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Tawassul of `Umar
through al-`Abbas (Allah be pleased with
them)
A question:
How do the contemporary Hanafi scholars explain the hadeeth recorded in
Sahih Al-Bukhari according to which Khalifah Umar (Allah be pleased with
him) asked Ibn Abbas (Allah be pleased with him) to ask Allah for rain on
behalf of the Muslim community and not the Prophet Muhammad
at his
grave. The Khalifah said that they USED to ask the Prophet Muhammad
to ask Allah and now they asked his uncle instead.
Before turning to the question and its questionable premises some preliminary
remarks are in order.
First of all, `Umar asked al-`Abbas ibn `Abd al-Muttalib, not his son `Abd
Allah ibn `Abbas. What was posted recently on the Hanbali forum is a mistake
which I pointed out to the author.
Second, the terminology of the Khalifa's request, Allah be well-pleased with
him, is as follows:
"O Allah! We would use our Prophet as a means to You and You
then sent us rain; now we use our Prophet's uncle as a means to
You, therefore send us rain!"
Narrated from Anas by al-Bukhari in his Sahih.
Whoever understands from this that `Umar only used al-`Abbas as his
means and not the Messenger of Allah, upon him peace, because al-`Abbas is
alive and the Messenger of Allah is dead that persons understanding is
dead. (Al-Maliki)
Al-Suyuti mentions the context of this event in his Tarikh al-Khulafa' (Beirut,
1992 Ahmad Fares ed. p. 140):
"In the year 17 `Umar enlarged the Prophetic mosque. That year
there was a drought in the Hijaz. It was named the Year of Cinders
(`am al-ramada). `Umar prayed for rain for the people by means
of al-`Abbas. Ibn Sa`d narrated from [the Sahabi] Niyar al-Aslami
that when `Umar came out to pray for rain, he came out wearing
the cloaks (burd) of the Messenger of Allah, upon him blessings
and peace. Ibn `Awn narrated that `Umar took al-`Abbas's hand
and raised it up, saying, 'O Allah, we seek a means to You with the
uncle of Your Prophet to ask that You drive away from us the
drought and water us with rain'...."
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Now, the event of the tawassul of Sayyiduna `Umar through al-`Abbas shows
the following:
[1] Nowhere in the hadith is there any indication that there was no tawassul
through the Prophet
upon him peace, in the time of `Umar. Such a view is
an inference or an extrapolation that is not based on explicit evidence.
[2] On the contrary, `Umar implicitly made tawassul through the Prophet
upon him peace, at that very time, by wearing his blessed cloaks as he came
out for the prayer for rain as mentioned in the report by Ibn Sa`d. In Sahih
Muslim Asma' says that she inherited the mantle of the Prophet from her
sister `A'isha and that they used it to seek a cure for people.
[3] The use of the Prophet's uncle illustrates that tawassul is essentially
through the Prophet
upon him peace, as the importance of al-`Abbas in
this respect is only in his relationship to the Prophet as `Umar himself states
with the words "the uncle of Your Prophet" in al-Bukhari's version already
mentioned; "the status of al-`Abbas in relation to your Prophet" in al-Lalika'i's
version; and as al-`Abbas states:
"O Allah, truly no tribulation descends except because of sins, nor
is lifted except upon repentence. The people have turned to you by
means of me BECAUSE OF MY POSITION IN RELATION TO YOUR
PROPHET, and here are our hands [raised up] towards you despite our sins - and our forelocks in repentence, so send down
water for us and PRESERVE YOUR PROPHET IN THE PERSON OF
HIS UNCLE." Whereupon the sky let down water as thick as ropes
and the people came over to al-`Abbas passing their hands over
him and saying to him: Congratulations to you, irrigator of the
two Sanctuaries! Whereupon `Umar said, He/This is, by Allah,
the means to Allah and the place of nearness to Him!
Cited from al-Zubayr ibn Bakkar's narration in al-Ansab by Ibn Hajar in Fath
al-Bari (2:497).
So the tawassul continues to be solely through the Prophet
despite
appearances to the contrary, for he is the ultimate recourse of human beings
seeking nearness to Allah as he himself taught the blind man (Say, O
Muhammad, I turn with you to Allah) and as several Sahaba explicitly said,
such as in the following reports:
(a) Report of the Bedouin who said to the Holy Prophet
We have come to you when even our virgins' milk is dry, and the
mother worries for her own life over her child's, The child lets down
his arms sitting still For hunger, a hunger unstilled and
uninterrupted. We have nothing left from what our people eat
Except bitter colocynth and camel-wool mixed with blood. And we
have none but you to flee to, for where can people flee except to
the Messengers?
