Imam
Al-Suyuti (rah) 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(RA)
prayed for rain for the people by means of al-`Abbas(RA).
Ibn
Sa`d narrated from [the Sahabi] Niyar
al-Aslami that when `Umar came 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'...." Here
Al-Darimi in
the Chapter 15 of the Muqaddima (Introduction) to his Sunan (1:43)
entitled: "Allah's
generosity to His Prophet after his
death," relates from Aws ibn `Abd Allah with
a good chain:
"The
people of Madina complained to `A'isha of
the severe drought that they were
suffering.
She said:
"Go to the Prophet's grave and
open a window towards the sky so that there will be no roof between
him and the sky." They did so,
after which they were watered with such rain that
vegetation grew and the camels got fat. That year was named
the Year of Plenty." [1]
Bilal
Bin Harith ( Radi Allahu Ta'ala
Anhu )
It
is related by Malik
Al Daar, Umar's
treasurer, that the
people suffered a drought during
the successorship of Umar , whereupon a
man (
Bilal Bin Harith. Ref Tareekh Ibn Khaysmah, Fat'hul Bari ) came
to the grave of
the Prophet and said : O
Messenger Of Allah, ask
for rain for your ummah,
for verily they have but perished, after which the Prophet
appeared to him in a dream and
told him : go
to Umar and give him my greeting , then tell him that they will be
watered. tell
him you must be clever, you must be clever!. The man went and told
Umar. The latter said : " O my Lord , I spare no effort except
in what escapes my power ." Here
--
Ref:
[IBN
HAJAR, AL ASAABAH FI TAMEEZ AL SAHABA, PART 1, PAGE 164 ]
[IBN
KATHIR, AL BIDAYA WA AL NIHAYA, PAGE 495 ]
[IMAM
IBN SHAYBAH, AL MUSANNAF, HADITH 32538]
[IBN HAJAR, FAT'HUL BAARI, PART 1, ]
[TAREEKH IBN KHAYSMAH , PART 2,PAGE 80, HADITH 1818 ]
[IBN ABD AL BARR, AL ISTI'AAB, PART 2, PAGE 77,78 ]
[IMAM QASTALANI, AL MAWAHIB AL LADUNNIYAH, PART 4 ]
[IMAM TAQI AL DEEN SUBKI, SHIFA AL SIQAAM, PAGE 281,282 ]
-------------------------------------------
In
years of drought, people
would go to the grave of
the companion, Abu Ayyub Ansari (RA) and make supplications for rain
and Allah ta'ala would then cause it to rain.[ Tabaqat ibn Sa'ad,
3:380]
--
Ibn
al-Jawzi in his biographies of the awliya entitled Sifat
al-safwa lists many of those at
whose graves tabarruk (seeking
blessing) and tawassul is
recommended. Among them:
Abu
Ayyub al-Ansari: "al-Waqidi said: It has reached us
that the Eastern Romans visit
his grave and
seek rain through his intercession when
they suffer from droughts" (1:243).
Mujahid said: "People
would uncover the space above his grave and it would rain."
Ma`ruf
al-Karkhi (d. 200AH): " His grave can be seen in
Baghdad, and one seeks blessings with it.
al-Hafiz
Ibrahim al-Harbi (d. 285AH) -Imam Ahmad's companion used
to say: Ma`ruf's grave is
proven medicine " (2:214)
Ibn
al-Jawzi adds: "We ourselves go to Ibrahim
al-Harbi's grave and seek blessings
with it" (2:410)
al-hafiz
al-Dhahabi also relates Ibrahim al-Harbi's saying
about Ma`ruf al-Karkhi: " Ma`ruf's grave
is proven medicine." Siyar a`lam al-nubala' (9:343).
