Shaykh Salih al-Jafari

The Friday Lessons

(at the noble Azhar mosque in the late 1970s) Volume 2 - Lesson 12

Commentary on Sura al-Ikhlas

I seek refuge in Allah from Satan the outcast. In the name of Allah, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. May Allah most high send peace and blessings upon our master Muhammad and upon his family and companions. {How sublime are You! We have no knowledge except what You taught us. You are the allknowing, the most wise} (2:32). {With Him are the keys of the Unseen, none but He knows them. He knows all that is on land and in the sea; not a leaf falls but He knows it. Not a seed in the darkness of the earth, not anything fresh or dried, but it is written in a clear book} (6:59). [I teach you] Through a connected chain to the scholars of the noble Azhar and others, in Quranic recitations, Hadith, and Quranic exegesis, may Allah most high be pleased with them and benefit us and you by them and by their knowledge. Amen. On the exegesis of His saying, most high, {Say: He is Allah, One Allah, the self-sufficient He begot no one nor was He begotten And no one is comparable to Him} (Sura 112) The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) put a man in charge of an expedition (sariyya). A sariyya was when the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) would send the Companions to fight the disbelievers, and would appoint for them a leader. If he went with that army it was called a raid (ghazwa), but if he stayed in Medina and sent the army without him it was called a sariyya. So he appointed a man as a leader of a sariyya. Whenever he led them in the Subh (Fajr) Prayer, he would recite the sura of {Say: He is Allah, One}. When they returned, they complained about him to the Prophet (peace be upon him): The commander and they named himleft your Sunna, and would pray the Subh Prayer with Sura al-Ikhlas.

Oh Allah send blessings upon him! All of you send blessings upon him! He is perfection! He did not judge him. He asked for him. He said, bring him to me. He said to him, What made you pray the Subh prayer with the Sura of {Say: He is Allah, One}? He said, O Messenger of Allah, it has the description of the Lord of Mercy, and I love the Lord of Mercy. He (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, The Lord of Mercy has loved you as you have loved Him! Look! The Companions judged him to be in the wrong and complained about him. The one with correct opinion, however, did not make a judgement on him before asking him first. He said, bring him. Then he said, Why did you pray with the Sura of Ikhlas and leave my Sunna (of elongating that prayer)? Look at his answer! O Messenger of Allah, in this Sura is the description of the Lord of Mercy, and I love the Lord of Mercy! That is why I recite it in the Subh prayer. What beauty! That is a great reason! That is why the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) gave him the glad tidings of the all-Mercifuls love for him: The Lord of Mercy has loved you as you have loved Him! The Virtues of Sura al-Ikhlas Maybe we can learn from this story, and recite this Sura often. In it are great benefits. He (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, It is equal to a third of the Quran. This is the saying of the Prophet (peace be upon him!) It was narrated by al-Bukhari and others. It is equal to a third of the Quran meaning Sura al-Ikhlas. You, O poor man who has not memorized the Quran and has never recited it, recite this Sura for it is equal to a third of the Quran. This religion is ease! You see someone recite the entire Quran and finish it, and you have nothing. but you have Sura al-Ikhlas, so read it! Three times, and it is as if you have recited the entire Quran! It is through your noble face O Messenger of Allah that the religion has been made so easy! He (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, I was sent to you with the pure and tolerant religion and Whoever deviates from it will be ruined. The Tolerance of Islam Islam is tolerant in all of its matters in everything. {Allah wants ease for you, and does not want hardship for you} (2:185). In His Law is the intention to bring ease, and there is no intention to cause hardship in it. If you do not find water, you do tayammum. According to the Malikis, if a man wakes up in the morning and finds that it is time for the sun to rise, and fears that the time of the Subh will pass, he can make tayammum to be able to pray the Subh prayer in its time, and he is not required to repeat it later. This is from the ease in this religion! There is no water! The water is too cold, and if he were to turn on the heater and wait for the water to warm up, the sun would rise. There are a few

minutes left. He should do tayammum and pray the Subh in its time, and thank Allah! The religion has many such beautiful aspects! Imam Malik and al-Bukhari narrated that he (peace be upon him) said, Whoever was able to pray one Rakah of the Subh prayer before the sunrise, has prayed the Subh prayer in its time; and whoever was able to pray one Rakah of the Asr prayer before the sunset, has prayed the Asr in its time. It means he prayed it in its time! It means there is no sin there! When he wakes up as the sun is rising and does his ablutions and prays, he has committed a grave sin because he wasted time and prayed the Subh prayer outside of its time, and so it is a makeup prayer. Likewise with Asr: the sun has set, then he prays the Asr! He prays, happy about himself! No my brother! Do not be happy! He (peace be upon him) said in the narration of Imam Malik in his Muwatta, He who misses his Asr prayer, it is as if he has lost his family and his wealth. It is as if all of his family are gone! Perished! And all his money was lost! Look! Weigh it! Look! His children, his wife, his father and mother, all gone, dead! His shop and his money, all gone! Over what? He who misses the Asr prayer. It does not say the one who leaves it altogether, no! The one who delays it until after the sun has set. It is as if he has lost his family and wealth. Who thinks about this speech? Who thinks about it?! They sit and chat until the sun sets, then they get up to do their ablutions for the prayer?! But from the beauty of Islam, if you are afraid of losing your family and wealth, you rush to catch a Rakah before the sun sets. Alhamdulillah, you have escaped that plight. You have escaped from being included in that hadith. You have caught the Asr prayer with that one Rakah in its time. He (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said in the narration of al-Bukhari: Whoever sleeps until the sun rises upon him, Shaytan will urinate in his ear. He will wake up wicked hearted and lazy. But if he woke up and caught a Rakah before the sun rises, he has saved himself! Even if only with one Rakah! He has prayed the Subh in its time, and whoever prays the Subh in its time is saved from the urine of Shaytan. O Messenger of Allah! By your greatness in the sight of Allah, I ask Allah to save the Ummah from this tribulation! The people pray the Subh after the sun has risen and Shaytan urinates in their ears, so they wake up wicked-hearted and lazy. I am not speaking about the sick! I am talking about the healthy! Have you been sick your whole life? No, you have been as strong as a lion, but you did not pray! This has a ruling and that has a ruling. In the Court on the Day of Judgment the angels will say: Come here, you! Why didnt you pray the Subh? You were healthy and good. Give his judgement! And you, come here. Why didnt you pray Subh in its time? - I was sick! They will examine him! If he had a big disability preventing him from praying (Subh in its time), he will be forgiven. But if it was possible for him to pray.

