Continuation of the benefits of the hadith: (… from Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him and his father), who said: I spent a year wanting to ask 'Umar about the two women who made zihar against the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), but I was afraid of him. One day he went out to a place and entered the tamarisk trees. When he came out, I asked him, and he said: Aishah and Hafzah. Then he said: We used to consider women as nothing in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. When Islam came and Allah mentioned them, we recognized that they had rights over us because of that, without including them in any of our affairs. There was a dispute between me and my wife, and she was harsh with me, so I said to her, "And you are there." She said, "You say this to me while your daughter is harming the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)?" So I went to Hafzah and said to her, "I warn you against disobeying Allah and His Messenger." I advanced to her regarding her harm. Then I went to Umm Salama and said to her, and she said, "I am more surprised by you, O 'Umar. You have entered into our affairs, and all that remains is for you to intervene between the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and his wives." I replied, and there was a man from the Ansar who, when he was absent from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and I was present, would come to me with what had happened, and when I was absent from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and he was present, he would come to me with what had happened from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Those around the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had settled down, so all that remained was the King of Ghassan in Sham, whom we feared might come to us. Before I realized it, the Ansari was saying that something had happened. I said to him, "What is it?" He said, "The Ghassanid has come." I said, "Something greater than that: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) has divorced his wives." So I came, and I heard weeping from all their rooms. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had gone up to his balcony, and there was a slave at the door of the balcony. I came to him and said, "Give me permission to enter," and he gave me permission. I entered, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was on a mat that had left a mark on his side, and under his head was a leather pillow stuffed with fiber, and there were dates hanging and a piece of leather. I mentioned what I had said to Hafzah and Umm Salama, and what Umm Salama had replied to me, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) laughed. Then he stayed for twenty-nine nights, and then he came down.)
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The Shaykh : In this hadith, there are very important benefits, among which are two.
The first benefit is that a person should not deviate from the custom of people in clothing, and if he deviates from their custom, that is a form of showing off. This is something we have mentioned before, and we have clarified that this is what the Sunnah requires, and that the Sunnah in clothing is a general type, not a specific kind. A general type means what has become customary.
He also mentioned the second benefit, which we have referred to before: when something becomes widespread and common among Muslims and disbelievers, the description of imitating the disbelievers is removed from it, and it becomes common, so it is not said that its origin is from the disbelievers, making it imitation. Rather, the imitation is removed by its prevalence and spread.
Now, in this hadith, there is evidence that a person may be shy about asking a question and delay in asking it, as Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) did, when he spent a full year being afraid to speak to 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) about the two women who made zihar against the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). But 'Umar rebuked him for that and said: "If you had asked me", if I had knowledge, I would have told you. And what 'Umar held is the correct position, that a person should not be shy in seeking knowledge. For this reason, it is said: "Knowledge is not attained by the shy or the arrogant." The shy person who refrains from seeking knowledge or asking about it because of his shyness does not attain knowledge, and likewise the arrogant person who does not care about knowledge or take an interest in it.
And in it is evidence from the hadith regarding what Islam brought of protecting women and fulfilling their rights, contrary to what the people of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance were doing, where they did not consider women as anything. And what I mean is that what Islam brought is a middle path between the practice of the previous pre-Islamic age of ignorance and the practice of the later pre-Islamic age of ignorance. What is the later pre-Islamic age of ignorance? The modern one, the pre-Islamic age of these later centuries, where they give women more than they deserve and equate them with men, so they corrupt the worldly life of the man and the worldly life of the woman. The worldly life of the woman is corrupted because she does not consider herself as a female, but considers herself as a man. And the man likewise does not consider that the one with him, a female, is as if she were a man who participates with him even in earning a living, even though the one who has authority over the woman is the man. So Islam, praise be to Allah, is a middle path between two extreme pre-Islamic ages of ignorance: one is the pre-Islamic age of ignorance that does not give women any weight, to the extent that they did not inherit women, and the last pre-Islamic age of ignorance that makes the woman exactly like the man, to the extent that they deny that she should be on half of the man in inheritance, and say that the woman and the man must be equated in inheritance, and they deny that the blood money of the woman should be half the blood money of the man. They stubbornly reject what is transmitted and what is reasonable, for what the Shari'ah brought of her being on half in the entitlement of inheritance and her being on half in blood money is in accordance with correct reasoning, because the woman does not do what the man does in society, neither in defense nor in attack nor otherwise. Rather, she is deficient in everything and cannot be equated with the man, even in valuation by blood money; she cannot be equated with the man because she does not provide the benefit that comes from the man. Both of these issues are agreed upon by the scholars of Muslims, meaning that the woman is on half of the blood money of the man and that she is on half in inheritance with the man. Yes.
