A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is extracted from “Validity of Weak Ahadits ” by Dr. Jibril Fu’ad Haddad.   Imam Abu Zakariya Yahya ibn Sharaf an-Nawawi ( r.a. ) wrote, in his al-Adzkar , “The ‘ulama among the experts in ahadits and the experts in law and others, have said, it is permissible and recommended that the religious practice concerning good deeds and good character, and the encouragement to good and discouragement from evil, be based even on weak ahadits as long as it is not forged.   As for legal rulings, such as what is permitted and what is forbidden, or the modalities of trade, marriage, divorce and other than that, one’s practice is not based upon anything other than sound or fair ahadits , except as a precaution in some matter related to one of the above, for example, if a weak hadits was cited about the reprehensibility of certain kinds of sales or marriages.  In such cases, what is recommended is to avoid such sales and ma...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is adapted from “New Kharijism” by Dr. Jibril Fu’ad Haddad.   Among the signs of the Hour mentioned by the Prophet ( s.a.w. ) in the well-known hadits of Jibril ( a.s. ), in Swahih al-Bukhari , is “when the destitute camel herders compete in building tall structures.”   Another version in Swahih al-Bukhari has, “when the barefoot and the naked are the heads of the people.” In Swahih Muslim , there is “you shall see the barefoot, naked, indigent shepherds compete in building tall structures.”   Another version in Swahih Muslim says, “when the naked and barefoot are the top leaders of the people.”   A third version in Swahih Muslim has, “when you see that the barefoot and naked, the deaf and dumb are the kings of the Earth.”   Imam Shihab ad-Din Abu al-Fadhl Ahmad ibn ‘Ali ibn Hajr al-‘Asqalani ( r.a. ) wrote, in commenting this passage of the hadits in Fath al-Bari , “It was said that ‘barefoot and na...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is adapted from a post by Dr. Jibril Fu’ad Haddad.   Shaykh al-Islam Imam Shams ad-Din Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn ‘Utsman ibn Qaymaz ibn ‘Abdullah at-Turkmani ad-Diyarbakri al-Fariqi al-Dimashqi adz-Dzahabi ash-Shafi’i ( r.a. ), is the imam, , head of ahadits masters, perspicuous critic and expert examiner of the ahadits , encyclopaedic historian and biographer, and foremost authority in the canonical readings of the Qur'an.   Born in Damascus, where his family lived from the time of his grandfather ‘Utsman, he sometimes identified himself as ibn adz-Dzahabi - son of the goldsmith - in reference to his father’s profession.   He began his study of ahadits at age eighteen, travelling from Damascus to Ba’labak, Homs, Hama, Aleppo, Tripoli, Nabulus, Ramla, Cairo, Iskandariyyah, al-Qudus, Hijaz, and elsewhere to thirty different locations, after which he returned to Damascus where he taught and authored many ...