A Story There was a man in Sudan. His mother said, Abdallah, get up and pray. He said, oh, oh! - Get up and pray! - Oh, oh! So she went and prepared Aseeda, with ghee and honey. Do you know the Aseeda? Some know it and some dont. Those in Cairo wouldnt know it, but those from Upper Egypt know it! In Winter thats all they eat. Honey, ghee, (and flour). She said: Abdallah! - oh! - Get up and eat Aseeda! He answered strongly, Really? (And got up). This Abdallah, he has no excuse. He deserves to be taken to court. - Oh Abdallah, why didnt you pray? - I was lazy. No! There are whips on the Day of Judgement for the lazy. But he if he was sick {But whoever of you is ill} That is an excuse. Oh Allah save them, our Lord! Guide them to pray the Subh in its time! And the greatest catastrophe is when one sleeps with his wife after the Isha prayer, and sleeps in his state of major ritual impurity until the sun rises. - Why? - I feared the cold (if I wanted to do the major ritual ablution). - When you did what you did, why didnt you fear the cold then? When it comes to ablutions and prayer, now you are afraid of the cold? {Say: The fire of Hell is much hotter, if only they understood} (9:81). In the fire of Hell there is an intense fire, O shaykh! Another Example of the Ease in this Religion Also from the tolerance of the religion is that if a man was fasting in Ramadan, and went into a state of major ritual impurity, and then the Call to Prayer (of Subh) sounds, Allahu akbar, then he can make his intention to fast while he is in that state of impurity, and then do his major ritual ablution and pray. His fasting is still valid. In Sahih Muslim it is narrated that a man said, O Messenger of Allah, I was in a state of major ritual impurity in Ramadan and the Call to Prayer sounded. Should I fast? The Prophet said, I have done that too. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) is saying to him, Today, the same thing happened to me. I did my major ritual ablution after the Call to Prayer. So, if you had made the intention to fast before, but when the Call to Prayer comes you are in a state of major ritual impurity, is the fast valid? Yes, it is valid. That is because ritual purity is not a condition of fasting. This is a mercy from your Lord, to make things easier.

{Say: He is Allah, One} is Equal to a Third of the Quran. The scholars said, How is that? It is a small Sura, and the Quran has 114 Suras. One third of 114 is how many Suras? Who is good at calculating? It is 38 Suras. This means that Sura al-Ikhlas equals 38 Suras. How is that, O scholars? The scholars spoke to each other. A group of scholars said, The meaning is that it is equal to that much in meaning, not in pronunciation. Why? They said because the Quran contains three things: Tawhid, law-making, and historical stories. What is the meaning of Tawhid? It means that Allah knew that His creation was incapable of understanding His attributes, so He described Himself in the Quran. Allahs description of Himself in the Quran is called Tawhid. Law-making is like {Establish the Prayer and give the Zakaat} (2:43), etc. This is Law-making. As for stories, that is like {Mention Mary in the Book} (19:16). {Mention Abraham in the Book} (19:41)..This is called the stories of the ancients, meaning news about them. They said, Sura Ikhlas contains Tawhid, which is one of the three parts. The meaning of it being equal to a third of the Quran is that in the meaning it contains, it is equal to the part of Tawhid from the Quran. Some of the scholars have said this, among them the greater hadith memoriser Ibn Hajar alAsqalani (may Allah have mercy on him), who discussed this in the 9th volume of his commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari. The great scholar Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani explained Sahih al-Bukhari in thirteen volumes, and gathered in this commentary all the different sciences, and no scholar can do without it. So may Allah (most high) reward the shaykhs for us with great good. Our shaykh Habibullah al-Shinqiti (may Allah have mercy on him) said to me, Son, whoever has Ibn Hajars commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari, has all of the six books of the Sunnah. This is because he narrates hadith in the following manner. He says: On the authority of Abu Musa al-Ashari (may Allah be pleased with him) who said: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was asked about things that he disliked. When they asked him too many questions he became angry. He said, ask me! A man stood up and said, O Messenger of Allah, who is my father? He said, Your father is Hudhafa. Another stood up and said, O Messenger of Allah, who is my father? He said, Your father is Salim, the freed servant of Shayba. When Umar saw the anger in the face of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), he said, We repent to Allah (most great and majestic). Ibn Hajar then says, giving us what is in the other narrations: The narrator added, in Zuhris narration: Umar came down on his knees and said, We accept Allah as our Lord, Islam as our Religion, and Muhammad as a Messenger. And in the narration of Qatada is the addition, We seek refuge in Allah from tribulations.

