This is narrated in Sunan al-Tirmidhi with a weak chain of narration. However, we follow the methodology of strengthening weak hadiths with corroborating evidence (shawahid). We had found a corroborating narration for this hadith in the book of Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, known as Tuhfat al-Wadud fi Ahkam al-Mawlood. At that time, he attributed it to the book Shu'ab al-Iman by al-Bayhaqi, even though he explicitly stated that its chain of narration is weak. I considered his explicit statement that the chain is not severely weak, and based on that, I considered it a corroborating narration for the hadith of al-Tirmidhi, which is narrated by Abu Rafi'. At that time, the book Shu'ab al-Iman was not available to us, neither in manuscript nor in print. As many of you know, despite my presence in the Dar al-Kutub al-Zahiriyyah library, which contains thousands of hadith manuscripts, this book, Shu'ab al-Iman by al-Hafiz al-Bayhaqi, was not found in this library, nor in most of the libraries of the world. Today, however, the printing of this book, Shu'ab al-Iman, has become easy, and it has been added to Islamic libraries as a very precious book containing many hadiths that are not found in the six books, nor in others. Among them is the hadith on which I relied on Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah to consider it a corroborating narration for the hadith of Abu Rafi' in Sunan al-Tirmidhi. And lo, this hadith was narrated by Imam al-Bayhaqi in his book Shu'ab with a chain containing two narrators accused of lying. At that point, it became clear to me that Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) was lenient in his expression regarding the chain of the hadith, calling it merely "weak." The correct thing would have been to say it is "very weak," because in this case, it is not permissible for one who engages in the science of hadith to consider a severely weak narration as a corroborating evidence for one that is not severely weak. At that point, I had no choice but to retract my strengthening of the hadith of Abu Rafi' in Sunan al-Tirmidhi with the hadith from Shu'ab al-Iman due to its severe weakness. Thus, the hadith of Abu Rafi' remains weak. And we, in accordance with what Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has guided us to, regarding the impermissibility of acting upon a weak hadith, have returned to the previous statement. Since the hadith of Abu Rafi' is originally weak in its chain, and its corroborating evidence is weaker than it, the weakness remains. We have therefore retracted our previous statement regarding the recommended practice (sunnah) or legitimacy of the adhan in the ear of the newborn. This is the answer to the question.
[Another topic]

Another questioner : This requires detail. There are individual cases, and not everyone is qualified for independent legal reasoning (ijtihad). Those who fall under Jewish rule and similar situations in other atheistic disbeliever states... we wait for this issue until people become qualified for independent legal reasoning (ijtihad).

The Shaykh : What is the issue, may Allah reward you?

Another questioner : The issue is that there must be two conditions.

The Shaykh : ... Do we say one condition is sufficient?

Another questioner : No, excuse me. Do I require that the entire Muslim community (ummah) be scholars?

The Shaykh: No.

Another questioner : So how can I...

The Shaykh : Those who lead the Muslim community (ummah).

Another questioner : So is this the question regarding this issue?

The Shaykh : Of course. Otherwise, who would understand that the cowherd, the shepherd, the sweeper, and the garbage collector are given this ruling of independent legal reasoning (ijtihad)? It is self-evident that the discussion is not about the millions of common people, but about the heads who drive these millions.

Another questioner : Shaykh, may Allah preserve you, this same situation...

The Shaykh : Excuse me, let us finish. Is it clear, if Allah wills?

Another questioner : Yes, yes. I wanted to...

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good. Please proceed.

Another questioner : This same situation, if a ruling is issued by a scholar who is not a qualified scholar for independent legal reasoning (mujtahid), but the ruling is issued by a scholar...

The Shaykh : Then the sin is on the one who issued the ruling to him.

Another questioner : Shaykh, may Allah reward you with good. First, we convey to you the greetings of the youth in Kuwait.

The Shaykh : Peace and mercy of Allah and blessings be upon you and them.

Another questioner : We have questions, which may be many, but according to your patience with us. May Allah reward you with good. The first question asks: Is it permissible to join the military if there is no...?

The Shaykh : Entering what?

Another questioner : The military, if there is no shaving of the beard? You previously issued a ruling that it is not permissible due to the presence of beard shaving. Now the situation has changed for us, and there is no beard shaving in it?

The Shaykh : But is there nothing that corresponds to beard shaving?

Another questioner : How do you mean?

The Shaykh : Are there no other violations of the Shari'ah? Say yes.

Another questioner : No, I do not say that.

The Shaykh : What does he say?

The questioner : No, it does not exist.

The Shaykh : The issue of beard shaving is an example not intended specifically. There is the military salute, and there is missing prayers at their times, let alone missing prayers in congregation, and many other things!