Remarkably,
the early historian al-Ṭabarī (d. 311/923) corroborates
Freely’s account of Byzantine
Christians visiting the tomb of Abū Ayyūb
al-Ansarī. Furthermore, al-Ṭabarī’s attestation
forwards the popular phenomenon to the early 4th/10th century: It was
reported that the Greeks frequent his grave, renovate it, and pray
there for rain in times of drought. (al-Ṭabarī,
The History of al-Ṭabarī, 39:40)
--
Zakariya
al-Kazwini (ca. 1203-83), relates that “this
tomb is now venerated among them (the Byzantines) and they open it
when they pray for rain in times of drought; and rain is granted
them.” If the tomb was still extant in early Palaeologan
times [dynasty begins 1259], it seems improbable that it should so
completely have disappeared before the Turkish conquest. Probably,
Fatih restored or rebuilt it on a grander scale. (Sumner-Boyd and
Freely, Strolling Through Istanbul, 363-4)
--
Philip
K. Hitti provides a slightly different account than Freely of the
burial place’s discovery as well as offering some details
concerning Abū Ayyūb’s final campaign:
Tradition
asserts that in the course of the siege abu-Ayyūb died of
dysentery and was buried before the walls of Constantinople. His
legendary tomb soon became a shrine even for the Christian Greeks,
who made pilgrimages to it in times of drought to pray for
rain. During the siege of Constantinople in 1453 by the
Turks, the tomb was miraculously discovered by rays of light… and a
mosque was built on the site. Thus did the Madīnese gentleman become
a saint for three nations. (Hitti, History of the Arabs, 201-2)
The
tomb of Abū Ayyūb al-Ansārī
He
was one of the great Companions. He took part in the battle of
Constantinople. Near the enemy border he fell ill. As the illness
grew worse, he dictated his will as follows:
When
I die, take my dead body with you, when you line up against the
enemy, bury me in your feet
[Ibn
‘Abd-ul-Barr, al-Istiab fī ma‘rifat-il-ashāb (1:404-5)]
So,
acting on his will, the Islamic soldiers buried him at the foot of
the fort and warned the enemies that in case they tried to desecrate
his grave, no church in the Islamic country would remain safe. Thus,
even the enemies were forced to revere his grave, and people soon
came to know the blessings emanating from the grave. Whatever
they prayed for at the grave was immediately granted.
And
Abū Ayyūb’s grave lies near the ramparts of the fort and
everybody knows it... When people pray for rain there, it
starts raining.
[Ibn
‘Abd-ul-Barr, al-Istiab fī ma‘rifat-il-ashāb (1:405)]
Mujahid says: Whenever
there is famine, people expose the grave, so it starts raining
Al-Hafiz
Abu `Ali al-Ghassani relates in Ibn al-Subki's
Tabaqat al-Shafi`iyya 2:234:
Abu
al-Fath Nasr ibn al-Hasan al-Sakani al-Samarqandi came to us
in 464 and said:
"We
had a drought in Samarqand some
years ago. The people made the istisqa'
prayer but they did not get
rain.
A
saintly man named al-Salah came to the judge and
said to him: "I have an opinion I would like to show you. My
opinion is that you come out followed by the people and that you all
go to the grave of Imam Muhammad ibn Isma`il
al-Bukhari and make istisqa' (prayer for
rain) there. Perhaps Allah will give us rain."
The
judge said: "What a good opinion you have." He
came out and the people followed him, and he
prayed for rain in front of them at the grave while people wept and
sought the intercession of the one that was in it. Allah
sent such heavy rain that those who were in Khartenk (where this
took place, 3 miles away from Samarqand) could not reach Samarqand
for seven days because of the rain's abundance."
Imam
Dhahabi narrates: Once there was a drought in Samarqand,
People tried their best, some said Salat al Istisqa but still
it did not rain, A
renowned righteous man known as Salih came to the Qadhi and said: In
my opinion you along with your public should visit the grave of Imam
Bukhari (rah), His grave is located in Khartank, We should (go
near the Qabr) and ask for rain, Allah might give us rain then, The
Qadhi said Yes to his opinion and then he along with the people went
towards (the Qabr) and then
He made a dua along with the people and people started to cry near
the grave and started to make him a Waseela (i.e. Imam
Bukhari).
