Holding Fast to the Qur'an and Sunnah
كتاب الاعتصام بالكتاب والسنة
Chapter 9: “…(Judge between men) by that which Allah has shown you…”
I fell ill, Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) and Abu Bakr came to visit me on foot. The Prophet (ﷺ) came to me while I was unconscious. Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) performed ablution and poured the Remaining water of his ablution over me whereupon I became conscious and said, 'O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! How should I spend my wealth? Or how should I deal with my wealth?" But the Prophet (ﷺ) did not give me any reply till the Verse of the laws of inheritance was revealed.
Chapter 10: The way the Prophet (saws) taught his followers
A woman came to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) and said, "O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! Men (only) benefit by your teachings, so please devote to us from (some of) your time, a day on which we may come to you so that you may teach us of what Allah has taught you." Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "Gather on such-and-such a day at suchand- such a place." They gathered and Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) came to them and taught them of what Allah had taught him. He then said, "No woman among you who has lost her three children (died) but that they will screen her from the Fire." A woman among them said, "O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! If she lost two children?" She repeated her question twice, whereupon the Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Even two, even two, even two!" (See Hadith No. 341, Vol. 2)
Chapter 11: “A group of my followers will remain victorious in their struggle in the cause of the Truth.”
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "A group of my follower swill remain predominant (victorious) till Allah's Order (the Hour) comes upon them while they are still predominant (victorious).
I heard Muawiya bin Abi Sufyan delivering a sermon. He said, "I heard the Prophet (ﷺ) saying, "If Allah wants to do a favor to somebody, He bestows on him, the gift of understanding the Qur'an and Sunna. I am but a distributor, and Allah is the Giver. The state of this nation will remain good till the Hour is established, or till Allah's Order comes."
Chapter 12: “…or to cover you with confusion in party strife…”
When the (following) Verse was revealed to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ): 'Say: He has power to send torment on you from above,'..(6.65) he said, "O Allah! I seek refuge with Your Face (from that punishment)." And when this was revealed: '..or from beneath your feet.' (6.65) he said, "O Allah! I seek refuge with Your Face (from that)." And when this Verse was revealed: '..or to cover you with confusion in partystrife, and make you to taste the violence of one another,'...(6.65) he said: "These two warnings are easier (than the previous ones).
Chapter 13: Comparing an ambiguous situation to a clear well-defined one
A bedouin came to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) and said, "My wife has delivered a black boy, and I suspect that he is not my child." Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said to him, "Have you got camels?" The bedouin said, "Yes." The Prophet said, "What color are they?" The bedouin said, "They are red." The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Are any of them Grey?" He said, "There are Grey ones among them." The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Whence do you think this color came to them?" The bedouin said, "O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! It resulted from hereditary disposition." The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "And this (i.e., your child) has inherited his color from his ancestors." The Prophet (ﷺ) did not allow him to deny his paternity of the child.
A woman came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and said, "My mother vowed to perform the Hajj but she died before performing it. Should I perform the Hajj on her behalf?" He said, "Yes! Perform the Hajj on her behalf. See, if your mother had been in debt, would you have paid her debt?" She said, "Yes." He said, "So you should pay what is for Him as Allah has more right that one should fulfill one's obligations to Him. "
Chapter 14: Exerting oneself to find out the proper legal verdict which is in harmony with what Allah has revealed
Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "Do not wish to be like anybody except in two cases: The case of a man whom Allah has given wealth and he spends it in the right way, and that of a man whom Allah has given religious wisdom (i.e., Qur'an and Sunna) and he gives his verdicts according to it and teaches it." (to others i.e., religious knowledge of Qur'an and Sunna (Prophet's Traditions)). "
`Umar bin Al-Khattab asked (the people) about the Imlas of a woman, i.e., a woman who has an abortion because of having been beaten on her `Abdomen, saying, "Who among you has heard anything about it from the Prophet?" I said, "I did.'' He said, "What is that?" I said, "I heard the Prophet saying, "Its Diya (blood money) is either a male or a female slave.' " `Umar said, "Do not leave till you present witness in support of your statement." So I went out, and found Muhammad bin Maslama. I brought him, and he bore witness with me that he had heard the Prophet (ﷺ) saying, "Its Diya (blood money) is either a male slave or a female slave."
Chapter 15: “Certainly you will follow the ways of those who were before you.”
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "The Hour will not be established till my followers copy the deeds of the previous nations and follow them very closely, span by span, and cubit by cubit (i.e., inch by inch)." It was said, "O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! Do you mean by those (nations) the Persians and the Byzantines?" The Prophet said, "Who can it be other than they?"
