A word following the account of Abu Musa with Ibn Mas'ud (… and how many are those who seek good but do not attain it)

The Shaykh : … And I conclude this reminder with the story narrated by Imam al-Darimi in his Sunan, which is mistakenly known as the Musnad; it is actually the Sunan. He narrated with a sound chain that Abu Musa al-Ash'ari (may Allah be pleased with him) came to the home of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) one morning and found the people waiting for him so they could depart with him to the mosque. Here I pause briefly. This report indicates the eagerness of the Salaf to keep the company of the scholars and to seize opportunities, for they might not be able to accompany a scholar at every moment that presents itself. Therefore, they would seize the opportunity to accompany the scholar, even if only from his home to his mosque, hoping to pluck a fruit of his knowledge. When Abu Musa arrived at Ibn Mas'ud's home, he found the people waiting for him. He said: "Has Abu Abd al-Rahman come out?" They said: "No." So he sat and waited for him until he came out. Abu Musa, who was a noble Companion like Ibn Mas'ud, said: "O Abu Abd al-Rahman"—this is the kunya of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud—"I saw something in the mosque just now that I disapproved of, and yet, praise be to Allah, I saw nothing but good." Look now at two words that appear contradictory: "I saw something I disapproved of" and "yet, praise be to Allah, I saw nothing but good." How can it be good and how can it be disapproved? If you know the Turkish Sunnah, that is the disapproved matter, and this is what you will see in the full story. Ibn Mas'ud said: "What did you see?" He said: "If you live, you will see it. I saw people in the mosque in circles, and in the middle of each circle was a man saying to those around him: 'Subhan Allah (Glory be to Allah) so much, Alhamdulillah (Praise be to Allah) so much, Allahu Akbar (Allah is the Greatest) so much.' And in front of each man were pebbles with which he counted the glorification, praise, and magnification. As soon as Ibn Mas'ud heard this description, he hastened to speak to Abu Musa, saying: 'Did you not disapprove of them?' Yes, what did he disapprove of? The glorification, praise, and 'Subhan Allah' and 'Alhamdulillah'? It is mentioned in many hadiths that the four phrases after the Qur'an are four phrases that do not harm you whichever one you start with: 'Subhan Allah, Alhamdulillah, La ilaha illa Allah (There is no god but Allah), and Allahu Akbar.' The best speech after the Qur'an is these four phrases; it does not harm you whichever one you start with: 'Subhan Allah, Alhamdulillah, La ilaha illa Allah, and Allahu Akbar.' What were the people in the circles doing? They were glorifying, praising, and magnifying, and so on. How could Ibn Mas'ud say to Abu Musa: 'Did you not disapprove of them?' He said: "And this is the etiquette of a scholar with a scholar. So how would the etiquette of a student of knowledge with a scholar be? Undoubtedly, it would be higher and on this same etiquette, for both of the Companions were scholars, Ibn Mas'ud and Abu Musa. But Abu Musa acknowledged that the knowledge of Ibn Mas'ud was higher and more noble than his own. Therefore, he said to him: 'I did not dare to disapprove of what I saw, which deserved disapproval, until I took your opinion.' Did you not disapprove of them and order them to count their sins instead of counting for Allah? And I guaranteed them that nothing of their good deeds would be lost. He said: 'No, I was waiting for your command or your opinion.' So Ibn Mas'ud returned to his home and went out veiled so that he would not be recognized, and he went straight to the mosque. And indeed, he saw the circles that Abu Musa had described to him. He said to them: 'Woe to you! What is this that you are doing?' They said: 'O Abu Abd al-Rahman.' And he removed the veil from his face. He said: 'I am Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, a Companion of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). What is this that you are doing?' They said: 'By Allah, O Abu Abd al-Rahman, these are pebbles with which we count the glorification, magnification, and praise.' He said: 'Count your sins, and I am the guarantor that nothing of your good deeds will be lost. Woe to you! How quickly you are destroyed! These are the garments of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and they have not worn out. And these are his vessels, and they have not been broken. By My soul, are you not more guided than the Ummah of Muhammad, the Companions of Muhammad? By My soul, are you not more guided than the Ummah of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family)? Or are you clinging to a sin of misguidance? He is saying: You are in one of two states: either you are more guided than the Companions of the Messenger, and I am among them, and this is my companion Abu Musa, who is among them. And this is, of course, impossible. So if that is not the case, the only other option is that you are clinging to a sin of misguidance. And this is from the eloquence of the Arabic language. He did not say to them 'clinging to misguidance'; if he had said that, they would have considered it so. But it is from the way of rebuking and the intensity of disapproval. He said to them: You are not clinging to misguidance, but to a sin of misguidance. Listen to what their answer was, so that you may remember now that this answer is the one that is put forward in this time before the call to the truth, the call to follow the Book and the Sunnah without addition or subtraction. They said: 'By Allah, O Abu Abd al-Rahman, we did not intend anything but good.' Do you not hear this speech? Every time someone disapproves of an innovation, my brother, what is in it? We want to remember Allah, we want to send blessings upon the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). The Salafi answer is what you will hear from the words of this Salafi Imam, who is among the earliest of the first ones who believed in Allah and His Messenger, namely Abdullah ibn Mas'ud. When they said to him: 'By Allah, O Abu Abd al-Rahman, by Allah, we did not intend anything but good,' he said: And here is the lesson. How many are those who seek good but do not attain it? How many are those who seek good but do not attain it? How many are those who seek good but do not attain it? That this is good and that this is evil, that this is obligatory and this is a recommended practice, that this is a recommended practice and this is an innovation—what is the way to know this from that, to distinguish this from that? Is it the intellect or the Shari'ah? Undoubtedly, the answer is the Shari'ah. And therefore, he responds to them: You intended good, but you did not take the path of good. How many are those who seek good but do not attain it, on the scale of the saying of the poet who said long ago:
"You hope for salvation but have not taken its paths *** For the ship does not run on the dry land"
The one who wants to run the ship must place it in its course, meaning in its path, meaning in its water, and not on its plain and rough terrain, and the like.