And in the mursal chain of al-Sadiyy, narrated by al-Tabari in this story, with some differences, Umar then went to him and kissed his foot and said, We accept Allah as our Lord and he mentioned like the above and added, and the Quran as our imam. So forgive us, may Allah forgive you. And he kept at it until he was no longer angry. Then Ibn Hajar says, In this hadith is evidence of how the Companions always observed the states of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and how fearful they were if he became angry, fearing that it would be something that would cause him to be angry with all of them. The Ruling on the Kissing of the Hand Then in the midst of this talk he begins to make legal judgements based on the additions that have been narrated in the hadith: It is permissible to kiss a mans foot. This is because the correct narration states that Umar b. al-Khattab kissed the foot of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Abu Dawud narrated on the delegation of Abd Qays, that they threw themselves from on top of their riding animals and raced to kiss the hand and foot of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and kissed them.1 So the kissing of the hand and foot, as far as I know, was narrated by Ibn Hajar in his commentary on al-Bukhari in the Section on Holding to the Book and the Sunna, and was narrated by Abu Dawud in the story of the delegation of Abd Qays. Imam al-Bukhari, as well, has a book called al-Adab al-Mufrad in which he says, Chapter on the The Kissing of Hands, and then he narrates hadiths with their chains of transmission. Then he says, Chapter on the Kissing of Feet and he narrates hadiths with their chains of transmission. Shaykh Salih al-Jafari and Shaykh Mahmud Khattab al-Subki: I attended the lesson of Shaykh Mahmud Khattab al-Subki- oh Allah forgive him for You are allforgiving, and have mercy on him for You are all-merciful and there were fifty-five students sitting in front of him. When he finished his lesson and stood up to leave, I went to him and I had only recently arrived from my country and took his hand to kiss it. He did not allow me to do so. I said to him, Abu Dawud narrated in the section on the delegation of Abd Qays that they threw themselves from on top of their riding animals and raced to the hand and foot of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and kissed them. You do not have more fear of doing something questionable than the Messenger of God (peace be upon him)! He looked at me carefully then turned to those around him, then said to me, Where are you from? I said, From the lands of God! I have been in the Azhar for two months.
1

The Hadith of the Delegation of Abd Qays:

Umm Abbaan bint al-Wazi bin al-Zari narrated on the authority of her grandfather Zari, who was among the delegation of Abd Qays. He said: When we came to Medina we jumped off our riding animals and raced and kissed the hand of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and his foot. (Sunan Abu Dawud, Section on Kissing Someone on their Body).

He turned to those with him and said to them, Look at him! He has only been in the Azhar for two months, and he addressed me with quotes from the Sunan of Abu Dawud. In the Azhar there are people who have been there 80 years, and do not know where to find the Sunan of Abu Dawud. That was his answer, and I thanked him for accepting the evidence. After that he would extend his hand to me to kiss it every time I greeted him. I thank him for accepting the evidence and will bear witness to him for it on the Day of Judgment in the presence of Allah (most high). In Arafat in the year 1951, I was sitting and a group of Moroccans came to greet me and they kissed my hand. An old scholar from Najd with a big beard came after the Moroccans had left and said to me, Where is the evidence for that? I said to him, In the Sunan of Abu Dawud. He said to me, In the Sunan of Abu Dawud? Then may Allah bless you. He accepted the evidence. There are people who, when you mention the evidence to them, they are convinced- they are the true believers. There are other people who, if you mention the evidence to them, they act like foxes. They twist and turn. They are called: The fox-like people. Oh Allah, grant us steadfastness on the straight path, and allow us to act upon the Book and Sunnah. This is a Sunnah that has been narrated, so why do you vilify a Muslim for doing it? Because of kissing someones hand, you backbite your Muslim brother, while you know that backbiting is forbidden? Why? Why? Why?! The Shariah is expansive. SubhanAllah! Another story which contains truly wondrous things! Because this world is indeed full of strange things! I was sitting with that scholar in his house after Asr. A man came, and sat. He said, Our shaykh, we want to build a masjid in Aswan because peoples prayer there is completely invalid. Look! {Who is more unjust than he who makes lies about Allah?} (11:18). What audacity with Allah! He claimed that peoples prayers are unacceptable to Allah! He ruled that the prayers in all the mosques are invalid! Look! This is audacity that Allah will question him about! The shaykh was leaning back. He said, Build, is anyone stopping you? Build what you want. Next to me was a man with a beard that was half an arms length, but he was more ignorant than the donkey of Umm Amr. He said: The Messenger of Allah has spoken the truth! The Children of Israel split into 72 groups and this ummah will split into 73 groups. All of them are in the fire, and they are the people who pray in the mosques. He recited the daal letter at the end with a qalqalah, as if reciting it with tajwid. They are the people of the masaajid. He thought I was a lay man, a non-Azhari, as I was not wearing the clothes of the Azhar and had only arrived recently from my country. I said to him, The hadith is not like this. They are the people who pray in mosques is not part of the hadith. Did the Prophet (peace be upon him) come to you and dictate to you this addition? He opened his eyes at me and said, Ah, are you one of them? Meaning: You are from the Azhar, but I didnt know that! He opened his eyes at me like that, but he stayed quiet and could not answer me. The shaykh (may Allah have mercy on him) was from the people of the hearts. I said to him, Our master the shaykh! As soon as I said that, he sat up straight and said, Yes?

