A Proper Manner when Hearing a Hadith - Nouman Ali Khan
In the 2nd ayah of Suratul Hujurat (49).
Allah (عز و جل) describing one of the rights
that the Prophet has over us, (عَلَيْهِ ٱلصَّلَاةُ وَٱلسَّلَامُ‎).
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَرْفَعُوا أَصْوَاتَكُمْ فَوْقَ صَوْتِ النَّبِيِّ
"Those of you who claim to believe,
don't raise your voices
above the voice of the Prophet (ﷺ),"
وَلَا تَجْهَرُوا لَهُ بِالْقَوْلِ
"And don't you call with your loud voices onto him,"
كَجَهْرِ بَعْضِكُمْ لِبَعْضٍ
"Just like you call each other,"
أَنْ تَحْبَطَ أَعْمَالُكُمْ
"Then all of your good deeds will be taken away,
will count for nothing,"
وَأَنْتُمْ لَا تَشْعُرُونَ
"And you won't even realize."
Let's understand the context
of this ayah a little bit, okay?
You have some people who became Muslim,
and they were Bedouins,
and they weren't really civilized in the ways of city life,
much less the etiquette of Islam.
They kind of know the Prophet (ﷺ) is a Messenger,
but this idea of honoring him and showing him
the proper respect,
they're not really cultured with that.
So they come to his apartment,
and his apartment is really really small.
And they knock on the door
and they say, يا محمد اخرج علينا
"Muhammad come out, we've got to ask you some questions!"
Now the thing is,
Allah Himself never calls the Prophet (ﷺ),
"Yaa Muhammad."
Allah Himself has so much respect for Rasulullah (ﷺ).
He calls him, "Yaa ayyuhan Nabi."
"Yaa ayyuhal Muzammil."
"Yaa ayyuhal Mudatsir."
"Yaa ayyuhar Rasul."
And even when Muhammad comes up.
He says, "Muhammadun Rasulullah."
(QS. Ash-Shaf: 6) وَمُبَشِّرًا بِرَسُولٍ يَأْتِي مِن بَعْدِي اسْمُهُ أَحْمَدُ
You know.
(QS. Al-Ahzab: 40) مَا كَانَ مُحَمَّدٌ أَبَا أَحَدٍ مِنْ رِجَالِكُمْ وَلَٰكِنْ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ
When Muhammad is mentioned, Rasul is mentioned.
Muhammad is mentioned, Rasul is mentioned.
And the only time Allah doesn't mention
the word Rasul, the title,
with the word Muhammad is surah Muhammad,
where Allah highlighted the name itself.
وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَآمَنُوا بِمَا نُزِّلَ عَلَىٰ مُحَمَّدٍ
(QS. Muhammad: 2) هُوَ الْحَقُّ مِن رَّبِّهِمْ
And there's a whole other reason for that,
why mention his name specifically without even Rasul.
But Allah never calls His Messenger, you know He called,
(QS. Al-Baqarah: 35) يَا آدَمُ اسْكُنْ أَنتَ وَزَوْجُكَ الْجَنَّةَ
"Yaa Daud," He called Daud.
When you say, "Yaa," in Arabic, you're calling someone.
(QS. Maryam: 7) يَا زَكَرِيَّا إِنَّا نُبَشِّرُكَ بِغُلَامٍ
(QS. Ali-Imran: 55) يَا عِيسَىٰ إِنِّي مُتَوَفِّيكَ وَرَافِعُكَ إِلَيَّ
(QS. Taha: 14) يَا مُوسَىٰ إِنَّنِي أَنَا اللَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا أَنَا
Every single Prophet, "Yaa, yaa, yaa, yaa, yaa..."
When it comes to Rasul (ﷺ),
there's no, "Yaa Muhammad," there's no, "Yaa Ahmad."
There is, "Yaa ayyuhan Nabi, yaa ayyuhar Rasul."
Now can you imagine these Bedouins came out
and they're knocking on the door and they're saying,
يا محمد اخرج علينا
Allah is so offended at this idea
that He reveals this ayah
to teach the Muslim a piece of etiquette.
Number one,
never raise your voice above the voice of the Prophet.
In other words,
you should remember how the Prophet used to speak.
And so when you speak to him,
you never raise your voice above him.
Now we'll talk about its contemporary application
in a second,
but I want to go to the second part first.
وَلَا تَجْهَرُوا لَهُ بِالْقَوْلِ
"Don't you call him like you call each other."
