Category: Death and the life of the grave

Sun 6 Oct 2019
Hadith 24 (Part 2) & 25
Read by Abu Arwa Ali

Hadith 24

• Abu Dharr Al-Ghifārī – may Allah be pleased with him -said: the Prophet (ﷺ) mentioned from what he narrates from his Lord the Mighty and Sublime- that He said: “O my servants, I have restrained Myself from oppression, and have made it prohibited amongst you; so, do not oppress one another. O my servants, all of you lack guidance except whom I guide: so, seek guidance of me and I shall guide you. O my servants, you are all hungry except whom I feed; so, seek food of me and I shall feed you. O my servants, you are all naked except whom I clothe; seek clothing of me and I shall clothe you. O my servants, you err in the night and day, and I forgive all sins; so, seek forgiveness of me and I shall forgive you. O my servants, you all are incapable of bringing harm to Me such that you may harm Me and you are incapable of benefitting Me such that you may provide Me benefit. O my servants were the first of you and the last of you; the men of you and the jinn of you to be as the heart of the most pious one amongst you; that will not increase anything of My kingdom. O my servants, were the first of you and the last of you, the men of you and the jinn of you to be as the heart of the worst one amongst you; that will not reduce anything from My kingdom. O my servants were the first of you and the last of you; the men of you and the jinn of you to stand on a plain and you all supplicate to me and I grant everyone what he has asked; that will not reduce anything from what I have except what reduces from the sea if a needle is dipped in it. O my servants, it is but your actions; I keep record of them for you, and then, I will recompense you with it as is due. So, whoever finds good should give thanks and praise to Allah; and whoever finds other than that, let him blame no one but himself.” [Muslim] 
• The explanation of this hadith is split into  10 parts
• We did parts 1-5 last lesson

Part 6: “O My slaves, you will never attain harming Me so as to harm Me, and you will never attain benefiting Me so as to benefit Me”

• Regardless of what we do in terms of performing good deeds, then Allah does not benefit from this in any way
• Rather it is we who benefit by praying, fasting and giving in charity
• Allah is perfect and free from any need
• And if we are disobedient to Allah and we commit sins, then Allah is not harmed by this
• Rather it is we who harm ourselves when we commit sins
• What does Allah say in the Qur’an about this?

Part 7: “O My slaves, if the first of you and the last of you, and the human of you and the jinn of you, had the most pious heart of any man amongst you, that would not increase My Kingdom in anything. O My slaves, if the first of you and the last of you, and the human of you and the jinn of you, had the most evil heart of any man amongst you, then this would not decrease My Kingdom in anything”

• This statement of Allah, subhaanahu wa ta’aalaa, clarifies to us the perfect Kingdom of Allah and that He, the Most High, is the Most Perfect in his Ownership of creation
• Only something which is imperfect can be increased upon or improved, hence the Kingdom of Allah is perfect and He is completely free from any needs

Part 8: “O My slaves, if the first of you and the last of you, and the human of you and the jinn of you, were all to stand together in one open ground and ask of Me, and I were to give everyone what he requested, that would not decrease what is with Me, except what is decreased of the ocean when a needle is dipped into it”

• The significance of this statement
• How free Allah is from any need and how needy and impoverished we are before Him

Part 9:”O My slaves, it is only your deeds that I account for you, and then recompense you for. So whoever finds good, then let him praise Allah, and whoever finds other than that, then let him blame none but himself”

• In this world, we are responsible for performing what we have been commanded by Allah and to stay away from what He has prohibited
• Guidance has been provided
• Allah will not take you into account because of how you look, or how intelligent or unintelligent you are, or how healthy or unhealthy you are
• Rather, Allah will take us unto account for those actions which occurred due to our own free will
• Whoever finds good, then let him praise Allah, and whoever finds other than that, then let him blame no one but himself

Part 10: Summary of Benefits

• 1. A Hadith Qudsi is one in which the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) relays speech from Allah, the Most High, in meaning and actual word. And the Hadith Qudsi will have within it a first-person pronoun which relates back to Allah, The Most High
• 2. Allah has made oppression forbidden upon Himself, and thus he has the Perfect quality of the Opposite (Justice) 
• 3. Allah has made it forbidden to oppress each other and ourselves 
• 4. We have learnt about the severe need that the slaves have in asking Allah for all of our matters
• 5. Allah loves for His slaves to ask Him
• 6. The perfect Kingdom of Allah and that we cannot benefit or harm Allah, rather the benefit or harm of our actions go back to ourselves
• 7. No person is free of sin, and we must turn to Allah in repentance and seek His Forgiveness
• 8. Piety and Evildoing occur within the heart
• 9. Allah’s Kingdom does not increase by us being obedient to Him nor does it decrease by us being disobedient to him
• 10. How Allah is Perfect in His being free of all needs and how perfect his Kingdom is
• 11. Encouragement to do righteous deeds 
• 12. The one who is granted success in traversing upon the straight path will attain happiness in this life and the afterlife and that occurs by the favour of Allah, The Most High
• 13. The one who is negligent and commits evil will attain unhappiness and loss and will have no one to blame except himself

Hadith 25