I said to him, What is the ruling on praying in the mosques of the Muslims? He said, It is correct. I said, So do we pray with them when it is time for prayer? He said, Yes! I said to him, What is the ruling on the prayer of one who shaves his beard off? He said, There are two opinions on this, and the correct one is that it is correct. This is what Shaykh Mahmud Khattab said to me, and Allah is listening to us! I responded to that man who said that the prayer of the people is invalid and when he narrated the hadith he attributed false words to the Chosen One and added, and they are the people of the mosques. He (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said in the mutawatir hadith, Indeed, lying about me is not like lying about anyone else! Whoever lies about me on purpose, let him know that there is a seat for him in the Fire. On the Tarawih Prayers I said, Alhamdulillah that I went to this shaykh and heard his own words, so that Allah teaches me, and that I am not among those who are unaware. I knew the shaykh, and knew his principles. I bought his Commentary on Sunan Abu Dawud, and read in the Chapter on the Tarawih Prayers the following: The Tarawih prayers are a Sunnah, but their number is not indicated. That is correct, and that is the consensus of the Ummah. That is because the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, Who prays in the nights of Ramadan out of faith and hoping for reward, then all his previous sins will be forgiven. He did not say, Whoever prays twenty Rakah or fifty. And in the time of our master Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), the Commander of the Faithful brought the people together to pray twenty Rakah in the Tarawih prayer. So Shaykh al-Subki said about the Tarawih prayer, Its number is not indicated. And now some of those who claim to be his followers say, The Sunnah is eight, and twenty is an innovation. This speech did not come from this righteous man. Praise be to Allah for showing me the truth of the matter. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) did not pray the Tarawih. How is that? Because Allah (most high) made night worship obligatory on him both in Ramadan and outside it. As for the Tarawih prayers, it is a Sunnah for the Ummah in Ramadan. The evidence for it is, Whoever prays at night in Ramadan, meaning with any number of Rakahs, out of belief and hoping for reward, then all his previous sins will be forgiven. In a treatise by Shaykh Ali al-Ajhuri al-Maliki he mentioned finding an authentic hadith with the addition, and future sins. So the number is not specified. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) did not pray the Tarawih. He prayed the Qiyam al-Layl that was obligatory upon him in Ramadan and outside it.

There are two narrations about the prayer of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace): One - that he did not pray more than eleven Rakah. Eight for the Qiyam, and two for Shaf (the two Rakahs before the one odd witr Rakah) and one for Witr. The second - That he did not pray more than thirteen Rakahs. Ten for the Qiyam, and two for Shaf and one for Witr. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) did not pray more than that, neither in Ramadan or outside it. So whoever says that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) prayed the Tarawih in Ramadan, and did not do more than eight Rakah, we say to him: You have lied! Because the Tarawih are a Sunnah, but the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was praying the Qiyam al-Layl which was a Wajib (obligation) upon him, and the Tarawih was only made a Sunnah for the Ummah. So enough of this argumentation! Are you more knowledgeable than our master Umar, and thousands of Sahabah with him? Are you more knowledgeable than our master Uthman, and our master Ali, and the Four Imams? Imam Malik says, It is recommended to pray the Tarawih in Ramadan, and it is twenty Rakahs. Imam Shafii says, It is twenty Rakahs. So why this division oh Muslim?! You pray eight, but hold your tongue from the Salaf: The Companions and the others. How do you say that a twenty Rakah Tarawih is an innovation when the Commander of the Faithful Umar bin al-Khattab prayed it twenty?! This is shameful! Hold your tongue from the masters! Do you not know the hadith of al-Bukhari on the authority of our master Imran b. al-Huayn (may Allah be pleased with him) who said: He (peace and blessings be upon him) said, The best of you are my generation, then the ones after them, and then the ones after them. He (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, We are close to the time when the other nations will call one another against you just as diners call one another to their dish. Someone asked, Is this because we will be few in numbers that day? He said, No, you will be numerous then, but you will be like the muck on top of the stream. Narrated by Abu Dawud. The muck on top of the stream is like the tree leaves and hay that floats on the surface of a pond or river. So you are from that muck, and you want to make Umar and the Companions and the Four Imams out to be wrong? Do you have no shame before Allah?! Say: I chose for myself to pray eight Rakahs of Tarawih. As for our predecessors, say, May Allah be pleased with them. Do not call what they did an innovation. Fear Allah, O people! Learn the knowledge of this religion. Do you claim that the Tarawih prayers are eight Rakahs and that twenty is an innovation? Does our master Umar do innovations?! He (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, Follow they way of those who will come after me, Abu Bakr and Umar. And another narration says: He (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) saw Abu Bakr and Umar and said, They are my hearing and my sight. Narrated by alTirmidhi. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said, Hold on to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs after me, bite on to it with your teeth. Narrated by al-Tirmidhi.

Do you come after 1397 years and say that people used to pray the Tarawih in an innovated form? Did you alone gain this knowledge and all the people before you did not know it? Why?! Ask your Lords forgiveness, you! Pray and hold your tongue from the believers! Pray as you wish. No one stopped you. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, Whoever prays at night in Ramadan. He did not specify a number. Shaykh Mahmud Khattab al-Subki (may Allah be pleased with him) did not mention a number. He said that everyone can pray as they wish. So you pray six, or eighteen, or a hundred, and stay quiet about everyone else. But dont you dare say: This is an innovation and a misguidance, and is in the Fire! I like the man. I do not like to backbite anyone. I speak the truth, and I have seen the man himself, and heard from him. I will not be unjust to him. All I say about him is that I found him to be balanced, a good righteous man, who always accepted the truth and returned to it. I heard him in his lesson, when commenting on the hadith about the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) worshipping in the cave of Hira, he said, From this the Sufis took the khalwa (seclusion). Then he spoke about Sufism and the Sufis. His tariqa was Khalwatiyya, and I have seen those who took the path from him, and I have seen his book which he wrote called, The Indissoluble Oath: On the Etiquette of the Path. He printed it twice in his lifetime, and now it has vanished. A person must not vilify the Muslims, but surrender the affair to Allah, and seek forgiveness for his own sins and those of the Muslims. Q: Is La ilaha illa Allah al-Malik al-Haqq al-Mubeen in the hadith corpus or not? Some people say to me, Dont say it, because it has not been narrated, and so it is forbidden for you! A: La ilaha illa Allah al-Malik al-Haqq al-Mubeen is something that has been narrated.2 Wisdom: Though the life may be long, the grave must come and though the night may be long, the sunrise must come Is there night without sunrise? Never! Is there a life without a grave? Never, never! But the son of Adam is unmindful!