Allah Ta’ala (immediately)
sent rainclouds. All people stayed in Khartank for about 7 days,
none of them wanted to go back to Samarqand although the distance
between Samarqand and Khartank was only 3 miles
[Siyar al A'lam wa al
Nubalah, Volume:12, Page No. 469]
Imam
Bulqini also
declares this tradition “sound”
in his Fatawa.
Imam
Subki confirms Hakim's authentication in
[Shifa-us-siqam fi ziyarat khayr-il-anam Page No. 120-1]
Ibn
Taymiyyah said:
It
is narrated that a group heard answer to Salam from grave of Prophet
(Peace be upon him) and graves of
other righteous people.
Saeed bin Musayb (rah)
heard Adhan from the grave of Prophet during
the incident of Harra (i.e. when Yazid attacked Madina).
"ALL
OF THIS IS HAQ (TRUTH))"
However
this is not related to the topic I am discussing.
This
matter is more greater and Jalil.
"SIMILARLY
TO THIS IS THE INCIDENT OF A MAN GOING TO GRAVE OF
PROPHET AND COMPLAINING ABOUT DROUGHT. THUS HE SAW THE PROPHET GIVING
HIM ORDER TO GO TO UMAR (RA) AND TELL HIM TO COME
OUT SO THAT PEOPLE PRAY FOR RAIN”
[(Iqtida
as Siraat al Mustaqeem (1/373)]
--
Ibn
Taymiyya says that:
In
the time of a drought, a person came to our
Prophet’s grave and complained
about the drought. He then saw our Prophet, (sallallahu
’alaihi wa sallam), who said go to ‘Umar and
tell him to perform the Salaah of Istisqah. There are
numerous true narrations
similar to this.
[Iqtisa
Sirat al Mustaqim, page 373, Also Imam Bukhari has mentioned about
this in his book, Tarikh al Kabir, biography of Malik al dar]
--
Ibn
Taymiyya writes:
Some
people came to the grave of
our Prophet, (sallallahu ’alaihi wa sallam), and requested
something, and their needs were fulfilled. In the like manner, the
pious people can also fulfill the
needs of people - and we do not
deny this.
[Iqtida
as Sirat al-Mustaqim, - page 373, Ibn Taymiyya]
--
Imam
al-Bayhaqi (Rahimahullah)'s Dalail an Nubuwah. In Muqadmah
of this book he made usooli discussion that he will only narrate
authentic hadiths.
He
narrates: “A person repeatedly visited Uthman bin Affan (RA)
concerning something he needed but Uthman paid no attention to him.
The man went to Uthman bin Hunaif (ra) and complained to him about
the matter- [Note: this
was after the
demise of the Prophet (s) and after the
caliphates of Abu Bakr and Umar (RA) ] so Uthman
bin Hunaif said
: “Go
to the place of Wudu, then come to the Masjid, perform two Rak'ats
and then say : “O Allah!, I ask you and turn to you through
the intercession our
Prophet Muhammad, the Prophet of Mercy. O Muhammad! I turn through
your intercession to my lord, that He fulfil my need” and
mention your need. Then come so that I can go with you [to the caliph
Uthman] So the man left and did as he had been told, then went to the
door of Uthman ibn Affan (Allah be pleased with him), and the doorman
came, took him by the hand, brought him to Uthman ibn Affan, and
seated him next to him on a cushion. 'Uthman asked, "What do you
need?" and the man mentioned what he wanted, and Uthman
accomplished it for him ...(till the end of hadith) See Dalail an
Nubuwah (6/167-168) Here
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Al-Darimi in
the Chapter 15 of the Muqaddima (Introduction) to his Sunan (1:43)
entitled:
"Allah's
generosity to His Prophet after his death," relates
from Aws ibn
Abd Allah with
a good chain:
"The
people of Madina complained to `A'isha of the severe
drought that they were suffering.
She
said: "Go to the Prophet's grave and
open a window towards the sky so that there will be no roof between
him and the sky." They
did so, after which they were watered with such rain that
vegetation grew and the camels got fat. That year was named the Year
of Plenty."
