Lessons on Nukhbatul Fikr

Presented by: Shaikh Tariq Appleby Lesson 9 part 1

. [Alhamduliallah Rab Al'alamin, wa Alsalahto wa Alsalam 'ala Ashraf Alanbiaa' wa Almorsalin, Nabina Mohammad wa 'ala Aleh wa sahbeh Agma'ien] [ Assalamo 'alaykom wa Rahmato Allah wa Barakatoh]

Welcome to lesson number 9, Alhamdulillah, I have a surprise for you; there are no questions in this lesson. So, hopefully, Insha'Allah, the questions that have preceded will be able to help you to memorize some of the issues, and whatever questions you have, again, I remind you to post them on the forums, so that I can benefit you, and I can benefit myself by answering them and whatever I do not have no answers for, Alhamdulillah, gives me the opportunity to look up the answers, gives me the opportunity to learn and Alhamdulillah we all students of knowledge, and we all trying to learn as much as we can. We will continue from where we left off, and we will start talking about travelling in search of Hadith, and in lesson number 8 we mentioned some of the reasons why the scholars went out to search for Hadith, but perhaps the biggest reason and the main reason, was them seeking elevation in the transmitting, perhaps the biggest reason was seeking elevation in transmitting the Hadith. Now, this term "elevation", should be well known to you by now and that is Al'lou ( ). Al'lou ( )is seeking the shortest, the most authentic Sanad ( )to the prophet (Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) as we discussed which is called (Al'lou Al motlaq ) and we discussed that, Alhamdulillah, so there is no reason to discuss it even further, yeah. Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal (Rahemaho Allah) says: "Seeking an elevated Isnad [ predication] is from the religion", and the examples that we gave from Malek b. Houwaireth and others ( Radi Allah 'Anhoum) [May Allah be pleased with them], that they were with the prophet Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) , a messenger came to them with Islam from the prophet Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) but they were not satisfied to adhere to it through an intermediary, so they took upon themselves to travel to Medina to hear it directly from the prophet Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) , so therefore , seeking an elevated Isnad is from this Deen [Religion], that to want to come closer to the prophet (Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) and to have less people between yourselves and your Deen, this something which is part of Islam. There are many scholars who are very, very famous for the travel, we will mention few of them; the following scholars were famous for the journeys in search of Hadith were scholars
Nukhbatul Fikr Lesson 9 Term 3 1

like: Abdullah Ibn Moubarak, Imam /Ahmad Ibn Hanbal and his friend Yehia Ibn Ma'ien, his colleague, they travelled from Baghdad, they went to Makah, they went to Medina, they travelled to Yemen. We find Abu Dawood Al- Sijistani, the author of "Sunnan Abi Dawood", he travelled from Sijistan which is a city which today is in southern Afghanistan; he travelled from there all the way to Egypt, and to Damascus and Baghdad, and all the other main cities in Iraq and Makah, Medina and Yemen, travels that in their time took months to do. So, all of these scholars were, and many more like Imam /Albukhari, Al Termethi, these are just a handful of scholars that went out in search of hadith and, Alhamdulillah, this is heal of days, this is one of the ways that Allah (Subhanaho wa Ta'ala [ ) Allah the great and Almighty] has preserved the sunnah of the prophet ( Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) . Now, at this particular junction, I would like to encourage all of you, all of the students of the Guild, to join us, or to join me Insha'Allah, when I present the course preserving the polls in your city, and hopefully Insha'Allah we will be able, to talk about much more, many, many aspects of the sunnah of the prophet (Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) including this travelling in the search of Hadith in greater detail and it will give us a greater appreciation of the sunnah of the prophet (Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) and hopefully Allah Subhanaho wa Ta'alah through that , this is my Do'aa [ Supplication], Allah Subhanaho wa Ta'alah grant us a deeper love for the prophet ( Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) and his sunnah. There were cities at that time, the time of Sahabah [ companions], Tabe'ien [Followers], and those after them, that were very, very famous for, and were known as centers of learning. At the time of Sahabah, there were three main centers: Makah, Medina and Alkoufah. We find that every single one of these cities had its sheikh. In Makah, we had Ibn Abbas (Radi Allah 'Anhoma [ ) May Allah be please with them both], in Medinah we had Zayd Ibn Thabet and in Alkoufah we had Abdullah Ibn Mas'oud. So these at that time were the main centers of learning and also the centers of studying Hadith. So these three companions, Zayd Ibn Thabet, Abdullah Ibn Abbas and Abdullah Ibn Mas'oud (Radi Allah 'Anhoum ) they were well known for the dissemination of Hadith and the Sunnah of the prophet (Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) . After that, after this period, as the Muslim empire expanded, we find that other cities also became centers of learning; we find Damascus in Syria, Baghdad in Iraq, and Egypt or rather more specifically Cairo, also became places of Islamic learning, that people came from places as far as I said, Afghanistan, to travel, sometimes even on foot, to travel to these places to learn hadith of the prophet (Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) . Now the Muhadethin , observe the following etiquette before enduring the travel and the search for Hadith; there are three main ones: the first is to learn and study Hadith from the scholars in the cities in countries before intending to travel. This is the point I wanted to make, earlier, in an earlier lesson, is that what is happening today is that we find that students are going out or they want to go to study in faraway places, when the knowledge is available in their cities. So, a student wants to go to Cairo when a very competent person in their city is
Nukhbatul Fikr Lesson 9 Term 3 2

