19. FACTS OF LIFE IN THE SCALE OF KNOWLEDGE AND IGNORANCE (JAHL)
Upon contemplating the state of ascetics (zuhhad) and the Sufis, I noticed that most of their practices are deviated and astray from the Islamic guidance either due to their ignorance (Jahl) in religion, or innovation resulting from originated personal opinions i.e. they rely on verses (ayat) they do not understand and hadiths they take out of context though most of the hadlths they use are proven unauthentic.
For instance, they heard that Allah said,
“The life of this world is but com fort of illusion.” [Al-‘Imran (3): 185]
and
“The life of the w orld is but m atter of illusion.” [al-Hadid (57):20]
Then they heard that the Allah’s Messenger said, “By Allah, this world is more insignificant in the eye of Allah as this dead lamb is in your eye.” Hence, they exaggerated in abstaining from worldly pleasures without looking into the reality and actual purpose of these worldly pleasures. For indeed when the reality of a matter is unknown, it can neither be praised nor criticized.
However, if we investigate the reality and truth of this worldly life, we will see this earth; upon which the creation survives, from which food sustenance is produced, and underneath its layers the deceased are buried.
We therefore know that such beneficial qualities cannot be condemned. Further, we see that it has water, crops, and animals that all were made to serve the interests of humans and assist them to survive. Then we see that the life and survival of humans is a means whereby they come to know their Creator, to obey Him and serve Him. For this reason, when something serves as a means by which the survival of a worshipper (‘abid) who knows his Lord is ensured, it should be praised and valued, not be looked down upon. From this it becomes evident that condemnation and criticism of worldly life is actually referring to the acts of the ignorant and living disobeyers. This is because when a person possesses his wealth from lawful sources then pays the zakat he cannot be criticized in this regard.
The wealth left behind by Al-Zubayr (radiyAllahu ‘anhu) and ‘ Abdu’-Rahman Ibn ‘Awf (radiyAllahu ’anhu) were magnificent.
The charity (sadaqah) that ‘All Ibn Abi Talib (radiyAllahu ‘anhu) paid was forty thousand.
The wealth left behind by Ibn Mas’ud (radiyAllahu ‘anhu) reached ninety thousand.
Al-Layth Ibn Sa’d used to have a farm that generates harvest of a value of twenty thousand every year.
Sufyan [Ibn Thawm] had his own business and Ibn al-Mahdi used to trade with two thousand dinar.
Similarly, when a person marries more than one wife and possesses many slave-women he should not be looked down upon; on the contrary, he should be praised because the Prophet had many wives and possessed slave-women and so did most of the Companions.
‘All Ibn Abl Talib (radiyAlldbu ‘anhti) married four wives and had fourteen slave-women, and his son al-Hasan married almost four hundred wives. That being the case, when marriage is sought to have children, it is therefore becomes the supreme level of worship, and when marriage is sought for pleasure, it is considered just lawful but nonetheless it still contains numerous rewards as it ensures guarding the chastity of his wife and himself and more.
Prophet Musa {alaybi as-salani) spent ten years of his noble life to pay the gift-wedding of the daughter of Shu’avb. Thus, if marriage was not amongst the best acts, Prophets would not have excessively practiced it.
Ibn ‘Abbas (radiyAllahu ‘anbuma) said, ‘The best of nations is the one whose women are the most.’’ And he used to sleep with one of his slave-females and spend the night with another one.
The slave-female of al-Rabi Ibn Khuthaym said: ‘Al-RabT used to do coitus interrupts [when sleeping with his women].’
As for food, the purpose of it is strengthening the body to serve Allah, Exalted is He, for he who has a camel should feed it so it can carry him!
