| The Forty Hadith of Imam Nawawi |
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Khatm of The Arba’ain of Imam Nawawi, radhi’Allahu ‘anh
Unlike many mashayikh, who encounter great figures during their learning and service of Al-‘Ilm al-Sharif
in their capacity as Ulema, Shaykh Muhammad was raised from childhood
in the lap of those very figures that are considered icons of our age.
Giants, to anyone who’d know (of) them. Many of the incredible stories
we hear, are handed down from the preceding generation(s), transmitted
to us as lessons for our benefit. However, when Shaykh Muhammad - hafiDHahullah
- relates such things they aren’t just anecdotes, but experiences. So
often in Shaykh Muhammad’s case, what he relates is not something
handed down to him, but an experience he actually had, with these
illustrious names who to many are known only through what has been
relayed by others. Which brings a personal dimension to his suhba
that makes sitting with him so exhilarating, and more importantly,
spiritually uplifting. He captures the mood of a time unknown to us
today, in a manner not found in books, since it stems from a direct
connection, for which there is simply no substitute. Watching and
listening to Shaykh Muhammad recount such stories is like looking at an
old black and white photo, evoking memories from a bygone era, which
you wish you could touch, just for the baraka of knowing such incredible ‘arifin and ulema. The value of such suhba
for us, in these times, cannot be overstated. Especially given that we
live in days when the gulf between our times and those which preceded
us seems so vast, to the extent that some of us find it hard to even
actualise the memory of these seminal figures that we hear about, whose
maqam [station] seems so far above ours, sometimes unbelievably
so, yet who themselves were but saintly echoes of the Prophetic
character and state. The bridge to that era which Shaykh Muhammad
provides is invaluable for us to know (the true worth of) our Sacred
Tradition, and more importantly, realise it in our lives. His
upbringing, as a great grandson of our Beloved Prophet, sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam, in the cradle of scholarship and wilaya,
conspired to create a very unique set of circumstances, as he grew up,
under the watchful tutelage of his father, the venerable Shaykh
as-Sayyid Ibrahim al-Ya’qoubi, rahimahullah. It is no exaggeration to say that he has lived the very history that most others (can) only read or hear about, subhan’Allah.Masjid-e-Khazra, Glasgow Sunday 24th August 2008 Sacred Knowledge is proud to present the absolutely wonderful closing session from the Khatm of The Forty Hadith of Imam Nawawi, radhi’Allahu ‘anh, in Glasgow, August 2008… Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Raheem This is no ordinary talk. For anybody unfamiliar with who Shaykh Muhammad al-Ya’qoubi - hafiDHahullah - is, this talk will be eye-opening. For everybody else, you’re about to listen to something really quite special. Whilst there are many great Ulema who impart knowledge of this Deen to us, and taking nothing away from any of them, one of the extraordinary aspects of Shaykh Muhammad - may Allah azza wa jal preserve him and his family - that mark him out, are the awe-inspiring anecdotal stories which he intersperses his talks/classes with. Shaykh Muhammad - hafiDHahullah - was invited to honour the Khatm of a long-running course taught by Shaykh Abdul-Aziz Ahmed - da’amat barakatuhu - covering al-Arba’ain al-Nawawiyya; one of those essential foundational works which every Muslim is advised to learn, that has qubool [acceptance] across the entire Ummah. This is a text in which Shaykh Muhammad has around 100 ijazas, a notable example being the sanad through Shaykh as-Sayyid Muhammad al-Hashimi, rahimahullah. Following a brief address by Sidi Imran Sabir, Chairperson of Kitaba*, Shaykh Muhammad began by making du’a for the shifa and 'afiya of Sidi Imran, may Allah ta’ala grant him the highest station in paradise. He praised Sidi Imran’s himma, and noted how “the little we are doing is nothing” compared to the struggle of such people. After explaining how such Khatms are celebrations, Shaykh Muhammad also commended the tremendous effort of Shaykh Abdul Aziz Ahmed - may Allah ta’ala allow us to continue benefiting by him - and acknowledged some of the difficulties both teachers and students face in these lands in studying the Deen. He then spoke about the nature and premium of isnad, after which he graced the audience by narrating his isnad to Al-Arba’ain, accompanied by brief biographical sketches on the narrators. Again, the scholarly detail surrounding not only the narrators, but in some cases, their families, was something to behold, notable also because Shaykh Muhammad was recalling all this extempore. Shaykh Muhammad touched upon some of the various forms of narration, mentioning wijada as one of the weakest, compared to munawala, one of the strongest. This point is especially crucial in these days when so many unqualified people take directly - sometimes only - from books in the absence of a teacher to guide them. When he explained why Al-Arba’ain gained the widespread acceptance it did, Shaykh Muhammad - having narrated the final hadith in the book - gave the example of modern-day academics who write on [the subject of the] hadith of the Prophet, sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam, without according due respect to Sacred Knowledge, as contrasted with the deference shown by the Rightly-Guided Ulema. After debunking the modern day fallacy of iman being only in the heart, and then dwelling on a beguiling analogy of iman being like a tree, Shaykh Muhammad underscored the notion that the worst of believers is better than the best of unbelievers, since unbelief in Him, subhanahu wa ta’ala, is the worst of all possible sins, another point which some contemporary sensibilities wrestle with uncomfortably. Shaykh Muhammad - da’amat barakatuhu - moved on to discuss our attitude towards sin, and the correct balance one should assign to hope, touching briefly upon the concepts of amm and iyas, followed by the merit of invoking Ya Tawwab in order to maintain a state of tawba. Following a quick exposition of the need for ta’wil in relation to the mutashabihat ayats in the Qur’an when necessary, the session pertaining to Al-Arba’ain closed by Shaykh Muhammad explaining how it is all too common (and wrong) for the books of hadith to not be referred to by their proper titles. The above is a tiny glimpse into only a few aspects of the first part of this quite exceptional closing session, indeed many more are the jewels it contains, that we have chosen deliberately not to mention, for which to know you will have no choice but to listen… Click to listen to khatm * On behalf of Sacred Knowledge we’d like to ask you to read a Fatiha for this beautiful brother whose efforts in the service of this Deen will benefit many others for years to come. He returned to the care of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala on 3rd March 2009. Further information is available on the Kitaba website. |