It is clear from the above narrations that the position of the Mother of the Believers `A'isha differs from that of modern-day "Salafis," since she recommended to the people of Madina to use the Prophet in his grave as a means of obtaining blessing and benefit and this remained in use until the Wahhabis took over the Hijaz, while "Salafis" declare this to be unacceptable. Either they know better than the fuqaha' of the Companions or, most certainly, they are peddling misguidance and innovation.
It is clear from the above narrations that the position of the Mother of the Believers `A'isha differs from that of modern-day "Salafis," since she recommended to the people of Madina to use the Prophet in his grave as a means of obtaining blessing and benefit and this remained in use until the Wahhabis took over the Hijaz, while "Salafis" declare this to be unacceptable. Either they know better than the fuqaha' of the Companions or, most certainly, they are peddling misguidance and innovation.
Shaykh
Albani, in order to reject
the hadith of Darimi, raised some objections which
are so full of holes that one can not only see the sky
through them, but also the sun, the moon, and the stars.
He
said in his little book translated under the name Tawassul:
Its
Types and Its Rulings (p. 130-131) about Darimi's chain of
transmission for the report (Abu al-Nu`man from Sa`id ibn Zayd from
`Amr ibn Malik al-Nukri from Abu al-Jawza' Aws ibn `Abd Allah from
`A'isha):
This chain of narration is weak and cannot be used as a proof due to three reasons:
(i) Sa`id ibn Zayd who is the brother of Hammad ibn Zayd is somewhat weak. al-Hafiz [Ibn Hajar] said about him in al-Taqrib: "Generally acceptable, but he makes mistakes." Dhahabi said about him in al-Mizan: "Yahya ibn Sa`id said: Weak, and al-Sa`di said: He is not a proof, they declare his ahadith to be weak. Nasa'i and others said: He is not strong; and Ahmad said: He is all right. Yahya ibn Sa`id would not accept him."
However, the above documentation is partial and biased, and this is not surprising since "Salafis" only mention what advances their view while they cover up, rephrase, or declare weak whatever contradicts it.
This chain of narration is weak and cannot be used as a proof due to three reasons:
(i) Sa`id ibn Zayd who is the brother of Hammad ibn Zayd is somewhat weak. al-Hafiz [Ibn Hajar] said about him in al-Taqrib: "Generally acceptable, but he makes mistakes." Dhahabi said about him in al-Mizan: "Yahya ibn Sa`id said: Weak, and al-Sa`di said: He is not a proof, they declare his ahadith to be weak. Nasa'i and others said: He is not strong; and Ahmad said: He is all right. Yahya ibn Sa`id would not accept him."
However, the above documentation is partial and biased, and this is not surprising since "Salafis" only mention what advances their view while they cover up, rephrase, or declare weak whatever contradicts it.
This
is especially true of Albani, whose
followers claim him as "the
leading scholar of hadith of this age"(!)
whereas he makes
frequent mistakes, innovates in
many of his rulings, and
is generally unreliable except to those unschooled in
the Islamic sciences. It would be more correct for "Salafis"
to say: "He
is our leading scholar,"
for in this we would agree with them completely. However, it is a
fact that no one who has actual knowledge in hadith and fiqh
uses Albani's books
except that they check and verify anything they take from them
against trustworthy scholars.
The present narration is a case in point, since Albani deliberately omits to mention the authentication of the narrators he seeks to declare weak, hiding basic evidence from his readers in order to mislead them, all because he is dead set against the issue at hand, even if it is authentically reported from the Mother of the Believers!
Following is a point-by-point refutation of Albani's claims by the Moroccan hadith scholar `Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Siddiq al-Ghumari in his booklet entitled: Irgham al-mubtadi` al-ghabi bi jawaz al-tawassul bi al-nabi (The coercion of the unintelligent innovator to the effect that using the Prophet as a means is permissible p. 23-25):
Albani's weakening of Sa`id ibn Zayd is rejected, because Sa`id is one of Muslim's narrators, and Yahya ibn Ma`in declared him trustworthy (thiqa)!