The Prophet used to eat meat whenever it is available, and also ate chicken,16 and the most loved type of food to his heart was sweets and honey. Further, it was not reported that he ever abstained from a lawful food [to draw nearer to Allah or for religious reasons],
When ‘Ali Ibn Abi Talib {radiyAllahu ‘anhu) was offered a meal called al-Faloudhaj [i.e. a meal made of wheat and honey], he ate from it then asked: ‘What is the occasion for serving this ’They said: ‘Today is the day of Nairouz” so he said: ‘Let everyday be a Nairouz day then [i.e. so we eat this meal].’ This is because the things that are religiously disliked are to eat beyond one’s replete and to dress to flaunt and exhibit oneself.
However, some people were content with the minimal of all that because clear lawfulness is almost impossible to achieve from what one wants. Nonetheless, the Prophet put on a garment that was gifted to him and its price was twenty-seven camels, and Tameem Al-Dari (radiyAllahu ‘anhu) had a garment that he bought for one thousand dirham to wear it when praying at night. But, afterwards, a group of people emerged exhibiting asceticism, and inventing a new way that their whims had beautified for them. Then they started looking for proofs to support their way while a person should follow the evidence and not follow a way then find a proof to support it. Later on, this group divided into many groups;
Some of them show asceticism outwardly while being excessively desirous inwardly, relishing their desires in secret and basking in all worldly pleasures. They exhibit their asceticism with their appearance and clothes while, in fact, they have no asceticism except for the garment they wear because when looking into their affairs and life conditions it will be found that they have the arrogance and pride of Pharaoh.
Some of them have sincere hearts but lack the knowledge in religion.
Some of them stepped forward to lead others and authored books which made the ignorant follow their ways and they became like a blind person leading another blind person. If they however spent some time to reflect upon the way of life of the first generation; the way upon which was the Prophet and his Companions (radiyAllahu ‘’anhum), they would not have gone astray.
That is why a group of investigating exegetes pay no attention to how much people esteem and glorify a person as that never stopped them from criticizing any of them if any of them deviates from the correct path. It was related that al-MarwazI asked [Imam] Ahmad: ‘What do you sav about marriage?’ He answered: ‘It is the Sunnah of the Prophet.’ So he replied: ‘But Ibrahim said…’ Imam Ahmad interrupted him and shouted at him saying: ‘Do you bring us trivial statements?’
He was once informed that Sari al-Saqti said: ‘When Allah created letters, the letter Alif’’ stood up and the letter Ba” prostrated.’ He said, ‘Discourage people from sitting with him.’
Know that an investigating exegete, whose endeavours aim at verifying the truth, is neither frightened nor intimidated by a person whose status is high or glorified by people. This is why when a man said to ‘Ali Ibn Abi Talib (radiyAlldbu ‘anhu) ‘Do you really think that we could believe that Talhah and Al-Zubayr were wrong?’ He replied, ‘Take not the men as criterion of the truth but take the truth as criterion of the men.’
It is indeed a surprise to see how people praise and hold high esteem to some persons, so that when the ignorant |i.e. he who has no profound religious knowledge] hears of what some narrate about them, he would accept it unconditionally due to his admiration of such a person. For instance, it was related that Abu Yazid (the ascetic) once said, ‘My ‘self-rebelled once [i.e. desired what 1 do not accept for it to have] so I made an oath not to drink water for one year.’ II this report happened to be true then he did a despicable mistake and a fatal error because water abates food into the body and there is no such alternative with such capacity, therefore, not drinking water shall harm the body. Needless to mention, that the Messenger of Allah used to have fresh water to drink.
Having said that, do you think that such behaviour can be from a person who knows that his body and his soul are not his, and so he has no authority to function it except with the permission of its owner.
Similar stories are also reported from some Sufi, one of which relates that one Sufi said, ‘I walked to Makkah bare-footed while having full reliance on Allah so that when a thorn entered my foot I would scratch it with the floor and not lift it up. And 1 was wearing wool so when my eye hurt me 1 would rub it with the wool and because of that one of my eyes went blind.’