The questioner : These do not exist...

The Shaykh : The ruling is not Islamic...

Another questioner : How, my Shaykh?

The Shaykh : O Shaykh, I will judge you by your own words. I am asking you: Are the violations present in today's military systems in Arab Islamic countries claimed to be only beard shaving? I said no, there are many things.

Another questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : So if we tell you that beard shaving is an example not intended specifically, then you should not raise this question because it is a repetition.

Another questioner : There is also, O our Shaykh, in other jobs, some sins. Do we say that in general, it is not permissible to enter these jobs?

The Shaykh : What does that mean? We have favoritism against soldiers and loyalty to employees. The ruling is the same, my brother. Islam is a general issue applied to every Muslim, whether he is an employee, a doctor, a free merchant, a soldier, a king, or a minister. All of them must submit to the rulings of Islam. So when you say, "I see now, and do not blame me," it wastes our time, because the question is one. But as it is said: "The causes are many, but death is one." We need to finish. Ask in your place. Rotate. Every violation of the Shari'ah, it is not permissible for a Muslim to be employed in such a violation. Of course, this is limited to the extent of one's ability, because we are afflicted now in some countries where a Muslim is forced to serve in what they call compulsory military service, and they shave his beard... This, of course, Allah does not burden a soul except with what it can bear. And as for what some do, what do they call it? Volunteering in the army. Yes.

Another questioner : Regular.

The Shaykh : No, the most corrupt thing is to say "volunteer," because volunteering means drawing near to Allah with what is not obligatory!

Another questioner : The evidence for the impermissibility?

The Shaykh : May Allah forgive you. Is the verse good?

Another questioner : Definitely good. But some might use as evidence a hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), which is . And we ask some shaykhs, and they answer that the time for this hadith has not come. What is the correctness of this statement?

The Shaykh : Okay, has the time for the verse come? Has the time for the verse come?

Another questioner : Which verse?

The Shaykh : Allah is the Greatest!

Another questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Has its time come?

Another questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : No, it appears its time has not come! Those who distinguish between Allah and His Messenger, between the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Prophet, this is their affair. They deny the implementation of the texts because they are hadiths. And what about the verse? The verse is a principle, and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), by revelation from Allah, derived many legal rulings from it, including this hadith, and including . Cursing the seller of grapes to one who presses them into wine. Has the time for this hadith come, or has its time not come? Has the time for this hadith come?

Another questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : So what is the difference between this hadith and that hadith? The time for this one has come, and the time for that one has not come! Has religion become a matter of our whims, may Allah protect us from that! And therefore Allah the Exalted said: There is nothing in Islam that is "the time has come" or "the time has not come" but there is in Islam like the example I gave earlier: a soldier who is forced to shave his beard against his will; he is not responsible. But a soldier who has finished his compulsory service and likes this so-called service, especially when his rank has risen and he has a salary, says, "I want to volunteer for military service." Volunteering was in the early days when jihad in the path of Allah the Mighty and Majestic was not for the sake of salary and livelihood. So all the hadiths of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) are Shari'ah, just like the verses of Allah in the Qur'an, and it is not permissible to postpone any of them except within the limits of As for Allah, the time for it has come and its moment has arrived. I believe this is among the misfortunes of some of the preachers today who want to tailor Islam to fit the weakness and negligence of Muslims in applying the religion, and they want to make Islam practical so that it aligns with the desires of people. And so you hear many, many fatwas permitting dealing with various types of riba (usury or interest). May Allah help us. Someone else. Please go ahead.

Another questioner : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and peace upon the best of Allah's creation, and upon his family and all his Companions. After that, I passed by the imam of a mosque after the Maghrib prayer today, and he was with a group of people standing at a table eating...

The Shaykh: Allahu Akbar.

Another questioner : So I said, "O Shaykh, do you not fear Allah the Mighty and Majestic? Are you sitting?" He said with these exact words, meaning I am reporting his exact phrasing: "Absolutely not, absolutely not! The Messenger of Allah ate standing and drank standing more than he ate sitting and drank sitting!"

The Shaykh: Allahu Akbar.

Another questioner : I said, "Fear Allah!" So they rebuked me and said, "This is..."The Shaykh : ...he has been an imam for more than fifty years, and you are coming now to teach him."

The Shaykh: Allahu Akbar.

Another questioner : I said, "My dear brother," and he said, "I understand where you are coming from. Where are you going to bring this from? When he saw the beard..."

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, the symbol of the Muslims...

