LECTURE TITLE:
Adding Salawat After Al-Hamdulillah Is Always Excellent
LECTURER:
Shaykh Gibril Fouad (G.F.) Haddad (PhD)
LANGUAGES :
In English.
LECTURE :
Praise and thanks all belong to Allah Most High. May Allah Most High
bless and greet the Messenger of Allah on our behalf with a blessing
and a greeting that cleanses us inwardly and outwardly from every
attribute of disbelief and hypocrisy, manifest or hidden. May Allah
Most High bless you and reward you and yours here and hereafter for
your good works and your question.
I wanted to relate an incident that happened here at our local masjid.
Yesterday, […] the khatib yelled out from the pulpit the following:
“The one who says ‘Al-hamdulillah wa Salatu Wa Salamu `ala
Rasulillah” after drinking water is WORSE than the one who drinks
alcohol and commits zina. This is because the hadiths make mention of
only saying “al-hamdulillah” after drinking water.”
Obviously, the man is a Wahhabi and his understanding of the
definition of “bid`a” is greatly skewed. But when a group of people at
the masjid (myself included) expressed their extreme distaste to the
board members of the masjid about shouting such a statement from the
pulpit, the masjid simply replied saying that the khatib was just
emphasizing the need to refrain from bid`a!
I just wanted to know, from a fiqh standpoint, how grave would such
a statement exactly be? Can anyone possibly justify such a wording to
be permissible with the intent of “emphasizing the need to refrain from
bid`a?” I would imagine that such a “seeghah” would be outside the
demarcation of appropriate adab to say the least.
The statement in question comprises two claims: the first claim is
that it is an innovation of misguidance to invoke blessings on the
Prophet after drinking water; the second claim is that such an
innovation is degenerate corruption of an order worse than drinking
alcohol and committing zina. We seek refuge in Allah Most High from
straying into misguidance or being strayed.
There are many books by the Ulema of Islam on the merits and fiqh of
invoking blessings on the Prophet, upon him blessings and peace. None
of those books mentions, to my knowledge, that it is reprehensible to
invoke blessings on the Prophet after saying al-hamdu lillah after
drinking water.
In the Shafi`i school it is a Sunna mustahabba to invoke much
blessings on the Prophet in all situations, including after drinking
water. However, there is disagreement in the other schools whether it
is desirable or undesirable in certain situations which were summed up
by one of the Malikis as follows:
[ARABIC]
“Slaughtering; sneezing; tripping;
amazement; advertising wares;
the call of nature; know that in all the above situations
they disliked that one pray upon the greatest intercessor.”
Another scholar added the following:
[ARABIC]
“Likewise the bath, also eating,
and wherever there is filth, so as to keep him exalted.”
The above means that if the situation ends, for example, after
eating, then the ruling of dislike is cancelled. Note that there is no
mention of drinking. Note also, that in any case, to ignore the above
and going ahead, say, while selling something in the souk, would be
simply disliked or offensive, certainly neither amounting to one of the
greatest sins (kaba’ir) such as winebibbing, nor to an innovation of
misguidance.
There are three situations where the invocation of blessings on the
Prophet, upon him blessings and peace, is specifically “not
legitimized” (ghayr mashru`) by agreement of the Schools, all three
inside Salat: when bowing, when standing after bowing, and in
prostration. “Even so, it is important to *not* consider this to be
disliked” (much less a grave sin!) warns Imam Shams al-Din
al-Qastallani (d. 923) in Masalik al-Hunafa ila Mashari` al-Salat `ala
al-Nabi al-Mustafa (Ed. Bassam Muhammad Jarud, Abu Dhabi: al-Majma`
al-Thaqafi, 1999, p. 416).
The most that can be said is that dislike applies only in one way:
wher/never *dhikr itself* is generally disliked, such as (i) in the
bath, or (ii) “answering the call of nature,” or (iii) at places of
filth.
As for the narration, “Do not mention me in three situations: when
naming (Allah Most High) over food, when slaughtering, and when
sneezing,” it was dismissed by al-Bayhaqi, al-Sakhawi (in al-Qawl
al-Badi` fil-Salat wal-Salam `alah al-Habib al-Shafi`), and Ibn
al-Qayyim (in Jala’ al-Afham fi fadl al-Salat wal-Salam `ala Muhammadin
Khayri al-Anam) as forged.
