Following the report of Ibn 'Umar regarding taking what is less than a handful, without following his report regarding raising the hands in the funeral prayer.

The questioner : Ibn 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him and his father) used to hold his beard and take what grew from it, meaning what grew beyond the beard. You, meaning you, followed his saying, whereas in the funeral prayer you said that Ibn 'Umar held the view of raising the hands. So whoever follows the saying of Ibn 'Umar, let him raise his hands, and whoever does not follow it, let him not raise them.

The Shaykh : They are not the same. May Allah bless you. They are not the same.

The questioner : Explain it to us.

The Shaykh : The explanation is clear, if Allah wills. First, regarding the issue of raising the hands, Ibn 'Umar was unique in this. In the issue of taking from the beard, Ibn 'Umar was not unique; rather, all the Muslims were upon that. Yes, and there is no report from any scholar of the Muslims, whether from the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) or from the Tabi'un, of leaving their beard in its natural state and its nature, even if it dragged on the ground. There is absolutely nothing of this. So you have Abu Hurayrah, explicitly like Ibn 'Umar; he also "used to take what exceeded a handful," with a sound chain. And you have Ibrahim ibn Yazid al-Nakha'i, from the students of 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, who reports from the Salaf, and he is, of course, as a Tabi'i, from whom? From the Companions, that they used to take from their beards. And Mujahid, as in "Tafsir Ibn Jarir al-Tabari," interprets His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He) regarding the rituals of Hajj He said, "Meaning they shave their heads and take from their beards." And so, there is a vast difference between that issue and this one. Therefore, we do not say that the one who raises his hands in the takbir of the funeral prayer or the takbirs of the funeral prayer is an innovator. But we say that the one who lengthens his beard and opposes the Salaf is an innovator, especially if he claims to be a Salafi. Because everyone who claims to be a Salafi should follow the way of the Salaf and not do as he pleases. And recently, we gathered a session for the first time with a man who, in our view, was a noble man. And our brother Abu Ahmad was present, as Allah wills. He had a long and very thick beard. And out of his generosity and humility, we could not settle in our sitting except by asking questions, one after another, after a nice introduction that we wanted to benefit from your knowledge. We said to him, "May Allah reward you with good, please go ahead." Most of the questions he asked were about hadith.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : Peace be upon you, and Allah's mercy and blessings.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and Allah's mercy and blessings, and His forgiveness.

The questioner : How are you, O our Shaykh?

The Shaykh : I praise Allah to you. How are you?

The questioner : Praise be to Allah, I am well. May Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : And how are your children?

The questioner : By Allah, they are well, praise be to Allah. They miss you, O Shaykh. We wanted to greet you.

The Shaykh : May Allah bless you. Is the father well?

The questioner : By Allah, he is well, praise be to Allah. We thank Allah to you.

The Shaykh : Greet him.

The questioner : May Allah keep you safe, if Allah wills. How is your health, if Allah wills?

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, I am well.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Welcome.

The questioner : We wanted to greet you because for a long period I have not greeted you. May Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : May Allah keep you safe and bless you, if Allah wills. You are well.

The questioner : Praise be to Allah, I am well, if Allah wills.

The Shaykh : Greet the one who asks, especiallyThe Shaykh : I think it is 'Adil.

The questioner : 'Adil ... .

The Shaykh : Yes, what is his news?

The questioner : By Allah, he is well, praise be to Allah.

The Shaykh : Greet him.

The questioner: May Allah will it.

The Shaykh : And is there anything else?

The questioner : May Allah bless you. May Allah keep you safe. Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.

The questioner : Did not the matter complete? Excuse me.