The editor of Ghumari's text, Ghumari's student Hasan `Ali al-Saqqaf says on the same page as the above:
Albani has adduced worthless proofs as is his habit when embellishing falsehood.
He cited whatever fit his whim from Ibn Hajar's Taqrib, leaving out his mention that Sa`id ibn Zayd is one of Muslim's narrators in his Sahih. Beware, therefore, of this tadlis (concealment) on his part!... He added Dhahabi's notice on Sa`id ibn Zayd in the Mizan, and this is another deliberate cover-up, for he faithlessly omitted to mention what Ibn Hajar reported in Tahdhib al-tahdhib (4:29) from those who declared Sa`id ibn Zayd trustworthy, in addition to his being one of Muslim's narrators:
- Bukhari said: "Muslim ibn Ibrahim narrated to us: Sa`id ibn Zayd Abu al-Hasan narrated to us, and he is reliable and a memorizer of hadith (saduq hafiz)."
- al-Duri said on the authority of Ibn Ma`in: "Sa`id ibn Zayd is trustworthy (thiqa)."
- Ibn Sa`d said: "He was trustworthy."
- al-`Ujli said: "He is from Basra, and he is trustworthy."
- Abu Zur`a said: "I heard Sulayman ibn Harb say: Sa`id ibn Zayd narrated to us, and he was trustworthy."
- Abu Ja`far al-Darimi said: "Hibban ibn Hilal narrated to us: Sa`id ibn Zayd narrated to us, and he was a memorizer of hadith and he was reliable."
- Ibn `Adi said: "There is no denounced narration from him except someone else also narrates it, and I consider him one of those in the reliable category."
In addition to the above remarks it is noteworthy to mention that Albani cited Ahmad's grading of Sa`id ibn Zayd as la ba'sa bihi which his translator rendered as "he is all right," but neither the author nor the translator seems to know that in Imam Ahmad's terminology la ba'sa bihi is identical with thiqa, which means "trustworthy" and is among the highest gradings of authentication! Ibn Salah in his Muqaddima (p. 134), Dhahabi in Lisan al-mizan (1:13), Sakhawi in Fath al-mughith, Ibn Hajar in Hadi al-sari, Abu Ghudda in his commentary to Lucknawi's Raf` (p. 222 n. 3), as well as the editor of Nawawi's al-Taqrib wa al-taysir (p. 51) have indicated that the equivalency of saying "There is no harm in him" with the grade of trustworthy (thiqa) obtains for many early authorities of the third century such as Ibn Ma`in, Ibn al-Madini, Imam Ahmad, Duhaym, Abu Zur`a, Abu Hatim al-Razi, Ya`qub ibn Sufyan al-Fasawi, and others.
Albani continues in his list of reasons for weakening Darimi's narration:
(ii) It is mawquf (stopping at the Companion), coming only from `A'isha and not from the Prophet, and even if the chain of narration up to `A'isha were authentic then it would not be a proof since it is something open to personal judgment in which even the Companions are sometimes correct and sometimes incorrect, and we are not bound to act upon that (!).
To this claim it is easy to reply that not only is the narration sound and authentic, but also that there is no objection related from any of the Companions to the act recommended by the Mother of the Believers, just as there was no objection on their part to the istisqa' made by the man who came to the grave of the Prophet in the narration of Malik al-Dar cited below. This shows ijma` on the matter on the part of the Companions, and such ijma` is definitely binding in the sense that no one can declare unlawful or innovative something which they have tacitly declared lawful or desirable. As for the following the opinion of the Companions we say what Imam al-Shafi`i said as related by Ibn Qayyim in A`lam al-muwaqqi`in `an rabb al-`alamin (2:186-187): "Their opinion for us is better than our opinion to ourselves."
