Questions on dhikr

On collective gatherings for dhikr:

Abu Sa‘id Al-Khudri and Abu Huraira’s report from the Prophet: “When any group of men remember Allah, angels surround them and mercy covers them,” etc.

Abu Hanifa narrates from Musa ibn Kathir from ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab that the latter saw some people saying la ilaha illallah and allahu akbar and he said: “That is it, that is it (hiya hiya).” He was asked: “What is it?” He said: “The affirmation of godwariness (kalima al-taqwa), and they are the most deserving of it, and they are its people.”

‘Ata’ said - may Allah the Exalted have mercy on him: “Whoever sits in a gathering in which Allah is remembered, Allah will remit for him ten evil gatherings of his.”

Shahr ibn Hawshab’s relation of Abu al-Darda’ joining a gathering of dhikr in the Masjid of Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem).

On gathering for dhikr in a circle:

Muslim, Ahmad, and Tirmidhi narrate from Mu‘awiya that the Prophet went out to a circle of his Companions who were making dhikr and tahmid (saying: al-hamdu lillah) and to whom he said: “Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, is telling the angels that He is proud of you!”

Ibn ‘Umar’s report from the Prophet: “When you pass by the gardens of Paradise, avail yourselves of them.” The Companions asked: “What are the gardens of Paradise, O Messenger of Allah?” He replied: “The circles of dhikr.”

On counting dhikr by the hundreds:

Abu Hurayra reported that the Prophet said: “Whoever says: la ilaha illallahu wahdahu la sharika lah, lahu al-mulku wa lahu al-hamd, wa huwa ‘ala kulli shay’in qadir—There is no god but Allah, alone, without partner. His is the sovereignty, and His the praise, and He has power over everything—a hundred times a day will have a reward equivalent to the reward for freeing ten slaves,” etc. and in another version: “Whoever says: subhan Allah wa bi hamdihi—Glorified is Allah with all praise to Him—a hundred times during a day, will have all his sins wiped off even if they were as numerous as the foam on the surface of the sea.”

On using pebbles while counting dhikr:

The Prophet said: ni‘ma al-mudhakkir al-sibha: “What a good reminder are the dhikr-beads”; Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas reported that once the Prophet saw a woman who had some date-stones or pebbles which she was using as beads to glorify Allah. The Prophet did not rebuke her for doing so; Safiyya bint Huyayy the Prophet’s wife said: The Prophet came in to see me and in front of me there were four thousand date-stones with which I was making tasbih [counting subhan Allah], and he did not rebuke her; from the Prophet’s freedman, Abu Safiyya: a mat would be spread for him and a basket made of palm leaves brought which was filled with pebbles with which he would make tasbih until mid-day. Then it would be taken away, and then brought back after he had prayed, and he would make tasbih again until evening; Abu al-Darda’ had a bag filled with date-stones and that whenever he prayed the noon prayer he would bring them out one by one and make tasbih on them until they were finished; Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas used to count tasbih on pebbles; Fatima bint al-Husayn ibn ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib used to make tasbih with a thread stringed with knots, and that Abu Hurayra made tasbih with a string of one thousand knots and would not sleep until he had counted tasbih on them.

Shawkani said in Nayl al-awtar (2:316-317):

The Prophet justified the counting of dhikr on the fingers by the fact that the fingers will be questioned and will speak, that is, they will witness to that effect. It follows that counting tasbih on them, because of this aspect, is better than using dhikr-beads or pebbles. But the two other hadiths [of Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas and Safiyya bint Huyayy] indicate the permissibility of counting tasbih with date-stones and pebbles, and similarly with dhikr-beads because there is no distinguishing factor between them in the Prophet’s stipulation to the two women concerning it, and no disapproval of it. As for directing to what is better: this does not negate permissibility (la yunafi al-jawaz). There are reports to that effect....