teaching Arabic. They are going to Cairo to learn Quran where a person that is extremely qualified is there. I am not saying that you shouldn't go and travel and you should not go to Cairo or to Medina or to Makah, but rather, start with the 'Ulamaa [ scholars] in your city. if there are no 'Ulamaa, then yes, definitely, go and study, because if you studied the Quran- let us use the Quran as an example- if you studied the Quran in your city you memorize it, and after having studied from all the 'Ulamaa in your city, and you have reached a great, you know, a high level of competency in recitation of the Quran, in the knowledge of the sciences of the Quran, and you feel, and you know that there is someone, there is more knowledgeable in Cairo, or in another country, then save up, you know , make the necessary arrangements and then go and study with that person or at that particular institute. So, we find that the Muhadithon , this is what they did, they first studied with the scholars in their cities and countries and then travel to other places to meet those more qualified. But sometimes like, you know, like a scholarship to Medina, Makah or Riyadh or any other place, that is a once in a life time opportunity, so if that does happen, you know, then grab hold of it with both hands and go. But if you are going on your own, then my advice to you is to follow the Sunnah of the Muhadethin; first study in your country, and then once you feel that you have absorbed and learned all that there is to learn from the people there, from the scholars there, then travel to those more knowledgeable. Number two is: seek the advice of the scholars when deciding on the city you travel to and the scholars to seek Hadith from or knowledge from. So what I mean by this is that after you have studied with your sheikh, let's say you studied ( Belough Almaram ) from a certain teacher, you studied Belough Almaram ) , you finished (Belough Almaram ) and that is all the sheikh has to offer you , he can only offer you ( Belough Almaram ) , he did not study Bukhari or Muslim. In that case, ask him whom he feels is more knowledgeable in another city or another country and then take his advice then and go and study Bukhari and Muslim by whom he directs you to or to whom he directs you to. Number three: that the person should concentrate on increasing the number of Asanid and Motunate and not the number of Shieoukh. Meaning that your goal should be that you want to learn as many Ahadith as possible, you do not want to say, you want to say I learned a thousand hadith, Alhamdulillah, and your goal should not be , I learned from thousand sheikhs, I have so many teachers. If the person has one teacher and that teacher benefited him by teaching him the six books of Hadith, but he went to fifty teacher but he only learned two hadith from each of them, then obviously just sitting and studying and spending time with one teacher who is going to benefit you in that way is better than going to fifty. The question that we could ask ourselves here is when is it unnecessary to travel? And perhaps we have answered this before, but we will allow Khatib Al Baghdadi to answer that question for us. He says that the goals of the [ Rehlah] (Journey) are two: the first is achieving an elevated Isnad and early narration, meaning that you start very , very early, and the second is meeting the Hufaz those specialists in Hadith and those