Another questioner : So he said, "I understand where you are going to bring these hadiths from. Not all hadiths. I said, 'I understand. We will refer to the verified hadiths. As for these books that the young ones take, whoever they may be, we do not refer to them. What is authentic from the Messenger of Allah is the judgment between us.' But they refused me and said, 'Eat, O Shaykh, and this is all permissible.' I said, 'Bring me the established evidence from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).' He said, 'On my responsibility, with this text!'"

The Shaykh : What Allah willed...

Another questioner : "On my responsibility, the Messenger of Allah ate standing more than he did sitting..."

The Shaykh : He said to you, "On my head!"

Another questioner : So I was confused...

The Shaykh : This is mixing a matter that is established with a matter that is not established at all. There is no doubt that it is established in the authentic Sunnah that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) drank standing, and no Muslim can deny the establishment of his drinking standing, just as no one can deny the establishment of his marriage (peace and blessings be upon him) to more than four women. This is established and that is established. And so we do not deny at the outset what he attributed to the Messenger (peace be upon him) regarding his drinking standing; we say, yes. As for his saying that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ate standing, that is a lie, slander, and fabrication.

The questioner : It is not established from him.

The Shaykh : Absolutely not, absolutely not. There is nothing in the books of the Sunnah that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ate standing. And therefore, I would have liked you, if you had been present, to direct a question to him with complete calm, please: in which book of the Sunnah is the text that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ate standing? As for his drinking standing, we know that and it is established in Sahih al-Bukhari. But you say he ate standing and drank standing, so you are combining the two matters attributed to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) — and may Allah have mercy on you — the establishment of his drinking standing is correct, but where do you get that he ate standing? I would have liked you to direct this question to him, and since you missed the chance...

Another questioner : I did not miss it...

The Shaykh : I had not finished my speech, so you can rectify the matter if you meet him and remind him of his words. And what I fear most is that he will deny it, and therefore it was necessary to strike the iron while it is hot...

Another questioner : And I did...

The Shaykh : What did you do?

Another questioner : I said to him, "Where is your evidence?" He said, "In Musnad 'Abd al-Razzaq and Ibn Abi Shaybah..."

The Shaykh : What is in Musnad 'Abd al-Razzaq?

Another questioner : That he ate standing and drank standing.

The Shaykh : Well, in which... do you see it?