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "You will follow the ways of those nations who were before you, span by span and cubit by cubit (i.e., inch by inch) so much so that even if they entered a hole of a mastigure, you would follow them." We said, "O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! (Do you mean) the Jews and the Christians?" He said, "Whom else?"
Chapter 16: The sin of the person who invites others to an evil deed or establishes a bad tradition
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "None is killed unjustly, but the first son of Adam will have a part of its burden." Sufyan said, "..a part of its blood because he was the first to establish the tradition of murdering"
Chapter 17: The religious learned men should not differ
A bedouin gave the Pledge of allegiance for embracing Islam to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ), and then he got an attack of fever in Medina and came to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ): and said, "O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! Cancel my pledge." Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) refused to do so. The bedouin came to him again and said, "Cancel my pledge," but he refused again, and then again, the bedouin came to him and said, "Cancel my pledge," and Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) refused. The bedouin finally went away, and Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "Medina is like a pair of bellows (furnace), it expels its impurities while it brightens and clears its good.'
I used to teach Qur'an to 'Abdur-Rahman bin Auf. When Umar performed his last Hajj, 'Abdur-Rahman said (to me) at Mina, "Would that you had seen Chief of the believers today! A man came to him and said, "So-and-so has said, "If Chief of the Believers died, we will give the oath of allegiance to such-and-such person,' 'Umar said, 'I will get up tonight and warn those who want to usurp the people's rights.' I said, 'Do not do so, for the season (of Hajj) gathers the riffraff mob who will form the majority of your audience, and I am afraid that they will not understand (the meaning of) your saying properly and may spread (an incorrect statement) everywhere. You should wait till we reach Medina, the place of migration and the place of the Sunna (the Prophet's Traditions). There you will meet the companions of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) from the Muhajirin and the Ansar who will understand your statement and place it in its proper position' 'Umar said, 'By Allah, I shall do so the first time I stand (to address the people) in Medina.' When we reached Medina, 'Umar (in a Friday Khutba-sermon) said, "No doubt, Allah sent Muhammad with the Truth and revealed to him the Book (Quran), and among what was revealed, was the Verse of Ar-Rajm (stoning adulterers to death).'" (See Hadith No. 817,Vol. 8)
We were with Abu Huraira while he was wearing two linen garments dyed with red clay. He cleaned his nose with his garment, saying, "Bravo! Bravo! Abu Huraira is cleaning his nose with linen! There came a time when I would fall senseless between the pulpit of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) and `Aisha's dwelling whereupon a passerby would come and put his foot on my neck, considering me a mad man, but in fact, I had no madness, I suffered nothing but hunger."
Ibn `Abbas was asked, "Did you offer the Id prayer with the Prophet?" He said, "Yes, had it not been for my close relation to the Prophet, I would not have performed it (with him) because of my being too young The Prophet (ﷺ) came to the mark which is near the home of Kathir bin As-Salt and offered the Id prayer and then delivered the sermon. I do not remember if any Adhan or Iqama were pronounced for the prayer. Then the Prophet (ﷺ) ordered (the women) to give alms, and they started stretching out their hands towards their ears and throats (giving their ornaments in charity), and the Prophet (ﷺ) ordered Bilal to go to them (to collect the alms), and then Bilal returned to the Prophet.
The Prophet (ﷺ) used to go to the Quba' mosque, sometimes walking, sometimes riding.
`Aisha said to `Abdullah bin Az-Zubair, "Bury me with my female companions (i.e. the wives of the Prophet) and do not bury me with the Prophet (ﷺ) in the house, for I do not like to be regarded as sanctified (just for being buried there).'' Narrated Hisham's father: `Umar sent a message to `Aisha, saying, "Will you allow me to be buried with my two companions (the Prophet (ﷺ) and Abu Bakr) ?" She said, "Yes, by Allah." though it was her habit that if a man from among the companions (of the Prophet (ﷺ) ) sent her a message asking her to allow him to be buried there, she would say, "No, by Allah, I will never give permission to anyone to be buried with them."
Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) used to perform the `Asr prayer and then one could reach the `Awali (a place in the outskirts of Medina) while the sun was still quite high. Narrated Yunus: The distance of the `Awali (from Medina) was four or three miles.
The Sa' (a kind of measure) during the lifetime of the Prophet (ﷺ) used to be equal to the one Mudd (another kind of measure) and one third of a Mudd which we use today, but the Sa' of today has become large.