Nukhbatul Fikr Lesson 9

Term 3

Muhadithon, revising and benefiting from them , sitting in their company and benefiting from their experience and knowledge. If these two matters are found, meaning that you have an elevated Isnad, and you can meet with the Hufaz and benefit from them, if that is found in the city of the student, if that is found in your city and absent in other cities, you can't find this in another city, you can't find a sheikh who is as qualified as the sheikh in your city, then concentrating on what is in your city is preferred. In this case, you should concentrate on what you find in your city, what is available there. If for instance someone let me use an example if there is a person in your city who teaches Bukhari and Muslim and he is the only person in the entire world that narrates Bukhari and Muslim, then you should remain in your city and study from this sheikh instead of going to a foreign country or to another city to learn. Now, we will give one example of some of the studies or some of the travels of the Muhadethin, and the example I want to give is of the Syrian scholar Makhoul. He said that " I was a slave of a woman of Banu Houthaiel, I was a slave, and after she emancipated me subhan Allah , at the beginning Makhoul was a slave he said that after becoming free, I did not leave Egypt until I acquired all the knowledge that seem to me to exist there. So there are two things that we need to take from that particular thing, or that particular statement: the first is that he didnt leave Egypt until he had acquired all the knowledge. And the second thing is "that seem to me to exist there", meaning, most probably according to my best judgment there are no more 'Ulamaa to go and study from, doesnt mean that you have to go out and do an exhaustive search of all the institutes and scholars and people knowledgeable, and the students of knowledge in your particular city, if you feel that you have learned from, that there is no one else to learn from. He then says" then I came to Hejaz", so I left Egypt and I went to Makah and Medina and the surrounding areas. And he said: "I did not leave there until I had acquired all the knowledge that seems to be available in that particular place. Then I went to Iraq and I didnt leave until I had acquired all the knowledge that seems to be available to me. I then came to Syria and I besieged it. I asked every one about giving a reward from the booty and didnt find any one who tells me anything about it."So he wanted to know about the ( Ghaniema ( ), the spoils of war, and he went to Syria, he wanted to learn, and he said he besieged it, it mean that he really exerted himself in search of knowledge, and he went and asked people about that particular issue that he wanted to know about, the Ghaniema, what is the Ghaniema and what are the rulings that are attached to it. He said" then I met an old man called Ziad Ibn Jariah Al Tamimy, and I asked him" have you heard anything about giving rewards from the booty? He said," yes, I heard Maslamah Alfehry said:" I was present with the prophet (Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) he gave quarter of the spoils on the outward journey and a third on the return journey'. So he kept on asking, he kept on asking questions until finally someone was able to give him an answer on this particular issue. So that in a nutshell is the travels of the Muhadethin, when it comes to search for Hadith, these are the travels; these are some of the main aspects of that.

Nukhbatul Fikr Lesson 9

Term 3

What is also important for the student of hadith to keep in mind is the manner in which he is going to compile what he has memorized, and Ibn Hajar (Rahemaho Allah) says: "Wa tasnifaho 'Ala Al Masanid " . Firstly, that issue, I want you to know how hadith is compiled according to the chains of narrations, according to the Masanid , what is meant by Masanid here? The word "Masanid" is the plural of the word "Musnad" ..

[End of Part 1]