Another questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Well, let him bring you the text, because we have experiences where they tell us, "Al-Bukhari narrated it," in a hadith that has absolutely no basis. They tell you, "Al-Bukhari narrated it," and I mean, unfortunately, strange stories have happened between me and some of the shaykhs there in Damascus, perhaps one that would benefit the attendees. The following story: I was working in my father's shop repairing watches, and I was still a young man, my beard had not grown as it should... One day an old Turkish officer came to me, I remember his name, his name was Najm al-Din, and by Turkish custom, Najm al-Din Bey. He presented me with a watch to examine; it was not running properly. I began to examine it, and he began to praise me and my father. I said, "My brother, I have not seen you deal with us before, so it is not appropriate to praise before you have tried us." He said, "No, a Muslim looks with the light of Allah, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: I said to him, "I am a young man: this hadith is weak." He looked at me with a strange look, and he was old, meaning about sixty years of age, and it appeared to me later that he was a student of knowledge. He said, "How is this hadith weak? We read it in al-Risalah al-Qushayriyyah." I said to myself, "Ah, ah," but I was frank with him. I said, "My brother, al-Risalah al-Qushayriyyah is a treatise on Sufism and the etiquette of Sufism and the conduct of the path, and so on. And even if it differs from other books in that it presents hadiths with their chains of narration, if you are impressed by its discussion, he asked me, 'Who did you study from?' I said, 'I have not studied from anyone.' He said, 'No, you must have studied from..."The Shaykh : ...Badr al-Din.' I said, 'No.' He said, 'Then from..."The Shaykh : ...'Ali al-Dhaqqan?' I said, 'No.' He said, 'Then?' I said, 'This is a special study, the final destination, and we do not prolong the story. He said, 'I will come to you with the chain of the hadith.' I said, 'No problem.' We agreed to repair the watch and I left it with me. He could not wait for the time to pick up the watch; after a week, after two or three days, and I was sitting in the shop, and the shop is shaded from the sun to the south or to the west, and I had lowered the iron with a small opening where I could only see myself working. A paper fell into my lap. I opened it and looked, and there was no one there, and if he was coming with the hadith, he did not stop; he threw the paper and ran off. I read the hadith and the answer was present. I said to myself, "I wish he had proven its existence." He came later to pick up the watch and said to me, "What did you think of the hadith?" I had planned a strategy in my mind to convince him. I said, "I saw the author judge that the hadith is weak." It actually had nothing of that, but in the manner of hadith criticism. He said, "How is this? It does not exist!" I said to him, "Yes, it does." He said, "My brother, I copied the hadith from al-Risalah with my own hand." I said to him, "Did you write it with a pen?" He said, "The author said: So-and-so narrated to me from so-and-so from 'Atiyyah al-'Awfi from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said..." I wrote for him with the pen: 'Atiyyah, two strokes, meaning it is weak according to the scholars of hadith. The point is, days passed and days came, I think a year or more, and if the man, Najm al-Din Bey, came to me on a Friday and I was sitting behind the table in my shop, and with him was a shaykh from the great shaykhs of Damascus who used to narrate under the dome, and who used to narrate under the dome in the Umayyad Mosque, this is an imam, meaning in hadith, his name was Muhammad Dir 'Atani, may Allah have mercy on him. They entered, "Peace be upon you," "And upon you peace." They had not even sat down when he immediately directed a question to the shaykh, saying to him, "Is it authentic, O Shaykh, or O Virtuous..."The Shaykh : The hadith Is this hadith weak? He said: No, it is a valid hadith narrated by so-and-so, so-and-so, and so-and-so. The attribution is valid; it was narrated by Abu Dawud and al-Tirmidhi. The attribution is valid, but I noticed that this man is a memorizer and not a critic. Therefore, I began the following discussion with him. I said to him: "Professor, but these people narrated it from the route of 'Atiyyah al-'Aufi. The old story between us and Najm al-Din Bey and 'Atiyyah al-'Aufi is that he is weak according to the scholars of hadith. So what is the benefit of these people tracing this hadith to the route of the weak 'Atiyyah?" He answered me with a response that confirmed he was a memorizer and not a critic. He said, "If it were weak, the jurists would not have used it as evidence!" This is not the speech of a hadith scholar; this is the speech of those who study jurisprudence, and not even the speech of a jurist. I also wanted to set a plan to convince him that this answer is not the answer of a scholar at all. I put the thought to a hadith. I planned to ask him about a hadith that has no basis at all, and he would answer me with the correct answer that it has no basis. I would say to him, "But so-and-so, the famous jurist, used it as evidence," and he would fall into his own trap. But, as they say in the Levant, it ruined my whole plan. My plan collapsed because of his ignorance and his speaking without knowledge. I said to him: What do you thinkThe Shaykh : about the hadith You have of course heard this hadith and read it; it may be posted in some of the mosques. Who narrated this hadith? Here is the point. He said, "It was narrated by Imam Ahmad!" A liar. No one narrated it, absolutely not. Of course, I could not say to him "liar." I kept my patience with him and said to him: "Where did you read it? Who narrated it?" He said, "In the Musnad." I said to him: "Did you read it in the Musnad?" Even if he had said yes, I would have recorded a black mark against him. The Musnad is six volumes containing about forty thousand hadiths, and it is not, as they say, full of chaff. But here he saved his situation. He said, "No, but he threw his situation away." I said to him: "How do you know that Imam Ahmad narrated it?" He said, "Al-Hafiz al-Mundhiri mentioned it in al-Targhib." And oh God, al-Targhib was beside me at that time, on a Friday, and I was putting the book down to read in it. A customer from the villages came to me, meaning I would be with him, or else I would read directly. I said to him, "Please, here is al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib." Poor wretch, the circle turns against the aggressor. What did he say? The speech of an ignorant person. He said, "Where am I supposed to read it now?" A hadith like this is not known by a teacher in the largest mosque in the entire Levant. He does not know how to read a hadith related to the book of prayer, its relation to mosques, and the etiquettes of mosques. When I saw him, I said to him: "Professor, this hadith, al-Hafiz Zayn al-Din al-'Iraqi says in his book which he named al-Mughni 'an Haml al-Asfar fi al-Asfar fi Takhrij ma fi al-Ihyah min al-Akhabar, that this hadith has no basis. How can you say it was narrated by Imam Ahmad?" He said: "No, no, it has a basis." I said to Najm al-Din Bey, I said to him, "I hope he will returnThe Shaykh : to his home and remember to look at the hadith from the book al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib. And this... Many of these incidents repeated themselves. The attribution to al-Bukhari was another incident that occurred between me andThe Shaykh : al-'Abaji, the Shafi'i mufti of Aleppo. The hadith He said: This hadith. I said to him: This has no basis. He said: It is in al-Jami' al-Saghir. I said to him: Absolutely not, not in al-Jami' al-Saghir and not in al-Jami' al-Kabir. There was one of the young men who had graduated from al-Azhar, and I was at that time frequenting the library that contains manuscripts called the Islamic Endowments Library. This young man came to me the next day and said to me: HowThe Shaykh : can he say it is in al-Jami' al-Saghir? I said to him: Please, this is al-Jami' al-Saghir. I said to him: The method of arrangement. I said to him: It is simple, arranged by the letters of the alphabet, Alif and Kha. He said: Subhan Allah, how do these sheikhs speak like that? I said to him: This is a very common thing, and very common indeed. And therefore, I hope that you will pursue this person, and as they say, the truth is behind the liar.