The Descent of Jesus at the End of Time Q: Why does our master Isa (peace be upon him) descend? A: He (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, By Him in Whose Hands is my soul, the son of Mary is not far from descending upon you as a just judge. He will break the cross, kill the pig, re-institute the jizya-tax, and money will overflow until no one accepts to take it. Narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim.
2Note:

Salim al-Khawwas, and al-Fadl b. Ghanim narrated it from Imam Malik b. Anas on the authority of Jafar alSadiq with his chain through his fathers until our master Ali b. Abi Talib who said, I heard the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) say: Whoever says one hundred times a day, La ilaha illa Allah al-Malik alHaqq al-Mubeen, it will give him comfort from the loneliness of the grave, and bring him wealth, and he will be knocking on the doors of Paradise. Narrated by Abu Nuaym in Hilyat al-Awliya, Dhul Nun in Hadith Dhul Nun alMasri, and Abd al-Karim al-Rafii in al-Tadwin fi Akhbar Qazwin.]

This is an authentic narration. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) is the one who said this, so do not say: why will he descend? Instead say: How will he descend? And why does the son of Adam die? The wisdom is known to Allah (most high and sublime). Isa (peace be upon him) will descend because our Lord (most high and sublime) said: {to exalt it over every other religion} (9:33). The Christians are attached to Isa (peace be upon him), so he will descend to say to them: There is no Prophet (to be followed now) except Muhammad. The Hour will not come until Allah (most high) exalts this religion above all other religions. Our master Isa (peace be upon him) will descend and he will rule by the Book and the Sunnah. He will stay for five or seven years- Allah knows best for there are different sayings about the length of his stay. He will die in Medina and he will be buried next to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and he will marry an Arab woman. He will not die unwed. Q: What is the Explanation of {I will take your soul and raise you to Me} (3:55) ? A: {Take your soul} in the sleep. {Raise you} to the sky, while you are asleep. Our Lord (most high and sublime) made Isa (peace be upon him) sleep, and raised him. Q: Is this death before the descent or after it? A: The raising of the soul, in the Quran, is used for both sleep and death. He (most high) said: {He is the One who takes your souls back to Himself at night} (6:60). Does this mean kills you ? Sleep is called a wafaa (return of the soul), and death is called wafaa. {Allah takes the souls back to Him when they die} (39:42). Meaning the souls return at death. {He is the One who takes your souls back to Himself at night} means: He makes you sleep. The scholars have held two opinions in explanation of the Ayah {I will take your soul and raise you to Me}: Some said: {I will take your soul} means: will make you sleep {and raise you}. Others said: the Ayah of Isa is like the Ayah of his mother. How is that? The answer: Allah (most high) said in the story of Mary: {O Mary, be devout to your Lord, and prostrate, and bow with those who bow} (3:43). Is the prostration first or the bowing? The Angels did not say to her: {bow} but said {prostrate} and then {and bow with those who bow}. So something has been moved forward and another has been moved back. The meaning is Bow with those who bow, and prostrate with those who prostrate. Likewise is the Ayah of Isa. The meaning is originally I will raise you to me, and then will take your soul to Me after you descend back to Earth. So the Ayah of Isa is like the Ayah of his mother. The meaning of {be devout} means: make supplications, {and prostrate, and bow with those who bow}. He placed the prostration first to give it more attention. It is not first in ordering, but rather because it deserves more attention. What comes first in order is, Bow and prostrate with those who prostrate. {I will take your soul and raise you to Me}. Allah (most high) wants to reassure our master Isa, so He is saying to him: it is I Myself who will take your soul, and the people who want to harm you will not be able to kill you, because I will take your soul Myself. So it was brought forward for the sake of the attention it deserves. Allah (most high) said: {I will take your soul and raise you to

Me}. Originally it is: I will raise you to Me, and then after that you will descend to Earth, and I will take your soul while you are on Earth. He brought {will take your soul} forward for the attention that it deserves. The Primacy of the Nur Muhammadi It has been narrated on the authority of our master Jabir ibn Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) that he asked the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) about the first thing that Allah (most high) created. He said, The first thing that Allah (most high) created was the light of your Prophet, O Jabir. This hadith was narrated by Abd al-Razzaq al-Yamani al-Zabidi in his Musannaf collection of hadith. Shaykh Ahmad al-Qastalani, the author of the Commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari, copied it from him in his book al-Mawahib al-Ladunniyya. Likewise Shaykh Abu al-Barakat al-Dardir quoted it in his Mawlid, and Shaykh al-Bajuri wrote a commentary on it. Shaykh Ibn Hajar alHaytami quoted it in his Mawlid, and shaykh Yusuf b. Ismail al-Nabahani quoted it in his work alAnwar al-Muhammadiyya. So he (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) is the first thing that Allah created. And there is nothing wrong with that. If we say that he was the first of Allahs creation, what is going to happen? What could be against that? Is the Prophet still a created being or not? Allah (most high) created him before the rest of creation to honor him. The first thing that Allah (most high) created was the light of your Prophet, O Jabir. What is meant by his light is his soul. Souls were created before the bodies. That is true for all people, but there is an order. Allah (most high) said: {These Messengers: We favoured some of them over others} (2:253). So He created our Prophet first, to favour him. We are speaking based on the Quran, for ilm (religious knowledge) is not by ones speech (and opinion)- ilm is naql (received texts). We hear the speech of Allah (most high) and we narrate from the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), and from the scholars. As for the people of newspapers, they write what they wish, but they do not quote from the scholars. Allah (most high) said: {If it had been from anyone other than Allah, they would have found much inconsistency in it} (4:82). The speech of Allah (most high) is Truth, and is not inconsistent. {The Sun runs to its resting place} (36:38) truly! {And We have decreed set phases for the Moon} (36:39) there is no doubt about that! {Allah takes the souls back to Him when they die} (39:42). It is Allah and not a king or pasha or vizier! Al-Hakim narrated in his book al-Mustadrak that: Adam said: My Lord I ask You by the right of Muhammad to forgive me! Allah said: O Adam, how did you know Muhammad when I have not created him yet? He said: My Lord, because when You created me with Your hand and blew into me of Your soul, I raised my head and saw that on the throne, There is no god but Allah Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. I knew that you did not add to Your own name except that of the most beloved of all Your creation to You.