Nukhbatul Fikr Lesson 9

Term 3

Lessons on Nukhbatul Fikr

Presented by: Shaikh Tariq Appleby Lesson 9 part 2

And the Mousnad, a book which is Mousnad is that book in which the narrations of each companion are collected individually, meaning separately. And if he wants to, if the student wants to, he can divide them then compiles it in the ones who accepted Islam first, meaning in Makah, and then those who accepted Islam after the hijra of the prophet (Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) , if he wants he can start with the ten who were given the great tidings of Jannah, in one hadith. if he feels that a better way to do it will be to do it in alphabetical order according to their first names then he should do so. and to do so in alphabetical order means that it make it extremely easy, it facilitates with the personal reading that he can get access to the Ahadith of a particular Sahabi ( companion of the prophet) ,he only has to look it up alphabetically, and if he is looking for Anas , he can find Anas under (Alef or Hamza )and he will find it immediately, it will be very easy for him to find it. Also, he sees in according to the subject matter, that he arranges the ahadith he has learned under topics like the subject headings of Fikh , so he collects everything, of hadith that he collected under the Chapters of "Taharah "or under the chapters of Hadith and sometimes if he wants to, he can also then go and start discussing whether or not these Ahadith have defects or any other special matters that he feels is necessary to increase the benefit of his book. Or what he can do is that he can arrange the Ahadith according to shioukh (Sheikh) as Ibn Hajar (rahemaho Allah ) says with shioukh and teachers. So what he does is that if he has 50 teachers and he narrated certain amount of Ahadith from every teacher, so he takes those Ahadith and places them under the names of these teachers in Alphabetical order and the examples of these would be the Ma'ajem , this kind of book is called the Mou'jam , and famous example of this would be the Ma'ajem , Ma'ajem is the plural of Mu'jam, of Altabarani , so he has the Mu'jam Alkabir , the Mu'jam Alawsat and the Mu'jam Alsaghir and he compiled these Ahadith according to the first names of his teachers. Ibn Hajar (rahemaho Allah) then says, or he could then, if you wanted to compile what he has narrated according to their defects, so he takes all the Ahadith that he has narrated that contain defects and then place them under the same chapter heading, so he could start with Ahadith, you could do this in alphabetical order, by starting with the first word of every single hadith that he is going to discuss, or you could do so under the chapter headings , like all the Ahadith which are defective, in Purification, and then Salah , and then Zakat , and then fasting of Ramadan and so forth the chapters of Fiqh. And if he does that, if he places them under chapters' headings, that will facilitate matters so much better. so if I want to know what
Nukhbatul Fikr Lesson 9 Term 3 6

Ahadith are, or if I know of Ahadith which are defective which are under the chapter of (Hayd ( Menesturation)), if I came across the Hadith which is in the chapter of Hayd, then I can go to the relevant chapter in the book of ( 'ellal )and I would be able to find the hadith and find the discussion of the 'Ulamaa, there, and we find a book, it is written like this is the book written by Alqoutny (Rahemaho Allah). Or he could compile his book according to the (Atraf )what are the Atraf, the Atraf are the key words, so, the key words of Ahadith, you could place them, and what we mean by this is that he arranges the Ahadith according to the first word or the first two words and he does so in alphabetical order and this is what we mean by (Alatraf). And the next is an important to know is ( Ma'refat sabab Alhadith ) knowing the historical context for the hadith, so if we know the historical context of a hadith, this will give us the opportunity to understand the hadith better. Now an example of this, in the time of the prophet (Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) would be that: The prophet (Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) was in his Masjid one day and a group of people from outside of Medina came and they were extremely poor and the signs of poverty were clearly upon them, their clothing, the way they appear, their appearance. The prophet (Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) was affected with them greatly, so he gave a khotbah ( ), he go on the Menbar and gave a khotbah encouraging the companions to go out, to go home and come back with some charity for these poor people. The Sahabah ( the companions) didnt respond immediately until one companion got up and he went home and he came back with some charity that his hands have difficulty carrying it and place it in front of the prophet ( Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ). When the companions saw this man, all of them then went and fetched anything that they could, some food, some clothing, some gold or silver, they all brought that to the prophet ( ) , The prophet then said :(( the prophet ( ) says" whoever starts a good sunnah and people act upon that, then he will get the reward of the one who acted upon it and there would be no decrease in any of their rewards." Now some people have used this hadith as evidence that there is such thing in Islam as a good (Bed'ah ). Now, as we understand the reason (Alsabab )of the hadith, then we know that this interpretation is incorrect that the prophet ( Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) does not mean the one who innovates a good innovation, but rather the one who revives a sunnah, who encourages it, who starts it, because we know, as we know that charity which was something already established in the shari'ah . The prophet (Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) encouraged it and his companion went and he revived it and he encouraged others to do so, so there is no basis for this in the hadith. And if we know why the prophet (Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) said these words, the reason behind it, immediately this becomes clear. If we know the reason for this, if we know
Nukhbatul Fikr Lesson 9 Term 3 7

