[SannyGlow]

A few weeks back a user made a thread similar to this one about Ayah 10:58. He posted a Hadith to try and prove his point...

...
The Prophet s.a.w stated, “I have seen my Lord, He put His hands upon my chest, after which everything appeared before me and I recognized everything.

[Musnad Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, vol 5, page 243]
...

Can someone provide an Alim's explanation of the Hadith.

[SannyGlow]

anyone?

[KeettyGlots]

Salam 'Aleykum,

It seems there are many versions of it, we need the entire Takhreej of this Hadith to know the different texts and chains.

[houkbsdov]

A few weeks back a user made a thread similar to this one about Ayah 10:58. He posted a Hadith to try and prove his point...

The Prophet s.a.w stated, “I have seen my Lord, He put His hands upon my chest, after which everything appeared before me and I recognized everything.

[Musnad Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, vol 5, page 243]*

Can someone provide an Alim's explanation of the Hadith.

Shaykh Shu'ayb al-Arna'ut provided a detailed analysis of the various routes of this narration under the relevant hadiths in his edition of Musnad Ahmad - in particular numbers 3484 and 22109. He shows the chains are extremely erratic (mudtarib) - though they generally centre around one individual called 'Abd al-Rahman ibn 'A'ish - and due to this idtirab the hadith is weak even though a particular chain was graded strong by al-Tirmidhi. Al-Arna'ut quotes al-Daraqutni who said in his al-'Ilal after a detailed analysis of the different chains of this hadith: "Nothing in it is sahih and they are all mudtarib." And Muhammad ibn Nasr said in Ta'zim Qadr al-Salah as quoted by al-'Asqalani: "The narrators of this hadith have been contradictory in relating its chain [of transmission], and it is not established from the people of knowledge." And al-Bayhaqi said about this hadith in al-Asma' wa al-Sifat: "It was related through other routes, and all of them are weak." And Ibn al-Jawzi said in al-'Ilal al-Mutanahiyah: "The foundation of this hadith and its routes are mudtarib." Al-Dhahabi said in the biography of 'Abd al-Rahman ibn 'A'ish in al-Mizan regarding this hadith: "[This] hadith of his is strange and rare."

Mufti Shafi' writes the following about this hadith in his partial Arabic commentary on the Qur'an:

Some of them adhere to what al-Qastallani mentioned in al-Mawahib that “Allah (Exalted is He) raised the world to me so I was looking at it and what will happen therein to the Day of Resurrection.” He narrated it from Ibn ‘Umar (Allah be pleased with him). And [they adhere] to what is narrated in al-Mishkat from Mu‘adh ibn Jabal (Allah be pleased with him) regarding the vision of the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) in which he said: “When suddenly I was with my Lord (Blessed and High is He) in the best form, so he said: ‘O Muhammad!’ I said: ‘I am here, my Lord!’ He said: ‘Regarding what, are the Highest Company arguing?’ I said: ‘I don’t know.’” He said this thrice. He said: “Then I saw Him place His palm between my shoulders until I felt the coolness of His fingertips between my breasts, and then everything became manifest to me and I knew. Then He said: ‘O Muhammad!’ I said: ‘I am here, my Lord!’ He said: ‘Regarding what, are the Highest Company arguing?’ I said: ‘About atonement.’” (Mishkat, Adab al-Masajid)

I say:

Firstly, these narrations are weak and such [reports] cannot be adduced as proof against the clear texts of the Qur’an and authentic hadiths, since it says in Kanz al-‘Ummal about the first hadith narrated from Ibn ‘Umar (Allah be pleased with them) that its chain is weak, and similarly, al-Bayhaqi weakened the second hadith – he said: “It was narrated from [different] routes, all of which are weak, and its authenticity is questionable.”

Secondly, after conceding the authenticity, they are from solitary reports which cannot override the Book.

Thirdly, the intent of “all things” are things apposite to that context, not all creation such that nothing is excluded from it, as is corroborated by the hadith about the vision, since the discussion was concerning what the Highest Company were arguing about and regarding this, he (upon him peace) said: “I don’t know.” Then after the placing of His (Exalted is He) palm, everything became manifest to him of this, until he knew that their dispute was over atonement.