Allah said: You have spoken the truth, Adam. He is the most beloved of all creation to Me, so ask Me through his right. I have forgiven you, and had it not been for Muhammad I would not have created you. And al-Tirmidhi narrated in his Sunan that he (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said: I was a Prophet when Adam was still between soul and body.3 This is an authentic hadith. As for those who object to this, they are not scholars- they do not search in the texts. Allah (most high and sublime) says: {And when Allah took a pledge from the Prophets: That I have given you of the Book and the Wisdom} in pre-eternity {then there shall come to you a Messenger confirming what you have. You shall believe in him and you shall support him to be victorious}. He took the pledge from all the Prophets and said to them: Believe in Muhammad, and if you are there in his time, you must support him to be victorious. {He said: Do you accept and undertake My commission on that condition? They said: We accept. He said: So bear witness to that, and I too am with you as one of the witnesses} (3:81). So Allah (most high and sublime) took a pledge from all of the Prophets to be his soldiers, and that if they are alive at the same time as him (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), that they would fight with him in his raids {You shall believe in him and you shall support him to be victorious}. Al-Nabahani said: Your light is all, and all people are parts of it O Prophet, among whose soldiers are the other Prophets Communism and the Communists Q: What is Communism and who are the Communists? A: Communists are people who judge by their minds. They say: there is no god, and no divine books, and no messengers. They believe that humans should rule everything on this Earth based on their minds. For them, there is no god who gives commands or prohibitions, and they do not acknowledge the Messengers. Therefore their disbelief is worse than that of Abu Lahab, and that of the Jews and Christians. The Christians say: We believe in Jesus. The Jews say: We believe in Moses. The Muslims say: We believe in all the Prophets and Messengers. As for the Communists, they disbelieve in them all! So the Communists are a people without religion, and their chief is called Marx. He is a disbeliever, and his parents are disbelievers, and those who follow him are disbelievers who are headed for destruction. Their leader is leading them to destruction. It is as Pharoah did with his followers. Allah (most high) said: {He will be at the forefront of his people on the Day of Resurrection, and he will lead them to the Fire. Evil is this water-place to be led to!} (11:98). So we thank Allah (most high) that He made us Muslims. Oh Allah, all praise is to You, our Lord! Thank Allah for the love of Allah, and the knowledge of Allah, and the love of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace).

(i.e. neither soul nor body).

Our Lord (most high and sublime) praises the Sahaba who lived with the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) with His saying: {Allah is pleased with them and they are pleased with Him} (9:100). Why? Because they were with the beloved! Allah (most high) loves them because the beloved is pleased with them. Al-Busiri (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Allah is pleased with them and they are pleased with Him, so how can anyone reach their level? With Abu Bakr who people followed even in your own lifetime! Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) became an imam during the life of the Prophet (peace be upon him). So where are we from these people? We are now at the end of time. He (peace be upon him) said, From the signs that the Hour is near is that the evil people will be elevated, and the best people will be abased. The stores of speech will be opened and works will be stored. People will read the repeated ones, and none of them will reject it. Someone said, What are the repeated ones? He said, That which is written down beside the Book of Allah (most great and majestic). Narrated by al-Hakim in the Mustadrak, who said it was authentic. Our shaykh al-Shinqiti said: The repeated ones are the newspapers that we see today, because it is repeated words that people write. They mention what they want without denial from the people in charge. This is one of the signs of the Hour. We believe that the Resurrection is coming. Do you think the world will continue like this? What then, about the saying of Allah (most high): {When the seas boil over} (81:6), {When the sky is ripped apart} (84:1), {On that day, the sky will split asunder with clouds and the angels are sent down in majesty} (25:25), where is all that? It is coming, so believe, and have faith, and make your heart believe that the Resurrection is coming. So why does Allah (most high) have patience with the disbelievers? Because He has prepared for them a painful torment. Allah (most high) said: {Therefore be patient, with a beautiful patience * they see it as being far off * but We see it near} (70:5-7). It is the Day of Resurrection, but the disbelievers and Communists do not believe in the Day of Resurrection. Allah (most high) says: {The matter of the Hour shall be like the blinking of an eye or even less} (16:77). The End of Time How will the Resurrection come? It comes with His saying, Be! It is mentioned in the hadith narrated by Muslim that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), after mentioning the emergence of the Dajjal and the descent of Isa son of Mary, said, Then Allah will send a cold wind from the direction of Greater Syria, and no one in whose heart is an atoms weight of goodness or faith will remain on the face of the Earth, but it shall take their lives. Even if one of them went into the depths of a mountain it will enter upon him there and take his life. This will be near the Hour. Our Lord (most high and sublime) will take the souls of the believers first, so that no believer remains on the face of the Earth.