Albani listed the following as his last reason for weakening Darimi's narration:
(iii) Abu al-Nu`man... was originally a reliable narrator except that he deteriorated at the end of his life. The hadith master Burhan al-Din al-Halabi mentions him among those who deteriorated in later life in his book al-Muqaddima (p. 391) and he says: "The ruling about these people is that their narrations are accepted if reported from them by people who heard from them before they deteriorated. But narrations reported from them by those who heard from them after they deteriorated, or narrations reported from therm by people about whom we do not know whether they heard from them before they deteriorated or after, then these narrations are to be rejected."I say: We do not know whether this report was heard by Darimi from him before or after his memory deteriorated, it is therefore not acceptable and cannot be used as evidence. [Footnote:] Shaykh al-Ghumari missed this weakness in Misbah al-zujaj (p. 43), just as it was ignored by another in order to give the impression to the people that this report is authentic(!).
The present narration is a case in point, since Albani deliberately omits to mention the authentication of the narrators he seeks to declare weak, hiding basic evidence from his readers in order to mislead them, all because he is dead set against the issue at hand, even if it is authentically reported from the Mother of the Believers!
Following is a point-by-point refutation of Albani's claims by the Moroccan hadith scholar `Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Siddiq al-Ghumari in his booklet entitled: Irgham al-mubtadi` al-ghabi bi jawaz al-tawassul bi al-nabi (The coercion of the unintelligent innovator to the effect that using the Prophet as a means is permissible p. 23-25):
Albani's weakening of Sa`id ibn Zayd is rejected, because Sa`id is one of Muslim's narrators, and Yahya ibn Ma`in declared him trustworthy (thiqa)!
The editor of Ghumari's text, Ghumari's student Hasan `Ali al-Saqqaf says on the same page as the above:
Albani has adduced worthless proofs as is his habit when embellishing falsehood.
He cited whatever fit his whim from Ibn Hajar's Taqrib, leaving out his mention that Sa`id ibn Zayd is one of Muslim's narrators in his Sahih. Beware, therefore, of this tadlis (concealment) on his part!... He added Dhahabi's notice on Sa`id ibn Zayd in the Mizan, and this is another deliberate cover-up, for he faithlessly omitted to mention what Ibn Hajar reported in Tahdhib al-tahdhib (4:29) from those who declared Sa`id ibn Zayd trustworthy, in addition to his being one of Muslim's narrators:
- Bukhari said: "Muslim ibn Ibrahim narrated to us: Sa`id ibn Zayd Abu al-Hasan narrated to us, and he is reliable and a memorizer of hadith (saduq hafiz)."
- al-Duri said on the authority of Ibn Ma`in: "Sa`id ibn Zayd is trustworthy (thiqa)."
- Ibn Sa`d said: "He was trustworthy."
- al-`Ujli said: "He is from Basra, and he is trustworthy."
- Abu Zur`a said: "I heard Sulayman ibn Harb say: Sa`id ibn Zayd narrated to us, and he was trustworthy."
- Abu Ja`far al-Darimi said: "Hibban ibn Hilal narrated to us: Sa`id ibn Zayd narrated to us, and he was a memorizer of hadith and he was reliable."
- Ibn `Adi said: "There is no denounced narration from him except someone else also narrates it, and I consider him one of those in the reliable category."
In addition to the above remarks it is noteworthy to mention that Albani cited Ahmad's grading of Sa`id ibn Zayd as la ba'sa bihi which his translator rendered as "he is all right," but neither the author nor the translator seems to know that in Imam Ahmad's terminology la ba'sa bihi is identical with thiqa, which means "trustworthy" and is among the highest gradings of authentication! Ibn Salah in his Muqaddima (p. 134), Dhahabi in Lisan al-mizan (1:13), Sakhawi in Fath al-mughith, Ibn Hajar in Hadi al-sari, Abu Ghudda in his commentary to Lucknawi's Raf` (p. 222 n. 3), as well as the editor of Nawawi's al-Taqrib wa al-taysir (p. 51) have indicated that the equivalency of saying "There is no harm in him" with the grade of trustworthy (thiqa) obtains for many early authorities of the third century such as Ibn Ma`in, Ibn al-Madini, Imam Ahmad, Duhaym, Abu Zur`a, Abu Hatim al-Razi, Ya`qub ibn Sufyan al-Fasawi, and others.