Fourthly, after conceding [the literality of] “all,” the manifestation of all things to someone does not entail its encompassment in complete detail, and his knowledge of what is in the insides of things or their outsides, since the meaning of “manifestation” is “appearance,” so it may be that a large city in its entirety appears to someone when he ascends a lighthouse or a mountain and the entire city is in his field of view and it is acceptable for him to say, “I saw the entire city,” but this does not entail his encompassing knowledge of what is within it, especially of what is in the insides of houses and the different heights of the earth.

Fifthly, even if his encompassment of everything is accepted at the moment of the manifestation, this does not entail that it always remains. How [can it remain], when the texts and hadith-transmissions of things he (Allah bless him and grant him peace) was unaware of [at the time of] his death, rather even at the resurrection also, are mass-transmitted? Consider His (Blessed and Exalted is He) statement: “The day when Allah will assemble the messengers and will say to them, ‘How were you responded to?’ They will say, ‘We have no knowledge.’” (5:109) How [can this be upheld] when all the messengers (Allah’s blessings be on them all) will come out to the plain of resurrection without knowing the details of the deeds of their nations? Al-Bukhari has narrated from Sahl ibn Sa‘d (Allah be pleased with him), Abu Sa‘id al-Khudri and Abu Hurayrah (Allah be pleased with them) through various chains, and the wording of Abu Hurayrah is that he would narrate that Allah’s Messenger (Allah bless him and grant him peace) said: “A group of my companions will come to me on the Day of Resurrection, and they will be driven away from the Pond, so I will say: ‘O my Lord! My companions!’ So He will say: ‘Verily you have no knowledge of what they invented after you.’” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Hawd, 2:974)

It was narrated from him (Allah bless him and grant him peace) in the Battle of Ahzab that “he wanted to know the conditions of the confederates on a cold rainy night, so he began to call again and again: ‘Who will go to the confederates and inform me of what they are doing?’ until Hudhayfah (Allah be pleased with him) was appointed, so he went and brought [news of] their conditions.” Similarly, al-Bukhari and others narrated that he (upon him blessing and peace) would send spies to know the conditions of the disbelievers. Likewise, in the Battle of Hudaybiyyah, “when the news of the murder of ‘Uthman (Allah be pleased with him) became widespread, this hurt him (upon him blessing and peace), so he took the pledge of death from the believers, and later, it became clear that he was alive.”

He (upon him blessing and peace) was in constant sorrow and grief during the incident of slander [of his wife, ‘A’ishah], and he did not know the reality of the situation except after revelation came and her innocence was sent down [from Allah]. And he (upon him blessing and peace) was in [a state of] worry when Quraysh asked him about the companions of the cave until revelation came down. Similarly, when Quraysh harassed him with questions about the description of Bayt al-Maqdis, he became worried until Allah (Exalted is He) unveiled it for him as a miracle. There are many examples of this from the events recorded in authentic narrations, and there is no need to cover all of them. Had he (Allah bless him and grant him peace) known all of what was and what will be, such that the measure of an atom was not hidden from him in the earth and in the sky, how did these events occur which clearly state he (Allah bless him and grant him peace) was unaware of [certain] things?

[It is reported] in Sahih al-Bukhari (2:568) regarding the Battle of Badr in the incident of ten Sahabah: “Allah’s Messenger (Allah bless him and grant him peace) sent them as spies and he put ‘Asim ibn Thabit al-Ansari (Allah be pleased with him) as a commander over them, and it happened that they were surrounded, so when ‘Asim ibn Thabit sensed death, he said: ‘O Allah! Inform Your Prophet about us.’” You must contemplate on this. If it were that the Sahabah believed that he (upon him blessing and peace) knows the ghayb absolutely, ‘Asim would not have needed [to say] such a supplication.