Another questioner: I will do so, if Allah wills.

The Shaykh: If Allah wills. As for the hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) drinking while standing, this, as we said, is established. But no one can say that drinking while standing is a sunnah (recommended practice), meaning that one draws near to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) by drinking while standing. Rather, the most a person can say is that it is a permissible matter, and even then, he is mistaken. How? The answer is from three angles: That when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) drank while standing, either his drinking was before his prohibition, for the prohibition of drinking while standing has come in more than one hadith. So, in the way of reconciling what is authentic of his action (peace and blessings be upon him) of drinking while standing and his prohibition of drinking while standing, it is necessary in the way of reconciliation to have a first answer: that his action was before his prohibition. The second answer is that his action was for an excuse, and this is permissible; a person may drink while standing for an excuse. I personally do this sometimes. The third and last excuse is that it is possible that it was one of his specific characteristics. Why do the scholars resort to these three possibilities? They said that in order to preserve his saying (peace and blessings be upon him), which by the consensus of the scholars is a general law, whereas the action is surrounded by the possibility of these three possibilities. And if a proof is touched by possibility, the argumentation falls, especially if it is opposed to his saying (peace and blessings be upon him), which is a general law. Some scholars, such as Imam al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him), reconcile by saying that the prohibition is understood as dislike (makruh) and the action is understood as permissibility. What does this speech mean? A weaker permissibility, because it would be disliked (makruh). But I say that this reconciliation by Imam al-Nawawi could have been acceptable were it not for two matters regarding his (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibition of drinking while standing. The first is that the interpretation of Imam al-Nawawi aligns with his (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibition of drinking while standing, and this is in Sahih Muslim, in that the prohibition sometimes comes with the meaning of prohibition (haram) and sometimes with the meaning of disapproval (tanzihi). The prohibition can be this, but when this narration also came in Sahih Muslim with the wording: it did not allow us to accept al-Nawawi's interpretation, because "zajr" (restraining) cannot be for prohibition and "zajr" for what? For dislike? This style is not found in the word "zajr," whereas in the word "nahy" (prohibition), it is possible: prohibition for haram and prohibition for tanzihi. This is the first obstacle that prevents us from accepting the interpretation of Imam al-Nawawi. And the other matter, which is much more important, is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) saw a man drinking while standing and said to him: He said: No, O Messenger of Allah. He said: I do not think anyone would interpret that the Shaytan drank, or that he engaged in a legislated cause that allows the Muslim to permit himself to share with the Shaytan in his food and drink. It is said this is permissible but disliked with a disapproval of tanzihi. No one can say this. So, if we look carefully at his (peace and blessings be upon him) saying to that drinker: If this is clear evidence that drinking while standing is forbidden (haram) because he shares in his drinking with the Shaytan. Then the completion of the hadith confirms this, and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: Is this said regarding someone who did a permissible act? This is unreasonable and has no parallel at all in Islam. For that reason, we say: He who said that he (peace and blessings be upon him) drank while standing is truthful in narration, but he is mistaken in understanding if he says that drinking while standing is permissible without an excuse.

Another questioner: O Shaykh, may Allah reward you. I convey to you the greetings of the brothers from Saudi Arabia, and especially from Hail. My question is: What are the best ways to guide the youth in a time like this when disagreement has become so prevalent?