Then the Prophet
- upon him peace - stood up and he was dragging his
garment. He climbed up the pulpit and said: "O Allah, send us water...."
whereupon rain fell abundantly. Then the Prophet
upon him peace said: "I f
Abu Talib were alive he would have liked to see this. Who will
recite for us what he said?" Hearing this, `Ali stood up and said: "O
Messenger of Allah, I think you mean his saying:
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Messenger of Allah than my own father, therefore I prefer the love of the
Messenger of Allah to my love."
(b) A man disparaged `Ali ibn Abi Talib in the presence of `Umar whereupon
the latter said: "Do you know the dweller of this grave? He is Muhammad ibn
`Abd Allah ibn `Abd al-Muttalib. And `Ali is the son of Abu Talib ibn `Abd
al-Muttalib. Therefore, do not mention `Ali except in a good way for if you
dislike him you will harm this one in his grave." Narrated by Ahmad with a
good chain in Fada'il al-Sahaba (2:641 #1089).
(c) After `Umar saw al-Husayn ibn `Ali ibn Abi Talib waiting at his door he
said to him: "You are more deserving of permission to enter than [my son]
`Abd Allah ibn `Umar! You see the goodness that was placed on our head;
[therefore] first Allah; then you [the Prophetic Household]!" and he placed his
hand on his head as he spoke. Narrated by Ibn Sa`d, Ibn Rahuyah, and
al-Khatib.
(d) Jabir said he heard `Umar ibn al-Khattab say on the pulpit after he
married Umm Kulthum, the daughter of `Ali and Fatima - Allah be
well-pleased with them:
"Do not disparage me [for marrying a young girl], for I heard the
Prophet
say, upon him blessings and peace: 'On the Judgment
Day every means will be cut off and every lineage severed except
my lineage.'"
Narrated by al-Tabarani. Al-Haythami said its narrators are those of
al-Bukhari and Muslim.
`Umar desired to place himself in the Prophet's lineage through this marriage
due to the precedence of Ahl al-Bayt in the Prophet's intercession, upon him
and them peace.
[10] Nor is this intercession solely by way of the Prophet's mere supplication
(du`a) and by means of al-`Abbas's mere supplication as claimed by the
innovators and by the terminology of the question cited above. Rather, it was
by means of their person (dhat) AND du`a as literally stated in the following
reports among many others:
(a) Intercession through the Prophet's person according to Ibn `Umar:
In Sahih al-Bukhari: `Abdullah ibn Dinar said:
"I heard Ibn `Umar reciting the poetic verses of Abu Talib:
A fair-skinned one by whose face rainclouds are sought, A
caretaker for the orphans and protector of widows.
"`Umar ibn Hamza said: Salim narrated from his father (Ibn
`Umar) that the latter said: "The poet's saying came to my mind
as I was looking at the face of the Prophet
- upon him blessings
and peace - while he was praying for rain - and he did not come
down until the rain water flowed profusely from every roof-gutter:
A fair-skinned one by whose face rainclouds are sought, A
caretaker for the orphans and protector of widows."
One sub-narrator added: "These were the words of Abu Talib."
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Note that in his translation of Bukhari (2:65), Muhammad Muhsin Khan alters
the wording of the hadith to read: "A white person WHO IS REQUESTED TO
PRAY FOR RAIN" in place of "by whose face rain is sought." This is tahrif i.e.
textual and semantic manipulation of the most important source in Islam after
the Qur'an.
(b) Intercession through al-`Abbas's person according to `Umar:
"People! The Messenger of Allah sallAllahu `alayhi wa-Alihi
wa-Sallam considered al-`Abbas like his father, venerating him and
greatly respecting him and his rights. Therefore, O people! take
the lead of the Messenger of Allah in the person of his uncle
al-`Abbas and take the latter as your means to Allah Most High in
the context of your tribulation."
Narrated from `Umar with a sound chain by al-Baladhiri and with weak chains
from Ibn `Umar by al-Zubayr ibn Bakkar in al-Ansab and Ibn `Asakir in
Tarikh Dimashq (8:932) as cited by Ibn Hajar in the Fath (1959 ed. 2:497).