Furthermore, not only are the above rulings of dislike not based on
firm proofs; but there are Qur’an and hadith proofs as well as fiqh
positions to the opposite, namely, that it is good to invoke blessings
in situations of slaughtering, sneezing, and amazement (let alone after
drinking).
Following are some of the proofs which apply to the desirability of
blessing the Prophet, upon him blessings and peace, after drinking,
most of them general and deductive, some of them precise and explicit:
– Allah Most High in His Book explicitly commanded the believers to invoke blessings and salutations on the Prophet:
{Truly, Allah (blesses the Prophet!)
and the angels bless the Prophet!
You all who believe, invoke blessings on him!
And invoke salutations of peace!
Abundant salutations!}
There is consensus in Islam [1] that such invocation is obligatory
and (more relevantly here) [2] that Allah Most High did not restrict
such invocation to a quantity, modality, time, or place other than the
abundance and magnification expressed in the emphatic wording of the
Aya.
As for the proofs from hadith they are too many. Suffice it to mention the following:
– Wherever there is dhikr of Allah Most High it is required of us to
invoke blessings on the Prophet, upon him blessings and peace, as a
general rule. Saying “al-hamdu lillah” after drinking water is one such
dhikr.
– In every du`a and supplication to Allah Most High it is required
of us to invoke blessings on our Prophet also. this is particularly
emphasized in the Shafi`i and Hanbali schools. Saying al-hamdu lillah
after drinking water is one such du`a.
– It is recommended to drink water, recite shahada, and invoke blessings on the Prophet after wudu’.
– The Prophet said, upon him blessings and peace, that “Whoever does
not thank people, does not thank Allah.” If a believer thanks whoever
brought them water, it is even more appropriate to thank the Messenger
of Allah, upon him blessings and peace, who brought them the means for
that water to be, in our lives, a foresign of Divine forgiveness, not
Divine wrath.
– A hadith states that the invocation of blessings on the Prophet
insures that one shall drink from his Basin on the Day of resurrection.
Whoever knows this, ought to remember it even more when drinking water.
– Another hadith states that the invocation of blessings on the
Prophet insures one shall never be parched from lack of water here or
hereafter. Whoever knows this, ought to remember it even more when
drinking water.
– Another hadith mentions that the invocation of blessings on the
Prophet, upon him blessings and peace, Other hadiths mention that it
enlivens the heart, benefits one’s children and grandchildren, brings
wealth and banishes poverty by the grace of Allah Most High.
– The hadith of Thawban in Muslim mentions that the Prophet, upon
him blessings and peace, supplicated from Allah Most High that He spare
his Umma the hardship of drought. Look at your Prophet, he wants you
and your descendants to drink your fill here and hereafter, and here we
are discussing whether it is bid`a for people to bless him. It is
written in the Psalms about al-Quds: May my tongue cleave to my palate
if I do not remember you day and night.
– The Prophet said: “If this world was worth even as much as the
wing of a gnat in the sight of Allah Most High, He would not have given
from it a single draught of water to a disbeliever.” This means the
believer is required to remember that, although water is vital, yet the
gifts of Allah Most High are immeasurably greater than water.
Consequently, the believer is required to invoke blessings on the
Prophet, as Allah’s Mercy to the worlds is dearer than life itself and
dearer than cool water on a parched tongue on a hot day.
– The invocation of blessings on the Prophet is a protection from
the hardships of the Day of Reckoning. After drinking water one day the
Prophet, upon him blessings and peace, told those present that they
shall be questioned over this blessing. A believer who knows he shall
be questioned over a cup of water is required to redouble the
invocations of blessings before, during, and after drinking it.
kor8b
If a good action is not specifically contextualized in the Qur’an
and Hadith, it does not mean that its performance in that context
becomes an innovation of misguidance. There are many examples of
supplications and other acts of devotion innovated by the Companions
(sometimes inside Fard Salat), the Successors, and those of later
generations among the early Muslims. I have mentioned 160 such examples
in my Sunna Notes, volume 2, on the Sunni definition of what is bid`a
and what is not.
To take a very relevant example here, the Prophet, upon him
blessings and peace, told us to say “al-hamdu lillah” after sneezing,
but he never added for us to also invoke blessings upon him.
Al-Tirmidhi narrates that a man sneezed then said: “As-Salamu
`alaykum.” The Prophet, upon him blessings and peace, said: “And upon
you and your mother. When one of you sneezes, let him say: ‘al-hamdu
lillahi rabbi al-`alamin,’ and let whoever answers him say: ‘yarhamuka
Allah,'” etc.