The Shaykh : The only way, my brother, and the matter does not allow for prolongation, is to tie the Muslims to the Book of their Lord and to the Sunnah of their Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Tie the Muslims to what is obligatory upon them as an individual obligation, not to what is obligatory upon them as a collective obligation. Tie the Muslims to correcting their beliefs, correcting their worship, and correcting their behavior in accordance with the Book and the Sunnah. This is a general answer. Then, the wrongs and violations that occur among Muslims today, whether great or small, among rulers and the ruled, are many and very many. A portion of them is known to the masses of Muslims, even the common people, for example, theft, unlawful sexual intercourse, intoxicants, and usury or interest, and so on. These are things that no Muslim residing in the lands of Islam is ignorant of. But there are details concerning such matters that are hidden from many of the specialized Muslims, let alone the common people. So they must be alerted so that they may be clear about their affair. Usury or interest is forbidden, there is no doubt or ambiguity about it among all people. But do you think that there is usury or interest called the buy-back sale? Is there usury or interest called the installment sale, and similar sales that are prevalent now, and what is called in the language of banks that call themselves Islamic banks, such as the cost-plus sale? For example, is this a transaction of usury or interest, or is it an Islamic transaction, and so on? These are matters in which the masses of Muslims, especially the merchants among them, and the like, fall into. And the like of Muslims imitating the dress of the disbelievers, and the masses being tested by shaving their beards, and so on. The matter has progressed to the point that it has included many scholars in some Islamic lands. In summary... the speech on this topic is very broad, and we conclude with what some of our scholars in the Levant say:
"If you seek knowledge, it is much, *** And your life is short for acquiring it.
The Shaykh: So prioritize the more important of them over the more important."
So the Islamic callers must present to the Muslim society the most important matters first, then the next most important. It is not important that we occupy the minds of the masses of Muslims with what concerns political matters, for example, saying that Islam commands engagement in politics. We say that it is so, but this is from the affairs of the specialized few among the Muslims, and such work has no relation to the Muslim society. And when is that? When the Muslim society is a Muslim society that lacks only engagement in this politics. How so, when the Muslim society today, if we take it as a whole, is submerged in acts of associating partners with Allah, idolatry, religious innovations, and superstitions, and so on. On the occasion of the brother's question about those who did what they did there in Algeria, which resulted in the trial whose bad effects we are still complaining about, a letter came to me from one of the students of knowledge there complaining that he does not find in all of Algeria a scholar to ask about a problem that occurs to him; he does not find one! The Algerian scholar counts twenty-five million Muslims. Then he describes the society there. We know that in the Levant, in misguidance, we find a trace of it in these lands as well. Perhaps you all see a shoe hanging in the back of the car. What is this for?! It is for the evil eye, they claim. In the Levant, they place a horse's shoe, and the more it is rusty and worn out, the more... what do I pay for the evil eye? And they place it in the front of the place. And as they say, if I forget, I will not forget. I once entered a pharmacy. How decorated and polished the pharmacy was, and there was not a fly in it, and if there was in the front of the place a horse's shoe! What is this? He said, this is to ward off the evil eye. When I read the letter of this Algerian, may Allah be pleased with him, I forgot the horse's shoe, and if there in Algeria, he said, they place the large, decorated, and blazing car lights on the wall. For what? He said, so that the building is not struck by the evil eye!

Another questioner : They also place the black pot!

The Shaykh : This is new. So the Muslim world, especially in Egypt, is full of superstitions, acts of associating partners with Allah, and idolatry. This society, my brothers, needs awareness in fundamental matters, in basic matters. As for the secondary matters, which are from the collective obligations and related to the specialized few of the nation, it is not permissible to occupy the nation with them at all. In any case, the time is almost over or has ended. If anyone has a necessary question, please proceed.

Another questioner : To complete what preceded regarding drinking while standing.

The Shaykh: Yes.

Another questioner : I heard some students of knowledge combining the fact that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) drank while standing with the prohibition, saying that it is reported in the hadiths that Satan participates with people in their drinking while standing. But as for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), there is no prohibition if he drank while standing, because his Satan is a Muslim!

The Shaykh : Yes, this can be said, but the problem is that many of the Companions drank while standing, and thus the answer is not complete except with what preceded. Please proceed.

Another questioner : Praise be to Allah, and blessings and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah. The youth send you their greetings in Kuwait and say that they love you for the sake of Allah, O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : May Allah love you for the sake of which you loved me.

Another questioner : Is it permissible to divide the call to Islam into economic, media, and public relations committees, and to appoint an emir for each region who is responsible for the group?

The Shaykh : I believe this is an organization that the state must have if it gathers them all within the circle of Islam. But if every group works for itself without fully cooperating with the others, both intellectually and practically, then this organization is not permissible.

Another questioner : It is not the right of one committee to intervene in the affairs of another committee except...

The Shaykh : I do not mean by intervention; I mean the cooperation of everyone.

The questioner : Even the cooperation.

The Shaykh : I mean, do those who work in economics cooperate with those who work in Islamic jurisprudence?

Another questioner : They do not cooperate except...

The Shaykh : This is what I told you just now; it is not permissible. They must all cooperate.
Another questioner: Is it permissible to appoint an emir for each region who is responsible for the group?

The Shaykh : My brother, the same answer, may Allah reward you. This organization is obligatory if every group does not work independently of the others, but rather they cooperate as we said in the previous verse . This can be considered a small state, a small state. The large state has a Ministry of Economics, right?