"You hope for salvation but have not taken its paths *** For the ship does not run on the dry land"
Ibn Mas'ud said: "How many are those who seek good but do not attain it." If Muhammad—look at the lesson—if Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) told us: What is the meaning of this hadith? This is also in the tongue of the Master of Arabs and non-Arabs, may peace and blessings be upon him, saying: "Some people among the Muslims recite the Qur'an with their tongues, but the faith does not pass their throats." If the archer is strong in muscles and shoots his spear or arrow and hits his prey, it enters and exits quickly to the other side. So people pass through the religion in this way. Ibn Mas'ud said that he heard the Messenger say: The one who narrated this story said: "We indeed saw those people fighting us on the Day of al-Nahrawan." The story ends. The lesson from this story, which fits the previous word, is that the entire Shari'ah is either action or abstention, and that action and abstention are not by our customs, desires, and traditions, but by our following of our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). We find in this story that Ibn Mas'ud disapproved of the people in the circles. Now I want to explain to you the point of disapproval. It is not the glorification, praise, and magnification in themselves, but because they were shaped in a manner that was not on the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). The first manner is that a Shaykh made himself a leader, a guide, and a commander for what? For the remembrance of Allah. And the easiest remembrance of Allah is when a person is far from society and remembers Allah in seclusion. And this reminds me that I forgot a part of the hadith that I recited to your ears just now. I forgot, and nothing made me forget it but Satan, that I should mention it. To mention from those seven, and it is the full number of seven. So there is no need for a Shaykh from the Shaykhs to make himself a Shaykh and lead the state of some good-hearted Dervishes, saying to them: "Remember so much, praise so much, magnify so much." He is not a legislator; the Messenger of Allah is not a legislator, he is only a conveyor from Allah the Exalted. He only established for us, by revelation from the sky, how to worship our Lord. So the disapproval in this display that Ibn Mas'ud disapproved of is that thisThe Shaykh : He appointed himself a legislator for those around him, and it is not befitting for one like me to do this, because the remembrance of Allah is an easy matter, and its best form is to be done in seclusion. This is the first point of censure in that story. The second thing is that they gathered pebbles. Why? So that they would not miss a single tasbih (glorification). They would say to them, for example, "Glorify Allah fifty times." This dervish—meaning the dervishes who attend this gathering—must not get the number wrong; it must be exactly fifty. It is the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) who told us, and we believed him and followed him with pure faith. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) told us this, so we followed him. But if a shaykh, or even a mere boy, comes and says, "Glorify Allah thus," and we say, "Ameen," and believe him, that means we have made him a partner with Allah. And Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has censured in the explicit text of the Noble Qur'an the misguided and those upon whom is the anger, from among the Jews, the Christians, and the polytheists. He said regarding them: "Are you all [to be]..." The Jews worshipped Jesus other than Allah, not only because they made Him a part of the essence of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, but also because they claimed that He legislated alongside Allah, whereas He is nothing but a messenger from Allah, as He, Blessed and Exalted is He, said regarding the Jews. And for this reason, we find that the religion of the Jews and the Christians is always in a state of renewal and change, because it is not as it was revealed; rather, they altered and changed it. But Allah, Mighty and Majestic, protected His Shari'ah which He revealed to the heart of our Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and He guaranteed its preservation by His saying: With such principles that we have mentioned to you some of, from the Salaf, and it came from this, from this first Salafi, Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, to censure these innovators who adopted forms for the remembrance of Allah. This form is the one that Ibn Mas'ud censured, and not for the tasbih, tahmid, and takbir themselves. So we first mentioned that this...The Shaykh : ...appointed himself a guide to remind people of Allah, whereas they did not need this after the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) had explained the remembrance of Allah. Second, they gathered stones to count for Allah, and so he said to them, "Count your sins, and I guarantee you that nothing of your good deeds will be lost." The third and final thing, which is perhaps the most serious, is that they turned away from counting. This is a calamity that still exists among Muslims today. They turned away from counting the prescribed dhikr with the fingers. Now you find the dervishes and those like the dervishes among the shaykhs counting the tasbih after the prayers with the misbaha (prayer beads). This misbaha developed over time from the stones of those Khawarij. The lesson is after they were completed. If we know that Ibn Mas'ud censured them not for the specific dhikr of tasbih, tahmid, and takbir, but for what surrounded this dhikr of innovation and bid'ah that was not in the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), therefore he said to them, censuring them with the strongest censure: "By Him in whose hand is my soul, are you more guided than the Ummah of Muhammad—who did not have such circles—or are you clinging to a rope of misguidance?" This is the explanation of the point of censure from Ibn Mas'ud. So let not an ignorant one among the ignorant say: "What did these people do, my brother? They did not innovate anything; it is only tasbih, takbir, and tahmid." No, they innovated the manner. This manner is what Ibn Mas'ud censured. As for the lesson, I say, quoting from this story, by analogy to what the fuqaha and scholars say: "Minor sins are the herald of major sins." Minor sins, the minor sins are the herald of major sins. That is, whoever is accustomed to committing a small sin will gradually proceed with it to a major sin, because sins do not have material, tangible limits where a person stops and is not then dragged behind them into a major sin...