the reason behind this hadith, immediately we understand the Hadith and the correct interpretation can be reached. Ibn Hajar (Rahemaho Allah) says (Wa qad sanaf fih ba'd shioukh Alqadi Abi Ya'la ) one of the sheikhs of the Qadi Abu Ya'lah Ibn Farrah wrote about it. Now also other scholars also wrote about it. And before I talk about that, it is important to note that what is important is the general context of the hadith and not the actual reason for the hadith, so, the prophet (Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) , Allah ( Sobhanaho wa Ta'ala ) as revealed many verses in the Quran for a particular person or a particular incident he does not mean that the ruling in the particular verse is specific to the person about whom it was revealed. For Allah ( Sobhanaho wa Ta'ala ) speaks about, you know, the ruling about a man who tells his wife you are like my back, the Ayat of Zehar ( ) , it was revealed because of a certain companion, but it doesnt mean that it is permissible for Muslims today to tell, or to speak to their wives , and to address them in that manner and to tell them that you are like my mother or my mother's back, no it doesn't. This is according to the agreement and the consensus of the scholars: (Al'ebra be 'moom Allafz la be khsous Al Sabab ) , what is important is the generality of the wording not the specifics of the reason. The rulings in Islam are not specific to the reasons that they were revealed or the reasons why the prophet ( Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) said certain words. Now Ibn Hajar (rahemaho Allah), he mentions that Taqi Eddin Ibn Daqiq Al 'Ied, says that some of the people in his time also had written about this, and, Alhamdulillah, many scholars have written about this, and it is important that we look at and we benefit from this. ( wa sanafo fi ghaleb hazhi AlAnwa' ( and they have written books in most of these genres, ( wa heya naql mahd zaherat Alta'rief) this is the basic list mentioning definitions and this is( Moustaghniaton 'an Altamthil ( )without examples. This is a basic list, what I have mentioned in this particular book, are basic definitions and they basically, they are the keys to , what they have done for us is that , Ibn Hajar (Rahemaho Allah) has given us keys to study hadith, he has given us the very, very basics that we can use as a foundation in increasing our knowledge in (Mustalah )and understanding the sciences of Hadith, you see, he hasnt mentioned any examples because obviously that it will link in the book . He then says (Hasrouha mouta'ather ) it is difficult to be thorough, because my goal was to be concise. He then says:( Fal yourage' laha MAbsoutateha ) and so if this unit is in need of examples and of more detail, you should consult the longer or larger more comprehensive books, as we mentioned before like ( Fathu Al Mughith , Tadrib Arrawi ) and other books, and then he can find what he is searching for .

Nukhbatul Fikr Lesson 9

Term 3

(Allah howa Almouwafeq wa Alhadi ) Allah is the one who grant success and he is the Guide, (La elah ela houa ) There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah ( Sobhanaho wa Ta'ala ) . So Ibn Hajar (Rahemaho Allah), he ends the book and says that Allah is the one who grants success in every matter, he is the one that guides to that which is the truth and guides to sound knowledge, and there is no deity, no God, nothing is worthy of worship except Allah ( Sobhanaho wa Ta'ala ) . So, therefore, we have come to the end of our studies in Nuhkhbatu El Fikr, I ask Allah ( Sobhanaho wa Ta'ala ) to make our lessons beneficial, and Allah ( Sobhanaho wa Ta'ala ) grant that all the objectives of our study of (Mustalah Alhadith ) have been reached this very concise book. What I will be doing in lesson number 10 Insha'Allah, is to read the text of Nukhbatul Fikr , so that it helps the students to go through the text and to familiarize themselves with the Arabic and also to make it easy for them to memorize Nukhbatul Fikr ( In Shaa' Allaho Ta'ala). ( As'al Allaho sobhanaho wa Ta'ala to grant us sincerity in everything we do and to make us of those who will be with the prophet ( Salla Allah 'alayeh wa sallam ) in Jannah. Wa Akher Da'wana An Alhamdulillallah Rab Al 'alamin,wa Assalamo 'alaykom wa Rahmato Allah wa Barakatoh

Nukhbatul Fikr Lesson 9

Term 3