Another questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : There is a Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a Ministry of Interior, and so on, a Ministry of Education. Each of these ministries must cooperate with all the other ministries. And within the circle of Islam, there must be, for example, a central council or one established from scholars in Islamic sacred law in the Book and the Sunnah. So any of these ministries must not launch its work independently of the others in general, and of the Ministry of Sacred Knowledge in particular. All of them must work within this circle. As for independence, where this one does what pleases him because it is his specialty, and that one does what pleases him because it is his specialty, without meeting and without exchanging views on whether this conflicts with that or not. For example, regarding economics, does not this system relate to importing, for example, goods and things? The answer is yes. Well, legally, is it permissible to import anything that seems to this ministry? The answer is no. There must be an adopted opinion from, let us say, the Ministry of Sacred Knowledge. So the answer, my brother, is permissible or not permissible. If every group works alone, it is not permissible. If every group cooperates with the other, it is permissible. And appointing an emir, if it is as a head, for example, of a certain circle, there is no obstacle to it. But if you mean by emirate that it is accompanied by a legal pledge of allegiance such that renouncing it is considered renouncing the great Islamic pledge of allegiance, which is given only to the Muslim caliph, then such an emirate has no existence in Islam except the great emirate.

Another questioner : We have a group, O Shaykh, in Kuwait that declares the rulers disbelievers and stirs up trials among themselves?

The Shaykh : This is also a mistake, and Allah is the Helper. This comes from ignorance of Islam and haste in understanding Islam first, and this will be a wrong understanding. Then haste in applying the Islamic rulings before being able to apply them. What is the benefit of declaring the rulers disbelievers today?

Another questioner : There is no benefit.

The Shaykh : We have said on many occasions that it is not permissible to declare a Muslim a disbeliever except after being certain that he denies what is established in the religion by necessity, and secondly, after the legal ruling has been conveyed to him, and thirdly and finally, we declare him a disbeliever only if we are able to take his place. If we are not able to take his place, meaning that we cannot fight him, why do we keep talking about these rulers, saying they are disbelievers and that we must rebel against them, when we cannot rebel against them? We cannot even rebel against the Jews who occupied our lands, so how can we rebel against our rulers who govern our lands? This is an error in transmission and also an error in reason; both are wrong, and the bitterer of the two is the more bitter.

Another questioner : Regarding the sale of a salary in Kuwait: if a person has served a certain period, for example twenty-five years, he sells a part of his salary, for example a quarter of the salary. For instance, he sells a hundred dinars of his salary, and they give him ten thousand dinars in exchange for the hundred, and they deduct this from his salary for the rest of his life. If he completes the amount, they stop the deduction, but if he dies, they stop the amount. Is this permissible?

The Shaykh : How is that? I did not understand. For the rest of his life?

Another questioner : In our case, if a person completes his service, for example ten years, and his salary is four hundred dinars, he sells a hundred dinars from his salary...

The Shaykh : Excuse me, he sells a hundred dinars for how much?

Another questioner : For ten thousand dinars, for example.
Al-Halabi : This is after retirement, are you talking about?

Another questioner : After retirement.
Al-Halabi : After retirement, he receives, for example, four hundred dinars. So they take the hundred from him, and he is left with three hundred. In exchange for the hundred they deduct from the rest of his life, they give him ten thousand dinars in cash. And this hundred is deducted from the full salary, so he is left with three hundred out of the four hundred.

The Shaykh : Allow me a moment. Who is the winner here and who is the loser? The employee, of course, is the loser.
Al-Halabi : Our Shaykh, in the long term, he is the loser, but he considers himself a winner because he has received liquidity of ten thousand dinars...

The Shaykh : This is like cash and installments.
Al-Halabi : That is the question.

The Shaykh : This is like cash and installments. This is not permissible. Please go ahead.

Another questioner : Our Shaykh, in fact, this is a repeated question. I had asked you about it yesterday at Salah al-Din Mosque. You told me regarding the issue of not fasting on Saturday, that you mentioned here prioritizing the prohibitive over the permissive.

The Shaykh : Yes, exactly.

Another questioner : And you gave the example of fasting on the day of Eid al-Fitr, for example...

The Shaykh : The example of Thursday, the day of Eid...

Another questioner : So, on the occasion of Ashura, may Allah bring it upon us and you with goodness, I wanted to ask a question that occurred to me regarding the issue of not fasting on Saturday, based on the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): So I said regarding the fasting of Dawud (peace be upon him), and I said that you also said it is not permissible to argue with it for a specific reason or for a specific thing that you mentioned, and there is no need to mention it here. But the hadith is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

The Shaykh :

Another questioner : May Allah bless you. This hadith, should we not reconcile it with the hadith in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade fasting on Saturday except in what is obligatory? For example, and this is the opinion of a beginner student of knowledge who still stumbles in his Arabic dialect, he came to take from you the knowledge that Allah has made easy for him.