Shaykh Mahmud Mamduh in Raf` al- Minara (p. 120) rejected al-Albani's
claim in his book al-Tawassul (p. 67-68) that the chain of this hadith is
"mixed up" (mudtarib) as inapplicable here.
[11] `Umar showed the possibility of tawassul through X. even though Y. also present - may be better than X. He showed that tawassul through the
inferior in the presence of the superior is permissible as there is Consensus
that the best of all living human beings after Prophets then, namely `Umar,
`Uthman, and `Ali are all three superior to al-`Abbas, Allah be well-pleased
with all of them. This was also a mark of humbleness on `Umar's part as
already cited from Fath al-Bari. Another example of this is the tawassul of
Mu`awiya for rain through the Sahabi Yazid ibn al-Aswad al-`Amiri as
narrated by Abu Zur`a al-Dimashqi in his Tarikh and his tawassul also
through the Tabi`i Abu Muslim al-Khawlani as narrated by Ahmad in al-Zuhd
cf. al-Tahanawi, I`la' al-Sunan (8:193).
[12] `Umar used al-`Abbas also as a precaution lest people's faith in the
Prophet
upon him peace, be shaken in case the prayer were not answered.
[13] Finally, the Sunna prayer for rain formally has to be performed by the
outward, political Imam of the Muslims or his deputy. It is in that function
that the office of the Messenger of Allah upon him blessings and peace
had ceased and was taken over, first by Abu Bakr, then by `Umar.
Al-`Abbass position in this event is that of the deputy of the latter as the
Commander of the Believers. And Allah knows best.
-I have compiled the above from the references cited below and the lights
imparted by my teachers on this subject may Allah keep them and thank
them for guarding pure and authentic Sunni doctrine from the ignorant and
the extremists.
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- "Were it not for the beasts they [who withhold zakat] would never
be granted rain." Narrated by Ibn Majah.
- "Were it not for the pasturing beasts punishment would be poured
on you literally." Abu Ya`la, al-Bazzar and others.
So we may hope for their intercession, but not for that of the Prophet
Muhammad??
No, the Khalifah did not consider the Prophet
upon him peace, to be absent
nor to have left this world. Otherwise, why did he address the Prophet
upon him peace, and Abu Bakr in their graves as narrated by al-Tabarani
through trustworthy narrators (see below) and why was "nothing more
important to him" - as narrated from him by al- Bukhari in his Sahih - than to
be buried near them?
Qays ibn Abi Hazim narrated that one day, `Umar addressed the people from
the pulpit in Madina and said in his address:
"Verily there is in the Gardens of `Adn a palace which has five
hundred doors, each posted with five thousand of the ladies of
Paradise, and none but a Prophet shall enter it." At this point he
turned to the grave of the Messenger of Allah - upon him blessings
and peace - and said: "Congratulations to you, O dweller of this
grave!" Then he continued: "And none but a Most-Truthful One
(siddiq) shall enter it." At this point he turned towards Abu Bakr's
grave and said: "Congratulations to you, Abu Bakr!" Then he said:
"And none but a Martyr shall enter it," and he pointed to himself.
He continued, speaking to himself outloud: "And when did you
inherit martyrdom, `Umar?" Then he said: "Truly, the One who
brought me out from Makka unto the migration to Madina is able
to bring me martyrdom!"
Al-Tabarani narrated it in al-Awsat through trustworthy narrators cf.
al-Haythami, Majma` al-Zawa'id (9:54-55).
Do the Ahnaaf consider Khalifah Umar to have performed his ijtihad on this
issue but the Ahnaaf disagreed with him? Please explain.
Even if the act of `Umar were not originally a Sunna - which it is - the ijtihad
of the Khulafa' al-Rashidin nevertheless has the probative force of Sunna in
this Religion, with which no School, Hanafi or other, is at liberty to differ. Not
that the Ahnaaf disagreed with him in this or in anything else whatsoever that
comes to mind! And it is a poorly phrased question indeed that places an
entire Sunni School in the immaterial position of disagreeing with one of the
Khulafa' al-Rashidin when this is the exclusive wont of Ahl al-Bid`a.
Hajj Gibril
GF Haddad
[Mon, 20 Oct 2003]
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