Now, and in it is also evidence from this hadith regarding what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was of in terms of a hard life, little living, and no luxury in this world, as indicated by his being in the balcony.
And in it is evidence that a person should advise his daughter and warn her of the punishment and anger of Allah, as 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) did.
And in it is also evidence that a woman may say something that breaks a man and curbs his boldness, as Umm Salama did with 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), because 'Umar wanted to say to her something harsher than what he said, but when she said: "All that remains for you is to intervene between the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and his wives", he stopped, and what was in his heart and soul of what he wanted to say was broken.
And in it is also evidence that natural fear does not contradict the Shari'ah, for the Companions were afraid of the King of Ghassan because they were told that he would come to them, and the King of Ghassan was an agent for whom? For the Romans, for Caesar, so they feared him.
And in it is evidence of the concern of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and his family, because the Ansari said to 'Umar, meaning when he said: "Did the Ghassanid come?", he said: "Something greater and more important came". And there is no doubt that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was more precious to the Companions than their own souls, so the thing that happened between him and his family, to the extent that it led to his secluding himself from them, was a severe matter for them.
And in it is also that a person should bring something that removes sadness from a person so that it takes away what is in his heart. Where is this taken from?
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : From whom? Yes, from 'Umar's (may Allah be pleased with him) recounting to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) what happened with Umm Salama, until the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) laughed.
And in it is also that the month may be twenty-nine days, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came down when he had completed twenty-nine nights. It may also be thirty days, and it does not become twenty-eight days or thirty-one days. It cannot exceed thirty days, and it cannot be less than twenty-nine days. So if someone says: How do you say it cannot be, when Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is able to do everything? We say: But the Sunnah of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) that He has established does not change except for a cosmic cause that Allah wills. For example, fire burns; everyone knows that if a combustible thing falls into fire, does it? It burns. If someone said that if paper falls into fire it does not burn, people would say this is not correct. And yet this custom or cosmic Sunnah may be removed, so fire does not burn, as happened to Ibrahim (peace be upon him). We are only speaking about cosmic matters, for they do not change unless Allah wills to change them, like any of His signs.
And through this we understand what some jurists (may Allah have mercy on them) depicted when they said that if an eclipse occurs at 'Arafah before the departure, one should pray and then depart, meaning the moon. Is this possible? Does the moon eclipse on the night of the tenth?
The student: It is not possible.
The Shaykh : Huh? It is not possible. It is not according to divine power; Allah is capable of all things, and the moon split into two parts in the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). But according to the custom by which Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has established things, it is not possible for this to happen. For this reason, the Shaykh al-Islam (may Allah have mercy on him) said that a lunar eclipse is not possible except on the nights of the moon's waxing, and a solar eclipse is not possible except on the nights of the moon's waning, meaning the disappearance of the moon, meaning on the twenty-ninth, twenty-eighth, or thirtieth night. Yes. Yes?
The first benefit is that a person should not deviate from the custom of people in clothing, and if he deviates from their custom, that is a form of showing off. This is something we have mentioned before, and we have clarified that this is what the Sunnah requires, and that the Sunnah in clothing is a general type, not a specific kind. A general type means what has become customary.
He also mentioned the second benefit, which we have referred to before: when something becomes widespread and common among Muslims and disbelievers, the description of imitating the disbelievers is removed from it, and it becomes common, so it is not said that its origin is from the disbelievers, making it imitation. Rather, the imitation is removed by its prevalence and spread.
Now, in this hadith, there is evidence that a person may be shy about asking a question and delay in asking it, as Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) did, when he spent a full year being afraid to speak to 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) about the two women who made zihar against the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). But 'Umar rebuked him for that and said: "If you had asked me", if I had knowledge, I would have told you. And what 'Umar held is the correct position, that a person should not be shy in seeking knowledge. For this reason, it is said: "Knowledge is not attained by the shy or the arrogant." The shy person who refrains from seeking knowledge or asking about it because of his shyness does not attain knowledge, and likewise the arrogant person who does not care about knowledge or take an interest in it.