Albani continues in his list of reasons for weakening Darimi's narration:
(ii) It is mawquf (stopping at the Companion), coming only from `A'isha and not from the Prophet, and even if the chain of narration up to `A'isha were authentic then it would not be a proof since it is something open to personal judgment in which even the Companions are sometimes correct and sometimes incorrect, and we are not bound to act upon that (!).
To this claim it is easy to reply that not only is the narration sound and authentic, but also that there is no objection related from any of the Companions to the act recommended by the Mother of the Believers, just as there was no objection on their part to the istisqa' made by the man who came to the grave of the Prophet in the narration of Malik al-Dar cited below. This shows ijma` on the matter on the part of the Companions, and such ijma` is definitely binding in the sense that no one can declare unlawful or innovative something which they have tacitly declared lawful or desirable. As for the following the opinion of the Companions we say what Imam al-Shafi`i said as related by Ibn Qayyim in A`lam al-muwaqqi`in `an rabb al-`alamin (2:186-187): "Their opinion for us is better than our opinion to ourselves."
Albani listed the following as his last reason for weakening Darimi's narration:
(iii) Abu al-Nu`man... was originally a reliable narrator except that he deteriorated at the end of his life. The hadith master Burhan al-Din al-Halabi mentions him among those who deteriorated in later life in his book al-Muqaddima (p. 391) and he says: "The ruling about these people is that their narrations are accepted if reported from them by people who heard from them before they deteriorated. But narrations reported from them by those who heard from them after they deteriorated, or narrations reported from therm by people about whom we do not know whether they heard from them before they deteriorated or after, then these narrations are to be rejected."I say: We do not know whether this report was heard by Darimi from him before or after his memory deteriorated, it is therefore not acceptable and cannot be used as evidence. [Footnote:] Shaykh al-Ghumari missed this weakness in Misbah al-zujaj (p. 43), just as it was ignored by another in order to give the impression to the people that this report is authentic(!).
Ghumari said
regarding these claims about Abu al-Nu`man:
His
weakening of Abu
al-Nu`man is invalid, because
Abu al-Nu`man's deterioration did
not affect what is narrated from him! al-Daraqutni said
[as cited by Dhahabi in Mizan al-i`tidal (4:81)]: "He deteriorated at
the end of his life, and no denounced hadith issued from him after
his deterioration whatsoever, and he is trustworthy (thiqa)."
As for what Ibn Hibban said,
that "Many denounced things
occurred in his narrations after his deterioration,"
then al-Dhahabi refuted
it when he said (4:8): "Ibn
Hibban was unable to cite a single denounced narration from him, and
the truth is just as Daraqutni said."
Shaykh
Muhammad ibn `Alawi al-Maliki said
in his book Shifa' al-fu'ad bi ziyarat khayr al-`ibad (p. 152):
Abu
al-Nu`man's deterioration neither
harms nor is detrimental to his reliability, since Bukhari
in his Sahih narrated over one
hundred hadiths from
him, and no
narration was taken from him after
his deterioration, as Daraqutni said.... The
chain of transmission is all right, in fact I consider it good. The
scholars have cited as evidence many chains that are like it or less
strong than it.
Following
are Saqqaf's further
comments, beginning with Albani's charge
against Shaykh al-Ghumari:
We
know full well that it is Albani who
betrays scholarly trust and deliberately misinforms the people, even
if he accuses others of disinformation.... In weakening Abu
al-Nu`man he has again acted
faithlessly.
His
quotation from al-Burhan al-Halabi's book al-Ightibat bi man rumiya
bi al-ikhtilat (p. 23) is designed to pull the wool over the eyes of
his followers and those who only read his works!