Benefit: I say: In this is also proof that seeking help (istighathah) from absentees of the pious people and prophets was not from the practices and norms of the Sahabah even at the time of hardship and difficulty, since if it was from their norms, ‘Asim would have said: “O Messenger of Allah! O Prophet of Allah!” seeking his help. In this is a warning to the ignorant people of our time who make seeking help from the dead a custom and religion.

The upshot is that the narrations which these people adhere to [for proof of their position], they have no basis in them, firstly, because they do not prove encompassing knowledge of all that was and will be such that nothing is excluded from it, and that which was reported with the wording “all things,” it is according to the common vernacular in all languages, inclusive of all that is apposite to that context, not all things in complete detail; and secondly, because after accepting this meaning, they are all solitary reports with weakness in their chains, so how is it proper to adduce proof from them against the texts of the Qur’an and authentic and clear narrations of hadith, especially in what relates to beliefs where only [texts that are] decisive in meaning and establishment are used as proof? Also Mawlana Rashid Gangohi said in his lectures on Sunan al-Tirmidhi as recorded by his student Mawlana Muhammad Yahya al-Kandhlawi in the commentary published as al-Kawkab al-Durri:

His statement: “I knew whatever is in the heavens and earth,” does not entail (1) the permanence of that knowledge such that it negates (2) the texts (la yalzamu baqa’u dhalik al-‘ilmi hatta yunafi al-nusus). (This is also the fifth explanation offered by Mufti Shafi' above) Mawlana Muhammad Zakariyya al-Kandhlawi - who edited and added footnotes to al-Kawkab al-Durri - explained:

(1) Meaning, after accepting that the word “whatever” (ma) in the hadith of the chapter is for generality, for otherwise the apparent [meaning] of his statement “whatever is in the heavens” is the important matters suitable to his (Allah bless him and grant him peace) knowledge, since Muslim has transmitted in his Sahih from Abu Zayd, he said: Allah’s Messenger (Allah bless him and grant him peace) prayed Fajr with us and ascended the pulpit, and then he delivered a sermon until the sun set, informing us of what was and is to be. Will you then believe that all of them became knowers of the unseen (ghayb) after this [incident]? There are a number of narrations with the [same] meaning as this hadith which must be understood as [referring to] the suitable important matters.

(2) Meaning, the multiple clear texts negating his (Allah bless him and grant him peace) knowledge of the unseen. Al-Qari said:

"“I knew whatever is in the heavens and earth,” meaning whatever Allah (Exalted is He) gave him knowledge of, of what is in them [i.e. the heavens and the earth] of angels, trees etc. and it is an expression about the expanse of his knowledge which Allah opened for him. Ibn Hajar [al-Haythami] said: “Meaning, all existents which are in the heavens, rather and what is above them, as is acquired from the story of Mi‘raj, and ‘the earth’ is in the sense of genus, i.e. and all that is in the seven earths, rather what is below them.” I say: It is possible by ‘heavens’ is meant the upper direction and by ‘earth’ the lower direction so it includes all. However, the restriction that we mentioned [of angels, trees and the like] is necessary, since it is not proper to unqualifiedly use “all” (jami‘) [for the knowledge of the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace)] as is apparent."

I say: They only needed to explain what was narrated of the like of such narrations which are ambiguous solitary reports because of what is established with certainty of knowledge of the unseen being exclusive to the Creator of man and jinn. The compiler of these written lessons (taqrir), my master and honourable father [Mawlana Muhammad Yahya Kandhlawi], has a short treatise in Urdu known as Mas’alatu ‘Ilm al-Ghayb in which he summarised this issue along with mentioning its proofs. He quoted from Sharh al-Fiqh al-Akbar by ‘Ali al-Qari that the Prophets (upon them blessing and peace) do not know the unseen matters of things except what Allah has taught them from time to time. The Hanafis have mentioned with clear statements that by believing the Prophet (upon him blessing and peace) knew the unseen one is considered a disbeliever due to conflict with His (Exalted is He) statement: “Say: None in the heavens and earth knows the unseen but Allah.” To the end of what he explained. (Al-Kawkab al-Durri 4:250-1)

[SannyGlow]

@Muzzammil Husayn and TripolySunni

May Allah guide us all. Ameen.