He (peace and blessings be upon him) said, The Hour will not come until the happiest person with this world will be a lowly one son of a lowly one. Narrated by al-Tirmidhi. It means: an evil one son of an evil one. Q: Does this conflict with the hadith, Goodness is in me and in my Ummah until the Day of Rising ? A: There is no contradiction, for the hadith that we have points to the fact that the soft wind will take their souls. He (peace be upon him) said, The Hour will not come until no one on Earth says Allah, Allah anymore. Narrated by Muslim. He also said, The Hour will not rise except on the worst of creation. Narrated by Muslim. The Signs of the Hour I have mentioned to you, before this lesson, the signs of the Hour. They are combined in the code: TaMaDduniYRunDaQa Ta: Turks Mim: Mahdi Dal: Dajjal Ayn: Isa Ya: Yajuj and Majuj (Gog and Magog) Ra: Raf (raising) of the Quran Dal: Daabba (the Creature). {When the Word falls on them, We will bring out from the Earth a beast for them} (27:82). Qaf: Qiyamah Although I fear for you the Communists, but the blessings of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) will keep them from you. Say with me, We believe in Allah! We believe that Allah is more powerful than everything. Q: I have a daughter who is married. Can I give her from my Zakat? A: You can give Zakat to her husband and children, because they are foreigners to you, but as for her, no. As one poet said: Our sons are the sons of our sons, but our daughters, their sons are the sons of foreign men Q: Who comes first, the Mahdi or our master Isa? A: Our master Isa descends at the end of time. As for the Mahdi, he comes first, then the Dajjal appears, then our master Isa descends to help the Mahdi kill the Dajjal. He will kill him in Greater Syria, in Palestine, at Beit Lid, and according to one narration he will descend at the white minaret in Damascus.

The Colonialism that Existed in Egypt and Other Arab Countries When I first came to the Azhar, there used to be a English constable in front of the door of the Azhar, riding a white horse, and wearing a fez. The Citadel was full of Englishmen, and near the Qasr al-Nil Bridge there was a big space that was full of Englishmen. We used to go to look at them. Egypt in general was full of Englishmen. The people who were older than us used to say to us that the head of the police force in Egypt was an Englishman, and the main officer was Egyptian. That is how I saw it with my own eyes in the Sudan: the officer was Egyptian but the manager was English. In Palestine it was the same. In Syria it was the French, and in Iraq the English, and in Libya the Italians, and in Tunisia the French, and in Algeria the French, and in Morocco the French. So all the lands of the Muslims were colonized, so who took all the colonization out and ended this great tribulation? The Muslims did not have the capability to do so, for they had no weapons and no strength, and no number, and no preparation to face this tribulation. But Allah (most high and sublime) took the English out of Egypt with His power without a canon or rifle. It was the Greatest King who took them out of Egypt, then out of Sudan, then took the Italians out of Libya, and then the French out of Tunisia. And in Algeria, Allah (most high) chose dedicated and sincere men who fought until they removed the French from their lands. Likewise He took the French out of Morocco. So Allah (most high) freed all the lands. This age of ours, then, is the age of independence. All of our lands are ruled by Muslims. Allah (most great and majestic) says: {so We might see how you would do} (10:14). Will you, whose lands I gave back to you after I kicked the disbelieving enemies out of it, will you do as they did, or will you return to My Law and My rule? If you act by the Shariah, I will increase you with more strength to add to your strength, and more goodness to add to your goodness. But if you hold on to their laws and imitate them in their misguidance, the reward for that will be harsh. God willingly, I see the Arab countries all thinking about returning to ruling by the noble Quran. But either way, a Muslim ruler even if he was a fasiq (i.e. violated the Shariah) is still better than a million disbelieving rulers, because he is Muslim. We ask Allah to keep our glory. Allah (most high) took them out of the lands of the Muslims and removed the last remnants of their rule, and God willingly they will not come back. If the donkey goes off with Umm Amr neither will she return, nor will the donkey The colonialists then left our lands, and they wish they could return, but that is not possible, because when they entered the Sudan the Sudanese people had nothing but sticks, but now they have canons and rifles and a trained army. And when they entered Egypt the Egyptians had nothing but talk! But now they have different types of canons and rockets and an organized army and fighter jets that are flown by skilled pilots. So the state now is different, and Allah (most great and majestic) has given us much, and strengthened us with His blessings, but we are only lacking one thing, which is to turn to Him (most high and sublime is He). He distanced the enemy from us, and gave us strength, and when the Jews came and tried to dare attack us, Allah brought down tribulation upon them, and gave us victory over them. This is a blessing from His blessings (most high and sublime is He) upon us.