Suyuti related reports with their chains in his monograph on the subject entitled al-Minha min al-sibha and it is part of his collected fatwas. He says towards the end of it: “It is not related from any one of the Salaf nor the Khalaf that it is forbidden to count tasbih on the sibha (dhikr-beads). On the contrary, most of them used to count tasbih on it, and they did not consider it disliked.”

All the above shows that the meaning of the report narrated by Darimi can never be adduced to contest the lawfulness of gathering for dhikr, or sitting in a circle of dhikr, or counting dhikr, or using pebbles to count dhikr, and whoever says this is ignorant of the Sunna on this issue. If it is authentic, then the key to Darimi’s report which the “Salafis” have misunderstood—either from ignorance or from feigned ignorance—lies in the following passages:

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  Abu Musa al-Ash‘ari’s words: “I have just seen something in the mosque which I considered wrong, but I did not see anything except good in it”;
  
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  Ibn Mas‘ud’s words: “Here are your Prophet’s Companions available in abundance”;
  
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  Ibn Mas‘ud’s words: “Allah’s Messenger said to us: A people will recite the Qur’an but it will not pass beyond their throats. By Allah! I do not know, but perhaps most of them are from among you.”
  
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  ‘Amr ibn Salima’s words: “We saw most of those people fighting against us on the day of Nahrawan, on the side of the Khawarij.”
  

It is clear that Abu Musa’s reaction was mixed because on the one hand he disapproved of the people themselves but not of their dhikr, but the reason for the disapproval is left unsaid, while Ibn Mas‘ud alludes to it by blaming the people in question for their isolationist stance away from the Companions This is confirmed by Ibn Mas‘ud’s citing of one of the most famous hadiths concerning the Khawarij—Separatists—and it is known that these Separatists considered themselves more pious than all the Muslims and better than even the Companions. This is again confirmed beyond the shadow of a doubt by ‘Amr ibn Salima’s explicit identification of the people in question as allies of the Khawarij on the day of Nahrawan. This shows that the view of Abu Musa and the condemnation of Ibn Mas‘ud are directed against the fact that the people in question were Separatists, not that they were making dhikr. The scandal of separating oneself from the Companions is underlined by Ibn Mas‘ud’s exclamation: “Here are your Prophet’s Companions available in abundance.” The hadith master Abu Zur‘a al-Razi (d. 262) said: “At the time the Prophet’s soul was taken back, the Companions who had narrated from and/or heard him directly (including his tacit presence) numbered 114,000.” This is related by the hadith master Ibn Jama‘a in his book al-Manhal al-rawi fi mukhtasar ‘ulum al-hadith al-nabawi (The quenching spring: Abridged manual of the sciences of the prophetic hadith), 3^rd ed., ed. Muhyiddin ‘Abd al-Rahman Ramadan (Damascus: Dar al-fikr, 1406/1986) p. 113.

The Khawarij are those from among the tribes of Banu Hanifa, Banu Tamim, and Wa’il in the Najd area of Eastern Arabia who committed baghi (rebellion) against Amir al-Mu’minin, Sayyidina ‘Ali, and opposed the larger group of Muslims. They declared both ‘Ali and Mu‘awiya disbelievers and declared licit their blood and property as well as the blood and property of those with them. They made the land of the former a land of war and declared their own land an abode of faith. They only accepted from the Prophet’s Sunna what agreed with their own doctrine and deduced evidence for their doctrine from what was not perspicuous in the Qur’an. They used to transfer the Qur’anic verses meant to refer to unbelievers and make them refer to the believers as predicted by the Prophet [See Bukhari, English ed. 9:50]. Ibn ‘Abbas debated them until four thousand returned to the truth. They were the first to separate from the Congregation of Muslims. The Prophet referred to them as “The dogs of the people in Hell” [A sound narration related through various chains by Ibn Majah, and Ahmad] and he ordered to fight and kill them by saying: “They will pass through Islam like an arrow passes through its quarry. Wherever you meet them, kill them!” [Bukhari and Muslim].