The Shaykh : No doubt that you love good with haste. After he took much of my time with his questions and answers, and we all undoubtedly benefited from that, I was gentle with him and said to him, "If it is permissible for you to ask me many questions, do you see it permissible for me to ask you one question?" He said, "Of course. May Allah reward you with good." We said to him, "I hope you will be careful that the answer is very precise." He said, "Go ahead." I said, "Did you learn, from what you read of the Sunnah, that anyone from the righteous Salaf to whom we belong took from his beard?" My introduction to him and my warning to him went to waste, because he answered me, "The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said I said, "May Allah forgive you. I told you, 'Do you know?' So you did not answer me whether you know or you do not know, but you answered me with what you understand of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him). This has a second scope. Briefly, we directed several questions to him, and we concluded that first, he does not know, and second, he does not know these texts that I mentioned earlier, except the story of Ibn 'Umar, and this is famous, of course. I said, "If we stop at the report of Ibn 'Umar that he used to take from his beard what was less than a handful, do you see, and you know, as I said to him, that Ibn 'Umar is one of the narrators of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) Here comes a phrase that scholars circulate, which is 'The narrator of a hadith knows it better than those who narrate it from others.' Now, you, or rather Ibn 'Umar, you are after fourteen centuries coming to say the hadith in its generality, while the one who heard the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) with his ear says And the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) saw with his own eyes that he was taking from his beard. Additionally, Ibn 'Umar was among the most eager of the Companions of the Messenger to follow the Messenger, even in what we call the ordinary sunnahs. Do you remember this well?

The questioner : For example?

The Shaykh : It was seen that he went to urinate under a tree. Why? He saw the Messenger of Allah. The requirement of the command and the need was to urinate in this place, but he did not intend that place. This is from his seeking to differ from the madhhab of his father, 'Umar. 'Umar was on his way to Hajj, he stopped at a camp, and he found the people turning to a side, following a path. To where are these people going? They said, "There is a prayer place in which the Messenger of Allah prayed." He said, "Whoever catches the prayer in any of these places, let him pray, and whoever does not, let him not. Do not follow the traces, for only those who came before you were destroyed by following the traces of their prophets."
Abu Layla : ... .

The Shaykh : No, no. The public interest takes precedence over the private interest. So I want to say, this Companion who was eager to follow the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), even in ordinary matters, how is it that he hears the Messenger say And he sees with his own eyes that the Messenger was taking and was not taking? So we imagine that he made a mistake in understanding the hadith, and you, in the end of time, hit the mark in understanding the hadith. And this led me to narrate a story with a point and also a scientific benefit. We have among our brothers in Damascus who passed away to the mercy of Allah a few months ago. He was working under the hand of a head editor in a library. He adopted the view that the command in the Shari'ah does not imply obligation. And a disagreement and discussion took place between this teacher and this student of ours. Of course, the teacher was stronger than him in religious culture, and he really had the upper hand over him, even by silencing him, that there is no evidence that the command implies obligation. He came to me, and I was in the Dar al-Kutub al-Mu'ayyada, complaining about this discussion that took place between him and his teacher. Our man was a beginner in seeking knowledge and from our brothers. I saw that entering with him into a detailed research to present the argument against the error of the editor might not be comprehended by him, and if he comprehended it now, it might be that he would find his companion evaporating a part of it. So I said to myself, let us present to him something easy, which is silencing his opponent. I said to him, "Since you are an employee under his hand, whenever he orders you to do something, in the Syrian expression, 'tanash' (ignore it), do not do it, ignore it. He will be fed up with your not fulfilling his request and will shout at you. So you, with all calmness and coolness, say to him, 'O Shaykh, I understood from you that the command does not imply obligation, so I am free.' And so it was, and the dispute between him and the man was resolved. So my intention is to say that Ibn 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) heard the command from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and executed it without doubt. And when he heard it, he understood it better than us. Why? Because why did the scholars differ? Because the command implies obligation or not? Because sometimes, indeed, one issues a command, but it appears from his state and his style of speech that he does not mean it definitely. But the witness sees what the absent one does not see. Therefore, we must feed our fiqh with the fiqh of our Salaf, for they saw what we did not see. And as came in the hadith .