Yet it is related that Ibn `Umar, may Allah be well-pleased with
him, upon hearing someone sneeze and say only “al-hamdu lillah,” told
him on the spot: “You have acted miserly! *Wherever you say al-hamdu
lillah, why do you not also invoke blessings on the Prophet?*”
Something similar is also narrated from Abu Sa`id al-Khudri and Ibn
`Abbas, may Allah be well-pleased with them.
(Ponder the meaning of a pure Arab calling another pure Arab stingy.
Before Islam he might have killed him for the insult; after Islam he
might have thanked him all his life for the teaching.)
This is because the Prophet, upon him blessings and peace, *did not prevent us from adding the blessings on him either.*
Similarly, the famous hadith of Ubay ibn Ka`b in which he said to
the Prophet, upon him blessings and peace: “I shall make my entire
prayer consist in blessing upon you,” and the latter more than approved
him: “Indeed, your whole need shall be taken care of then.” Ubay’s
statement has been explained to mean: “After my required salat and the
required dhikr therein, I shall devote myself completely to salawat
upon your noble person.”
As for the second claim, namely, that to invoke blessings and peace
on the Prophet after drinking water “is worse than drinking alcohol and
committing zina,” it is a gross exaggeration which is sadly-comically
typical of the scene in American Islam. I have observed over the years
two traits which characterize dramatis personae from top to bottom in
the United States: ignorance and audacity. These can be ultimately
summed up in one trait, which is irreligion. Gone for good are the
times and places where such statements would have been met by a
symphony of sandals confidently slammed on the speaker’s head.
Whether the reason is that the Muslim scene remains void of the
people of knowledge or some more essential cause such as the spiritual
bankruptcy of the world-drunk culture, the fact is that the full
frontal assault on Belief inside the community is stronger in the US
than anywhere else.
The increasing numbers of Muslims and mosques there, or anywhere for
that matter, is a delusion as long as those individuals and buildings
cultivate a false understanding of the religion of Islam, to wit, the
equivalent lack of institutions of sacred knowledge, a lack which stems
from the diehard misunderstanding that it is better to build more
mosques than to build the men and women who should teach and study in
them.
So this particular case is only a belch from the ongoing devouring
of the Umma predicted by the Prophet, upon him blessings and peace,
just as he predicted the situation akin to what we now see, where a man
might step into a mosque a believer and exit it a munafiq.
Sabrun jamil! Our duty is nasiha, and when the father of our
liegelord Ibrahim, upon him blessings and peace, refused to hear, our
liegelord Ibrahim forsook him and went far away.
The Hanbali Imam of Damascus, al-Mardawi (d. 699) said in his poem al-Aadaab al-Shar`iyya:
[ARABIC]
“Forsaking whoever calls unto a matter of misguidance, or a matter
which corrupts people – be sure of it without hesitation – is an
obligation upon those who lack the wherewithal to shatter his lie and
repel the harm of the misguider with camel prods!”
This is as far as identifying evil in the community and either
uprooting it or shunning it is concerned. As for actually building up
the community, see the words of the apple of the eyes of the seekers of
truth in our time, Shaykh Muhammad al-Ya`qubi at <
ghazaliinstitute.com >, which can be summed up in the four sentences
which begin his four paragraphs:
1. The first priority of Muslims in the West should be to establish
Institutions of sacred knowledge and support the students, the seekers
of knowledge who have decided to devote their life to the service of
this Deen.
2. Jihad, for Muslims in the West, is in learning the Deen and supporting the learners of the Deen.
3. One of the best acts of worship is to help a student who is traveling abroad not on a vacation but for the sake of Allah.
4. A few thousand Dollars may not build a mosque, yet they can
contribute to the making of a man, a scholar who can revive a whole
community and bring people to the way of Allah.
Blessings and peace on the Holy Prophet, his Family, and all his
Companions, in every breath of the lungs and every glimpse of the eye,
for as long as there exists a tongue to speak and hearing that heeds
the truth.
Was-Salam,
GF Haddad
BIBLIOGRAPHY :
Author : Shaykh Gibril Fouad (G.F.) Haddad (PhD)
Copyright : © Shaykh Gibril Fouad (G.F.) Haddad (PhD)
