With the Noble Prophetic Hadith
The Ark of Salvation in the Muslim Community
We greet you all, dear listeners, everywhere. We meet you in a new episode of your program "With the Noble Prophetic Hadith" and begin with the best greeting and purest peace. Peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you. Afterwards:
Al-Bukhari narrated in his Sahih: Abu Nu’aim narrated to us, Zakaria narrated to us, saying: I heard Amer saying: I heard Al-Nu’man bin Bashir, may God be pleased with them, from the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, saying: “The likeness of the one who stands by the limits of God, and the one who falls into them, is like the likeness of people who drew lots for a ship. Some of them got its upper part, and some of them got its lower part. Those who were in its lower part, when they drew water, passed by those who were above them, so they said: 'If we made a hole in our share, and did not harm those above us.' If they leave them to do what they want, they will all perish, and if they restrain them, they will be saved, and they will all be saved.”
Dear listeners:
First of all, we present to you a brief explanation in which we clarify the meanings of some of the phrases mentioned in the hadith, then we present to you the general explanation: "Standing at the limits of God": The limits of God are the prohibitions that God has forbidden His servants to transgress, saying: (These are the limits of God, so do not transgress them; and whoever transgresses the limits of God - it is those who are the wrongdoers). (Al-Baqarah 229) And the one who stands by those limits is the one who denies the one who transgresses them, committing what God has forbidden. And the one who falls into them: the one who commits them, and he is the opposite of the first, the one who stands by them, the one who denies the one who commits them. They drew lots: meaning they drew lots for it, and each of them took a share of it after conducting the lottery. We made a hole: We made a hole. If they leave them to do what they want: meaning if they leave them to do what they want without preventing them. They restrained them: meaning they prevented them.
Here is the general explanation of the hadith, we say and with God is the success: There are no absolute freedoms in Islam as in the capitalist system, but rather there is freedom within the Sharia limits. The Muslim is restricted in all his words, deeds, actions, thoughts, and beliefs by the rulings of Islam. To clarify this idea, the Noble Messenger deliberately gave the example as a good way to reveal the facts. This example contained two models that people know in every time and place: The first model: the model of the one who stands by the limits of God, who denies transgressing and exceeding them. And the second model: the model of the one who falls into it, who constantly commits it and covers it. This wording of the hadith is the correct wording that is appropriate for the context, because it makes "the one who stands by the limits of God" opposite to "the one who falls into it." Dr. Subhi Al-Saleh, may God have mercy on him, says in explaining this hadith: But it is interesting that Al-Bukhari in his Sahih has the same wording that does not fit the context of the hadith, and its text is: "The likeness of the one who is complacent in the limits of God," meaning the hypocrite who wastes rights and does not change evil, and Al-Hafiz bin Hajar stated in Fath Al-Bari that this is an error that the narrator made, because "the one who is complacent in the limits" is confused in this narration with "the one who falls into it." Instead of having two models in the hadith as the Messenger’s expression suggests, this wrong wording limits the prophetic representation to one model. Glory be to Him Who does not err or forget! The reality of the example with both of its models is summarized in that people drew lots for a ship with two decks: upper and lower. The result of the lottery was that some of them got the upper deck, and some of them got the lower deck. Those who were at the bottom of the ship had to draw water because of their great need for it, so they disturbed those above them whenever they passed by them. They imagined that they could reach the water by making a hole in their lower deck, and by doing so they would avoid disturbing their brothers on the upper deck!! They imagined that they were allowed to do this because they were free on their deck, but they missed the fact that their freedom is linked to the freedom of their brothers, and that merely making a hole in their lower share would lead to their destruction together when the water enters from the hole, then seeps to the top after its bottom, so it floods it and destroys everyone on it!! Accordingly, the silence of those on the upper deck is the direct cause of drowning and destruction. But if they prevent those at the bottom of the ship from piercing and making a hole in it, then it will continue to run in the name of God, its course and its anchor, and salvation will be achieved for them all. The Noble Messenger likened those who stand by the limits of God, who deny those who transgress them, to the passengers on the upper deck, who, by denying this, save the ship and all those on it. And he likened those who fall into the limits of God, who commit sins, to the passengers on the lower deck, who, by making a hole in their share of it, cause the water to overcome it, then drown it and drown all its passengers!! The researcher is about to conclude from mentioning a ship with two decks that navigation in the maritime regions of the Arabian Peninsula was advanced, unless this representation is of the kind of imagination if it is more likely that the Noble Messenger did not see ships with two decks, or never saw ships, or witnessed a coast or a sea. Although, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, presented in this short hadith the idea of freedom and defined its starting point and its end, and drew its horizons and dimensions, we notice the simplicity in choosing his words, and the cohesion in the overlapping of its structures and images, despite the depth of the idea presented around which the axis of the hadith revolves, how not, and he, may God bless him and grant him peace, as he said about himself: "I am the most eloquent of the Arabs, but I am from Quraish"?
Dear listeners: We thank you for your kind listening. Our appointment with you is in the next episode, God willing. Until then, and until we meet you always, we leave you in God’s care, protection, and security. Peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you.
Written for the radio of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut-Tahrir
Professor Muhammad Ahmad Al-Nadi - Jordan - 9/1/2014 AD