A final note on the Khawarij of our time. Imam Muhammad ibn ‘Abidin (d. 1252/1836) said in his Hashiyat radd al-muhtar ‘ala al-durr al-mukhtar (3:309), Chapter entitled Bab al-Bughat [Chapter on Rebels]:

The name of Khawarij is applied to those who part ways with Muslims and declare them disbelievers, as took place in our time with the followers of Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab who came out of Najd and attacked the Two Noble Sanctuaries (Mecca and Madina). They (Wahhabis) claimed to follow the Hanbali school, but their belief was such that, in their view, they alone are Muslims and everyone else is a mushrik (polytheist). Under this guise, they said that killing Ahl al-Sunna and their scholars was permissible, until Allah the Exalted destroyed them in the year 1233/1818 at the hands of the Muslim army.

Invoking blessings on the Prophet (salawat)

Allahumma salli ‘ala muhammadin wa ‘ala ali muhammadin wa sallim. O Allah, send blessings upon Muhammad and upon the Family of Muhammad, and grant them peace!

Sakhawi in al-Qawl al-badi‘ (p. 179), chapter on the salawat after adhan says:

‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘As said that he heard the Prophet say: “When you hear the mu’adhdhin, repeat his words after him, then invoke blessings upon me. Whoever invokes blessings upon me once, Allah bestows blessings upon him ten times. Then ask Allah for the wasila to be granted to me. It is a position in Paradise which may not be granted to any but one of Allah’s servants, and I dearly hope that I will be that servant. Whoever asks Allah the wasila for me, my intercession is guaranteed for him.

Sakhawi continues: “It is narrated by Muslim and the Four (Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah, Nasa’i) except Ibn Majah, and also by Bayhaqi, Ibn Zanjawayh, and others.”

We have already expounded elsewhere on the fact that there is no such thing as invoking too much salawat on the Prophet and that we should be clear of anyone who makes such a claim. We will only mention here some evidence on this topic by way of a reminder.

Abu Hurayra narrated that the Prophet said: “Dust for the face of the one before whom I am mentioned, and he does not invoke blessings upon me.” A sound hadith narrated by Tirmidhi (hasan gharib) and al-Hakim.

Abu Hurayra also reported that the Prophet said: “If people sit in an assembly in which they do not remember Allah nor invoke a blessing on the Prophet, it will be a cause of grief for them on the Day of Judgment.” Narrated by Tirmidhi, who graded it hasan.

The author of Fath al-‘allam said: “This hadith proves that it is incumbent on one to remember Allah and invoke blessings on the Prophet while sitting in an assembly, for whether we take the words “cause of grief” to mean torment of fire or any other chastisement, obviously a punishment is incurred only when an obligatory act is neglected or a forbidden act is committed, and here it is both the remembrance of Allah and the invoking of blessings on His Prophet that are apparently incumbent.”

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali said in his book on love of Allah and love of the Prophet entitled Istinshaq nasim al-uns min nafahat riyad al-quds (Inhaling the breeze of intimacy from the whiffs of the gardens of sanctity):

Love for the Prophet is on two levels: The first level is obligatory. This is the love that requires one to accept whatever the Prophet brought from Allah and to receive it with love, pleasure, esteem and submission, without seeking guidance from any other source whatsoever.... The second level is superior. This type of love requires following his example in an excellent way and fulfilling the following of his Sunna with respect to his behavior, manners, voluntary deeds, superogatory actions, eating, drinking, dressing, excellent behavior with his wives and other aspects of his perfect manners and pure behavior. It also includes learning about his life and days. It also includes the heart trembling when mentioning him, saying prayers and blessings upon him often out of what resides in the heart of love for him, esteem for him and respect for him. It also includes loving to listen to his words and preferring them over the words of the rest of creation. And one of the greatest aspects of this love is to follow him in his abstinence of this world, to suffice with little, and to desire and pine after the everlasting Hereafter.

EXCERPTS ON THE REMEMBRANCE OF ALLAH

FROM ‘ABD AL-RAHMAN AL-SUFURI’S (d. 894)