The Shaykh’s commentary on the athar of Ibn Mas’ud: “You are in a time when its jurists are many, its orators are few, its questioners are few, and its recipients of knowledge are many; in it, action is the leader of desire.”

The questioner : Knowledge takes precedence over speech.

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner : Knowledge is better than speech!

The Shaykh : Well done. Now, what is the situation? What is the current state? Speech and sermons are far more abundant than knowledge, Allahu Akbar! And take this as a lesson from the abundance of preachers today! Are you with me?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Preachers!

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Preachers to what? To Islam, but most of them do not know: “You are today in a time when its jurists are many, its orators are few.” Clarify this. Okay: “Its questioners are few.” What does this mean?

The questioner : It means they have knowledge but they do not ask.

The Shaykh: All right.

The questioner : It means they are well-versed in jurisprudence.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : So, their questions decrease, their questions.

The Shaykh : No.

The questioner : They did not ask the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and they would wait until a Bedouin would come and ask, I don’t know!

The Shaykh : What do you have?

The questioner : This, my Shaykh, is from after them regarding the religion of Allah (Mighty and Majestic); they lost interest in inquiry and asking.

The Shaykh : What appears to me, and Allah knows best: because the scholars fulfill the duty of clarification, this clarification suffices them from asking.

The questioner : Its questioners are few?!

The Shaykh: Allahu Akbar.

The questioner : Its orators are few.

Another questioner : I thought, my Shaykh, this was in the end of times, but this is in the beginning of times.

The Shaykh : We are talking about the beginning of the hadith, right now.

The questioner : In the beginning of times!

The Shaykh : “You are in a time when its jurists are many, its orators are few.” Excuse me: “Its orators are few, its questioners are few.”

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Why? There is no need to ask the scholars who are present, who are flooding the people with knowledge.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : There is no need for asking.

The questioner : But there will be many orators?

The Shaykh : Except—yes, my brother, its orators are few—we said earlier, now the orators are more than the jurists. Why? Because the sermon does not require a row of words.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : A row of words does not require knowledge: “You are in a time when its jurists are many, its orators are few, its questioners are few, and its recipients of knowledge are many.” Do you see? This clarifies the first sentence. Here is a new point: “In it, action is the leader of desire”!

The questioner: Allah is the Greatest!!

The Shaykh : What does this mean?

The questioner : It prevails over desire; it is the one that follows desire.

The Shaykh : No, no, it is still, it is still the narrator of the hadith—did he enter?—

The questioner : They entered.

The Shaykh : —They entered— it is still the narrator of the hadith speaking about the first time.

The questioner : Yes, action is the leader of desire; action follows desire.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : It is the one that follows desire, not desire that leads action!

The Shaykh : Yes, yes, action through jurisprudence is what leads desire, Allahu Akbar! “And there will come after you a time when its jurists are few, its orators are many, and its questioners are many,” and I know the people by this.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Its questioners are many, day and night; you must have seen it.

The questioner : And things that are perhaps very easy.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : Things that are very clear to most people.

The Shaykh : Yes, may Allah bless you. It corresponds to the fewness of its questioners. What did we attribute the fewness of its questioners to?The questioner : To the spread of knowledge.

The questioner: Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : —And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings— this is the first paragraph. In the first paragraph, in the first time: “Its questioners are few”: because the scholars, due to their fulfillment of their duty, their spreading of knowledge, made the people in need of much asking. In the end of times, it is exactly the opposite; the scholars do not fulfill their duty, and if there are scholars, they do not fulfill their duty, which is: to spread knowledge. So asking becomes abundant. A miracle from the miracles of the unseen prophethood: “And there will come after you a time when its jurists are few, its orators are many, its questioners are many, and its recipients of knowledge are few; in it, desire is the leader of action.” Allahu Akbar! The first one: “Action is the leader of desire,” it drives it to knowledge and jurisprudence, whereas in the end of times, desire is what leads to action, Allahu Akbar.

The questioner : Is this a statement of one of the Companions?

The Shaykh : It is the words of Ibn Mas’ud. Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar says in “Al-Fath”: “Its chain of narration is authentic, and it is in the category of marfu’ (traced to the Prophet) because it is not said by opinion.” Then I traced it in “Al-Sahihah” and found for it corroborating narrations that are marfu’, in which the narrators say: The Messenger of Allah said. Therefore, this is one of the scientific unseen miracles of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), so I wanted to let you hear it, so that you know the difference between your time and the first time, Allahu Akbar. How are you?

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

The Shaykh: All right?

The questioner : Praise be to Allah.