The examples of such behaviour are many, which story tellers present to people as if these are from the miracles given to these ascetics, causing them to let laypeople glorify such stories to the point that people may think that whoever does such a thing is higher in rank than Imam al-Shafi’l or Imam Ahmad [Ibn Hanbal) while, in fact, such acts are from the vilest flaws and one of the greatest sins. [This is because such behaviours fails to comply with both Qur’an and Sunnah] Allah, Exalted is He, said,
“Do not kill yourselves.” [al-Nisa (4):29]
And the Prophet said, “Your body has a due right upon you”, and during the immigration journey from Makkah to Madinah, Abu Bakr (radiyAllahu ‘anhu) searched for shade for the Prophet until he found shade from a rock so he arranged it for him.
The beginning of such deviancy goes back to the old times, which was due to the main reason: lack of knowledge (al-jahl bi’l-‘ilm) and the remaining influence of [Christian] monasticism (qurb al-‘ahd bi’lrabbaniyya) at that time.
Al-Hasan al-Basri used to criticize the level of asceticism of Farqad al-Sabkhl and Malik Ibn Dinar as he once had a meal including meat, so he made a comment, ‘This is neither the two pieces of bread of Malik nor the plates of Farqad.’ He also said to Farqad when he saw him wearing a sheet [i.e. poor sheet indicating his asceticism]: ‘O Farqad, beware for most of the dwellers of hellfire are those who wear such sheets!’
Many story-tellers (qussas) often attract the attention of their audience by mentioning stories of people who travelled without having any food or water, without knowing that such practice is despicable and admonished, let alone that Allah, Most High, is not to be used for people’s experiments! It is possible that an ignorant person who has just repented hears such stories and then decides to do the same so he dies on his journey making the one who narrated such stories has his share of the burden of his sin.
They often narrate the story of Dhu’l-Nun with the travelling woman whom he met and conversed with her while forgetting the authentic hadlth that state “It is unlawful for a woman to travel alone for the period of a day and a night except in the company of a Mahram.”
They also keep narrating the stories of people who walked on water though Ibrahim al-Harbi declared that ‘It is never true that a person walked on water.’ But when they hear this kind of statements they hasten to say, ‘Do you deny the miracles of the pious awliya’?’ To this we reply, ‘Of course not! But we follow only what has been proven true and correct because the pious are those who follow the teachings and laws of this religion and not the ones who worship Allah as per their own opinions.’ It was reported that the Prophet said, “When Bani-Isra’il made it strict on themselves, Allah made His law strict on them.”
The story tellers and ascetics encourage people to be in a state of poverty until they made some people give away all their wealth and then eventually become either destitute (i.e. begging people for aid) or one complaining whenever they are in need. Many are those who were harmed because of following their advice to reduce their share of food and water though the Prophet said, “Leave one third of your stomach for food, one third for drinks and one third for air to breathe.”
But they never felt content with such direction and so they directed others to exaggerate practicing the concept of having little. An example of this is what Abu Talib al-Makk! narrated in his book ‘Provision of the Hearts’ that some ascetics used to allocate a juicy date to sustain himself and then he lives on it so that each day enjoy bits of its juice! This was a practice I followed after reading it, when I was young, but that caused my stomach to become tight and made me sick for years!
After all this, do you really find this kind of practices are encouraged by religion or even indicates a kind of wisdom behind it? The ride of a human is his strength so if one attempts to weaken his rise he will be too weak to worship.
Let no one say that as attaining lawful money in its absolute form is impossible therefore asceticism has become obligatory to avoid doubtful matters! This argument is fallacious because it suffices the believer to ensure that the means whereby he receives his own money are lawful and not to bother about the primary origins of the money from which his own money was generated because if we conquered the lands of the Romans, the money raised from the sale of alcohol and vile acts turns lawful for us as it becomes spoils of war. That being the case, how come you want absolute lawfulness so you demand money reaches you while assuring that this money since it was made until it reached you was not used in any unlawful acts ever before? This is indeed something that the Messenger of Allah did not investigate. Further, have not you heard that it is unlawful for him to receive charity but when Burayrah (radiyAllahu ‘anhu) received meat as a charity and then she gave it to him as a gift he did not mind eating it because the status of that meat had changed.
Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal said, ‘I dislike eating little because some people did it and they became too weak to fulfil their duties.’
The statement made by Imam Ahmad in this regard is absolutely correct because when a person limits his share of food and drink he continues to reduce his share until he is powerless to do voluntary acts of worship then [gradually] becomes unable to perform his duties until he reaches a state at which not only is he no longer able to fulfil his sexual duty towards his wife and hence does not guard her chastity, but also prevents him from seeking the means to earn money to support his family, not to mention stops him from doing the good deeds as he used to do. That said, let not the narrations you hear encourage people to starve you because such narrations are either intended to encourage fasting or to resist being sated. As for minimizing the portion of food constantly, it negatively affects the strength of the body and is hence disallowed.
Amongst those whom we criticize from story tellers and ascetics are people who believe consuming meat should be avoided though the Prophet used to like eating it [if it was available].
So, listen to me without being unbiased: Do not quote me stories of men as if they are proofs so that you come saying Bishr al-Hafi said such and such, and Ibrahim Ibn Adam said such and such, because Allah’s Messenger and his Companions (radiyAlldbu ‘anhuni) are stronger evidence to use. Nevertheless, we assume and interpret the acts of those pious people whom you quoted [such as Bishr and Ibrahim] in a good way. I recall asking some of my Shaikhs about the reason for which some known pious people buried their books, I was answered, the best answer is to remain silent i.e. to mean that their act was due to their lack of knowledge, however I could interpret their action [in a better wav] as I assumed that they might have included some of their personal opinions that they disliked people to follow so they decided to bury these books.
I have reported that Ahmad Ibn Abl al-Hawarl threw out his books in the river and said, ‘Best of proofs you included! However, I’m no longer in need for a proof after I came to realize the purpose.’
This action, should we assume the good in it, can be interpreted that these books included statements he denied. However, should these books have included sound knowledge then obviously his action was a devastating waste.
My good assumption in them and giving them the benefit of doubt is correct regarding the learned ones amongst them. For instance, 1 have reported that Sufyan al-Thawri gave his directions to bury his books because he regretted writing some narrations from some people in his books and apologized saying, ‘I was enticed by my desire to narrate hadith.’
This is because he used to record narrations taken from weak and abandoned narrators but after some time, it became difficult for him to recognize the discredited ones from whom he narrated, so he gave his directions to bury all the books [so no weak narrations could be reported through him]. The same applies to scholars who adopted some views then changed to other views; in such cases it is permitted for them to bury the books in which they included their old views that they no longer adopt; and this is the interpretation we offer for the actions of scholars who were reported to do such thing.
As for ascetics who heard and saw what these scholars did and copied their acts and buried books that included only good for the fear that such books may distract them from worshipping, then this is due to their ignorance because they extinguished a light that illuminated their way and at the same time wasted the possession that was unlawful to waste.
From amongst those who buried books of knowledge was Yusuf Ibn Asbat, who afterwards became too impatient to narrate the hadiths and so he made mistakes causing him to be considered amongst the weak narrators.
Shu’ayb Ibn Harb related: ‘I asked Yusuf Ibn Asbat: ‘What did you do with your books?’ He said, ‘I was on an island, so when the tide was low, I buried my books so that when the tide rose again, the water covered my books.’ So I asked him, ‘What made you do that?’ He said, ‘I did not wish the books to distract me.”
Imam Bukhari said, ‘Sadaqah said that Yusuf Ibn Asbat buried his books then afterwards he used to confuse narrations and hence does not follow the set criteria [in terms of narrating].’
