With the Hadith
HIS FLAG WAS BLACK AND HIS BANNER WAS WHITE
We greet you all, dear listeners everywhere, in a new episode of your program "With the Hadith," and we begin with the best greeting: Peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you.
Al-Tirmidhi narrated in his Sunan: Muhammad ibn Rafi’ told us, Yahya ibn Ishaq, who was al-Salihani, told us, Yazid ibn Hayyan told us, saying: I heard Abu Mijlaz Lahiq ibn Humaid narrating from Ibn Abbas, who said: The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, had a black flag and a white banner.
Abu Isa said: This is a good and strange hadith from this angle, from the hadith of Ibn Abbas.
Dear listeners:
This noble hadith shows us that the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, used the flag and the banner in his wars. So, what is the flag and what is the banner?
Linguistic meaning: The Al-Muhit Dictionary states the meaning of the flag and the meaning of the banner:
In the material (RWA): (...... and the flag: the banner, pl: flags ....)
In the material (LWY): (.... and the banner with elongation is the banner, pl banners). Accordingly, the meaning of the flag and the meaning of the banner in the language is one: the banner.
Then, the Sharia made a legal meaning for each of them in terms of usage as follows:
The banner: white and written on it "There is no god but God, Muhammad is the Messenger of God", in black font
It is held for the emir of the army or the commander of the army, and it is a sign of his location, and it revolves with this location wherever it turns, and the evidence for holding the banner for the emir of the army is what al-Nasa’i narrated from Anas: (that he, peace and blessings be upon him, when he appointed Usama bin Zaid as commander of the army to invade the Romans, tied his banner with his hand).
The flag: black, and written on it: "There is no god but God, Muhammad is the Messenger of God" in white font. It is with the commanders of the army divisions: (battalions, companies, and other army units). The evidence for this is that the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, who was the commander of the army in Khaybar, said: "I will give the flag tomorrow to a man who loves God and His Messenger, and God and His Messenger love him, and he gave it to Ali." Ali, may God honor his face, was then considered the commander of a division or battalion in the army... It is stated in the book Tafsir al-Tabari about al-Harith bin Hassan al-Bakri, who said: I came to the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, ..... I entered the mosque, and there was the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, on the pulpit, and Bilal was carrying the sword, and there were black flags. He said, I said: What is this? They said: Amr ibn al-Aas has come from his invasion, so the meaning: (and there were black flags) means that there were many flags with the army, while its commander was one, who was Amr ibn al-Aas, so this means that they were with the heads of battalions and units ...
From that, raising the flag and the banner is as follows:
For the army:
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In the event of an ongoing war:
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The banner is attached to the headquarters of the army commander, and the original is to be tied to the spear, but it can be published after studying the security aspect.
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There is a flag carried by the field commander, and if the Caliph is in the field, it is permissible to carry the banner as well.
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In the case of peace:
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The banner is held for the leaders of the armies, and tied to the spear, and can be published on the headquarters of the army leaders.
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The flags are spread in the army with the divisions, battalions, companies, units and other formations.
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Each division or battalion... can have a special flag that distinguishes it (administratively) and is raised with the flag.
As for state departments, institutions, and security departments, only the flag is raised on all of them, with the exception of the Caliphate House.
The Caliphate House raises the banner on the basis that the Caliph is the commander of the army according to Sharia.
It is permissible to raise the flag with the banner (administratively) because the Caliphate House is the head of state institutions.
Private institutions and ordinary people can carry the flag and raise it on their institutions and homes, especially on occasions of holidays, victories, and the like.
As for the form of raising the banner and the flag:
The original form of the banner is to be tied to the end of the spear, and it is not published except when needed, for example, it is published above the Caliphate House because of the importance of the house, and it is also published above the headquarters of the army leaders in the case of peace so that the nation sees the greatness of the banners of its armies. However, if this need conflicts with the security aspect, such as fearing that the enemy will identify the headquarters of the soldiers' leaders, then the banner returns to the original, which is that it is not published, but rather remains tied.
As for the flag, it is left for the wind to flutter it like the flags in the current time, and therefore it is placed on state departments.
O God, show us the banner published above the coming Caliphate House, the second Caliphate on the method of Prophethood, and the flag of the Eagle fluttering above our public and private institutions, and in the hands of our soldiers waving it while chanting slogans of victory and clear conquest, and songs of joy for the return of what is occupied of the lands of Muslims, ... sooner rather than later, by your mercy, O Most Merciful of the merciful.
Dear listeners, until we meet you with another prophetic hadith, we leave you in God's care, and peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you.