"Hey bro! Hey man! Hey Nouman!"
"Come here for a second."
Don't you call him like that,
because if you do,
أَنْ تَحْبَطَ أَعْمَالُكُمْ
"All of your good deeds are seized,
they're taken away, they're multiplied by zero."
"I don't care if you were at Badr."
"I don't care if you were at Uhud."
"I don't care if you were one of the best Sahaba ever."
"None of that matters."
"All your sacrifices don't matter."
"These are sahaba being talked about."
"If you raise your voice at the Prophet
and you call him like you call anybody else,
none of your good deeds count."
"And you won't even realize it."
وَأَنْتُمْ لَا تَشْعُرُونَ
You can make Hajj all you want.
You can do all you want.
You can recite Quran all you want.
Honoring the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ)
is such a fundamental part of our religion
that if you don't give it its due,
none of your salam counts.
It's not a small thing in Islam.
It's one of the big deals in Islam.
Now...
what does it mean, "to not raise our voice" in our time?
Obviously, at their time (Sahaba), it's understandable.
But what about our times?
How do we not raise our voice
above the voice of the Prophet (ﷺ)?
I'll give a practical example.
You're discussing something with a brother or a sister,
and they mention a hadith.
Now maybe this person isn't qualified
to be quoting the hadith, but they do.
They say, "Bukhari says this."
"There's hadith in Bukhari."
"There's hadith in Muslim."
"There's hadith in Ibn Majah, or Abu Dawud,
or some book of hadith."
They quote something from the Prophet (ﷺ).
Now, maybe you and he are both college students.
And you're both not qualified to be really discussing
the authenticity of a hadith.
You're not Muhaddithin.
But since you even heard,
there's a remote possibility that what this guy
is saying is actually from the Prophet (ﷺ),
and even if he's using it in an incorrect context.
He's misusing the hadith.
Until you know better,
lower your opinion and say,
"I can't say anything. You just said a hadith."
"You're right. I'm going to look it up further,
but until then, I'm not gonna say anything."
"I'm just going to back off."
In other words,
you don't get into spitting match about,
"Oh yeah this hadith? Well, what about that hadith?"
"You know about this hadith? What about that hadith?"
No, no, no, no, no.
It's not a contest.
You let it go.
Just out of regard of the Messenger (ﷺ).
Just let it go, don't say anything, you know.
I was praying one time, and you know a certain way.
And a brother next to me
was really angry when I was praying.
When I finished praying he said...
I said, "Assalamualaikum."
He goes, "We're not supposed to say salam after salah."
"It's against the sunnah."
And I was like, "Okay, sorry."
And he says, "You prayed incorrectly!"
"Your hands were in the wrong place,
they're supposed to be over here
'cause there's a hadith."
Now I've studied that hadith
and I know what it means,
but you know what I told him?
"You're right. I'm sorry."
That's it. I let it go.
Why? Because I don't want to turn a hadith
into an argument.
I love my Rasul too much (عَلَيْهِ ٱلصَّلَاةُ وَٱلسَّلَامُ‎),
for his words to be used to further my pride,
or somebody else's, or to engage in a debate.
I just don't think it's right.
It just doesn't feel right.
So just not raising our voices,
not allowing the words of the Prophet (ﷺ)
to become part of ugly-dirty debates and arguments.
Researching is a separate issue.
Critiquing at a scholarly level is a separate issue.
Most of us aren't scholars.
Most of us aren't researchers.
So when you just hear the word of the Prophet (ﷺ),
out of respect for it, just back off.
Let your opinion go until you find out better.
Sometimes there are ahadith
you read them in translation
and you say, "How does that make any sense?"
"Why would he say that?"
"Why would he do that?"
Learn to humble yourself.
We're talking about Rasulullah (ﷺ).
If he did it, there has to be a reason.
And by the way, if he did it,
there's no better deed than what he does.
There's no more reasonable behavior
than his behavior.
This is what we believe
about our Messenger (عَلَيْهِ ٱلصَّلَاةُ وَٱلسَّلَامُ‎).
He is not subject to any criticism,
much less yours and mine.
Lower your opinion before the actions
and the saying of the Prophet (عَلَيْهِ ٱلصَّلَاةُ وَٱلسَّلَامُ‎).
May Allah (عز و جل) make us of those who truly honor him,
and by doing so, all of our deeds are protected.