As it appears, these books which he buried were beneficial books but his lack of knowledge led him to the loss of such books; he intended good throught evil. If his books were similar to the books of Sufyan al-Thawri; which included narrations he reported from weak people whom he could not afterward identify, it would have been justifiable. However, his justification was that he did not wish to keep what may distract him from worship, is a proof that his books were all beneficial. This is what the lack of knowledge does to good people.
I have been informed that one of the pious, whom we highly respect, glorify and visit, was once on the shore of the River of Dijlah. He invalidated his wudu as he urinated then he made tayammum [i.e. used earth to perform wudu which is prescribed only when water is not found]. He was asked, ‘Why have you made tayammum when water is nearby?’ He said, ‘I feared not to live long enough to reach it!’ Though this incident indicates his short hope [i.e. not having expectations to live long], jurists used to ridicule him because tayammum is correct and prescribed only when water is not found. Thus, when water is available hitting the earth to have its dust to use for tayammum becomes in vain. As a matter of fact, even if water is miles away then it may not suffice to opt for tayammum.
He who contemplates these incidents realises that one jurist with few followers in his life and a few people following his funeral is better than thousands of people whom laypeople surround seeking Allah’s blessings through them and whose funerals are followed by a large number of people.
This is because we should only follow either a person who acts upon an [authentic] report or a jurist who understands the purpose of religion and issue his verdicts based on it. Truly, I seek refuge with Allah from ignorance and magnifying and glorifying ancestors and following their steps blindly without having any proof to support it! This is because when someone drinks from the first drink [i.e. whoever follows what the first generation were upon] will find that every other drink is debased.
The greatest trial is the praise of laypeople by which many people were tempted and hence deviated! As ‘All ibn Abi Talib (radiyAllahu ‘anbu) said, ‘The sound of shoes steps [i.e. followers] made the fools lose their sanity.’ I have witnessed and heard laypeople praising a person saying, ‘So and so neither sleeps at night nor eats in the day nor marries nor is interested in worldly pleasures and so his body becomes weak to the point he prays sitting down as he cannot pray standing; therefore, he is indeed better than the scholars who eat and enjoy worldly pleasures.’
They say such statements due to their [low] level of knowledge. Otherwise, if they knew, they would have realized and understood that if the entirety of worldly pleasures were assembled into one bite of food that a scholar, who teaches people Allah’s religion and advises them of religious verdicts, eats, then one religious verdict he would say, whereby directing people to Allah, the Most High, is better and more superior than the lifetime of a worshipper (the one mentioned above).
Ibn ‘Abbas (radiyAlldbu ‘anhuma) said, ‘Shaytan suffers more from a single jurist than it suffers from ‘a thousand worshippers.’
My praise of scholars should not be understood to refer to the learned ones who do not act upon their knowledge. On the contrary, I only praise the learned ones who act upon their knowledge and hence are aware of what life conditions suit them. For instance, some of them could handle a hard life such as Ahmad Ibn Hanbal while, on the other hand, some of them are used to enjoying a comfortable life such as Sufyan whose piety’ and righteousness were remarkable.
Malik Ibn Anas whose religiousness is notable, and al-Shaffi whose knowledge and understanding are profound. Having said that, no person should ever seek or demand a life condition that some other people could manage but beyond his capacity.
This is because a person best knows what is good for him; Rabi’ah said, ‘If you know that the state of your heart will be rectified by eating falaoudhaj then eat it.’
O you who listen to this! Do not let your eyes see nothing but images of asceticism because sometimes a person may indulge into the comfort of life only to achieve a benefit [related to his Hereafter], Not all bodies can survive rough living, particularly those whose strength was worn out, whose mind was exhausted, and whose poverty weakened them because if such a person does not treat himself gently then, by doing so, he actually abandons a duty, since he is required to look after himself.
The above are some thoughts that if I explained in detail and supported it with stories and narrations, I would have written too much. But, I recorded them down in a hurry as soon as the thoughts roamed in my mind! And Allah is the Provider of benefit by His Mercy.
(source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)
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