For
it is necessary to also know that those who are branded as suffering
from deterioration in the aforementioned book are divided among those
whose narrations were unaffected by their deterioration and those
whose narrations were affected. Abu al-Nu`man belongs
to the first group, and al-Dhahabi made this clear
in al-Mizan (4:8). Therefore our reply to Albani is: Shaykh
al-Ghumari did not miss anything concerning this matter of
deterioration, because he is a hadith scholar and a master memorizer
(hafiz), however, it is you who have missed it, O slandering
backbiter!
As
for Albani's quotation
of Ibn Taymiyya's claim
in his al-Radd `ala al-Bakri (p. 68-74) whereby "a
clear proof that it is a lie is the fact that no such opening existed
above the house at all in the whole of the life of `A'isha"(!)
then it is a weak objection which is no sooner brought up than cast
out. Surely Imam al-Darimi and the scholars of the
succeeding generations would know of such a detail better than
latecomers. As for the authorities among the latter, then the hadith
scholar and historian of Madina Imam `Ali al-Samhudi (d.
922) did not so much as look at Ibn
Taymiyya's objection, rather
he confirmed the truth of Darimi's narration by
saying, after citing it in his Wafa'
al-wafa' (2:549): al-Zayn al-Miraghi said: "Know
that it is the Sunna of the people of Madina to this day to open a
window at the bottom of the dome of the Prophet's room, that
is, of the blessed green dome, on the side of the Qibla." I
say: And in our time, they open the door facing the noble face (the
grave) in the space surrounding the room and they gather there."
So
much for the claims of naysayers regarding istisqa'
through the Prophet(s)
The ACT of
the Mother of the Believers `A'isha in the narration of
Darimi is explicitly confirmed by Abu Talib's famous
line of poetry concerning istisqa' through the Prophet(s) as related
in the book of istisqa' in Bukhari's Sahih:
`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 while he was praying for rain -- and he did not get down till
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."
-----------------------------------------------------------
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," and
Allah knows best the reason for this grave betrayal of the
translator's trust in the most important Islamic source after the
Qur'an.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
حدثنا أبو النعمان حدثنا سعيد بن زيد
حدثنا عمرو بن مالك النكري حدثنا أبو الجوزاء أوس بن عبد الله قال
قحط أهل المدينة قحطا شديدا فشكوا إلى عائشة فقالت انظروا قبر
النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم فاجعلوا منه كوى إلى السماء حتى لا يكون بينه
وبين السماء سقف قال ففعلوا فمطرنا مطرا حتى نبت العشب وسمنت الإبل حتى تفتقت
من الشحم فسمي عام الفتق
Imam
Dārimī Relates from Abu al-Jawza’ Aws bin ‘Abdullah:
The people of Medina were in the grip of a severe famine. They
complained to ‘A’ishah (about their terrible condition). She told
them to go towards the Prophet’s grave and open a window in the
direction of the sky so that there is no curtain between the sky and
the grave. The narrator says they did so. Then it started raining
heavily; even the lush green grass sprang up (everywhere) and the
camels had grown so fat (it seemed) they would burst out due to the
over piling of blubber. So the year was named as the year of greenery
and plenty.
---
References:
Sunan
Darimi Volume:1, Page 227, Hadith Number:93
Muhammad
bin ‘Alawi al-Maliki says, “This tradition has a good chain of
transmission; rather, in my opinion, it is sound. The scholars have
also acknowledged its soundness and have established its genuineness
on the basis of almost equally credible evidence. [Shifa’-ul-fu’ad
bi-ziyarat khayr--il-‘ibad Page No.153]
Ibn-ul-Jawzī
in al-Wafā’ bi-ahwāl-il-mustafā (2:801)
Subkī
in Shifā’-us-siqām fī ziyārat khayr-il-anām (p.128)
Qastallānī
in al-Mawāhib-ul-laduniyyah (4:276); and Zurqānī in his
Commentary(11:150)
Chain :"“Abū
an-Nu‘mān heard it from Sa‘īd bin Zayd, he from ‘Amr bin
Mālik an-Nukrī and he from Abū al-Jawzā’ Aws bin ‘Abdullāh
who has reported it.”
---
(Edited by ADHM)