Q: Someone who is going to travel prays the Jumuah prayer, and wants to travel. Is he permitted to pray the Asr straight after it, as an early combination (jam taqdim)? A: Yes that is permissible for him as long as he is traveling. {Allah the Samad} Who is the Samad? It is Allah. One of the scholars of the language was writing a book in explaining the Quran, and on the language. When he got to the word Samad he did not know what it meant. He said to himself: I will go to the lands of the Bedouin to hear what the Arabs say about its meaning. So he went to the desert, and found a tent next to which a camel was tied. The camel was restless, and was neither eating nor drinking. While the man stood there a young girl came and called out to the people inside the tent, What is wrong with your camel, why did it not go to the pasture? The girl inside the tent replied to her, He is samad, he does not eat or drink. So the man understood the meaning of samad in the language. One of the meanings of al-Samad then is: He is the One who does not eat or drink. Q: Does it also mean the One who is relied upon for all needs? A: Yes, that is from the meanings of al-Samad. Meaning: The One who is turned to for all needs. Al-Samad has a lot of meanings, and one scholar has written a book on that. In some countries they call the person in charge of farming: al-samad. Al-Samad is the One who is sought for all needs. But when it comes to the attributes of Allah (most high), this word is not used as if it is similar to the attributes of people. Allah al-Samad is the One who can fulfill all needs. Any need that occurs to you is with Him. He is the One who said to His slaves: {call on Me and I will answer you} (40:60). Meaning: turn to Me. He is the One who can fulfill all needs, and He commands us to request them from Him. Health, progeny, a spouse, money, victory over the enemies all needs are with Him. Most high and sublime is He! He defends you, heals you, enriches you, and brings you happiness. {It is He who makes people laugh and weep} (53:43). He brings things that cause you to laugh, and other things that cause you to weep, most high and sublime is He. Samad, nothing is like Him. Who possesses all that is needed? No one but Him. Even the kings say O Lord!And when they are sick they say, O Allah, cure us! For no one has health and soundness of body but Allah (most high). When the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) would raise his head from the prostration, and sit between the two prostrations, he would say, O Allah, forgive me and show me mercy, and guide me, and give me sustenance, and pardon me, and heal me. So forgiveness is from Allah, and mercy is from Allah, and guidance is from Allah, and sustenance is from Allah, and good health is from Allah. A slave is only happy if his master owns all things: clothes, food, and drink. So if a slave wants to dress, his master will clothe him, and if he wants to eat or drink, he will find food and drink. So a slave is happy with the wealth of his master, because he gives him food and drink.

Allah (most high) says: {say: in the favour and mercy of Allah, in that they should rejoice} (10:58). Why do they rejoice? Because their Lord possesses everything. If there was something that Allah did not have, from where could we get it? But Allah (most high) has everything, and gave us permission to ask Him, so let us rejoice in that! He (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, Allah loves those who are persistent in supplication. Narrated by al-Bayhaqi. Meaning: those who supplicate often. So try and you will find the answer. Whoever has a need and says, O Lord!, his need will be fulfilled, even if after a long time passes. That is because He possesses it, and He is generous. How often do we hear that His name is the Most Generous, and His name is The Rich. He is rich and generous. There are those among His slaves who are rich but stingy, no one can get anything from them. But Allah (most high) is rich and generous, and Allah (most high) says (at the tongue of Solomon): {my Lord is rich and generous} (27:40). Glory be to You, O Lord! Praise be to Allah for Islam! We rejoice in You, O Lord! And the greatest joy is joy in Allah. Whoever wants progeny, let him say: My Lord, grant me good progeny from You. Q: We heard that from the meanings of al-Samad is: the One who gave everything its creation so what is the meaning of that? A: That is from the meanings of al-Rabb (the Lord). When Pharoah said to Moses and Aron, {Who is your Lord, O Moses?} (20:49), Moses reply was, {Our Lord is He who gave everything its creation, and then guided it} (20:50). Pharoah is trying to say, Why did you deny my lordship? He is the one who said, I am your greatest lord! So Moses said to him, You are a liar! So Pharoah said to him, Who is your lord then, O Moses? He said: {Our Lord is He who gave everything its creation, and then guided it}. Meaning: He gave every created being the creation that was made for it. For example, what does the bird eat? It eats seeds. Who guided it and taught it to eat seeds? It is Allah. So the bird is a creation that Allah created, and He guided it to the seeds that Allah created for it, and prepared its stomach for it. The eagle, Who guided it to eat cows? Allah who created it. I have seen its beak, it is like a butchers axe, it can rip the skin of a camel. {then He guided it} means: He gave it and guided it. He is all-wise, all-knowing. Where is the lion? In the mountains. Why does it not come into the city? Because it will either eat someone, or someone will kill it. So our Lord (most high and sublime) made it live in the mountains, and gave it a strong skin with which to bear the heat and the cold. But did He deprive it of sustenance? No! He made the rain come down so that plants grow, and created deer and cows so that the lion and the tiger and the hyena can eat. So these things are created for them. And you see the snakes, they eat the birds. And so on. How sublime are You, O Lord! How sublime are You! The world is full of different types of animals. Have you ever seen a cat file a complaint to someone of its hunger? And have you seen a cat request family planning? It gives bith to more than seven kittens at one go, and Allah (most high) provides for it and its kittens. She knows its Lord and protects its kittens and does not neglect them, and covers them with her body to warm them from the cold.

How sublime is Allah the creator of all things who gave everything its creation and then guide it! Look at the created beings and reflect, and you will see wonders! You will see the lion, the wild beast, showing tenderness for their little cubs, and licking them with their tongue, and playing with them. That is the creation of Allah (most high). {He did not beget} Ibn Hajar (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Because the one who begets dies. {and was not begotten} Meaning He has no father or mother, because the one who has a father inherits from his father. Usually, when a person who has children dies, then his children inherit from him after his death. The one who is born must inherit the money that his father and mother left behind. But Allah (most high and sublime) is transcendent far above having children or fathers or mothers. {and no one is comparable to Him} The recitation of Hafs is without a hamza (glottal stop): kufuwan. Abu Amrs recitation is kufuan. The meaning of both is the same. Kufuwan means: an equal. So it means: no one is equal to Him. He has no equal and no likeness. His attributes transcend above that, most high and sublime is He!