This week, let's review the 30th hadith of the forty hadith of An-nawawih. For the past review, see here

It was narrated on the authority of Abi Tha’labah Al-Khushani Jurthum bin Nashir (RadhiyAllahu ‘anhu) that the Messenger of Allah (SallaAllahu ‘alayhi wasallam) said:

“Verily Allah the Almighty has prescribed the obligatory deeds, so do not neglect them; He has set certain limits, so do not go beyond them; He has forbidden certain things, so do not indulge in them; and He has said nothing about certain things, as an act of mercy to you, not out of forgetfulness, so do not go enquiring into these”

(Reported by Al-Daraqutni and others)

Brief Commentary from Hadith Commentary

- Many scholars considered this hadith in terms of its isnad to be weak. Due to this it is best to avoid saying this is what the prophet (SallaAllahu ‘alayhi wasallam) said.

- This hadith in terms of its meaning is sound, hence it should be studied as it contains many wise words and advice

- The wording of this hadith “Verily Allah the Almighty has prescribed the obligatory deeds…” implies that Allah is the sole legislator. This means great care should be taken when giving an Islamic ruling as we are effectively saying, “Allah says so and so”, therefore giving Islamic rulings is like speaking on behalf of Allah.

- Imam Malik used to say, “I have seen many of our scholars answer a question by saying I dislike this or I do not like it, and did not answer by saying halal or haram”.

- The statement of Imam Malik shows how the great scholars of the past used to have so much fear of speaking on behalf of Allah that although matters were clearly haram, they used to avoid saying it is haram, but said I dislike it.

- The sahabah did not ask much if something is disliked or recommended as they used to do what Allah loves, whether obligatory or recommended, and used to abstain from what He dislikes, whether forbidden or disliked.

- The limits that are being referred to in this hadith are the things which separate halal from haram, so we Allah has put these limits therefore we must not go beyond them by going from halal into haram.

- Not everything that the shari’ah doesn’t mention explicitly is permissible to do as some prohibitions are understood from implicit evidences e.g. we implicitly understand from the verse of not saying “uff” to the parents that it is also forbidden to hit them.

- Not asking many questions was more severe in the time of the prophet (SallaAllahu ‘alayhi wasallam), as it may result in a ruling to be legislated which makes things harder, as what happened when Musa was asked about the details of the cow that needed to be sacrificed.

Although the prophet (SallaAllahu ‘alayhi wasallam) has passed away and there is no risk of making the religion more difficult, we must still not ask questions on things which are of no benefit to us, or of things which are not meant to be known e.g. how does Allah look like, etc

Benefits and Action points

-Allah has made this religion easy for us, as the permissible matters far exceed the forbidden matters so we should be grateful to Allah for that
-We should also be grateful to Allah for making the shari’ah very easy and not complicated
-Understand that when saying something is halal or haram, you are speaking

Alhamdulillah!

In giving you so many beautiful things he just didnt tell you to practice absolute love for your neighbour, instead you are to judge, even when you are actualy unholy.