The Shaykh : There is blessing in you, if Allah wills.

Another questioner : May Allah bless you. So the issue, I say, and may Allah help us with this, is that if we say that the hadith the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, and he died and did not reach this, peace be upon him, with the hadith of prohibition, and it is not permissible to strike hadiths against each other, and may you be far from doing this, for you are in these days a model for us in steadfastness upon the Sunnah and asking for evidence, is it not permissible to reconcile them...

The Shaykh : Where is the contradiction, my brother? May Allah bless you. I do not see that there is a contradiction.

Another questioner : In this issue, my Shaykh, since the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: meaning for the one who fasts a day before it, but the hadith of prohibition says, if we say without specifying, without specifying Saturday, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) intended this.

The Shaykh : Tell me where is the contradiction?

Another questioner : The contradiction is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

The Shaykh : Did he say, if I live, I will fast the ninth, even if it is a Saturday?

Another questioner : No, he did not say that.

The Shaykh : So where is the contradiction? May Allah guide you. The contradiction is in your mind. I am not being held accountable for it; it is not present between the two texts.
Another questioner: Is it not a general statement? May Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : My brother, which general statement are you contradicting? It is not a general statement. Allah the Exalted said: Do you forbid all carrion?

Another questioner: No.

The Shaykh : And all blood? So why do you create a problem? There is no issue. If there is a general statement, it is specified by what specifies it. But here, in truth, there is no general statement, my brother. He is saying: Perhaps next year it will be a Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc. There is no specification here. But if we assume, as I described to you earlier, if he said, "If I live until next year, I will fast it, even if it is a Saturday," what do you think? Is this not explicit?

The questioner : It is explicit.

The Shaykh : Good. Then they said, do not fast on Saturday. Now we tell you, here is a prohibitive and here is a permissive, is that not so?

Another questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : If the prohibitive is prioritized over the permissive, we say if the first text was, "If I live until next year, I will fast the ninth of Ashura, even if it is a Saturday," or he said, "even if it is any day of the week," then a hadith came forbidding fasting on Saturday except in what Allah has made obligatory. Well, fasting on the day of Ashura is not obligatory, so fasting on the ninth is not obligatory. If a Muslim fasts Ashura and does not want to fast a day before it or after it, what do you advise him? Should he fast Ashura or not?

Another questioner : He should fast.

The Shaykh : But what do you tell him? The best is that he fasts Tashu'a with it. Well, this preference that you keep talking about, where is the contradiction between it and his saying (peace be upon him): There is no contradiction, my brother. May Allah bless you!

Another questioner : The contradiction occurred in my mind from the perspective of gathering his actions (peace and blessings be upon him) that were reported. He used to fast Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and also his saying, "The best fasting is the fasting of Dawud," he used to fast one day and break the fast one day.

The Shaykh : You have returned to your old habit. Is this not a general text?

The questioner : Yes, it is a general statement.

The Shaykh : Good. First, a general text: he used to fast one day and break the fast one day. Second, is there in the Shari'ah of Dawud (peace be upon him) a prohibition of fasting on Saturday except in the obligatory?

The questioner : Yes, no.

The Shaykh : How?

The questioner : It is not in his Shari'ah.

The Shaykh : Good, why do we cling to his Shari'ah? You want to cling to the Shari'ah of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). He is the one who commanded us with the fasting of Dawud or encouraged us to it, in the most correct meaning, and he said: Why, my brother, do you not solve the problem in the way you described to me earlier? Did he not say in more than one hadith encouraging Muslims to fast on Monday and Thursday?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Good, is this specification specific or general, according to your expression?

The questioner : General, our Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Good, why did you not fast on the day of Eid, which was a Thursday?

The questioner : Because the prohibition of fasting on the day of Eid came.

The Shaykh : The issue here is the same. There is no difference.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.
Al-Halabi : Our Shaykh, the hadith he mentioned that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to fast Saturday, Sunday, and Monday...

The Shaykh : This is weak. It has no news!

The questioner : Our Shaykh, is it permissible to take these dolls as an analogy to the girls that our mother Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) used to play with?

The Shaykh : No, it is not permissible. These dolls embody the customs and traditions of the disbelievers, and they are not made by the people of the household, but rather they are made in the lands of disbelief... Glory be to You, O Allah, and with Your praise, I bear witness that there is no god but You, I seek Your forgiveness and I repent to You.