Sharh as-Sunnah : Lesson 40 : Point 61
Shaykh Fawzan | Dawud Burbank [Audio|English]
Imaam Barbahaaree rahimahullaah said:
And to have eemaan that when Allaah’s Messenger sallAllaahu `alayhi wa sallam spoke to those thrown into the abandoned well on the day of Badr, meaning the People of Shirk that they heard his words.
Transcribed Audio:
The Messenger sallAllaahu `alayhi wa sallam has mu`jizaat (miracles) and a mu`jizah (miracle) is a matter, which is extraordinary and a person is not able to bring them about himself. Rather, they are things created by Allaah, the Majestic and Most High.
وَقَالُوا لَوْلَا أُنزِلَ عَلَيْهِ آيَاتٌ مِّن رَّبِّهِ ۖ قُلْ إِنَّمَا الْآيَاتُ عِندَ اللَّهِ – 29:50
And they (People of Shirk) said, “If only miraculous times were to be sent down to him (Prophet sallAllaahu `alayhi wa sallam) from his Lord.” Say, “The miraculous times are only with Allaah.” (Sooratul-`Ankaboot (29), aayah 50)
They were demanding that he should himself bring miraculous times to prove his Messengership as they said. But the miraculous times are with Allaah. The Messenger did not bring any sign except from Allaah, the Majestic and Most High.
قُلْ إِنَّمَا الْآيَاتُ عِندَ اللَّهِ
Say, “The signs are only with Allaah.” (Sooratul-`Ankaboot (29), aayah 50)
So He is the one Who manifests miracles, the Perfect and Most High. And He causes them to happen at the hands of His Messengers to attest to their truthfulness. And an example of that is – the dead person, if you speak to him, he will not hear you and he will not know what you are saying. However, the Messenger sallAllaahu `alayhi wa sallam spoke to those who had been killed at Badr from Quraysh, those who used to harm him and harm the Muslims in Makkah and who haughtily rejected true faith and disobeyed and who tyrannized the Messenger sallAllaahu `alayhi wa sallam and expelled him and who expelled his companions and harmed them. So, Allaah caused them to be overpowered at Badr and they were killed. And their leaders and their eminent people were killed; Shaybah Ibn Rabee`ah and `Utbah ibn Rabee`ah (his brother) and Aboo Jahl Ibn Hishaam and a large number of the eminent ones of the Quraysh were killed at Badr. Then the Prophet sallAllaahu `alayhi wa sallam ordered that they should be thrown into an old well from the wells of Badr and the Prophet sallAllaahu `alayhi wa sallam stood over them and addressed them:
“O so and so, son of so and so! O Aboo Jahl Ibn Hishaam! O `Utbah! O Shaybah! O Umayyah!” He addressed them one by one, saying “Have you found what your Lord promised you to be true for I have indeed found what my Lord promised me to be true?” So then Umar said to him “O Messenger of Allaah, how can you speak to them when they have started to decay and they cannot hear.” So he sallAllaahu `alayhi wa sallam responded, “You people cannot hear any better what I am saying than they can. However, they cannot talk.”
This was a miracle from the miracles of the Messenger sallAllaahu `alayhi wa sallam, which Allaah caused to happen at his hand.[1]
Footnotes:
[1] Reported by Al-Bukhaariyy (3,976) and reported by Muslim (2,873, 2,874 and 2,875).
Translator’s side point: Narration mentions this happened three days after the battle. In one narration it mentioned when the Prophet sallAllaahu `alayhi wa sallam conquered a people then he would remain at that place for three days.
This report that he did likewise at Badr, he stayed there for three days and just before he was going to travel and go back to Madeenah, on the 3rd day then he stood over the old well and said this saying, he spoke to them, he said:
“Did you find what your Lord promised you to be true? Indeed, I found what my Lord promised me to be true…” To the end of the hadeeth.
Shaykh Ahmad an-Najmee rahimahullaah said,
“I say – the disagreement that there is amongst the People of Knowledge about whether the people in the Barzakh (period in between this life and the hereafter, those in the grave and the like), can they hear those people who address them or is that just specific to the people of that well at Badr?
Some of them extend this matter and claim that all the people in that life (the Barzakh) can hear the speech that is said to them and some of the People of Knowledge restrict it to the place where the text is mentioned and that is what is apparent from the established texts.
And as for the people of Sufism then they extend this matter in a reprehensible manner to the extent that they claim that a dead person even knows what happens amongst his family whether good or bad. And Ibn ul-Qayyim rahimahullaah reported in his book Ar-Rooh, some reports from them, which are suspect and Allaah is the one who grants success.”
Shaykh Saalih as-Suhaymee had said on this same point, he mentioned that there are some people who say the dead in general can hear. However, upon verification from the sayings of the people of the Ahlus-Sunnah, what is correct is that we restrict ourselves in the matter of the dead hearing because it is a matter of the ghaib (hidden and unseen) and in matters of the hidden and the unseen, we do not increase upon them upon what occurs from the Prophet sallAllaahu `alayhi wa sallam. And what’s established is two cases where the dead hear:
- Firstly, the leaders of the Quraysh who were killed at Badr that they heard the words of the Prophet sallAllaahu `alayhi wa sallam when he addressed them,
- Secondly, the deceased, who has died and been buried; they hear the footsteps of his family going away after they are buried.
Beyond that we do not extend the matter any further. Rather, the rest of it falls under the general aayah:
وَمَا أَنتَ بِمُسْمِعٍ مَّن فِي الْقُبُورِ – 35:22
And you cannot cause those who are in the graves to hear.
(Soorah Faatir (35), aayah 22)
—
Ithaaful-Qaaree bit-Ta`leeqaat `alaa Sharhis-Sunnah
(A Gift To The Reader In Annotation Of Sharh As-Sunnah)
by Shaykh Saalih ibn Fowzaan al-Fowzaan hafizahullaah
Translated by Aboo Talhah Daawood Burbank, rahimahullaah
Transcribed by Saima Zaher.
Posted with kind permission from Dawud Burbank rahimahullaah
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