And in it is evidence from the hadith regarding what Islam brought of protecting women and fulfilling their rights, contrary to what the people of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance were doing, where they did not consider women as anything. And what I mean is that what Islam brought is a middle path between the practice of the previous pre-Islamic age of ignorance and the practice of the later pre-Islamic age of ignorance. What is the later pre-Islamic age of ignorance? The modern one, the pre-Islamic age of these later centuries, where they give women more than they deserve and equate them with men, so they corrupt the worldly life of the man and the worldly life of the woman. The worldly life of the woman is corrupted because she does not consider herself as a female, but considers herself as a man. And the man likewise does not consider that the one with him, a female, is as if she were a man who participates with him even in earning a living, even though the one who has authority over the woman is the man. So Islam, praise be to Allah, is a middle path between two extreme pre-Islamic ages of ignorance: one is the pre-Islamic age of ignorance that does not give women any weight, to the extent that they did not inherit women, and the last pre-Islamic age of ignorance that makes the woman exactly like the man, to the extent that they deny that she should be on half of the man in inheritance, and say that the woman and the man must be equated in inheritance, and they deny that the blood money of the woman should be half the blood money of the man. They stubbornly reject what is transmitted and what is reasonable, for what the Shari'ah brought of her being on half in the entitlement of inheritance and her being on half in blood money is in accordance with correct reasoning, because the woman does not do what the man does in society, neither in defense nor in attack nor otherwise. Rather, she is deficient in everything and cannot be equated with the man, even in valuation by blood money; she cannot be equated with the man because she does not provide the benefit that comes from the man. Both of these issues are agreed upon by the scholars of Muslims, meaning that the woman is on half of the blood money of the man and that she is on half in inheritance with the man. Yes.
Now, and in it is also evidence from this hadith regarding what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was of in terms of a hard life, little living, and no luxury in this world, as indicated by his being in the balcony.
And in it is evidence that a person should advise his daughter and warn her of the punishment and anger of Allah, as 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) did.
And in it is also evidence that a woman may say something that breaks a man and curbs his boldness, as Umm Salama did with 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), because 'Umar wanted to say to her something harsher than what he said, but when she said: "All that remains for you is to intervene between the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and his wives", he stopped, and what was in his heart and soul of what he wanted to say was broken.
And in it is also evidence that natural fear does not contradict the Shari'ah, for the Companions were afraid of the King of Ghassan because they were told that he would come to them, and the King of Ghassan was an agent for whom? For the Romans, for Caesar, so they feared him.
And in it is evidence of the concern of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and his family, because the Ansari said to 'Umar, meaning when he said: "Did the Ghassanid come?", he said: "Something greater and more important came". And there is no doubt that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was more precious to the Companions than their own souls, so the thing that happened between him and his family, to the extent that it led to his secluding himself from them, was a severe matter for them.
And in it is also that a person should bring something that removes sadness from a person so that it takes away what is in his heart. Where is this taken from?
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : From whom? Yes, from 'Umar's (may Allah be pleased with him) recounting to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) what happened with Umm Salama, until the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) laughed.
And in it is also that the month may be twenty-nine days, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came down when he had completed twenty-nine nights. It may also be thirty days, and it does not become twenty-eight days or thirty-one days. It cannot exceed thirty days, and it cannot be less than twenty-nine days. So if someone says: How do you say it cannot be, when Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is able to do everything? We say: But the Sunnah of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) that He has established does not change except for a cosmic cause that Allah wills. For example, fire burns; everyone knows that if a combustible thing falls into fire, does it? It burns. If someone said that if paper falls into fire it does not burn, people would say this is not correct. And yet this custom or cosmic Sunnah may be removed, so fire does not burn, as happened to Ibrahim (peace be upon him). We are only speaking about cosmic matters, for they do not change unless Allah wills to change them, like any of His signs.
And through this we understand what some jurists (may Allah have mercy on them) depicted when they said that if an eclipse occurs at 'Arafah before the departure, one should pray and then depart, meaning the moon. Is this possible? Does the moon eclipse on the night of the tenth?
The student: It is not possible.
The Shaykh : Huh? It is not possible. It is not according to divine power; Allah is capable of all things, and the moon split into two parts in the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). But according to the custom by which Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has established things, it is not possible for this to happen. For this reason, the Shaykh al-Islam (may Allah have mercy on him) said that a lunar eclipse is not possible except on the nights of the moon's waxing, and a solar eclipse is not possible except on the nights of the moon's waning, meaning the disappearance of the moon, meaning on the twenty-ninth, twenty-eighth, or thirtieth night. Yes. Yes?